Gotham Gal

Paris, a full day

It is absurdly hot today.  Not the norm for Paris.  We had the gritty feeling you get after walking around a city all day.  Breakfast was near our hotel.  We have been there before.  Not a fan and made it clear we won't return.  It is a breakfast at a big hotel right near the Opera House.  You just don't need to have bad bread or bad coffee in Paris. I think I am also leaning towards returning to stay on the left bank.

Jumped on the Metro to go over to the Marais.  One of my fave neighborhoods.  I love this subway stop.

This is a photo from the top of the Pompidou.  Definitely one of the best modern art museums. 

The permanent collection is top but yesterday we went to the Gerhard Richter exhibit.  The combination of one of my favorite artists in one of my favorite museums in one of my favorite cities was a highlight.  Richter has such a depth of work that it is hard to believe that all of the work came from the same person.  Here are a few highlights.

This particular piece is dear to my heart.  Years ago, I'd say 1999ish maybe 2000, I was at a gallery looking at some work with Fred.  Fred didn't love the work so while he was talking with the gallerist I started poking around the back where there was always slots filled with art.  I pulled out one of these pieces and said that this I really liked.  The gallerist said that I pulled out the most expensive piece in the entire gallery.  It was a Gerhard Richter and one of his clients was looking for a buyer in the secondary market.  It was pricey then but is probably worth 12X that price today.

Another piece.

Another.

Walked to the store Merci.  A concept store in the Marais.  There is a cafe, mens and womens clothes, items for your home, bathroom, etc.  They do a great job.  I picked up a few items.

Lunch was one of the places we always go to when we are in Paris.  A tiny Japanese restaurant located in the Marche des Enfants Rouge.  There are a bunch of different cafes and places to shop there but we always go to the same one.  I am not even sure I know the name but we love it there.

After lunch we walked into the Musee Carnavalet dedicated to the history of Paris.  There is an exhibit of Eugene Atgets work there right now.   He documented Parisian life in the late 1800's and early 1900's. What is crazy about the photos is except for the people nothing looks much different than today. 

Returned to our neck of town and hopped into Heimstone.  The store in the 6th is much better so just to keep that in mind.

Back to the hotel to chill...

Ah....Paris

There is no doubt that the trip we are on should be about 3 days shorter...at least for everyone except me.  Alas.  I really enjoyed Copenhagen.  A very beautiful city.  Didn't love Amsterdam but now we are in Paris.  I just love Paris.  I love the vibe, the food, the culture, the sophistication, the whole damn thing.  So it is the perfect ending to a few weeks in Europe. 

Josh and I took a train from Amsterdam into Paris.  So damn easy.  Fred flew to Berlin for the day for a board meeting and would meet us later in Paris.  Booking the hotel was my other screw-up.  I booked the wrong one.  It isn't the end of the world but I am definitely making sure to go through the next trip with a fine toothed comb before pulling any triggers.  This reminds me of why I need to slow down and take a deep breath this summer.

Once we go to our hotel, we cleaned up and made our way out.  First stop was Colette.  Big sales happening in Paris right now.  Soldes signs in every window.  Colette used to be a little more manageable but I still do like stopping in to take a peak..and if I am lucky buy something.  After Colette we walked over to Le Rubis for a glass of wine.  An old school wine bar that only serves French wines and a few things to eat at lunch only. 

Our dinner was on the Left Bank so we took a stroll through the Tuilleries.  We are staying on the Right Bank.  The last couple of times in Paris we stayed on the right because it is centrally located.  Next time I might go back to the left because it is so much more mellow.  The summer carnival was in full swing.  I couldn't convince Josh to get on the carousel with me.

We had some time to kill so we walked over to the Jeu de Paume.  Vintage photographs by Eva Besnyo.  She documented the streets from her 20's starting in Berlin.  She was committed to working with the press and got them a photo daily.  The old school of Instragram.

We walked over the Seine and made our way to dinner.  We ate at Atelier Joel de Robuchon.  Always good and a fave.  We split a good bottle of Burgundy.

We both started with the white fish carpaccio.  Doused with olive oil, herbs and a slight bit of lemon.  Amazing.

Our second course was seriously rich and dense.  Josh had the spaghetti carbonera.  Beyond over the top. 

I went with the classic foie gras.  Served warm with poached cherries.  Sublime.

For the main course I had pork that had been cooked on a piece of wood with roasted vegetables on the side.  Quite simple.

