At one of our recent visits to Takumi, Marco and I ordered a dish of takoyaki. I’ve never had it before, while Marco did have some in one of his earlier trips to Japan. Takoyaki is made with wheat-based flour and small pieces of octopus (English Wikipedia).
It was softer than I expected (perhaps due to the amount of takoyaki sauce on top). The sauce is descended from Worcestershire sauce which the British brought to Japan in the 1800s. There’s also a bit of Japanese mayonnaise, the orange color on top.
It was tasty and hit the spot. You couldn’t really taste the octopus, if you’re wondering. The sauce was a bit overpowering in that regard. Marco and I will probably order it again the next time we are there.
Last month, Marco and I celebrated our anniversary by going out to eat at Mad’Ras, an Indian restaurant. It was our first time. When we first arrived we were one of the first guests, although every table had a ‘reserved’ card on it and it was packed by the time we left. If you go, definitely make a reservation ahead of time. Perhaps it was also because the weather was outstanding that day. One of those ‘last gasp of summer days’ when it is suddenly warmer than it has been in the last few weeks.
This was the first thing we received (on the house). I enjoyed the presentation of the rolled up cracker/wafer. It came with red onions as well as three sauces (sweet, minty and spicy). As usual, Marco and I both gravitated towards the minty and spicy ones.
We then had a set of appetizers. Next to the sauces you have fried onions (I forget the name. I don’t think it was onion bhaji, but if it wasn’t, it was quite similar). Below that you have two samosas. Did I mention I love samosas? Although we mostly paired it with the mint sauce from the initial appetizer. On the right we had the star of the evening – tandoori prawns. Zó lekker! Definitely order those if you go.
For our main, we split a mutton curry with some naan and rice (below).
At that point we were full, in a nice way. It was great food and we will definitely go back again.
Of course, even when you’re full (ish), you can always make room for ice cream. We stopped at Piet for some ice cream. I had a scoop of lime, ginger and mint and Marco had two scoops (tahini and sticky rice). They were all awesome but Marco said the sticky rice was a bit subtle. I liked mine a lot, but it was quite intense so I found myself stealing a bit from Marco’s ice cream to counteract the flavor. I would order it again, though. Just maybe with a second scoop of something else…
All in all, I can definitely recommend Mad’Ras. (Although I will also recommend Himalayan restaurant as well. The owner is great and we definitely don’t visit enough.)
Last weekend we went to Umami, an Asian fusion restaurant. Check out some of the food:
Admittedly there was definitely a bit too much creme fraiche on the bao bun at the front of the photo, but it was otherwise delicious. My favorite was probably the veggie dumplings in the back, or the bread with anise dip (not pictured).
On a whim I ordered tea, and it came in a quite handy contraption I had never seen before, a Handybrew. I thought it was so cool I went to a local tea shop, Simon Levelt, the next day and bought my own.
You steep the tea leaves in this plastic container. The trick is that when you put it on top of a glass, it magically pours out, and stops as soon as you lift up the container again (so the opening is controlled by pressure). See also this YouTube video:
Another selling point is that the tea stays pretty warm in the Handybrew container, so even the second glass is warm. I appreciate that. Of course, it’s a bit messy to clean out the tea leaves after the fact, but you can’t have everything!
“Itadakimasu” (いただきます) is said before eating, meaning “I humbly receive” or “I gratefully partake”. It’s a way of expressing gratitude for the meal, acknowledging everyone involved in its preparation, from the ingredients to the cooks.
Yesterday, Marco, Roger and I went to see Fantastic Four at Pathé, a large movie chain here in the Netherlands. After that, we went to Five K Comfort Food, a Korean restaurant. I had katsu chicken tenders, Marco had a katsu chicken burger and Roger had garlic chicken wings. It was all very tasty (although we were definitely stuffed after).
After we were done eating and Marco went up to pay, I noticed some Gundam statues throughout the restaurant:
Here’s another one. In the background you can see even more hanging on the wall…
Definitely a colorful and cool end to the evening!
Marco and I were out shopping in the city centre when we decided to completely upend our dinner plan and go back to Takumi Ramen on the Gedempte Gracht. Silly Niki and Marco…
Even though we went around 14:00 it was still quite full. Luckily the location is pretty big. They even have an outdoor terrace on the Rabbijn Maarsenplein.
This time I went for the Japanese curry meal with karaage (Japanese fried chicken), miso soup and a seaweed & lettuce salad.
