We love Amsterdam!

Arrived in Amsterdam this morning- the high speed trains are amazing here: only 3 and 1/4 hrs from Paris to Amsterdam.
After a bite of lunch, we spent most of the afternoon strolling the streets around the canals.  It is called "Venice of the north" after all :)   It's really a magnificent city!

We met cousin Lauren for dinner (cousin Sari and Fons' daughter, who is living in Amsterdam), and had the best meal yet of our trip, at Visaandeschelde.  We'd researched it, and it's been touted as the best fish restaurant in Holland.  Well, it exceeded expectations! They have a la carte options or else a set menu that can be either 3, 4 or 5 courses.  Susie and Lauren had the 4 courses, but of course Neil had to go for the gusto and have all 5 courses.
Here's Lauren (sorry for the flash in the mirror!):

They started us off with an "amuse" (not counted as one of our courses): it was incredible itself, with a trio on the plate:

The large bowl had fish, some sauces (can't remember the details) and a disc of frozen mustard and cream.  The mug had a gazpacho with small shrimp in it.  The little glass had some kind of mousse (we can't recall what it was) with popcorn on top.  So all this, and amazing bread, before the actual meal started!

The next dish was tuna done 2 ways:

There was a tartare (the pink round disc), and slices sashimi style, but with an interesting coating.  There were also 2 different sauces on the plate - it was all delicious!

Neil's course which the others didn't have was a cold carrot-ginger soup with cooked mackerel:

The white blob was some kind of coconut mixture that was frozen - it all went together wonderfully :)

Then we had a dish of lobster - you can see also on the plate a pea mixture, a kind of foam, a little quinoa, and some caviar:

Finally the last dish before dessert:

This was plaice done 2 ways: a piece oven poached, and a piece grilled, with a wonderful sauce, 2 kinds of potatoes, and a little beef croquette (a typically dutch item).  Yes, it was all as good as it looks.

Finally, dessert:

On the right is a rectangle of bread pudding which was caramelized on top, and had a berry foam on it. there was also a raspberry gelato, raspberry mouse, and these little discs of intensely raspberry flavored jelly.  And there was some mint gelato and mint mousse.  The whole thing was delicious and we all finished every morsel.

Truly a phenomenal meal, and quite reasonable for what you get.  For example, the 4 course dinner was 50 euros, and the 5 course is 60 euros.

We're looking forward to having 2 more days here in Amsterdam!