Scarface Forever

OK, travel photos. I'll try to not bore you in the manner in which I've already bored my coworkers. "And here's a picture of a kind of beer you've never heard of. And here's another one"

Last time we stayed in Amsterdam, DKK clued us in to the radness of the Jordaan neighborhood. This time we didn't stay there, cuz it's a bit pricey, but we made sure to hit up this pizzeria there called La Perla, which serves one of the best pizzas I've had anywhere, period. This beauty was a salty dream. Capers, olives and big, fishy anchovies. The creamiest fresh mozz, too. Cooked in a wood-fired brick oven right before your eyes. The place is teeny tiny. Smiller and I just stood in the middle stuffing our faces cuz there weren't seats at first.

Oh man, this one has big dollops of chili oil on it. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this place. Best meal in Amsterdam.
The first two days of the trip were the only time we got any overcast or rain. The rest was clear and warm, for almost two weeks! We got sooooooo lucky. The crocuses were just starting to peek out in Vondelpark. We rented bikes. My first time riding there. It was very fun but intense at times. Riding to the train station was the worst. People are serious about traveling by bike, and if you aren't going fast at all times and zipping through every intersection, then other bikers are just passing you constantly. People would go through intersections without slowing down and I didn't always understand how they knew there weren't cars or other bikes coming. But still, very fun.
Here's some picks from a daily street market that we also hit up last time. Mmm...chocolate pussies.
Speaking of legalizing it, I went to one of the coffee houses for the first time. It was an unbelievable feeling to roll in, buy a joint, and get stoned in public. I only did it the one time, but it was super fun!! I guess they are talking about banning non-residents from the coffee houses to end drug tourism? That seems crazy.
Aren't other languages funny? Dutch is a funny language.
This shop had a big line of people waiting for herring sandwiches, and fried fish plates. I think the new herring (excuse me "nieuw" herring) crop was just in-a big deal. I had a herring sandwich with pickles and onions and it was the bomb. They just lightly salt and pickle the herring (I don't think it's actually cooked), which gives it a very tender consistency. The jelli-ness of it can be off-putting at first, but I expected it this time so I was stoked.
Who can resist a tiny car?
Horse sausage! Delish. I was hoping to eat a horse steak in Belgium, but never saw it on the menu. I probably saw it in Flemish and didn't recognize it.
Bad picture of a ris tafel. It's an Indonesian smorgasbord-type thing. I fucked up and used chowhound (I am now officially off chowhound and yelp for traveling. I think the best thing is to trust your gut, you'll have a good meal about half the time, which are the same odds for chowhound. I would say yelp's odds are lower), which led me to a fancy place which was entirely run by white people. This dinner cost a hundred bucks! It was somewhat good, didn't blow me away. It was a ton of food.
This is a bar in the red light district (the only time I ended up there) called In De Wildeman, which means something about a wildman aka caveman.
nerding out on old geuze signs
here's the caveman
wild smoked salmon sandwich at another fish booth. I really need to go to Scandinavia to sate my appetite for fish fish and more fish.

We took a day trip to de Molen brewery, which is a really interesting, cult brewery in Bodegraven. It's in a windmill.
They had a fresh, hoppy beer called Premiant Hopburst which was spectacularly good. They make soooo many beers it was hard to choose what to bring back.
This was an assortment of local snacks served by the restaurant at de Molen, including mustard soup (which was good but oddly like eating spoonfuls of mustard), goose "ham", regular pate, and this little nugget of bread. The bread was amazing, we tried to buy some, but they don't sell it. They grind the grain in the windmill. No biggy.
This chop had a beer reduction sauce, and you could really taste the beer, I think it was some barrel-aged type of beer. Delicious. I want to try to make a dinner cooked with beer soon. With kriek ice cream to end it!
This was a Dutch beef stew, with yummy red cabbage. Of course this also came with a big old cone of fries, and that pot of mayo I posted yesterday. The fries with mayo thing can be hard to take. I'll dip, but time after time someone near us would get a squeeze bottle of it and just go to town on top of their fries and I would shudder and have to look away.
Finally, Scarface forever
Next....Belgium!