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DBMA: London - The Hawksmoor
Being a dililgent reader of this blog, you do remember the announcement published here a couple of weeks ago that I would be visiting London. Well, that visit came and went, and here I am now, with a couple of new experiences under my belt and in my belly.
Today, I will tell you about our visit to ![Restaurant in London: The Hawksmoor]( "Restaurant in London: The Hawksmoor")
The Hawksmoor, the place that since its inception has been heralded as the best steakhouse in London. Since I subscribe to hypes rather easily, I had to see whether that was true.
So off we went to Commercial Street (we, by the way, is my gracious sister who took me in for the weekend, and myself).
The interior, as opposed to what others have written, is actually very suave. Dark floors and dark wooden furniture contrast with the light that floods in from the windows. I think it does get a bit dark in back of the restaurant, but that in itself isn't such a bad thing either. I just like to see what I'm eating, is all.
Well, here's what we had. An 800g Porterhouse steak (for the two of us, obviously) with sides of chips and mashed potatoe with gravy. We ordered medium-rare, and yes, that's exactly what we got. Take a look:
Yes, that's one big steak, but it was cooked to perfection. They seemed a tad hesitant on the seasoning side, but I guess that's a personal taste (and taste buds that have been abused by years of smoking and drinking).
Now, the price. Hawksmoor is not a cheap place. It's probably, by London's standards, not an expensive place either. But it'll cost you some money if you want to eat a good steak there, so if you're not prepared to pay for something as extraordinary as this, then don't go there (even though they have a lunch special with a burger and chips, which is quite reasonably priced).
All in all, I'm very glad I went there. The steak was spectacular and the service, contrary to what I've read somewhere else on the great Intarwebs, was friendly and quick.
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DBMA: Feeding Tourists - Part III
And because I somewhat promised the last part, here's a picture of the best food we had during our stay on the island of Texel:
It's from a restaurant in De Koog, which name I didn't jot down, and even the mighty Google seems to have the restaurant positioned somewhere else than I remember it to be. Let's just say, it's the only Thai restaurant in De Koog and it's not in the grizzly Dorpsstraat. You'll find it. We were a bit worried because there were barely any people there, and wondered whether it's the fate of the restaurants that serve the most distinguished food on the island to perish due to their exotic nature. When we walked past the next day, an hour earlier than we'd been there the day before, we were happy to see that our fears were unfounded. The restaurant was packed. And with this rather happy ending I will conclude my Death By Martini Abroad specials. I hope you had a blast, I know I did. Dank u wel!
Absolutely related:
DBMA: Feeding Tourists - Part II
It took a mere ten days, but here I am with yet another glorious update, namely Pt.II of my already epic feature on how to feed tourists. Where tourists are actually my girlfriend and I.
As you may remember from last time, there's not a whole lot that speaks for the cuisine of the Netherlands. Which, by the way, is not meant to be mean in any way. It's just the way it is. But they do make some mean fries.
And they've got these fantastic contraptions that hold your fries. Which makes for a great fries-eating-experience. 
Hell, who needs a refined cuisine, when you've got stuff like that? Apart from fries, Dutch cuisine also offers pancakes. I don't really care for pancakes, so I let my girlfriend sample an apple-pancake in the restaurant next to the lighthouse in the north of the isle of Texel (called "De Toren", which I think means "The Lighthouse", but it could mean all other kinds of things as well; I'm simply too lazy to find out). Anyway, I was told that the pancake was ok, but nothing to write home about. Which, when on vacation, is a bad thing, because it takes away yet another thing to write on all those postcards. (Disclaimer: I didn't send any postcards. So it wasn't just you who didn't get one, it was everyone!) Anyway, I think the picture of the pancake turned out quite nice though:
Come back soon to witness yet another entry on what we had while on vacation, or maybe I'll skip the last part in favour of telling you what I had last week. I'm just a dare-devil like that, you know?
DBMA: Feeding Tourists - Part I
When on vacation, people do two things: nothing and eating.
I had actually planned on writing a lengthy essay on the merits and the downsides of being at a place that specializes in feeding these hungry hoards, but after a few paragraphs I came to the conclusion that it would be far too rambling. So instead, here's a rundown of a few places we ate during our stay in the Netherlands:First of all there was Wagamama in Amsterdam. It's actually a Japanese chain, but I'd never been to one, so we sat and ate:
This is Yaki Udon, which contained all sorts of vegetables, chicken and prawns. I'd never before realized that Udon noodles taste a bit like potatoes. We also had a starter, which the good people at Wagama like to call a side dish:
Grilled asparagus. I must say, it sounded better on the menu. I guess I'm just not much of an asparagus man.On Texel, where tourist feeding places are abundant, we had our first dinner at a tex-mex-pizzaplace-asian mixture of a restaurant, aptly named Maxima Classic Grill Restaurant Argentina. The logical conclusion was for me to have an entrecôte: 
It wasn't the best steak I'd ever had, but hey, it was my vacation and it was meat, so I was happy. That's it for today. Come back tomorrow for more detailed stories on what to eat where and why on the isle of Texel.
Wagamama Restaurant Maxima Classic Grill Restaurant Argentina
DBMA (Death by Martini Abroad): At Douwe Egberts Koffie Cafe
Now, before I start venturing into the culinary delights of the Netherlands, and after having written about how good they are at importing stuff, I'm going to post a little disclaimer here. First off, the Netherlands are not a place with a rich unique cuisine. To be precise, there seem to be two things they like to attribute to their cuisine, and that's pancakes and fries. Everything else seems to be imported. So don't expect me writing about this or that Dutch specialty, because, well, there really aren't any.
With that out of the way, here's another thing I might add. They don't do coffee too well. The only read good coffee we had was at the Douwe Egbert's Cafe in Amsterdam.View Larger Map And yes, the Google Street View image shows a construction site, but trust me, it is there.They made a pretty good Café Latte and the first day we were there, I had a chocolate muffin for breakfast:
My girlfriend opted for an apple pie, which I was told wasn't half bad either.
Since we only spent two nights in Amsterdam and the café was so close to our Hotel, we went there not just once, but twice. The next day my stomach needed something a bit more hearty, so I had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich: 
With the cheese molten to perfection, I was what you may call a happy camper, only that I didn't really camp, but, well, stayed at a hotel. I do feel a bit bad for not venturing much further into town on the lookout for a less chainesque café, but on the other hand, it was my vacation, so give it a rest already.Come back tomorrow for a sad but entertaining look at the one-size-fits-all cuisine of tourist locations.
