Please note that since writing this blog post, PS has closed down
So the country’s come to a standstill because of snow. And you know what this means? People are cancelling their restaurant reservations left, right and centre! A prime opportunity to grab a last-minute table at that always-fully booked place you’ve wanted to try for ages…
On Friday, we turned up at PS – a neighbourhood restaurant in the Eilanden (that strip of land between the railway and the IJ to the north-west of the centre) – and no less than two thirds of that night’s clientele had cancelled. Bad for restaurant owners; good for punters.
The reason for Friday’s little outing had initially been to go ice skating, drink gluhwein and meet the boyfriend (my boyfriend, that is. Gosh, that’s the first time I’ve written that in public. Seems terrifyingly real all of a sudden). But in the end, only one out of the three things happened. The weather was so inclement that we cancelled ice skating, and the boyfriend cancelled on me because of some office Christmas borrel. It might not seem like the most auspicious of starts, but (as I am rapidly discovering) gluhwein solves all winter ails.
Having had a couple of pre-dinner glasses at mine, PS’s unexpectedly friendly maître d’ offered us each another glass on the house on our arrival. We then ordered a South African Riesling to go with our starter (for no other reason than that it came from Stellenbosch, from whence one of our party had recently returned), which was crisp yet round, and not too sweet. It went very well with two-thirds of our starter, which comprised an assortment of three dishes: parsnip soup, crab with mango, chilli and coriander, and a wild terrine with sweet pickles. All three were quite lovely in themselves, although their marriage on the same plate was a bit of a mystery to me.
(Speaking of marriage, at this point two of my friends – who are, in fact, engaged – nearly split up over ginger. Yes, ginger. I blame myself. I was trying to explain what aardperen (Jerusalem artichokes) were, by comparing their appearance to galangal. While one half of the couple knew what this was, the other didn’t. ‘It’s like ginger,’ I explained. At which point, the male half of the couple admitted that he didn’t know what ginger looked like, to which his fiancee replied: ‘Am I marrying you?’ and we had to ask the kitchen to find a piece of root ginger to show him. I must admit, I saw her point…)
Next up, I had halibut with shrimps, fennel puree and sun-blush tomato sauce. It had the potential to be simple and delicious, but both fishy elements were overcooked.
The cheese course, however, was quite a triumph – with the star of the show being the maître d’s aunt’s homemade fruit jelly to go with the morbier, gouda and blue cheeses. Oh, and they had Carr’s water biscuits. I love Carr’s water biscuits.
Dessert was treacle tart – a British classic that inspired me to re-create the version I used to make as a chalet girl 12 years ago. The accompaniment was over-egged in my view: raspberry coulis and Christmas-pudding ice cream were too many flavours on one plate for me. A simple crème anglaise would have done perfectly.
Dinner came to €50 each including service, which was undoubtedly a fair price to pay for the food and service we enjoyed. Now go and find out if it’s as good when half their customers haven’t cancelled and let me know!
