This Munich trip was quite bizarre and not at all scheduled. Our summer holiday in Marbella was nothing short of a disaster, when a day into our Barcelona trip (and on our wedding anniversary no less), The Buik's work phoned him and asked (note told) him that he'd best get his arse back home asap. I am sure you could hear me swearing from the UK. At the time, I was knee deep in white wine, having finished a beautiful meal of cod fritters, seafood paella and other luscious nibbly things. The Buik had a telephone conference scheduled after our lunch and he said he'd only be 10 minutes. 10 minutes turned into an hour and several Baileys and ice later, I was seething. The guy behind me took pity on me and sent his 2 children to give their sweets!!!!!!!!!!! The Buik returned 5 minutes later - and gingerly told me that our trip would have to be cut short - by a whole week - as they wanted him to do an I.T audit on a chemical plant in Germany. After screaming and shouting like a fishwife for the best part of 10 minutes (apologies to the diners that sunny lunchtime), I eventually calmed down and he told me that his boss would pacify me with an all expenses paid trip to Munich. I told the Buik that it had better include a trip to Gucci too. I don't cut my holidays short for anybody - especially not for a boring I.T Audit. But this has never happened before so I decided to behave like a grown up - take it on the chin and find the most fabulous hotel in Munich. His company would be paying for this for some time to come ;)
I had a day to find a hotel, there was no budget as such (his boss was really trying to be nice to me ;) so I plumped for the Mandarin Oriental. Well it would be rude not to, seeing as I wouldn't be footing the bill. Unfortunately, the 500 Euros a night room rate was a little too steep and I was politely asked to find something somewhat cheaper. Oh well. I tried :)

By some bizarre feat, I had found a cracking deal on a Suite in the Sofitel Munich Bayerpost, located near Munich's Central Station. I booked it faster than you could say 'Eine Bratwurst bitte' (it was 250 Euros a night at that time we went).
We arrived around 3pm and the German efficiency machine was working to full capacity. A queue of more than 1 person was met with another desk being opened. I hate queuing for anything and that was a nice touch. Speedy check in, incredibly polite staff with impeccable English and an efficient concierge gentleman that took our luggage up to our room impressed us. Hotel 1898, you should come here for training.
And what a room it was. Split level, something I've always loved about living spaces. On the bottom floor, a living room area, desk, television and seperate toilet. Upstairs, a king sized bed, dressing area and a beautiful stone bathroom. Awash with Hermes toiletries. I called The Buik to open his suitcase. Those would be coming home with me. At the far side of the room, floor to ceiling glass windows - you could see a fabulous view of Munich through it.
On the 2nd night of our trip, after a particularly gluttonous Italian lunch, we had a great room service meal, which was promptly delivered, hot and with very polite service. You can say what you like about the Germans, but they know how to deliver service. Our requests for an iron/ironing board were met and we had the luxury of being able to iron what we liked, when we liked. Hotel 1898 take note.
The service in the bar was swift and the cocktail/wine list/snack list varied. I can highly recommend all the cocktails, all the snacks and the Cristal 2002, which had just appeared and was a steal at 160 Euros. I almost wanted to order a case of it to be shipped to Amsterdam. That's a bloody bargain and we just couldnt leave it sat there.
Midday on Sunday arrived and we begrudgingly checked out for our flight back to Amsterdam. What a fabulous hotel this was. Truly a 5 star experience. We couldn't fault a thing about it. It was mega.
And I'm trying to weedle another trip there before the year's out.

Full marks to the Sofitel for ending our disasterous holiday in style.

The College Hotel was a lovely addition to Amsterdam a couple of years ago, when it seems like we had exhausted all the 'nice places' to eat and drink in the city. And even handier, it was just 10 minutes walk from our house. Job's a good 'un I thought.

