On Saturday, after collecting huge bags of Iams and cat litter from the garden centre, we went off in search of Haarlem, to find the church where they hold English services. M had looked on the website and thought that there would be some in the morning – which would be good, as we have a few commitments in the afternoon. Sadly, when we got there, we realised that the services were at 2.30pm – the ones in the morning were the Catholic ones.
We went walking around Haarlem, and I thought it was lovely – I’d really like to live there, or perhaps close by – but it’s really expensive, so I don’t think we’ll be able to. Lovely city though.
Much, much later, we had the most lovely meal at Libelle. It’s a Chinese restaurant, and we were there sufficiently early to get a table – although I felt underdressed. The restaurant staff were happy to provide extra prawn crackers for Ben, and kept telling us that some parts of the meal would be spicy, or “pittig” but they were about “medium” according to my estimate – Ben had no difficulty with them at all.
I wish I could remember the names of the things we tried – we went for the set menu for two number 203 – which, after a spicy soup, had a sort of chicken and mango salad – Ben liked his, especially the mango and the red pepper. This was followed by some beautifully presented hot lemony chicken, salmon and a third portion of I think heavily marinated pork with vegetables, and some spicy egg fried rice.
It was such a fantastic meal – the sort of food you would want to have for a birthday celebration – and the staff were present, but not hovering. And there was a high chair for Ben as well – who behaved himself and who smiled beatifically at the lady who served us.
I suppose my palate is not sophisticated, but I have been adapting to the blandness of food that I encounter here – compared to what is considered fairly normal in the UK – we have not been eating out a great deal, but I am going by the recipes that I find of Dutch traditional fare – both found in books, on the internet, and in the supermarket recipe cards – I might add a few here for reference.
I think that Libelle was only slightly behind the Good Earth in the quality of what they presented. Probably there was less variety – but then this is a restaurant far away from the cosmopolitan heart of the Netherlands. I hope they stay in business.
Windmills and Tulips 