Amsterdam Weekend Day 1

Last Friday, mum woke me up at the crack of dawn, 4 am to be precise, to get dressed to go to the airport. 

We were having a mother/daughter trip to Amsterdam!

Once we'd checked into our lovely little hotel, 717, we took a stroll around in an attempt to get our bearings, which proved to be a little difficult in 27 degree heat, so we went for a tour around the canals.

I actually left my camera in my room this day, in my excitement to go out an explore.
We found a couple of blocks of streets with lots of restaurants, where we stumbled upon this little gem, a minute tapas restaurant, with no name, and about five tables.

We started off with globe artichoke, peppers and onion,

Battered courgette, grilled peppers and onions,

Closely followed by an enormous plate of paprika squid,

Which would have been amazing if the jelly like bits had been taken off,

But these, these were so good, razor clams in some sort of pesto (I can't read Dutch), if a little overcooked,

Seeing as it had cooled down, if only by a few degrees, we tried to walk off our lunch by doing a little retail therapy,

It seems that cheese is quite popular in the Netherlands, so much so I must have become a little overwhelmed because I found this on my phone;

Amsterdam is so lovely to just amble around, looking in little individual shops and pouring over their beautiful clothes.
All this ambling became thirsty work, so we found a little bar on the side of the canal, and ended up having a Heineken (as it's brewed in Holland) floating on top of the canal,
I mean how is this for a relaxing view?

We finished off our drinks and continued on our quest for food, this time, supper.
Mum and I are really big on our asian food and we found a little Thai restaurant (again, I don't know the name, helpful!)
They squeezed us in and gave us a starter as a surprise, coconut, peanut something or other, we didn't understand and it wasn't on the menu, but the best bit about it was was all the ginger packed inside it!
The waiter told us to wrap the leaf up like a parcel and pop it all in at once, mum and I eyed each other dubiously, but did what we were told, it was amazing!

Next was the usual line up of hors d'oeuvres that you get eating asian food, chicken satay, tempura butterfly prawns and spring rolls, all of them delicious.

We finished off with an extremely spicy green curry, then headed off to visit Anne Frank's house, where I, understandably, didn't take any photos, but it's worth a visit.
The queues go around the corner during the day but if you wait until an hour before it closes you'll get in in no time at all!

Salmon & Avocado Mash

The other night Faye and I found some salmon steaks in the freezer and decided to get cooking. 

This was so easy to make because all you do is pop the salmon in the oven and get cracking with the quinoa, which, by the way, is really quick to cook, speedier than rice and pasta!

I heard about avocado mash from Russell from SBC on Instagram, and considering that I love avocado,  and I love quinoa, it seemed like a match made in heaven.

I've made it several times and it's a tasty alternative to rice or pasta, because, frankly, I do get quite bored of those.

Two Salmon steaks

1 medium sized leek

Quinoa or Bulgar wheat, amount depending on portions

1 vegetable stock cube

1 clove of garlic

1 avocado

2 tsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 200C, and whilst you're waiting for it to heat up, chop your leeks into disks and pop half into the bottom of a little foil parcel, place the salmon on top and season with S&P.

Whilst the salmon is cooking away grab a pan of boiling water, add the stock cube and the quinoa or bulgar wheat,  I used a mixture of both, boil until fluffy, and drain using a sieve.

 Mash up your avocado so it's completely smooth, and mince or finely chop the garlic.

Add both the garlic and the avo into the quinoa, 

Squeeze in a bit of lemon juice and season.

It should go a slightly unappetising light green colour, but persevere, because it's really tasty.

After about 20 mins of the salmon being in the oven, take it out and check it. If it's done, all systems go,  pile it all on a plate.

  
I can't have dairy, Faye and Tilly had their suppers a little differently, they had their salmon cooked with a little cream cheese and served with what looked like the creamiest mash in the world, I didn't mind though because the avocado makes the quinoa taste so creamy that you wouldn't know it was dairy free.

Mimosa

On Thursday, Josh took me out for dinner to Mimosa.

I'd never heard of it until a couple of weeks ago when he went and had "the most amazing meal, ever!" so seeing as he was pretty keen to show me how fab this place was, I brought my camera along too.

