Day Four: Tell us about a weird food combo that you love
This one is not so easy for me, as I am not the most adventurous soul with my food combinations. This is primarily because I am not a mixer: I like to eat everything in turn with minimal contamination, as you may have gathered from Wednesday’s bean issues. Also, I don’t usually like to mix sweet and savoury – I can’t even stretch to jam or chocolate spread on toast. So for me, the combination of mayonnaise (well, vegannaise) with breakfast is very much weird and wild. “Love” is quite the stretch, but I ate it. Or, tried it.
Keeping the European theme going, this was a breakfast in Amsterdam back in the Easter holidays. After a fairly miserable breakfast on our first morning in Amsterdam, we needed a win on this day. Dophert was just around the corner from where we were staying, near Westerpark, so it was ideal for a breakfast stop. Like the typical English travellers, we were tempted by the English breakfast – none of this foreign muck for us! And it was a good breakfast, but I would strongly dispute its Englishness.
Dophert is all vegan, so I happily ordered the chai latte and was spoiled for choice when it came to milk: almond, oat or soy. I went for almond, and it was a decadent and fragrant drink, with a little coconut macaroon on the side.
The food wasn’t far behind. The menu promised us “white beans in a tomato sauce”. What we received was very much baked beans – I would be surprised if they weren’t straight from a tin (not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just that the menu made them sound somewhat fancier). The tofu scramble was really tasty, with its seitan strips and red onions, and well-seasoned too, but quite dry. The seitan slices were nice, but a bit disconnected from the rest – I’d have preferred sausages. We also had a solitary slice of toast, and a pot of mayo, which baffled us Brits somewhat. Which element of the dish should you eat with the mayo? We tried a few things, but didn’t really find that it enhanced anything. And of course, our good friends roasted tomatoes made an appearance. But not a mushroom in sight – what a waste.
It was a really pleasant start to the day, and infinitely better than breakfast the day before (still to come in Vegan MoFo!): everything tasted nice, service was fast and we enjoyed ourselves. However, the food was a little uninspired, and I don’t think I’ll return for breakfast if I go back to Amsterdam (our omni airbnb host recommended the burgers though, so I’d pop in for one of those).
Speed of service: it got busier while we were there, but service was swift and friendly. 4/5
Value for money: it was 10.50 each for the English breakfast, which was perhaps a touch too much. 3/5
Quality of cooking: everything was well seasoned and nice. Portions were a bit stingy though – that’s not much toast, is it? 3/5
Creativity: I found it quite a poor interpretation of the English breakfast, with its mayo instead of potatoes and seitan slices instead of sausages. 3/5
Total: 13
Herbivores' Heaven 
I feel you on the weird combos, it took me ages to come up with mine! The vegenaise with breakfast is a little on the strange side and I love me some vegenaise. I guess I would put it on the tofu? Like a tofu salad?
I think I’ve only ever eaten vegenaise with chips, and even then I prefer them dry – this was definitely out of my depth!
That looks like a hearty breakfast! I’m having a hard time with the weird food combo too. I can’t think of an strange things that I combine. I’m glad I discovered your blog!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who struggled with it!
I’ve never seen mayo on a breakfast, it does seem a bit strange. I could see it going better if there were some potatoes in there maybe? I’m enjoying your theme, breakfasts is a great idea!
Thank you, I certainly enjoyed doing the research! Yeah, it would have been better with potatoes. I’ve had salad on a Full English in Europe before as well, I think they’re just determined to make it a bit fancier than it really is!
I could go for one of those Chai Latte’s right now 🙂
Finding a good vegan chai latte is the best!
I’m a fan of both mayonnaise and English breakfasts, but I’m not sure I’d eat them together… still, the rest looks decent and a good chai latte makes everything OK!
I had a hard time trying to come up with a weird food combo too…but mayonnaise with breakfast is a little strange! Maybe it was to put on the toast with the scrambled tofu? Still, unusual!
I used to live in Westerpark! Looong ago and pre-vegan too. Had to laugh at the mayo, I mean mayo (fritessaus) was everywhere if you ordered frites but I’m trying to work out where it fits in to your breakfast!
Westerpark was lovely! I wonder if Koffee ende Koeck was there in your day? It was probably my favourite place to eat in Amsterdam.
Ha! White beans in tomato sauce is the literal translation of what we call baked beans over here (witte bonen in tomatensaus) and I guess Dutch people just really love mayo. 🙂 I’ve never had breakfast at DopHert, but now I want to! (I wouldn’t mind the mayo.) (But I’m with you on toast and mushrooms.)
Ah, that translation is interesting! We thought it suggested something much more exciting and homemade!
I am the same way– I don’t like mixing foods or different cuisines together so thinking of a weird combo was a toughie for me too! I give you props for trying something new with the mayo in the mix 🙂 PS: Love that this restaurant review was in Amsterdam!
Glad to know I’m not the only one! I thought Amsterdam was great for vegans, I had some delicious food there.