La Trattoria Di Donna Sofia & IJsfabriek Monte Pelmo (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

I'm pretty sure the weather in the Netherlands was so delightfully good just for our visit back home, or at least that's what I'd like to tell myself after months of rainy season in the Congo... I felt so lucky to have caught just that last bit of summer, and very lucky to have been staying at our friends who live in one of the Negen Straatjes, or Nine Streets, an adorable neighborhood in the centre of Amsterdam, dotted with lovely coffee places, restaurants and little boutiques. 

moving house in the Negen Straatjes, Amsterdam-style

With this post we're moving on though, to an old neighborhood of Amsterdam: de Jordaan. Perhaps I was hit by a stroke of home sickness or by the sun, but I simply adored it here and immediately imagined myself living in one of these cute small houses... 

Can you already imagine yourself living here? And do you adore these windows as much as I do? But let's not get carried away. Let's talk about food. And then get carried away. 

Below the menu of La Trattoria Di Donna Sofia, located in the middle of this great neighborhood, and I can tell you all we ate tasted as good as it looks written down. The wine came from Sicily which we chose just for nostalgic reasons (and the waiter from Italy judging by his lively Italian accent). 

It's a small, cozy restaurant with a small menu. Moreover, Donna Sofia serves great authentic food. Eating together with my vegetarian hubby, we ordered a vegetarian antipasti and one with king prawns. The grilled and fried vegetables with ricotta and mozzarella cheese were perfectly prepared with all flavors deliciously coming to their full advantage. My favorite by far though was the antipasti with mozzarella, fresh basil, spinach, pesto and king prawns. All favorite and comfortable flavors, but still refreshing and new in this mix. So good! 

For my primi I chose mafaldine pasta out of the oven with egg plants, which was again a simple, honest dish and very well executed. We also had the spaghetti with tiny octopuses, which was perhaps a bit too simple to my taste (not photographed). After all this we were so stuffed we didn't get to try their secondi, although what I saw around me looked equally comforting and delicious as what we had just devoured. 

And who's that dining here as well??

Sadly, Donna Sofia was out of our dessert of choice and so we decided to get ice cream across the street. Our waiter even told us it was a better choice (!?). It definitely was in fact, people were even lining up to get their dairy fix (which I've hardly ever seen here in the Netherlands by the way, it seems lining up for good food is much more a Northern American thing). It turns out IJsfabriek Monte Pelmo is quite famous for its ice cream. Rightly so, I thoroughly enjoyed their rich chocolate & coffee flavors. All meal is well that ends well, I'd say!