NEW TRICKS FOR AN OLD DUTCH MASTER
Why is Leeuwarden in the Netherlands the coolest place to dine in right now?
Why is Leeuwarden in the Netherlands the coolest place to dine in right now?
Until recently, the town of Leeuwarden, in the north-western Dutch province of Friesland, was such an unremarkable foodie destination, it barely registered on the map. Any talk of great dining experiences in the Netherlands brought up Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The Hague might have been mentioned in passing. At a push, Groningen, too; a town so far north that it’s closer to Germany than Amsterdam. But lesser-known Leeuwarden? Not likely.
All the same, by the time I was ready to leave this tucked-away outpost, the capital, and the largest and most influential of Friesland’s 11 cities, my preconceptions had all but been turned upside down.
In their place were great memories of a long weekend of fabulous coffee shops and delicious meals at destination restaurants. Add gabled houses, cobbled canal-side ways and sinewy alleys to the picture, and you can perhaps already see that this is a part of the Netherlands worth keeping to yourself.
Leeuwarden is also this year’s European Capital of Culture, an honour it’s sharing with Valletta in Malta. Until the end of 2018, the city is promising a calendar of banner exhibitions and events, but also art, music, dance and film activities, and flash mobs. If that isn’t enough reason to visit, the food is fabulous, too. POSTAL ORDER As all newcomers do when they come to the Netherlands, I started with a crisp Dutch lager – a craft beer from Brand Bierbrouwerij – and a plate of crumbly bitterballen, those quintessential bite-sized beer snacks. At the Hotel Post-Plaza’s Grand Cafe, the deep-fried ragout balls came served with French mustard at 1 euro (S$1.60) a pop. I asked the waitress if most of her customers finished their plateful, before ordering a main course. “Of course,” she replied, shaking her head. “This is Friesland. We do things properly here.”
It seemed a little indulgent, but I ordered a main course for the heck of it (whole sea bass with roasted roseval potatoes and braised fennel), and had ample time to appreciate the brasserie’s standout design over lunch. Once Leeuwarden’s main post office, the high-ceilinged brasserie tips its hat to the city’s mailmen. There are letter trays and mail boxes, brass telephones and wooden switchboards – but the highlight, after a fabulous main course, is the coffee, paired with a hazelnut and aniseed biscuit. As I later found out, it was a dumke, a sugar-rolled cookie, supposedly shaped like a Frisian’s swollen thumb. PRISON LINEUP To help understand why Leeuwarden won this year’s Capital of Culture bid ahead of rivals Utrecht, the Hague, Eindhoven and Maastricht, you need to visit canal-side jail Blokhuispoort, a few streets to the immediate south of the Hotel Post-Plaza. Dating back to the 16th century, the gothic prison has arches, high-framed walls, spiky turrets and enough tightly girded courtyards to intimidate even the toughest of criminals. But the look belies its practical use today. Inside are two restaurants, a cafe, a library, and a youth hostel complete with Alcatraz-style bunks. All of it, down to the library’s private reading room cells, is repurposed in the name of high culture and haute cuisine.
A post-lunch peek into Proefverlof, the prison’s hipsterfied anchor tenant, showed that every table was busy to the extreme. A queue snaked out the door, and a dozen couples waited for a table with a canal view, albeit one seen through a barred-window. How often do people queue to get into a prison? “Every day,” replied manager Erik Eerhart with a laugh, while seating a party in an alcove, likely the former room of a habituated felon. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Saturday lunchtime or not – this place is always crazy.” The reason for this: tables busy with Hawaiian poke bowls, steak tartare, grilled octopus