After going there several times for drinks, it soon became clear why it was called 'College' hotel. All the staff were in training, which is something I dont particularly have any problems with. I mean, we all have to start somewhere dont we? But what I have a problem with, is when the prices are in the lofty league. Cocktails were around 12 Euros. Their wine list is good (with a good range of vodka's, gins and fizz) and the cocktail list is ample, with the barman being able to knock up anything you want that isnt on the list.

So when I was to meet up with a girl I used to work with, and became very good friends with, we decided to go back to the College Hotel after not being there for a year. I hadnt been back for that long because the last time we went, it seemed to have been infiltrated by mafia and their molls, which is not really my cup of tea, if I'm honest. Plus, the service was atrocious. Something which I have no patience for.

We managed to get a cosy table with 2 sofas and plumped for the drink that I always order when I cant decide what I want to drink - a 'Kir Royale'. And a very good Kir royale it was too. The kir balanced out the acidity of the champagne, but didnt take over from the champagne and it was altogether a vey nice drink. And so it should have been for 12.50. I see someone has been meddling with the price list over the past year ;)

We ordered 'Risotto with chanterelle mushrooms, cheese and poached egg'. A dish that I would usually stear clear of, on the premise that I can make a splendid risotto at home and every such venture into risotto land, when eating out, fills me full of disappointment. But we were both feeling lucky and braved it. It was utterly fabulous, plump grains of rice, brilliantly, perfectly cooked, plenty of bite and certainly nothing like the stodgy, overcooked crap served up in most restaurants where risotto is featured. The chanterelles were beautiful and the cheese, I found, was somewhat heavy. I am not sure what cheese they had used to finish the risotto, but it was really heavy and definately not pecorino/parmesan that is usually used. In fact, the risotto was swimming in cheese, something that I didnt mind, because I'm a 'Cheese Whore' (as one of my friends eloquently called me one dinner party) but to the risotto traditionalists, your stomach may not have been able to stand it. Poached egg, which I have never had on top of risotto, was a nice touch too.

Nevertheless, it was a nice dish and all satisified I ordered a glass of Merlot to wash it all down with. One last cocktail, 'A Mandarin Cosmopolitan' had more alcohol in it than I have ever seen, but we thought we'd give it a go anyway. Blimey. It blew my socks off and was perfectly proportioned. Any more of those and I would have to got a taxi home ;)

The bill for 2 Kir Royales, 1 water, 2 Risotto, 2 Cosmos and 2 glasses of wine came to 90 Euros. Not the cheapest 'meal' in the history of eating out, but the service has improved massively and the clientele is back to what I feel comfortable with. Food, wine and cocktails were very good and I shall be taking 'The Buik' there soon.

Well I was in The Buik's good books. He wanted us to go away for our 1st year wedding anniversary. We always take a 3 week holiday in our place in Marbella, and he thought it would be a great idea to fly to Barcelona for a 4 day trip. Barcelona is somewhere that everyone loves apparantly. Every bugger and his wife has been apart frm us it would seem and internal flights within Spain with Clickair are dirt cheap, we took advantage of this and booked ourselves a 4 day trip.
The hard work was to come. We very rarely stay in hotels. Well I don't anyway. The Buik, on the other hand, more or less lives in hotels. He has travelled with his job for the best part of 20 years (god that makes him sound ancient hahaha). His work are quite generous and allow him a moderate level of luxury, more so as his work takes him away from home so much. So when we decide to stay in a hotel in our leisure time, the expectations and standard of hotel he likes to stay in, are, well, how can I put this, bank account destroying. I can't tempt The Buik into a Premier Lodge hotel for any amount of Cristal. He doesn't do budget with work so he refuses to do budget when we are on holiday. You should see me trying to get him onto an Easyjet flight. It's a nightmare.

Anyway, I initially made a reservation at the Ritz Carlton hotel, Hotel Arts located near the beach in Barcelona. I managed to get us a fabulous deal on a Club level room (with all sorts of cocktails/champagne/food etc thrown in, that's right up my street) and that was that sorted out. Until I read reviews of it on Tripadvisor and people (note Americans) were complaining about the location of it and it not being 'near anything'. I stupidly decided to cancel the reservation and look at staying somewhere more 'central', whatever that was.



