BEST WISHES MAG

A few months ago I started contributing for online magazine Best Wishes, a collection of city chapters where we share stories of creative people and their favourite places in town. I am in charge of the Amsterdam chapter and even though sometimes I am really struggling to combine my two jobs and finding time to arrange meetings with the people we feature, it is definitely worth the hard work.

It is really amazing to meet such lovely and interesting people. Most of them are entrepreneurs, artists, designers, photographers or illustrators and listening to their stories about how they made it to where they are now is so inspiring that after those meetings I always come home full of energy and ideas also about my own future.

One of the best parts of this job is also having the chance to discover new places in town, something that as you may have notice, is one of my biggest hobbies. Some of these people share this passion with me so I always end up knowing about this new coffee place that opened some days ago or this other hidden place.

If you are curious and want to know Amsterdam a bit more, you can always check my Instagram, where I share all my discoveries. And also head to Best Wishes and get inspired by these amazing people! There will be many more coming.

WINTER BARBECUE

I love wintertime. For some people, it sucks getting out of home covered by layers of clothes and stand the cold, the rain and even the snow. Me, on the other hand, I love it.

I found out about Simply Slow totally randomly. They are a community that creates small gatherings once a month and -lucky me- they were doing a Winter Barbeque that same weekend! Ok, I had roasted potatoes in a fireplace before and grilled marshmallows at a bbq one summer... but a winter barbecue? I had to try that.

The venue was a barn in the outskirts of Amsterdam where we learnt how to make bread (or at least, some of us 'tried') and had some wonderful food surrounded by cows and hay bales. We warmed up with some glühwein and soup and continued the feast with delicious grilled sausages. To end up, nothing better than hot chocolate, cookies and butter cake, which gave us strength to bike all the way back to Amsterdam in the middle of the dark.

What a perfect Sunday afternoon! You can see some more -and probably better- photos here.

CARAVAN

Sí, Londres otra vez. Y comida. Y cafés. Hace dos semanas volví para hacer un curso de latte art en Prufrock Coffee (no tengo fotos, pero fue genial), pero antes, había unas cuantas paradas obligatorias. La primera, en Caravan. Ya había estado cenando el año pasado y no fue hasta después cuando descubrí que además de restaurante, sirven (según algunas críticas) uno de los mejores cafés de la ciudad, que tuestan ellos mismos. Un hurra! Supongo que mi opinión no importa mucho, porque cada vez que voy, mi viaje consiste en atiborrarme a café y prácticamente todos me gustan en comparación con el café torrefacto que sirven en la mayoría de sitios en España. Pero sí, mi latte fue excelente. Y la comida y el servicio... un diez! Hablando de café torrefacto, ayer leí un artículo muy interesante de James Blick sobre el café en España. London again. And food. And coffee. I went back there two weeks ago to attend a latte art course at Prufrock Coffee (I didn't take any pictures but the class was great). But before that, I had some pending visits. The first one, Caravan. I had already had dinner there last year but it wasn't until after that I found out that they also serve one of the best coffees in town (according to some critics) and have their own roastery. Probably my opinion doesn't really matter since everything I travel there I drink coffee everywhere I go and most of them are tasty if you compare them to the torrefacto (high roasted) coffee that is served in almost every bar in Spain. But definitely yes, my latte was excellent. And the food and service... amazing! Talking about torrefacto, I read this very interesting article yesterday from James Blick about Spanish coffee.

MEAT LIQUOR

Antes de nada, siento la horrible calidad de las fotos. Estaba tan oscuro que tuve que utilizar el flash de la cámara (y eso que lo odio). Pero aun así necesitaba publicarlas para enseñaros esta increíble hamburguesa.

Me he vuelto adicta a las hamburguesas desde que vivo en Madrid. Es algo así como una moda ahora y cada vez se abren más y más sitios así. Cada vez que aparece un Top 10 en alguna revista me doy cuenta de que las he probado casi todas (y me siento un poco yonki). Así que, ya que casi he terminado el maratón de hamburguesas en la city, me veía obligada (por necesidad) a cruzar la frontera e ir a por otro Top 10. Y puesto que últimamente he viajado bastante a Londres, la elección ha sido fácil.

El año pasado hice mi primera incursión en este Top comiendo en Lucky Chip, que me encantó, no solo por la hamburguesa en sí (maravillosa) si no por el sitio: una furgoneta! Esta vez tenía unas ganas enormes de ir a Meat Liquor (buscadlo en Google Imágenes y decidme!) y comprobar si era verdad todo lo que había leído en las opiniones. Yo pedí la Cheeseburger y sí, es deliciosa, con ese sabor un poco ahumado de la barbacoa, ese queso fundido y el pan... Y la próxima vez iré a por una Dead Hippie: una hamburguesa doble con queso, salsa y pepinillos.

