Located in Central Village Noho is a petite restaurant called Bodhi Tree.. I thought the food here was Thailicious! I have a weakness for the combination of Asian food & pretty places. Affordable and tasty, take a look at the pictures (and menu) to decide if this is something for you:
When you’re in New York, you can’t miss out on the Lobster Roll! Luke’s Lobster is located at Amsterdam Avenue and is known for their good lobster rolls. They also sell shrimp rolls if you’re not in to the lobster thing.
You can order only a lobster roll for 15 dollars. You can also choose the meal for 18 dollars which includes a lobster roll, pickle, drinks and chips:
Madison Sq. Eats is a food festival at the Madison Square Park. The most popular chefs and well know restaurants in New York are bringing their dishes to this market. There are so many different cuisines like Italian, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Mexican and Portugese food. Also the most delicious pretzels, macaroons and ice cream sandwiches are available. This is definitely something you shouldn’t miss out on when you’re near the neighborhood! Also a good idea for lunch during work. Check below when this market is open and more pics of the amazing food stalls!
Fresh Coconut Juice!
Shrimp tacos
Summer rolls! One includes goat cheese, lentils and beets. The other one has corn, coconut and curry!
Famous Roberta’s pizza! Roberta’s was openened in Brooklyn in 2008. This is one of the most well known restaurants in Brooklyn. In 2012, the couple behind Roberta’s opened their now Michelin-starred 12-seat tasting restaurant Blanca.
My friend took me to the Mermaid Inn last Tuesday and I was already excited because of the name! Between 5 PM and 7 PM, it’s happy hour which means the oysters will be sold for 1 dollar each! Look at the pictures and stop by there whenever you’re near!
The staff was friendly, the vibe was good and the food was nice. You’ll get chocolate pudding after your dinner from the restaurant. With the bill they will give you a fortune teller fish which predicts your mood. Sitting outside and watching people during the oysters is a must!
A sneak peek of the menu:
If you’d like to try a lot of different kinds of food at one place, the Chelsea Market is definitely a great idea. This indoor food hall is located in the Meatpacking district. The building used to be a biscuit factory. That’s why the market has an underground vibe with lots of nice food, drinks and more.
The market is open every day. From Monday till Saturday starting from 7 AM to 9 PM. Only on Sundy the market starts at 8 AM t0 8 PM.
The nice thing about the market is that you can get a preview of all the things inside. Check out the pictures below of the variety of food and spices:
The cookies from Eleni’s inside the market are playful and unique. They’re nice as a gift, also sold as a set in boxes. The cookies are shaped and colored as rainbows, taxi’s and other sweet things. Not only does she sell the cutest cookies but also the coffee is worth a try!
There is a nice Morrocan store inside as well with magical lamps and carpets. I liked the art work on the walls a lot. If they were sold as postcards, I would grab a few to enlist them at home 🙂
Enjoying Eleni’s New York coffee on the way back!
When it comes to food it´s definitely something my boyfriend and I always agree on, we love Asian cuisine! Thai food is nice and it seems difficult to really mess these dishes up! I never had bad experiences with Thai food, so I had good expectations when we were trying a new restaurant called Maenaam Thai in Amsterdam. This restaurant is located at the Spuistraat, which is 2 minutes walking from the famous Dam Square. It’s also 5 minutes walking from the restaurant to Central Station. So this was an ideal place to grab food before we had to catch our train for a 2 hour ride to see my parents 🙂 Little detail: Maenaam ( แม่น้ำ ) means river in Thai.
A few pictures of our dinner:
Tom Kha Koeng
In my opinion there’s no other soup that can compete with Thom Kha Koeng. This is because I prefer soups with a coconut milk base. This soup contains coconut milk, prawns, mushrooms and coriander.
Plaa Shoe Shie
Fried fish in a red curry sauce with coconut milk and sweet Thai basil. The fish was fried pangasius fillet, normally we prefer other fish than pangasius, but this main course with white rise was tasting ok.
Phad Thai Kai
Pad Thai are typical Thai fried rice noodles. I took the pad thai with vegetables, egg, tauge and chicken. I like taking Phad Thai as a side order next to white rice.
The dish I liked most was the Tom Kha Koeng. This soup was delicious and I can recommend this as a starter. The menu is not expensive, average as other Thai restaurants I know. Starters are around 5-7 euro’s and main courses are around 14-18 euro’s. I have seen lots of vegetables sculptured into various animals like swans of flowers. But I’ve never seen an onion carved into a flower as a decoration on a plate. I found this quitte original 🙂 There are no desserts on the menu, but we had 2 scoops of vanilla icecream with almonds and whipped cream. Staff is friendly and mostly English speaking.
Last weekend, me (Stephanie) and my sister celebrated our birthday at the Skyybar of the Westcord Fashion Hotel in Amsterdam.
The Westcord Fashion Hotel is located in the westside of the city and is easy to reach by tram, bus and car (parking fee). The Skyybar is on the 10th floor of the hotel. It is closed (not open-air), fashionable with mostly dark colors and shiny stuff and of course you get a nice view of the beautiful city of Amsterdam.
First impression
When you enter the first things you’ll notice is the bar and the mannequins everywhere, making it feel like you’re entering a Paris catwalk show. The Skyybar is not that big, so it actually feels cosy. On the right side there is a lounge with beautiful lights on the ceiling, which distinguishes the Skyybar from any other bars as you actually get a feeling that you’re clubbing. From 10 pm there is even a DJ on site. The Skyybar looks beautiful and classy and gives honor to it’s hotel’s name. You can order drinks, cocktails and bites like sushi. Although not so exclusive like other (open-air) sky bars, it is a nice place to hang out and have some drinks.