Josh had the steak.  The roasted potatoes here are over the top.  They must be cooked in duck fat.  On the side they also serve mashed potatoes with butter, butter and more butter.

For dessert Josh had a serving of lemon sorbets. 


They always end the meal with a few caramels just to finish you off.  We loved it.  We walked back to the hotel to watch the Portugal/Spain soccer match and meet up with Fred.  Ended up in a local bar to watch the game and get Fred something to eat.  Fred definitely got the short end of the stick that night.

De Kas Restaurant, Amsterdam

I am so glad we made De Kas our last stop in Amsterdam.  All the restaurants we have been to, except for one, have been on the outskirts of the city.  Areas that you would most definitely not stroll into unless you had planned on it.  It has given us a better view of the city and the community that lives there.  Da Kas is located in a beautiful park and to enter you must cross the bridge.

This is the facility that the restaurant is located in.  A portion of the building is devoted to an indoor greenhouse.  This place is all about food from the farmers.

Inside is really big and bright.  Big glass windows even on the ceiling just lets this entire room shine.

The thing to do here is go with the flow.  They have 3-4 courses every night based on what is in season with a wine pairing.  We began with a glass of champagne, olives, marinated beets and the most amazing basil oil.  Finely chopped basil mixed with a really floral olive oil.  The wait staff walked around with large plastic jars filled with this mixture and would pour more in to your bowl when you started running out.  I am most definitely making this part of our summer repertoire. 

They gave us a glass of rose and a glass of white.  We were to drink the rose with our soup.  Simple tomato gazpacho with pieces of yellow seedless watermelon and tiny shrimp.  Really good.  I liked the creaminess of the soup.  I am going to work on my gazpacho this summer.  I generally do chunky but theirs was more like the Spanish variety.

Our white was for the fish course.  Poached pieces of white fish with a pesto over the top with tiny flowers and roasted fennel.  I love roasted fennel.

Roasted eggplant with fresh zucchini flowers.  Simple.

Our main course was served with a red wine.  A few pieces of beef and a panko deep fried piece of chicken over a combo of local beans.  Kind of a funny assortment but good.

We mixed it up for dessert.  We had one of sweet, one of savory (cheese).  Basil ice cream.  Really interesting. 

The bread on the cheese plate was amazing.  Brown bread with figs and nuts. 

A place worth going to in Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Day 3 and the last day

After day 1 in Amsterdam, I decided that we would leave the day after Jessica did.  We got here on Sunday evening and she left Tuesday morning.  Three days is more than needed.  The town is definitely built on tourism.  The rambling streets around the canals are quaint but between a few museums ( I am not the biggest fan of the old Dutch masters but do appreciate it ), the pot trade which is beyond amazing and unique and a few places here or there to check out...there is just not much to do. 

We started our last day at the Tassenmuseum which is a museum of handbags.  Small and kind of interesting.  These bags are from hundreds of years ago.  In the old days men and women wore handbags.

There was a shoe exhibit when we were there.  Pretty cool shoes from 1910.

We walked over to the Rijksmuseum to visit a few of the Dutch masters.  Rembrandt and Vermeer.  We ended up not going to see the Anne Frank house.  I went years and years ago.  I had to buy an hourly ticket when I went on line months back and decided I couldn't commit to that.  Sold out today so we bagged.  Maybe gives us a reason to return.

Josh and I are taking the train to Paris tomorrow.  Fred is flying to Berlin for a board meeting.  We went over to the Albert Cuyp market to pick up a few goodies.  Check out the green cheese.

Fresh fruit drinks for now.

This guy made us some stroopstraat. 

Hot waffles filled with a honey paste.  Tastes like the best hot pop-tart you have ever tasted.

We were making our way somewhere to lunch and stopped in a local shop that sells salads, meats, etc.  Check out this basket of summer truffles.

This store was not only pristine but everything in there looked delicious.  The meats are at room temperature as they should be.  They had a veal roll and roast beef that had been perfectly cooked sitting at room temperature to bring out the flavors.  He told me that it had to be eaten that day otherwise it would discolor. Not good for tomorrows picnic.  Nobody in the states would have told me that but he is absolutely right so we bought prosciutto instead.

Had a hard time finding a place we wanted to go to for lunch.  Gartine and Bar Italiano were closed so we went back to the hotel.  Was like having an uptown business lunch but quite good.  Half a lobster on a caesar salad.  They make their dressing with bouillabaisse as the base instead of garlic.  Really smart.

We have had enough.  Just time to chill and think about Paris. 

