Please note that since writing this blog post, Meneer Nilsson has closed down
Last weekend I found myself frequenting the Amsterdam Erotica Film Festival. As you do. It was held at the Kriterion, which is somewhere near Artis, which is in Oost, which appears to have the lowest concentration of cafes, bars and restaurants in Amsterdam. But maybe I’m just biased as I’ve always a Westside kinda girl (in Amsterdam, I mean. I haven’t suddenly developed a penchant for American rap.) So after two hours of Northern Brits heavy breathing in a theatre, a terribly pleasant but disturbingly hair-free Spanish boy indulging in a touch of exhibitionist auto-eroticism, and some football widow getting it on with a lesbian in a toilet (god knows what the Google keyword thingummy is going to make of this posting), we were rather hungry.
The only decent-looking establishment in the neighbourhood was Meneer Nilsson. And decent it certainly was – despite our late arrival, which seemed to fill the waitresses with some consternation, although which didn’t, in fact, make them do their jobs any faster. The organic house red had run out, but we ordered a couple of glasses of very drinkable Tempranillo instead. Meanwhile, we ignored the blackboards (which I believe listed regular starter/main course/dessert-style courses) in favour of a selection of tapas. Now, as far as I remember, they did indeed describe themselves as tapas, but that might imply that they were all Spanish. I’d probably describe them as ‘small Mediterranean dishes’, which may seem pedantic but… well, I am pedantic. Anyway, assuming that you’re neither Romeo nor Juliet (who worried about names) nor indeed a lawyer for the Trade Descriptions Act, I think we can safely move on.
We ordered a carpaccio of beetroot and smoked mozzarella that was exceedingly delicate and which I really didn’t want to share (my dining companion had just had her wisdom teeth taken out so I had to veritably sit on my hands to stop myself from snaffling the whole lot before she’d managed to chew her way through a few painful mouthfuls). Also on our platter appeared bacalao (salt cod) croquettes that were smooth and crunchy simultaneously; manchego with a sweet fig compote; patatas bravas that came with a spicy dipping sauce; excellent grainy bread with aioli and almonds; and duck rillettes with prunes that were delicious but resembled confit de canard far more closely than rillettes. Another candidate for the Trade Description lawyers…