Like most things in Amsterdam, dining out can be experimental. Gemma Tiptontries a beaker of mustard soup, among other things
Eating and sleeping in Amsterdam aren't what they used to be. For every visitor seeking Rembrandt and Van Gogh, coffee shops and clogs, there are others in town to experience innovations in food design, cutting-edge restaurants and weird and wonderful hotel rooms where sleeping may well be the last thing on your mind.
One of the things that makes the city so great for a weekend break is the attitude of Amsterdam's inhabitants. They have that sense of fun and quirkiness that we seem to have lost in Ireland since we became so (relatively) affluent. A woman cycles by on a bike entwined with little plastic flowers; another, in her 50s, walks along with purple spiky hair, wearing mini skirt, and no one thinks she's crazy for it. This attitude to experimentation and relaxed enjoyment also means that Amsterdam is a great place to explore some of the latest ideas in eating and drinking.
At Proef, a grungy-yet-pretty restaurant, they have designs on your dinner. Proef is to be found in Westerpark, an area that used to house a gasworks, and which is now becoming popular with artists and other creative types.
Marije Vogelzang set up Proef earlier this year as a studio for her experiments in food. "I wanted to make my own playground," she says. During the week Vogelzang works on her ideas, and opens the place up at the weekend for the public to be what she calls her "guinea pigs". And being a guinea pig in Proef is a lot of fun. The concept changes every six weeks, so you can't predict what you are going to find when you get there, but the Sunday I went, Marije had been considering the idea of how food affects your mood.
"Do you want to be relaxed or energised?" she asked. After the previous evening, spent at Nomads (of which more later), I felt in need of some energy. Perhaps I should have chosen relaxation - the relax people were given comfy cushions to sit on. Both energy and relaxation arrived as a series of plastic beakers containing foods from quail's eggs to goat's cheese to apple and pasta salad to mustard soup. Under each beaker was a description of the particular chemicals and nutrients in each, and how they work on the body.
I loved Proef. I loved the idea that you can eat ordinary food six days a week, three times a day, but sometimes it's nice to experiment, explore and have a little adventure. Vogelzang has recently taken her food concepts to New York, where she created a programme designed to wean obese children off junk food by colour-coding food and serving it with messages telling you what it's doing for you. "Red food", she says "makes you sexy". Whether it does or not is a moot point, but it definitely had the kids from the Bronx eating up their tomatoes.
Fun with food is also on the agenda at Nomads. Nomads was created by Concrete Associates, who were also behind Amsterdam's infamous Supperclub. At Supperclub you lounge on beds while you eat, and are entertained by club and cabaret acts whose antics aren't always for the weak-of-stomach. Nomads is more relaxed, so relaxed in fact that it's very hard to leave. The place is designed in the manner of a sultan's boudoir. North African and Arabic foods are served on huge silver platters to diners lounging against silk-covered cushions. A waitress comes by and washes your hands with rose water. Another offers to read your tarot cards. Cocktails are served and a belly dancer appears. But what is it that actually makes a meal memorable? The atmosphere? The company? Amazing ingredients? Fancy surroundings? Nomads seems to tick all the boxes.
Gilian Schrofer, who designed the restaurant, initially worked as a chef. "That helps," he says. "Nomads is different, it's about bringing different cultures together through food." Despite the adventurousness of what he has created at Nomads, Gilian is sceptical of the concept of food design. "Food is an everyday thing in that you need it to survive. And it's gone so quickly that you should be realistic about what you're trying to do with it."
Another Amsterdam fantasy place is the Lloyd Hotel, which was established by Suzanne Oxenaar, one of the founders of Supperclub. Built to accommodate steerage passengers while they waited for the ships and the tides to take them to America, it then became a prison and after that a young offenders' centre. Now it is one of the funkiest hotels in the city, with rooms ranging from one to five stars, each of which has been individually designed by different artists and designers. One room has a ginormous bed (that sleeps eight), another a fibre-glass pod for a bathroom, another a secret window through which you can spy on the diners in the restaurant below. Then there is the room with the grand piano (the room is sound-proofed, of course), and the one with the bathtub in the centre of the floor.
On the first floor of the Lloyd is a library and art gallery, and on Monday nights the restaurant hosts bands, lectures, fashion shows, poetry and comedy. The food is hearty - with a twist. Vegetables, for example, come in a choice of plain, posh and superposh styles. You need to bring a sense of fun and adventure to a stay at the Lloyd - which is also how to get the most out of a trip to Amsterdam.
• Proef: www.proefamsterdam.nl. Nomads: www.restaurantnomads.nl.
• Lloyd Hotel: www.lloydhotel.com. www.supperclub.com