Media Cab Lab

In an area of the town where there are small apartments buildings upon apartment buildings that all look the same is a building that must have been a school at one point.  There is now an auditorium and other facilities but the coolest part is that they have turned an old science lab into a restaurant. 

You walk into the building and see this guy, then turn left. 

The place is so cool.  About a 30 minute walk from our hotel which we took on the way back.  Just a fyi, every table it always set with two forks and two knives. 

We began with some super briny luscious oysters.

Thinly sliced carpaccio topped with a radish salad.  Really flavorful and light.

Charred pieces of sliced kangaroo with tiny pieces of pumpkin.  Very Aussie.

Deep fried tomato risotto balls with mozzarella inside and a small salad on the side.  Very Italian.

Branzino covered with a brown lobster sauce roasted potatoes and a mixture of veggies on the side.

Dense eggplant parmesean.

Sliced duck over root vegetable mash with a rhubarb compote. 

The food was well prepared and good.  The place was just very cool.  We loved it. 

Amsterdam, Day 2

It is cold and wet but at least it has stopped raining.  We walked down the canal passing the several plant shops to breakfast.  Tulips for sale!

We thought we should try and get out by 930 although now that I am more familiar with the town we could have waited a few hours.  Things open later on Monday not sure why but they do.  Jess wanted to go to Cora for breakfast but they did not open until 1030.  Alas.

So we ventured onward to Cafe de Pels.  Super cute small bar. 

They did not have a full on breakfast, only on Sundays do they make eggs, so we opted to share 3 French breakfasts.  Really good bread. 

And then we began our walk.  Check out the white house and how it looks as if it will implode.  So many of the homes are askew.  The foundation is sitting over a canal so not surprising but kind of crazy.

Some people opt to live on houseboats on the water.  It is unfortunate how filthy the water is here.  If the waterways were filled with clean sparkling water it would cast a very different hue on the city. 

We walked around the corner and bumped in to my bff's kids.  So random.  They had just got in that morning.  Obviously a small town.  Cute pic!

We went to see Rembrandt's house.  He bought this entire house during the first part of his career when he was having success.  He not only lived and worked here, he sold his own work and the work of others.  Very entrepreneurial. 

The house is about 5 floors up.  In this hallway there is a small window overlooking the room below where his work hangs.  Kind of cool.

There is a grocery store by our hotel called Marqt.  What is interesting to note is that the layout in the store is different than most I shop in.  There is a format and it is a bit different here.  Also, no cash just credit with a pin.  They do it for security reasons.  You literally can not buy anything there with cash.  Also, every credit card in Europe gives each person their own personal pin code so that when they buy something they have to push it in to confirm the purchase.  Super smart.  I wonder if the fraud is less here than the states because of the pin. 

Stopped by Lite/Dark to get some energy drinks but had to take a pic of the chocolate dipped blackberry.

This pic is very Amsterdam.

We stopped by Micafe for lunch.  Sitting on a canal down a very quaint residential street. 

Love how they serve mint tea.  This could be my drink of the summer.

A mixture of antipastos for the table. 

Mackerel salad.  A small bowl of whitefish salad with some bread and salads.  Make your own.

Cheese truffle omelet.  I am not a huge omelet person but this was definitely one of the best I have had.  Soft eggs, gooey cheese and just a hint of truffle. 

Stopped into Frozen Fountain.  A very cool modern furniture store.  They have everything from fabrics to accessories.  Too bad their website doesn't do ecommerce yet.  Fascinating that it doesn't because they are definitely noted as one of the cooler stores in town and they would benefit from people like me finding stuff that they have online that nobody else carries. 

I loved these green glass holders

Josh and Jessica entertained me by going in.

Time to return back to the hotel for a little nap action. 

Wilde Zwynen, Amsterdam

I am pretty sure that we were the only people at Wilde Zwynen who were not from the local neighborhood.  The place is so cozy and simple.  Concrete floors, wooden tables where they write your name in chalk to reserve the table, open kitchen in the back, nice sized windows around the place so light streams in.  Just really mellow.  The food was probably one of the best meals we have had. 

Cold grilled pork with a light dressing and an asparagus salad.  Light and very European.

Mixture of blanched green vegetables of the season with a poached egg sitting on top and shavings of Dutch cheese.  Delicious.  Simple flavors that taste as they were picked up on the farm that morning.  They might have been.

Broad bean ravioli.  Love this idea.  Simple thin ravioli stuffed with flavorful broad beans and doused in lemon butter.  Kind of can't go wrong. 

