First Salary Dinner Date

Every once in a while, whenever one of us (me, N, L or L) get a new job, we celebrate by taking us out for dinner, traditionally when you've received your first salary. This time it was N's turn. It didn't matter that we had already eaten out earlier this week because of my birthday (see previous post) or that I had eaten out
with A after that (alas, no camera with me so no pictures).

The setting was restaurant 'Jantje zag eens pruimen hangen', which is situated in a lovely pavillion in a park near the city centre. It's a historical monument of itself, with its origins dating back to the thirties. It was built according to the "Amsterdam school" of architecture, a certain type of building style that was popular during that era.

First, bread was served with butter. We first couldn't identify the exact origins of the fruit in the bread (dates? figs?), but eventually we concluded it must have been prunes -- the name of the restaurant containing the word 'prunes' (a typical 'duh' moment, after just two alcoholic consumptions).

The first courses were served. N and me had bruschette al fragole, L & L a salad with blue goat's cheese and a combination of fish broth with a croquette of squid.

Blue cheese souffle (blue d'auvergne and fourme d'ambert) with hazelnut crust

Fish stock and squid croquette, served on a white bun

Bruschette with strawberries, pecorino, balsamic vinegar, rocket and olives. Unusual but interesting combination of ingredients, although I thought the balsamic combined better with the olives than the strawberries.

After the starters, the side dishes were served. L had Algerian kebab, the rest of us Marbre Normandi, a terrine of chicken and smoked mackerel.

Kebab served over tabouleh of what I thought was bulgur

Terrine of chicken and smoked mackerel, served over fresh sliced gherkins and preserved gooseberries

Next, after the starters, it was time for the main courses. L & N took lamb's rack, the other L had saltimbocca and for myself I chose the vegetarian *gasp* pasta dish of the day. Because it sounded so good when it was described! Yes, I might finally have come to realize I don't particularly long for meat when eating a main course. Just proteins in some kind of lightly packed way, such as cheese, fish or chicken; no particular need for something heavier like pork or beef.

L's rare lamb's rack with a sauce of marsala, ahorn-syrup, laurel and orange parts. N had the same, but medium.

L's Saltimbocca (day special)

My vegetarian pasta, which were five ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta, with a cream sauce and fontina cheese cubes scattered all over it. Then there were some green asparagus tips too.

These were the three different kinds of wine that were served to go with the three different kinds of mains. Don't remember anymore which one I had or any other of us had. Might have something to do with the three other types of alcoholic beverages that had preceded these wines.

So, the fourth course of this dinner were the desserts. This one proved to be a challenge. There were so many things on the menu we actually wanted to sample. The main challenge was for L and me to choose between either a plate of cheeses, or our individual other wish of the Dolce al Lemone for L and the Tarte au Chocolat for me. Eventually we decided to just take our sweet desserts and possibly take an extra plate of cheese after that if we would still have some space available in our tummies. So on we went...

L's Dolce al Lemone, which were layers of ladyfingers soaked in limoncello, sandwiching a mousse made of mascarpone, lemon zest and thyme - covered with almond shavings.

The other L chose the cantucci with vin santo - biscuits with almonds, to be dipped in holy (santo) wine (vin). A well-known Italian classic.

Especially for N, outside of the menu, forest fruits with a sabayon - whisked by hand! We could see it being whisked in the open kitchen

My dessert, the tarte au chocolat with parfait of mint. It was nice, but I guess it was a little too set. It reminded me of the chocolate cake I used to make myself, only this one was a little less chocolat-y and a little drier unfortunately.

So in the end, my dessert was a little disappointing for myself although it was a good dessert if it were to be served in any other - lesser - restaurant. It didn't fill up all the space in my stomach, and apparently neither did L's dessert fill up his stomach. So when we had finished our dessert, we looked at each other, one of us said: "Cheese?" and the other replied "Duh! Of course!". So, we had an additional course of a plate of cheese. The waitress was so kind as to warn us that a plate for a single person would contain very small portions, so recommended we'd have a plate for two persons - and I'm glad she did, because in the end I guess we could have finished another round of the plate that was served. Unfortunately, by that time, the fifth or so type of wine that was served (a Pedro Ximenez sherry) with the cheese plate took its effect on me and my photograph-taking-will, so in the end I managed to only take a picture of a nearly finished cheese plate.

There was coffee and amaretti afterwards, which were of quality worth mentioning - almost like marzipan. But by that time the wines had had their effect and there are no more pictures of that. The evening was continued at Bar Bubbelsz where we had prosecco, mojitos, absolute prosperities and other such cocktails, to continue that alcoholic bliss....

Good thing there was a sunday morning afterwards to sleep in.