The morning started with delicious Amsterdam coffee (proper milk) and a Roti De Boeuf at Five Ways Coffee roasters on Boerhaaveplein with Jonty and Cait. We chatted about the plan for us later that day heading to Den Haag for Christmas Eve dinner and also got them to recommend de Bijenkorf (like a John Lewis) to us for some last minute secret Santa shopping for Christmas Day lunch. Ash and I said cheers and took the metro through to Centraal where we had to queue at de Bijenkorf for a little while before getting in. We weren’t the only ones that had left the shopping until the final hour.
Luckily for us the shop had 5 floors and an assortment of interesting homeware, books and unisex gifts so we managed to find the gifts quite quickly. We also bought some wine for the festivities and then headed home to chill for a few hours before linking up with Jonts and Cait again. I tidied up the flat, unpacked and did some laundry while Ash caught up on some rest. After getting ready we walked the 20 minutes to Wibautstraat to meet J&C before metro’ing over to Centraal for the overground train to Den Haag. We had some time to kill so we grabbed a beer from the Grand Café, the stations former 1881 waiting room with grand Art Nouveau decor.
About an hour later we arrived at Den Haag Centraal, otherwise known as “The Hague”. Located south west of Amsterdam, on the North Sea coastline, The Hague is the country’s administrative centre and seat of government. We strolled around the city passing some beautiful buildings like the Binnenhof and Mauritshuis before diving through The Passage (shopping mall) on route to Kelly and Warren.
In addition to the 6 of us, Warrens cousin Josie and her husband Bryn were joining for dinner. They recently moved over to the Netherlands from Durban and had luckily found a place a stone throne away from Kelly and Warren. We sat around in the lounge chatting for a while while Warren “lit” the fire. There was no need for matches or even wood, just “play” on the Netflix console and the fireplace was stoked. The “fire” burnt bright , my cheeks brighter. I assumed an immediate bar rash and had to remove my jersey as a result – just embarrassing Esti.
Warren also has an intangible cultural heritage dating back to Indonesia and a result (and an absolute treat for the rest of us I’ll add) he had prepared a traditional indo rijsttafel (meaning “rice table”) comprising many small, shareable dishes ranging from mild to spicy served of course alongside rice.
My highlights were…
- Rempeyek – picture a peanut brittle but savoury, light and you don’t have to visit the dentist afterwards.
- Gado-gado – raw vegetable salad served with a boiled egg
- Beef rendang – it was melt in the mouth beef with a rich flavour from the dry spice mix
- chilli cashew chicken – sweet, sticky crispy chicken balls similar to a Korean Dakgangjeong
We ate good! We shared many a laugh around the table and honestly interacted like we had known each other our whole lives, which in part was true for some, but not for all of us. It was the first time the 8 of us had ever sat together for a meal but it didn’t feel that way. Warren ensured our glasses were always topped and before we knew it it was already Christmas Day. Remembering the last service back to AMS was at 00:30 we thanked them for such incredible effort and said our “goodbyes” . They were more like “see you in a few hours” as all of us were congregating at the Blumberg’s for Christmas Day lunch in a few hours. Let the festivities continue 🎄
KEEP RIGHT PASS LEFT 