Amsterdam, May 21—
ONE OF THE FIRST MEALS in The Netherlands generally turns out to be in an Italian restaurant, where even my imperfect Italian often works better than their English and, certainly, our Dutch. The restaurant adjacent to our hotel is Italian: it is called Sogno. Two years ago it was called Bice, and I assumed the name had been changed to accommodate English-speaking tourists. (Amsterdam is full of them: most of them are native speakers of English, but many use it because it's their second language. Dutch is pretty far down the alternate-language chain.)
But no: our waiter said the name had been changed because Bice was in fact a chain of restaurants, and the Amsterdam location, the original of the chain, decided to drop away. A sensible decision, say I, distrusting chain restaurants.
There were five of us: we shared a couple of antipasti misti and then went on to pasta courses. I had fettucini with pesto, arugula and robiola, a pungent combination somewhat overflavored, I thought. But it was okay.
Vermentino, Argiolas (Sardinia), 2007
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