Hotel 1898 at that time (April 2007) occupied the top spot on Tripadvisor as the Number 1 hotel in Barcelona. After reading countless fantastic reviews about the place, I booked our 3 night trip and chose a Deluxe room with a private terrace outside. Room rates at that time were 370 Euros a night - and for that we were expecting really something quite special. Gold plated taps, foot massages on demand and a never ending supply of service and smiles, that sort of thing.

God - how wrong we were.

We arrived at the hotel, which is located on the tourist hellhole which is aka La Ramblas. Horrid place. I'll got into that later. Beautiful looking hotel inside though. They've not scrimped on the decor and it is fabulously furnished. We were greeted by an army of staff, who told us that our room wasnt ready (11am, which is fine) and we could go take breakfast on the roof terrace. I was gagging for a cup of tea, so we went to check this out. What a fabulous roof terrace Hotel 1898. That is the best bit about it.



We arrived at the end of 'breakfast' apparantly and was told by a rather helpful young man, that 'You cannot drink tea because breakfast finished 1 minute ago'. My mouth kind of opened and I stared at him in surprise. If I'm paying 370 Euros a night for this room, I jolly well want a cup of tea and I want one now. He came back with a drinks menu, which - at 11am, was rather bizarre. I love cocktails as much as the next person, but a mojito - at 11am?!!!! On an empty stomach???!!!! Well, we are on holiday, so a mojito it is :) It took another 30 minutes for the mojito to arrive, whilst the staff, did, well I'm not sure what the staff were doing, but they weren't serving us. The remanants of breakfast lay festering in the blazing sun across from us. Serving staff just walked past the mess without a care in the world.
The mojito eventually arrived and it was fabulous. One of the best ones I've tasted outside of Nikki Beach. But we kept it to just the one or things would have turned nasty. We finished up and went to check into our room (which would be ready at midday we were told).
Good lord. Situated right next door to the elevators (I'm not sure if the reception staff had honoured my request for a 'nice room as it is our 1st year wedding anniversary, maybe they're plain sadistic), we were pretty pissed off by that stage. Being situated next to elevators annoys the Buik senselessly. He's such a fussy bugger.
We opened the door and the tiniest room awaited us. I'm sure my downstairs toilet is bigger. Very clean I hasten to add, the bathroom was really nice and spotless, awash with lush toiletries I would be nicking later. The terrace was fabulous and that more than made up for the pokey room.
We started to unpack and I phoned Housekeeping for an iron/ironing board. They informed me due to 'safety issues' no iron/ironing board was available to guests and we would have to pay for any items that would need cleaned/ironed. I put the phone down in amazement - and The Buik phoned back because he thought I'd lost the plot. Nope. It is not possible to iron your clothes in Hotel 1898 because we are all iron wielding arsonists and may set fire to the place. Despite that if you were really dead set on setting fire to the place, an iron is the last thing you'd choose.
You never guess what we did next. We traipsed to Carrefour Express next door, and bought a travel iron and ironed our clothes on the ottoman. Ridiculous. This was supposed to be a treat for us and we were lugging around travel irons and ironing clothes on ottomans. The Buik wanted to check out there and then. He refused to pay 150 Euros to have our clothes ironed out of principal and he said that Hotel 1898 would get no more of our money other than the room rate.
In short, the service sucked big time. We had a dinner reservation with some friends on the 2nd night of our trip - and had to wait 30 minutes for a cab, whilst the reception desk personnel looked on. Customers of the hotel over the road had designated concierge and were getting taxis quicker than anything.
2 days later, we checked out and the bill came to over 1400 Euros. God I felt sick. Really really sick. We hadnt even eaten in the hotel out of principal. A few cocktails of an evening and the room rate with IVA added on. I gulped and signed the invoice. It would be beans on toast for Blondie and the Buik, for the coming few days.
I made the decision to write a review on Tripadvisor, as I feel people should know what to expect when they come to this hotel. A guy had made the same mistake we did, of booking the Hotel Arts, reading all the negative reviews by whinging Americans that are too lazy and fat to walk anywhere - cancelled that reservation and booked the Hotel 1898 instead. He had read my review and found it bizarre that I was the only person in the sea of low level expecatation guests, that had found it crap. He emailed me privately to tell me that my review was spot on - and him and his wife were so annoyed and disappointed, it ruined their trip.
I'm glad to see that Hotel 1898 no longer occupies the top spot in Barcelona on Tripadvisor. It has dropped down to Number 3. Not low enough if you ask me. If you are charging this sort of money for a room, you should provide your guests with exemplary service. And an ironing board. And a cup of tea whenever they bloody well feel like it.

