Please note that since writing this blog post, Kosebasi has closed down
I once had a boyfriend who said that the best thing about being an adult was that you could eat ice cream AND French fries in the same day, and no one would try to stop you. I took his point, but I rarely have the urge to eat that much junk food in one day. Saturday, however, was an exception.
I woke up more or less fantasising about chocolate cake. I then spent half the afternoon cycling round Amsterdam looking for the chocolate cake I had in my head. My search led me to a new shop called (fittingly) Chocolate Company on the Haarlemmerdijk. And half an hour later, there I was happily sitting on my sofa with a pot of tea, a cake fork and this tower of chocolate-y indulgence on the coffee table in front of me. I do love giving in to myself.
About twelve hours and far too many alcohol units after that, I rocked up at the Vlaamse Frites snackbar on Lange Leidsedwarsstraat, where I ate patat oorlog (chips with mayo and satay sauce) and sang Mary Poppins songs at the top of my lungs with my two best-est guy friends. And I realised my ex was entirely right: being an adult is fabulous.
But between all of this indulgence, I ate dinner. (You might wonder how I managed to fit it all in, but metabolism is a wonderful thing.) We went to Köşebaşı, which is a new(ish) Turkish restaurant on the Amstel, where Altmann used to be. First impressions were not all that good: it looked like a classy enough place, but no one offered to take our coats, the napkins were made of paper, and the wine list took at least ten minutes to arrive. When it did, and when I ordered from it, the waiter offered the bottle to my (male) friend to taste. This is my absolute number one most-hated occurrence in restaurants. And all my friends know this, so they are particularly amused when it happens.
Anyway. Onto the food bit. The starter ‘menu’ was a little out of the ordinary: our waiter appeared with a large tray carrying about 20 dishes – most cold, and a few hot. We chose five that we wanted to eat, and he went away and heated up those that needed to be served warm. It sounds a little odd, but it worked. As well as some fairly generic hummus and a tomato/red pepper/chilli/herb salad-type thing, we ordered the house speciality, which was minced raw meat mixed with chilli and spices that you drizzle in lemon juice and eat wrapped in a fresh lettuce leaf. Moreish. Also good was the semi-dried aubergine stuffed with rice and spices, although the mini-Turkish pizzas were a little dry.
For main, I ordered a skewer made up of lamb kofte (meatballs) and roasted aubergine (I am crazy about aubergine). It was served with flat breads, a kind of bulgar pilaf, and three small, largely onion-based salads. It all tasted pretty good (with the exception of the overly tangy onion concoctions), but the kebab was desperate for sauce. Or maybe I was desperate for sauce. Either way.
We didn’t manage dessert (which is probably no bad thing given the rest of what I ate on Saturday) and the bill came to a little under €50 each including a bottle of Turkish red wine. I’m still on the fence about how I feel about the restaurant – try it and let me know what you think.
And in the meantime, I can thoroughly recommend – just for one day – giving into every temptation that comes your way. There’s got to be some perks to growing up.
