Last October, I was in Amsterdam for one week, working remotely, drinking Genever and taking pictures.

AMSTERDAM

LIGHT

feels different in Amsterdam.
I am maybe too Vermeeresque , but if you are lucky enough to be in Amsterdam drinking coffee in the sharp, opaline light of the morning, or having a beer in the terracotta light of late afternoons, you will understand what I mean.

FOOD & DRINKS

GENEVER

Is Amsterdam’s signature spirit, you can think of it as Scotch and Gin having a baby that doesn’t resemble any of them. Genever is Dutch for Juniper and is literally a malted-grain based spirit with Juniper and other botanicals.

The AOC divided genever into two distinct categories (exclusive to The Netherlands and Belgium): jonge or “young genever” which can contain no more than 15% malt wine and 10 grams of sugar per liter, and oude or “old genever” which must contain at least 15% malt wine and no more than 20 grams of sugar per liter. The terms ‘young’ and ‘old’ don’t refer to any aging of the spirit, but rather the new or old style of making genever.
Source: bythedutch

The best (or the worst) way to drink it is to have a “Kopstootje” (head butt in Dutch), a glass of Genever with a beer.

I had my first one at Papeneiland, probably my favourite coffee/bar in the world, founded in 1642 on Prinsengracht. I came here multiple times to have tiny glasses of Amstel, cheese platters with pickles and mustard, and eventually Genever.

The place where i learned the most about Genever though, is Dutch Courage a lovely cocktail bar proposing classic Genever cocktails (I had one of the best boozy Martinez I’ve ever had) and a selection of around 200 Genever by the glass (menu here). Dutch Courage means the courage you gain from drinking alcohol.

Still on the classic side of cocktails I also went to Door 74, Amsterdam’s hidden-not-so-hidden and beautifully designed Speakeasy.
On the more contemporary one I had a Turbine Gimlet and a Salt Farm French Martini at Super Lyan, a bar that would fit in a Wes Anderson movie.

FOOD NOW

Sins of Sal, one of the hottest opening in town from Salmuera’s owners, serving Mexican food and perfect Cocktails (I will never resist a Paloma on tap).

Wilde Zwijnen: literally “wild boar”. As they say, it’s Wild and Regional, with a menu showcasing everything there is to love about Autumn (mushrooms, game, buttery sauces, …).

Bak: a refined farm-to-table restaurant nested under the roof of a building overlooking the old timber port of Amsterdam. They have a top-notch natural wine selection: I had a glass of Maison Stephan Côte-Rotie 2017.

ARTS

I SPENT

my last morning wandering around the Rijkmuseum, learning about Clara, the first rhinoceros that across around Europe and challenged the fictional representation by Dürer, and doing one of the things I like the most: taking pictures of people’s backs (I don’t know if there is a name for it and what Freud or Jung would think about it…).