Never will we darken Hotel 1898's doors again.

I am always reluctant to visit a restaurant that describes itself as 'the latest hotspot in Amsterdam in the style of a trendy French brasserie'. The words 'hotspot' and 'trendy' when it comes to describing restaurants, particularly in Amsterdam, usually has Blondie and the 'Buik' running for the hills. Never has so many evenings been spent in the latest 'hotspot' or 'trendy' restaurants and you realise that the locals concept of 'hotspot' or 'trendy' is very far off the mark.

What put me off even more is their incredily limited menu. How can a restaurant proudly say that they only thing they serve is 'lobster and fillet steak' and expect people to come stampeding through the doors. Now I love steak and lobster as well as the next person, but to have no other choice, I felt, was either brave, or bloody stupid.

We let our friends test it out first ;) as they are usually a good judge of what is good and what is not in Amsterdam. Once they eventually got a table, they gave it glowing reports.

So one evening, Blondie and the Buik gingerly ventured out of our square kilometre Oud Zuid residence and made the 15 minute walk to Red.

Service was good. We got attended to quickly and with no drama. The serving staff knew the menu, particularly the drinks menu without having to ask someone else. I got a great glass of champagne to start with as I am always on the look out to try new fizz. Our friends were feeling celebratory (no idea why ) and they drank Veuve Cliquot, which is reasonably priced at around 60 Euros. I took a bottle of red, naturally (Argentinian Malbec) and Buik drank the fizz, along with a bottle of Montagny Premier Cru, which was fabulous.

I took the lobster with 'Chef's butter' and the Buik took the 'Surf and Turf'. I couldnt believe the quality of the food. My lobster was tremendous. Just the best lobster I possibly, have ever eaten. Perfectly cooked, succulent, tender with the most beautiful, butter sauce over it. The Buik's Surf and Turf was hearty. The meat, again, one of the best steaks either of us have eaten. Truly amazing. It was served with frites, big thick crunchy Belgium type ones, with mayonnaise which certainly didnt taste like it was hand pumped by wenches out the back.

I took the cheeseboard for dessert and that again was good. Good selection of cheeses and plenty of fresh bread to go with it.

I cant believe I've found a restaurant in Amsterdam where the food is amazing, the service is good and more importantly, doesnt cost the earth.

We are going there again tonight for dinner - and managed to get a table, bizarrely enough. It was booked up for days in advance some time ago. I hope the quality is the same as it was a few months ago.

“The Buik”. For those of you not familiar with this term, its direct translation from Dutch is “The Belly”. Why I am called “The Buik” I really can’t imagine, it is purely a matter of perception. In any case the title of “Blondieandthebuik” was dreamt up by Blondie following the pork chop marathon week. I was in no fit state to argue.