And here is a look at a cool poster behind Marco. I thought the purple color went well with the blue wall.
(This is fairly typical. Here’s a look at some wall decorations at the other location in The Hague.)
The lowkey highlight of the weekend was a storm that passed through late last night. We got treated to some thunder and lightning for about 10-15 minutes, which is fairly rare around here. Summer weather is on its way, with temperatures around 80-85F expected this Thursday, with a chance of rain here and there due to that. Bring on the sun!
On Saturday, Marco, Roger and I went to a newly opened branch of Takumi Ramen on Gedempte Gracht (behind Bijenkorf, give or take). We’ve been to their location on the Herengracht many times. However, we were really looking forward to this one opening because they have tonkotsu broth-based ramen here (broth made by boiling pork bones for hours – read more at their website). The one on Herengracht does not have that.
It’s definitely the greatest quality photo, but here’s a look at my black garlic butatama tonkotsu ramen:
Although it doesn’t look like it, this was thinly sliced pork. It was unbelievably tender.
You can still see a bit of a divide between the black garlic and the pork broth in the upper left, as I hadn’t mixed it yet. Marco also received the usual “husband tax” and took my half egg for me, since I am most definitely not an egg fan. Weird, I know. The chopsticks also aren’t pictured. These days I can use chopsticks fairly well, although I still have trouble picking up rice with them.
In the upper left you can just barely see our kara-age (Japanese fried chicken) and in the upper right is my alcohol-free Kirin beer. It was for lunch after all! Not pictured was the korokke, or fried pumpkin croquettes. Perhaps it sounds a bit weird, but the pumpkin version is tasty and something I always try to order if I see it on a menu. The pumpkin inside is at more of a mushy consistency with a bit of Japanese mayonnaise on top. it is served quite hot which I like.
It goes without saying, but the ramen was delicious.
“Cretzel” pretzel croissants (the link is to the frozen version, although I found them fresh in the bakery section. they were decent, sort of like a salty croissant, unfortunately not that pretzel-y)
Flipped pistachio cream croissants (the flipped just signifying that the cream was on top. It is clear AH is just trying to get on the Dubai trend. though they have a similar one with strawberry creme)
Stol croissants (“stol” is generally a sweet bread with almond paste inside, raisins and powdered sugar on top, a staple during Christmas and Easter. I’ve never seen this croissant variant, though).
Marshmallow croissants (I showed a picture of this one in an earlier blog post. I don’t like marshmallow so I won’t be trying this one!)
On Saturday Marco, Roger and I went to the Mall of the Netherlands. We went later in the afternoon which meant the crowds were out in full force. (I know, we were part of the crowds too!) In the end we visited a lot of shops but didn’t buy anything.
Why were we at the mall, you ask? The movie theatre chain Kinepolis had a showing of Babymetal: Legend 43 – the movie, which Roger wanted to see. Babymetal is a Japanese metal band. The movie is an edited version of a concert Babymetal held in Okinawa at the end of their tour last year. The showing was pretty fun, although I am definitely not the right audience for a metal band. There were some interesting editing choices, including adding fake film distortion. But it was fun, as I said.
Before the movie, we stopped at Wagamama to get some dinner. As did everyone else in the mall. It was quite busy at the restaurants (of course). Wagamama didn’t have enough staff to handle the demand, although the staff that were there were definitely working hard.
This time I tried the Japanese curry. It was really nice, and exactly what I wanted. However, the version Marco made for me last month had an even richer, deeper umami flavor that this version didn’t quite capture. So he’ll be happy to know he needs to make that for me again…
As you can see above, the chicken is cut in half and the bed of rice is laid between it. The salad was also really nice; it paired really well with the heavier flavors.
Finally, here is the yuzu dessert Marco chose which I had a few bites of.
Marco, Roger and I went to Five K Comfort Food in The Hague’s city centre on the Gedempte Gracht. Its speciality is Asian fusion. Roger also likes it because they have ice cream floats… a bit of a sweet tooth, that one!
Although my blog post title promises chicken, unfortunately I don’t have photos of that. My apologies. But I take a photo of the graffiti at the table next to us before another group sat there:
I had the orange popcorn chicken. It was really good, and it was a great portion size (bordering on too much for one person). If we hadn’t been going to a movie after, I definitely would have asked for a doggy bag and taken the rest home. Marco and Roger had a few different types of chicken wings plus they shared a platter of duck pancakes.
Life in the Hague 