THE BIG 30

so. i was not excited to turn 30. i'm sure that's a cliche, and blah blah blah. i just wasn't that excited. and this from a girl who LOVES her birthday. i like to celebrate for a good 4 days. but this year.... not really. and so i was stoked to celebrate in europe. mostly because only one person there would now i was old now, and he wouldn't be a jerk about it. and guess what? i have the best husband in the wide world. sorry ladies, but he just rules. 

this was my present, i LOVE them. 

then we went to.... (have you guessed yet? you should have.)...de bakkerswinkel!!

this is the face of a 30 year old woman. bwhahahahaha

but i don't know why i got the "for mama" teacup. that's just rude. 

bacon and eggs and toast, yummmm!

ryan got french toast, and he says:

1. he's never had a bowl of bacon before, and he would like to start having bacon served this way all the time, and

2. he's not sure it's the best french toast in the entire world. he has to go back and have it several more times before he can say definitively that it's the best. but i had a bite. and guess what? it's made of brioche rolls. and one of them had chocolate chips in it. mmmmmmm

i had my birthday cake as a scone, of course. 

then we went for a little stroll. this is a kitty who looks like ours. lots of the shops have "shopcats" who live in the store and are-- so---cute. 

and we got some flowers, cause you can't turn 30 without daffodils. 

and then we brought them home. those in the middle are older, but i had to cut them down and use the vase for the daffodils. 

after a trip to the artis zoo (it gets its' own post later) and a tour of a diamond cutting factory (ditto, it was HILARIOUS), we went to jamie oliver's fifteen. this is the amsterdam version of his london restaurant of the same name. each year, the restaurant takes in 15-20 interns from disadvantaged backgrounds and trains them in the kitchen. the menu changes every 2 weeks, and everything that can be sourced locally is. the cuisine is italian, and it was 2 miles from our house, which meant we could eat more (right?). 

this is the restaurant's olive oil. it's bottled from a small farm in italy, and all the interns go there for 2 weeks to help with the harvest and bottling. 

amuse-bouche: radishes, aioli, greek olive and fried baby herring. ryan ate it all up. i ate up the veggies. no one ate the mayo. 

antipasto, mmmm

bubbles. yay 30

and i had truffles for the first time ever. and they were really good. that's taglitelle with butter and black truffle and parm

ryan had clams and tomatoes and garlic

we ate it all up. 

and this was a crispy mushroom spinach packet. i did not eat it all up. i was full. but the inside of the packet was okay. the rest was pretty salty.

rosemary potatoes. 

ryan has shoulder and leg of lamb, and loved it. he wanted there to be more. 

and then we came home to our red light apartment. DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN??? i think maybe i'll try to find a blue lightbulb for that lamp. then we'll just be the purple apartment. what do you think?