I remember being utterly charmed by Amsterdam on my first visit there (and every visit after). The canals, edged by crazily tall and narrow canal houses, were familiar from books and postcards, but I had always assumed that Amsterdam would look somewhat more boring and modern in real life. Happily, not.
We were invited by friends for a rijsttafel at Kantjil en de Tijger in Spuistraat (if you want to make a Dutch bus driver laugh, try pronouncing that). The setting is modern, but, the food dates back to the dutch colonisation of Indonesia. The rijsttafel takes the best of indonesian food and serves it in a variety of spicy, sweet and salty dishes, to be shared at your table. Look out for the babi kecap (pork belly braised in sweet soy sauce), bebek betutu (duck roasted in banana leaves), gado-gado (vegetables with peanut sauce), nasi goreng (fried rice) and various satays and sambals. The pleasure is as much in the diversity of flavours as it is in each individual dish.
We went back to Kantjil en de Tijger a few years later, after having sampled rijsttafel in Bali, and were happy to find the food as delicious the second time (and as authentic as in Indonesia).
In case you were wondering, the story of the Kantjil (a deer) and Tijger is an indonesian fairy tale about the small, but clever deer who manages to stay alive by outwitting the tiger.
Kantjil en de Tijger is at 291-293 Spuistraat, 1012 VS Amsterdam, Telephone 020 620 09 94.
We were invited by friends for a rijsttafel at Kantjil en de Tijger in Spuistraat (if you want to make a Dutch bus driver laugh, try pronouncing that). The setting is modern, but, the food dates back to the dutch colonisation of Indonesia. The rijsttafel takes the best of indonesian food and serves it in a variety of spicy, sweet and salty dishes, to be shared at your table. Look out for the babi kecap (pork belly braised in sweet soy sauce), bebek betutu (duck roasted in banana leaves), gado-gado (vegetables with peanut sauce), nasi goreng (fried rice) and various satays and sambals. The pleasure is as much in the diversity of flavours as it is in each individual dish.
We went back to Kantjil en de Tijger a few years later, after having sampled rijsttafel in Bali, and were happy to find the food as delicious the second time (and as authentic as in Indonesia).
In case you were wondering, the story of the Kantjil (a deer) and Tijger is an indonesian fairy tale about the small, but clever deer who manages to stay alive by outwitting the tiger.
Kantjil en de Tijger is at 291-293 Spuistraat, 1012 VS Amsterdam, Telephone 020 620 09 94.
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