It's on a business park in Colchester, which I think is a bit of an odd location (the business park bit) because it looks like something you'd go to in a town centre, but I suppose it is an ideal location for business meetings and whatnot! 

As you walk up to it you could be forgiven for expecting it to be small inside but as we opened the doors to the welcoming chatter it was enormous!

The decor was really cool, I stupidly didn't take any photos of it, but the wallpaper was of bookshelves so it sort of looked like we were in this giant library which had a sort of modern feel with all the industrial-like ceiling and the beautiful chandeliers.

The staff are excellent.
Me, being me, actually emailed them before we went because I'm careful about eating dairy. They were so kind as to go and ask the chef and write back with every dish that I could eat, plus ones with adjustments that could be made dairy-free.

I'm pretty sure Josh knew exactly what he wanted before we even walked through the doors.
The Mimosa steak burger.

Served with coleslaw and skinny fries, with a melty sliver of cheese, which was smothered in the most delicious red onion chutney, hidden under the bun lid.
Much to my disappointment, he didn't go for the two hands job because it was just too juicy and the restaurant didn't have any bibs.

I couldn't decide, so being a little piglet, I went for two starters, first, the calamari with haricot bean salsa.
(I would just like everyone to be really proud of me here, I'm getting into seafood in a big way and previously would never have ordered it in restaurants, here, I did, TWICE)

I love calamari (I love everything deep-fried, but that's by the by), but I think the batter to squid ratio was leaning slightly heavily towards the batter side, I won't hold it against them though, because it was delicious.

The salsa was nice, but it could have had a punchier flavour to bring out the calamari.

Starter number 2 was scallops with beef brisket in broad bean sauce.
I'm not good with cuts of meat, I can't really tell the difference, but this brisket was really nice, a little chewy sometimes but it was just so scrummy.

I've also gotten into scallops in a big way, and these were delicious, pan fried and big, deeeeelish!
Plus, I really, really dislike broad beans, but the broad been puree was out of this world.
I'd drink it.
Actually, maybe not but it still was pretty good!

The evening was so lovely, the food was excellent and it really does make a difference to the evening when the staff are so friendly and happy!

You're paying for what you get, and that's delicious food, you can book here!

Blogger's Brunch

Last Thursday I finally met up with two of my favourite bloggers, Ibbs and Emily, super close to home in Cambridge.

We went to Bill's, a restaurant that I had never been to before, but read lots of good blog posts on so was keen to try.

Annoyingly, I was late, but the girls ordered for me and luckily, the food came just after I arrived.
The best bit about eating with bloggers?
Totally normal to take photos of your food!

And Instagram it as well, obviously.

 Ibbs went for the Bill's breakfast, with sausage, fried eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, smoked bacon, toast and bubble and squeak. 

Em went for scrambled eggs on toast with salmon.

And I went for the Bill's vegetarian breakfast.

I am not a vegetarian, but I easing myself into the world of eggs, up until a few months ago I wouldn't eat them (stuff like cakes doesn't count because I can't see them)

My eggs were poached (my fave) served on two slices of toast, one with guacamole and one with red pepper hummus, with mushrooms and fried tomatoes, drizzled with sweet chili.

It sounds like a weird combination, but it ticked every single tickable box and I intend to recreate it.

I have a confession, I haven't ever eaten a proper, full English breakfast, I've had bits of it, but this is the best I've ever had and appeals way more than the norm.

As we walked out, I snapped lots of pictures of the decor, which is probably one of the things that Bill's is known for.
I didn't realise until after, but these chalkboards had recipes on them:

It's full of interesting knick knacks, most of which you can buy. Cool is an overused word, but for lack of a better one, it's a really cool restaurant.

I am defo coming back here ready to buy some pots of excitingness!

After brunch we sat and talked for a couple of hours, then Emily showed Ibbs and I the sights of Cambridge!

It's so fun meeting bloggers, I forgot that I hadn't actually met these girlies in person before and it felt like I had known them for ages, plus no bizarre "what are you doing?!" looks when you whip out your camera and snap a picture of some eggs!