Living in the Dam with my beautiful wife “Blondie”, and that shall be the last time you shall hear me say anything so sickly sweet, I am bored of food. When I say this I really mean it. I couldn’t give a rats’ arse about it. No seriously, I am thoroughly pissed of with it. I can honestly say I haven’t eaten anything in at least the last 5 years which has made me tremble with delight. Let me re-phrase that. I haven’t eaten any food in at least the last 5 years which has made me tremble with delight. Overindulgence in the past? Maybe. Spoilt? Maybe. Why write a food blog with Blondie you may ask. Keep your big fat arse out of it! I hear you cry. NO. I want my say. We are married and I need my say. It just wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t have my say. So there you are. I shall be putting in my pennies worth. I hope you enjoy it.

Zero – 16. Brought up by an Italian father and English mother. Plenty of trips to Italy as a child, experiencing all that it brings into your Foodie heaven. To me it was “normal”. At least I thought it was until my father served up my pet rabbit.

16 – 22. I worked in restaurants. Waiter, Chef and Flambé, yes this was the super 80’s !!!! Tight trousers, waist coat, bow tie and demi-waived hair. I was the kipper’s knickers. So I thought. I forgot I was working in Yorkshire. 

22 – Now. No, I shan’t be giving my age away. You can work it out yourself. At the age of 22 I found IT. No more split shifts and more importantly, no more pandering to some tosser’s desire to show off in front of the girl he was hoping to lay later that night. IT consultancy brought with it travel. Not just business travel but I have also managed to get around to a few places off my own back. With travel comes food. Business travel, lots of it. Really lots. Now this is where I start to get spoilt. I have had the pleasure of staying and eating in some of the Worlds most prestigious places. I have never really saved my cash. I rather like spending the stuff. If there has ever been a chance to experience “the best” I have gone for it. Not just hotels and restaurants but also life itself. I am a Taurus, I am decadent, can be rude and most certainly straight to the point. This is going to upset Blondie. I see what she has written. She has been very careful with her language. You really should hear it over our dinner table, when I pull my face up at her latest creation of some butter soaked pigeon under wing with turtle flipper juus and truffle scented pig snout. I shall swear. I hope it doesn’t offend. 

The Buik.

So here you are. I'd like to think you've happened up on my fabulously humorous blog by accident, but more likely, you've been pestered to read it by yours truly. Either way, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I am doing writing it.

I decided to write this blog for a number of reasons. A) I was sick of reading 'fabulous' reviews by IENS, and Specialbite (well known restaurant websites in the Netherlands) and believing that everything in the culinary blackhole that is Amsterdam, was fabulous, when it certainly wasnt. B) I needed to channel my creative juices into something other than nail painting, eyebrow plucking or bath towel folding. C) And most importantly, I wanted a chance to exercise the right to be as sarcastic as I want with no censorship:) Being sarcastic is not something that my current job affords me, as I have to be polite, cheerful (if I can be arsed) and professional. It keeps me in handbags, holidays and houses and I think its probably not a good idea to offend the person that signs off my invoices every month :) So I saved up all my sarcasm and let loose on here daily.

Also, coming from the beautiful island that is the UK, I have been inherently blessed with a cracking sense of humour, honed even more by being a Northerner :) and so I thought I'd write a blog that was a little different to the food blogs you see normally.

So, I'm Blondie (not my real name I hasten to add) and am married to the 'The Buik'. I live in Amsterdam and am an I.T Consultant by day and Chef Extraordinaire/general glutton by night. I love food, eating out and anything to do with food. And food. Did I mention food? Just in case you didnt get that, I like food. And wine. And champagne. And cocktails. And eating out. There I think I've covered all the bases. I have to warn you now - if you are expecting perfectly proportioned, prepared and presented food on here, with pictures of me looking all radiant in 4inch heels with a pinny on (actually, hold that thought right there my girlfriend said ;) you've come to the wrong place. I wont be imparting any recipes of the fabulous food we eat at home. That isnt the purpose of the website. Believe it or not, I am not particularly narcissitc and dont think my food would stand up to the scrutiny of the internet foodies :)

So I hope I havent bored you senseless with this introduction - please bear with me - I'm still modifying the layout and hope to increase the content substantially, for Amsterdam at least.

Enjoy - Blondie xxx