What Andy Fenner Ate

By Andy Fenner

There’s some seriously good eating in Amsterdam at the moment. July saw me take down three of the most exciting bowls/plates of food that the city has dished up in my three years of having lived here.

NAZKA is nikkei, done right. What is nikkei? A merging of Japanese techniques, built onto Peruvian ingredients. Sounds pretty niche, right? It is. Which makes a perfectly executed version of this emerging trend even more exciting. Nazka wears this badge with pride, instead of as a burden and the food coming out of the kitchen is heaving with big, brave flavours all of which contain chilli peppers as star ingredients. Instead of being “hot”, flavours are concentrated. Deliberate. And meticulously balanced. In one shining example, octopus is cooked over fire and paired with corn, olive and a tuber millefeuille (conceptually plated to mimic the Vinicunca mountain). It’s then draped with a creamy, smoky rocoto pepper sauce and finished with furikake for texture. Lovely, inventive, delicious cooking. Read the full Nazka review here.

RESTAURANT EUROPA
In a city that’s pretty cool, it seems that all the cool kids are hanging in the Noord. It’s cool, built on top of cool. Industrial spaces are being snapped up and converted into restaurants and the reduced rent is allowing entrepreneurs with a bit of courage to really shine. Europa is a prime example. From the gang behind Euro Pizza and Benelux (both brilliant btw), this is their most ambitious adventure. A lightning-shaped electric blue countertop runs through an abandoned warehouse. The food coming across this counter is…well..it’s sensational. Mussels placed around a wonderfully intense beef garum, and teamed up with fermented peppers and delicate lovage, is a memorable dish amongst many memorable dishes. This is one to watch, and would be at home in any food destination city in the world.

Firstly, FUKU. Where do we begin? Here, a tasting menu revolves around one of the deepest, funkiest, richest and most complex bowls of ramen around. It’s sandwiched right in the middle of some delicate and refined Japanese offerings, all of which deserve mention as stand-alone dishes. But…that ramen. Dude. I can’t stop thinking about it. The good news is that the team has recently announced a Sunday lunch service, offering the ramen alone. Perfect. Throw in an extensive sake and wine selection and you have more than enough reasons to visit.