Roasted veal topped with white beans and sauteed spinach on the side. 

Roasted vegetables served with perfectly roasted leg of lamb.  On the side was a smoked potato blini and a dense sweet lamb sausage.  Divine.

Red mullet served over cauliflower and flat beans.  Really yummy.

Dessert was definitely worth having here.  Cheese plate.  I love the cheese plate at the end of a good meal.

Rhubarb crumble with a buttermilk strawberry shake.  Creamy, sweet and tart all combined.

Warm oozing chocolate cake with verbena ice cream.

Fantastic.  The food was perfectly prepared, the local vibe was great, gave us a really good perspective of how the locals dine.   At the end of all the meals the restaurants serve these round mints.  They are a really nice end to a meal.

Amsterdam, Day 1

The last time I was in Amsterdam was the fall of 1981.  It was my junior year abroad and I was going to school in London.  My friend and I took the boat over on a miserable stormy evening and stayed for four days.  It was a memorable trip.  After a full day of walking around, it is not that different from what I remember.  Beautiful canals, homes that look as if they are tilting because of the uneven foundations, lots of smoke shops, sex shops and a bit of an edge. 

We started off our morning at the Foam, a photography museum.  Great place.  Three exhibits that are intimate.  I particularly enjoyed the Ron Galella exhibit which is years of paparazzi photos he took.  Classic stuff.  The one above of John Lennon and Mick Jagger was my fave.

We jumped on the tram and went over to the Van Gogh museum.  Good thing that I purchased tickets in advance because the line was insane and it was raining outside.  Architecturally a really great space to show art in.  Van Gogh only lived to be 37 years old as he killed himself.  What is more amazing is that he only painted for 10 years of his life.  No photos.

Back on the tram over to a sweet coffee shop called Latei. Everything there is for sale even the chairs we were sitting on. 

We had a few sandwiches and a carrot cardoman soup.

The best thing there is definitely the sweets.  Apple pie, chocolate cake and lemon cheesecake. 

Stopped in a few places on the walk back to the hotel.  This cheese shop is one of them. 

United Nude, a shoe store.

Back to the hotel for some rest and relaxation before dins. 

Mazzo, Amsterdam

We got to Amsterdam in the early evening.  We got to our hotel and made our way out to dinner.  We are staying at L'Europe.  A really nice hotel.  Not in the most ideal location but the city is small enough that nothing is not that far to walk to.  We were supposed to have dinner at one restaurant but somehow the reservation was never made.  The concierge chose to come up with a restaurant for us which he told us about on our way out.  Needless to say, I was not a happy girl.  We take where we eat on vacation very seriously. 

We quickly regrouped and got a reservation at Mazzo for 1015. 

The walk over to the restaurant was beautiful.  The canals are romantic and certainly the area over where Mazzo is is an area you would want to live in.  Mazzo is an Italian restaurant.  Hip vibe.  I started with an asparagus salad with shaved cheese. Josh and Fred opted for the classic caprese salad.

Jess had something off the antipasti menu, tuna wrapped around crab, avacado with a citrus seasoning.

The table split the bruschette.  Scrambled egg and truffle.  Decadent and delicious.

For dinner I had the ribeye with caponata.

Fred had the carbonara

Josh had the breaded veal cutlet with egg and truffle.  Jess had another antipasti.  Josh ordered the best.  They like truffles here.

We walked home and back to the hotel after literally being the last person to leave Mazzo.  A nice start to Amsterdam. 

LeleNhaHang, Copenhagen

A few observations on Copenhagen.  It is an absolutely beautiful town.  They have a saying here called "huegli" which describes a vibe.  Many of the cafes like the photo of the one above have this very mellow mixture of furniture, food and warmth.  It gets cold there so these cafes and bars have this comfortable feel, aka huegli. 

For our last dinner we went to LeleNhaHang for Vietnamese food.  A change of pace.  I have not been blown away by the food in Copenhagen.  It is a mixture of flavors that just don't do it for me.  Feeling a little unsatisfied so we thought if we went for something that was totally different it might be a good call. 


We shared everything.  Sea Bass tartare mixed with lime and chilis wrapped up in a cucumber.  Really tasty and light.

Fresh spring rolls

Octopus salad

Crab soup with udon noodles.

Grilled prawns with a tamarind sauce. 

Black and red sticky rice with chicken, sausage and fried shallots.  This was really good. 

Caramelized pork with chili and fish sauce.

Vegetable curry.

A nice ending for our trip to Copenhagen.