It won’t have escaped anyone’s notice (unless you happen to be in Iceland) that it’s been really rather warm lately. In fact, it’s a steady 26 degrees in my flat (bloody insulation for you), which means I need to go out a lot. Westerpark calls. Almost every evening.
But while drinking rosé with friends on my wonderful, waterproof, colourful, slightly padded Hema picnic rug thingy (which is great, but not designed for camping – just in case you were thinking of using it as a roll mat. Don’t.) is high on the gezelligheid factor, it does just have a habit of getting you drunk. Because where’s the fridge with the olives? The cupboard with the peanuts? Where’s the last-minute pasta-and-pesto save-the-hangover combo? Yep, it’s in the 26-degree flat.
So – in the service of protecting the working population from Wednesday-morning hangovers (which really is important, given there’s a credit crunch and you don’t want to get fired right now) – I have been busy finding the best terraces to soak up the alcohol.
First, and conveniently IN the Westerpark, is Rainarai (but with some umlauts on the ‘i’s that are clearly going to screw up the database). It’s an Algerian restaurant with large benches and cushions outside, as well as more large benches inside and sort of carpeted, raised floors where you can eat, too. The food comprises various salads (ours involved mackerel in one and minced veal with chickpeas in the other), followed by couscous-based mains. Mine was vege and not desperately inspired, but I quite enjoyed the big silver platter it was served on and the whole carpet-seating malarkey. Service was patchy (they seemed to have no recollection of my reservation) but friendly, though the bill was a little high (over €80 for two) for what we ate.
Last Friday I discovered La Oliva: a Northern Spanish bar/restaurant specialising in ‘pintxos’, sort of a cross between tapas and bruschette. We ordered a selection of around a dozen of these bread-based concoctions, including figs stuffed with blue cheese, tortilla, deer with mushrooms, aubergine with tomato sauce and rocket, asparagus and tuna wrapped in ham, jamon iberico, and roasted vegetables with goat’s cheese. We also had a bottle of excellent Rioja. And then another one. The terrace might not be huge, but its Jordanian location makes pavement dining seem almost glamorous.
