Day 57 - Amsterdam again!

Today I went to visit Amsterdam again. A professor of mine from UNB was on a research trip/vacation there. It's always nice to see familiar faces from home, especially those who are so familiar with the history of the town you're visiting!

We started with lunch at a restaurent on the Rembrandtplein with his wife and daughter. I officially had my first croquette, which is a dutch delicacy. Well, not really... It was ok. I'm not sure if i'll try it again, but maybe definitely one of the other varieties. It definitely has a unique flavour and texture. What is a croquette you're asking? Well, as usual, let's see what wikipedia has to offer:

The croquette or croquet is a parcel of food such as minced meat or vegetables, encased in breadcrumbs and sometimes mashed potatoes, formed into a cylinder or disk, and then deep-fried. The croquette (from the French croquer (v), bite), was originally a French invention that gained a world-wide popularity both as a delicacy as well as an industrially produced fast food.

If we scroll down, we find a description of dutch croquettes:

Netherlands: Whereas previously the dish was regarded as a French cuisine delicacy of varying meat or vegetable content, in the 1800s it started to be used to use up leftover stewed meat. After World War II, several suppliers started mass-producing croquettes filled with beef. The croquette subsequently became even more popular as a fast food. Its success as a fast food garnered its reputation as a cheap dish of dubious quality, to such an extent that Dutch urban myth relate its allegedly mysterious content to offal and butchering waste. The "kroket" is even so popular that it is sold at McDonalds. Besides the common ragout type filling, other popular fillings served in fast food restaurants are whole boiled eggs, noodles, and rice.

I'm a little disturbed by the use of the word 'dubious'. Even more so by the fact that McDonalds sells it. If you don't see any new entries from me this week, my advice is stay away from the Croquettes when you visit the Netherlands. This 'dubious' dish can be found everywhere in the country. Often at little stores at train stations. There is a wall full of little windows, each window with a croquette inside. Put in your coins and the window pops open. (I think... I haven't actually tried this yet.) Anyways, lunch was quite good overall, and I'm happy to have finally tried a croquette.

After lunch the professor and I headed for the Joods Historisch Museum and the Portuguese Synagogue. (Dutch question: why is 'history' the tongue defying 'geschidenis' but 'historical' is 'historisch'?) We both have interests in this area. I've been interested since I wrote an essay for his class comparing Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews in the Netherlands. The museum was nice and traced Jewish history in the Netherlands from the 1600s until the present day.

After the museum we headed over to the Portuguese Synagogue. Both the museum and the synagogue are in what used to be the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam. I've never been in a synagogue before, and this one was quite beautiful. Before we went in, we first had to put on our kippah:

The Portuguese Synagogue was built during the 17th century by the Amsterdam Sephardic community. It is called the Portuguese Synagogue, because Sephardic Jews were known as the Potuguese Jews. These Jews were refugees from the Iberian peninsula due to the expulsions in the 15th century. They mostly came from Spain, but due to the dislike of Spain in most of northern Europe, they did not want to be associated with Spain. Here are some photos. The front:

The inside:

Overall, it was another good day spent in Amsterdam. I can't wait until my next visit to this great city!