Sunday, March 4, 2012

Welcome. I Guess That Says It All.


For a guy from Essex by way of little, ole Wake Forest, Amsterdam is a far piece. It’s old. It’s cosmopolitan. It’s diverse (and by diverse I mean you won’t have too much trouble finding the stuff you like.) Amsterdam seems to have it all. So last week when I got it in my head to look for one of my favorite things, I knew the answer was hidden somewhere in town.

Menu photo album--very Asian

Thanks to an eight-week stop over in Phnom Penh and a side-trip to Saigon, this Essex boy is life-long fan of pho. You know what that is? Me either until I asked my tour guide in Vietnam. “Beef nuda suit,” he answered. “May I recommend it to you?” He may. He did. I been hooked ever since.

Deep-fried prawn dumplings

I continue to be thankful I asked. Yes, pho is beef noodle soup, but I prefer pho ga, the chicken noodle version. Once back in NC, Gwaz and I found several pho restaurants; and meals out including pho became a regular thing.

pho ga

I have been without my pho-fix since January (it was one of the last meals Gwaz and I shared before I left.) Yesterday, I changed that. Welcome Vietnamese Restaurant is located at Geldersekade 56, just about a six-minute walk from Centraal Station, where I started my day. After buying four train tickets to and from Paris in anticipation of Jess and Marissa’s visit next month, I set out in search of Welcome.

Hey, it certainly wasn’t Ho Chi Min City pho—it wasn’t even Raleigh, NC pho—but it was darn tasty.

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