Party
The theme of our party was… tadaa… “This City of Gold”! and believe it or not my sister came up with it. The gold did fit the whole interior of the bar which was mostly black and velvet.
For a party from 10-35 people, you can reserve the lounge upstairs and that’s what we did. The lounge covers half of the bar, so you can still see the bar from above and enjoy the music. The lounge looks nice and fashionable like the rest of the bar. They say it is for max 35 people, but i’m pretty sure 50 people would fit too. We definitely invited more than 35 people. You don’t have to pay to reserve the lounge, but there is a minimal spending limit of 500 euro’s, which is not hard to spend when you invite so many people.
The beers and wine aren’t very expensive, around 3 euro’s. Liquor on the other hand was much more expensive, but normal for Amsterdam (7 euro’s). We pre-ordered some bites, like vegetable egg rolls, mini croquettes, sushi and potato wedges. The egg rolls, croquettes and potato wedges were delicious. The sushi was too, but there were some complaints that they fell apart easily. We also pre-ordered a birthday cake. This was quite expensive, costing 5 euro’s per person. We ordered a small cake as no one really wants to eat cake anyway. You can order whatever flavour cake you like. We decided to go for the whipped cream-flavour, which was delicious!
With the reservation, we also got our personal waiters/waitresses. But don’t expect them to be there all the time when it’s busy, which is too bad.
The Skyybar is open from 5 pm to 2 am and you can decided from what time you want to reserve the lounge area. We decided to start the party at 8 pm. From 10 pm there is a DJ and the dancing can start. And because it is your own private lounge, no stranger will be there to annoy you. Funny to say, it did made me feel somewhat special to say “Sorry, private party”… 😉 lol
Overall impression
The Skyybar is a nice place to have some drinks with friends, and it is great for a party and for an affordable price. The bar and lounge look classy, food and drinks are good and there is a DJ, so you can also dance if you want. The decor is impressive and most guests couldn’t resist taking lots of beautiful pictures. The location is a bit of the city center but not far away and easy to reach. Downfall was the service which could have been better if maybe they had more personnel. But still, that couldn’t ruin the fun with my dearest friends and family. It was an amazing night. One not quickly to be forgotten, for sure.
The ‘Utrechtsestraat’ is a street in Amsterdam with nice boutiques and restaurants. It’s near the well known Rembrandt Square, the second city area where the nightlife happens. U6 is a cozy restaurant with a French and International Cuisine. Because it’s near the Rembrandt Square, the restaurant is quite findable for tourists. The staff is from different international backgrounds like Spain and Turkey. There is a regular menu, but also the famous chef’s 3 Course Menu. This menu costs € 22,50.
If you choose a 3 Course Menu, there are various choices of vegetarian, meat and fish dishes. For the starter we choose the puff pastry with chopped salmon, onions and lettuce. The puff pastry dough was very light and crispy which matched with the salmon pretty well.
Here are 3 options for the main course:
Sweet sour noodles with shrimp and broccoli
Nile perch with Parma ham and mashed potatoes
Pork medallions with mushroom sauce
And here are some desserts!
Crème brûlée
Strawberry Cheesecake
Red fruits lattice pie
What we thought about U6: The location is ideal because it’s in the center. Whether you finished your shopping spree in Amsterdam or going to a club after dinner and drinks, the restaurant is close to pretty much everything you need. The noodles main course were not our favorite because the sauce was a bit too sweet. The other dishes were really nice, especially the nile perch with creamy mashed potatoes. The staff were warm, friendly and patient. Last but not least 22,50 EUR for 3 courses is not expensive at all!
This delicious salad is ready between 5 and 10 minutes! Just mix the ingredients described below, a child can do the laundry (Dutch saying means: It’s too damn easy!). This great recipe comes from Zinaida, a good friend of mine. She even got her little daughter of 4 enjoying vegatables by serving this salad. The slightly salty flavour of Parma ham and sweet dates gives the perfect flavor. Suggestion: If you don’t eat or like pork, switch the Parma ham with beef carpaccio to keep the mixture of salt and sweet.
Ingredients:
Method:
Garnish a big bowl with the lettuce and spinach, sliced cherry tomatoes, Parma ham and black olives. Deseed the dates and chop them into half. Slice the goat cheese in small pieces. Roast the pine nuts and arrange everything in the bowl. Pour over the dressing and serve. Enjoy!
It´s time for Dim Sum Dishes Part 2! If you haven´t read the first part yet (with more explanation about Dim Sum and the 7 first dishes), click here.
Today 4 new dishes to read about:
Custard bun 奶黃包 (nǎihuáng bāo)
These buns are filled with a mix of butter, eggs and custard, instantly reminding me of good days in Singapore or Taiwan when I’m eating them. Also a good dim sum dish for friends to start, who haven’t eaten dim sum before.
Deep fried shrimp dumplings 水饺 (Sui Kau)
This is also a typical Cantonese Dim Sum dish, the dumplings can be deep-fried als you can see here but also cooked and served with soup. I love dumplings most when they are served with noodle soup or pan fried. The dumplings are filled with shrimps, meat, bamboo and other vegetables.
Beef shu mai dumplings 牛焼売 (xíu mại)
These shu mai dumplings were already served during the Qing Dynasty and there are various ways to make shu mai dumplings. This variant is the beef shu mai and they are steamed in bamboo baskets before served. A good alternative when you don’t want to eat the original shu mai with pork.
Steamed chicken and shiitake buns 鸡仔包
Shiitake is a type of mushroom and combined with chicken in a soft white bun, It will taste delicious! These buns are actually easy to make, as long as you have the right flour to use. If you use the regular flour from the supermarket, the bun itself won’t have the same soft texture and will turn out to be more yellowish instead of white.
This City of Gold 