Pero el sitio tiene también varios contras, para empezar la falta de luz (aunque podría vivir con ello) y lo altísima que estaba la música, que hace que sea difícil mantener una conversación y, en mi opinión, disfrutar al 100% del sabor.

Aparte de eso también tienen una larga lista de cócteles. Nosotros pedimos el House Grog, que nos llamó la atención porque no sirven más de dos por persona. Imagináos...

Aun así, un must! Por cierto, suelen formarse unas colas larguísimas y no se aceptan reservas así que para no llevarse una sorpresa... mejor ir pronto o con tiempo!

Sorry for the bad quality of the photos, this place was so dark that I needed the camera flash. Nonetheless, I felt the need to post them so you could at least have an idea of how good this burger was.

I have been addicted to burgers ever since I moved to Madrid. There is some kind of boom now in the city and every time I see a Top 10 Burgers on a magazine I realize I have tried almost all of them (which makes me feel like I am some kind of junkie). So once I had almost finished the burger marathon in Madrid, I felt like crossing some borders and try another country's list. And since I have been visiting London quite often for the past 2 years, that city was the best choice.

Last year it was Lucky Chip, which amaze me, not only for the flavour of the burger but also for the location (a van!) This time I couldn't wait to go to Meat Liquor (I mean, search on Google Images and then tell me) and prove all those reviews that say that's the best burger in town. I order their classic Cheeseburger and well, it was delicious: the slightly burnt flavour of the meat, the melted cheese and the brioche. The next time I will try the house specialty: the Dead Hippie made of two patties, sauce, cheese and pickles. 

But some cons: the dark atmosphere (ok, I could live with that) and the super loud music, which makes it impossible for a conversation and (as a personal thing) also makes it difficult to really enjoy the food you're eating.

Apart from that, they also have a long list of cocktails. We tried the House Grog, which is limited to 2 serves per person... imagine!

A must, anyway! We were lucky to have an early dinner so we didn't have to wait, but there are normally very long queues and they don't accept reservations to take it into account!

BREAD BREAD BREAD

Como ya adelanté en el post anterior, nuestro desayuno en E5 Bakehouse merece un post entero. 

El desayuno es sin duda mi comida preferida del día, sobre todo cuando viajo. En casa no suelo pasar del tazón de leche con cereales, pero cuando salgo fuera, un café cae seguro y en este sitio tampoco podía dejar escapar la bollería.

Empezando por su localización, entre unos arcos debajo de unas vías de tren, E5 me pareció el sitio perfecto para empezar el día, alejada de las multitudes de una ciudad como Londres. Aunque se ha convertido un sitio tan popular en la zona que a media mañana se forman largas colas de gente que acude a comprar pan... o a mirar. Porque el punto fuerte de E5 es que puedas ver en directo cómo hacen todas y cada una de las delicias que después venden en el mostrador. Y que además puedas acompañarlas de un buen café (bien tostado y bien preparado, uno de los mejores, sin duda). O que si quieres, puedes apuntarte a uno de sus cursos y aprender a hacer pan tú también.

He oido bastantes veces aquello de que en Reino Unido no se come bien. Puede que en efecto, la gastronomía inglesa en sí no sea muy amplia o muy refinada, pero lo que la hace rica es el valor que se le da a los productos (a los productos de temporada, por ejemplo) y su adaptabilidad a la hora de coger influencias de aquí y allá. El pan es uno de esos productos que muchas veces se maltrata y por eso es genial ver sitios como este, donde además todos los trabajadores apenas pasan la treintena y pertenecen a una generación que valora lo artesanal, lo clásico, lo que está bien hecho.

As I said in a previous post, E5 Bakery deserved a whole post.

Breakfast is definitely my favourite meal of the day, specially when I'm travelling. At home I just have a bowl of cereals with milk but when I eat out, I always drink coffee and in this place I couldn't skip their pastries.

Starting from its location, in between some arcs under the train rails, E5 is probably one of the best places to start the day far from the most crowded areas of London. Even though it has become so popular in the neighbourhood that during midday you can see long queues of people waiting to buy bread... or just watching. Because one of the strenghts of this place is the fact that you can actually see how they bake all the products that they after sell at the counter. And in the meantime, drink a well roasted coffee. Or enrol to one of their courses and learn how to bake bread yourself.

I've heard countless times that English food is not good. English gastronomy (itself) may not be very wide or refined, but what makes it rich is the value that they give to each product (seasonal products, for example) and how they take influences from everywhere. The bread is one of those things that we often mistreat and that's why is great to see places like this one, where people who work there barely pass their thirties and belong to a generation that appreciates traditional ways of doing things and bothers doing things right.