Blog 51 – We are thankful – for the Carter Restaurant and so much more

Seriously trying to take a good holiday picture. The lights look good, anyway

What a difference a year has made. A year ago, we celebrated Thanksgiving at the Parsons Green Pub, which had a great dinner with whisky cocktails between each course – we were never quite sure if they thought that is how Americans do it, or if it was a promotion put on by Jack Daniels. Moving on to Amsterdam was in the ether, but not too serious an issue; and the more serious issue of the Pandemic was not on anyone’s radar. Holy cow!

But Thanksgiving in Amsterdam during the pandemic is where we are, what we did. Have I mentioned the small kitchen in this apartment? It was built for takeout. The fridge/freezer is about the size of the right-hand side of a side-by-side in the US, so it holds about two days’ worth of fresh foods. We have a four-burner cooktop and a combination oven + microwave oven – that is it. Pretty hard to find the makings of a Thanksgiving dinner to begin with and then very hard to make it into a good dinner cooking one thing at a time in the combi-oven. So, take-out for Thanksgiving was truly the only option.

One restaurant offered Thanksgiving take-out two weeks before the date. (Another added a smaller version the week before). So, we went with the first place, Carter Restaurant. https://barcarter.nl/ A beautiful restaurant in the Oud Zuid (Old South) neighbourhood of Amsterdam. https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/about-amsterdam/amsterdam-neighbourhoods/oud-zuid  A lovely dinner menu and this one came with cocktails too. All in two giant bags to carry home a complete feast.

  • Yes, you may note; we got two packages of white mashed potatoes and no sweet potatoes – but, the turkey was great, so all good.

It would not be Thanksgiving without Black Friday sales. Although, since Thanksgiving is not a holiday here, no one is off work, (except, Andy took vacation days) and most sales are minor promotions of a few percent’s off at most stores. Nonetheless, they advertise Black Friday and Andy needed a wireless keyboard, so off to the sale at the Best Buy equivalent we went.

They were ready for the Black Friday crowds, there were no crowds. We had the place to ourselves with the exception of one other person looking at TV’s.

And, of course, Thanksgiving kicks off holiday decorating. Netherlands celebrates Christmas and SinterKlaas. SinterKlaas is first, with his arrival by horse on the first Saturday after November 11th. Primarily a children’s holiday and festival, Sinterklass returns to Spain on December 6th, the name day of St. Nicholas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas  While the seasons give us diminishing sunlight, the holidays of November and December give rise to beautiful street and canal decorations starting late October. We are isolated like much of the world, but when we step outside, our part of the world is beautiful, and we are grateful for this too.

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