3 Days In Amsterdam

It looks like time may be limited for the tolerance of soft drugs in the Netherlands.Book your hotel in advance: tourist season is a year-round event in Amsterdam. If you must make use of the Red Light District, visit Het Gulden Vlies.

"Ignoring the coffee shops is like going to Las Vegas and not stepping foot inside a casino."

You cannot return from a trip to Amsterdam without friends teasing you about prostitutes and pot. For decades, the Dutch's liberal views on sex and "soft drugs" have made their capital a must-see for men around the world. However, that seems to be changing.

The city's coffee shops have so far reigned triumphant despite attempts, in recent years, to tighten restrictions and turn them into members-only clubs -- but for how long? Pressure from the European Union and an increased conservatism in the national government are changing the face of Dutch politics. The debauchery Amsterdam is known for could become a thing of the past: this may just be your last chance to see the city in its full red-light glory.

AskMen does not promote drug use, excessive drinking, prostitution, or live sex shows. We treat our bodies as temples. However, if you ignore our warnings and decide to rent your temple to demons when you travel, then please follow our itinerary for three days of pure excess in Amsterdam, which allows for a legendary time while keeping you relatively safe.

Amsterdam is a hotbed for tourism most of the year, so book a room before you go; you don't want to be stumbling around at night looking for a vacancy. If you're going for pure excess in Amsterdam, book a room at the Hotel Seven One Seven (Prinsengracht 717). Housed in a 19th century renovated canal house and close to downtown, this hotel's rates include endless minibar drinks and house wines. Every suite has fine art and great views of the canal. For 300 to 400 Euros, you can rent its top Shakespeare Suite with over 500 square feet of luxury.

If you're on "budget excess," try The Flying Pig hostels. Both have bars and lounge areas in the hostel so it's easy to meet people from all over the world. Most other hostels are just a place to throw your stuff and sleep, but here you can literally pick up a date for the night during happy hour or a last-minute bed partner late at night.

Since their invention in the 1970s, Amsterdam's coffee shops have become a must-do. Even if you don't smoke, visiting a coffee shop is an experience to be had. Ignoring the coffee shops is like going to Las Vegas and not stepping foot inside a casino.

As the government has increased restrictions, the number of shops in the city has dwindled from 800 to fewer than 250. The penalties shop owners pay for breaking codes are steep, so be cool when you visit. Don't be thrown if the employees seem a bit more tense than usual, have your passport on hand and keep your head about you. The coffee here can be much stronger than you’re used to back home. Depending on your mood, head to Coffeeshop Johnny (Elandsgracht 3) for a laid-back, out-of-the-way vibe. Coffeeshop Get Down to It (Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 77-79) offers internet access, a busy bar and pool tables.

To find other great coffee shops and get a great layout of the city, take a free walking tour with SANDEMANs New Europe (you just need to tip the guide a few Euros). The guides are all young and offer paid tours of the Red Light District and coffee shops. They'll be able to point you in the correct direction for troublemaking. Plus, you'll get to see historical spots like The Anne Frank House, the Old Church, the Jewish Quarter, the Royal Palace, and a variety of the city's famous bridges (there are more than you'd expect).

Day one of your three days of pure excess in Amsterdam continues after the break… Next Page >>

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Ron Collins: Drink Of The Week

Replace gin with rum in your regular Tom Collins and you have a Ron Collins.The original Tom Collins dates back to the 19th century.Drinking out of a Collins glass is a shortcut to style.

"If you make up a batch of Ron Collins at home, your Mad Men-era style will definitely be duly noted by your company. "

The Ron Collins is a slight variation on the venerable American cocktail, the Tom Collins. The only difference between the two is that the Tom Collins is made with gin, while the Ron Collins takes rum (hence “ron,” which is Spanish for “rum”). We’re spoiling for a fight by saying this, but some of us here at AskMen consider this to be the most refreshing cocktail of all time. We’re recommending you try the old standby with rum because we predict that in the coming months, rum is going to emerge as the premium spirit of the moment. We recommend you start acquainting yourselves with dark rums so that you can pick a favorite before the marketing teams pick one for you.

The Tom Collins gained popularity in 1874 as part of a widespread practical joke that’s become known as the “Tom Collins Hoax.” People would ask their friends, “Have you seen Tom Collins?”, to which the friend would answer "No." The person asking the question would then inform the friend that someone named Tom Collins had been overheard talking about them, and that he was “just around the corner.” People would storm off looking for this Tom Collins character, wondering what he could possibly be saying about them.

Although Collins drinks date back to the late 19th century, they’re often associated with the 1950s, when they were popular highball cocktails. The narrow columnar glasses that Collins drinks were served in have come to be known as Collins glasses.

The Ron Collins can be as sweet or as potent as you prefer depending on how much sugar you add -- at bars, Collins drinks tend to be mixed on the sweeter side. If you make up a batch of Ron Collins at home, your Mad Men-era style will definitely be duly noted by your company.

Ingredients:
2 ounces light rum
Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
Soda water
1 slice lemon
Cherry for garnish (optional)

Method:
In a shaker with ice, combine rum, lime juice and powdered sugar. Strain into a Collins glass filled with ice. Top with carbonated water and stir. Garnish with the lemon slice and cherry.

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Yardstick Meals: Simon Says

Sherwin Tjia

There isn't one meal that can be used as a yardstick, but a well-cooked steak comes close.One can discern the quality of a restaurant through the freshness of its ingredients.Truffles are very much worth the price, just like champagne and Maine lobster.

"If a restaurant can cook a steak perfectly to order, the chances are the kitchen is up to scratch and the chef knows what he is doing."

Our very own Simon Majumdar, soon to be a judge on the Food Network's The Next Iron Chef, has decided to change the format of his column to better help men make wise food choices. He's received an overwhelming number of e-mails from AM readers wanting to know more, and he has taken it upon himself to answer as many as possible in this new column, Simon Says. If you have any questions for Simon, feel free to send them our way at editorial@askmen.com.

Dear Simon, 

In your opinion, is there a “yardstick meal” that one can use to judge any restaurant by? Is there a meal that you can order at almost any restaurant that is a good test of the restaurant and its kitchen?

Gareth

Gareth,

There is no single meal that you can find on all restaurant menus (wouldn’t you be worried if your local Cantonese place offered lasagna?). However, there are certain elements of every meal that you can use to test the competency of kitchens everywhere.  

The quality and freshness of the ingredients comes at the very top. If a place serves a salad that is brown and wilting around the edges, you can be pretty sure that it's either not buying the best or it's storing what it does buy for far too long. If that is the case, the same is likely to be true for everything else it serves.

Next will come certain basics of preparation. In many restaurants, the chef will test the abilities of applicants to join his brigade by asking them to make a simple omelete or cook a medium-rare steak. In theory, they sound like simple enough tasks, but in practice they can take years to master. If a restaurant can cook a steak perfectly to order, the chances are the kitchen is up to scratch and the chef knows what he is doing.

Hi Simon,

I have a very simple question. What is the big deal with truffles? I see them on menus and occasionally in my excellent local deli, but the prices are astonishing. Surely no food item is worth spending that much money on, no matter how good it is -- right?

Thanks,
Mary

Hi Mary,

First of all, yes, some food items really are worth spending that much money on. Think of jamon iberico from Spain. Think the finest French champagne or Maine lobster. They are worth it not only because of their quality, but also the cost involved in producing or sourcing them.

Truffles are a fungus and have been referred to as “The Diamonds of The Kitchen.” There are many different varieties, but I suspect what you are referring to are either the hugely expensive white truffles from Piedmont, Italy, or black truffles from Perigord in France.  

They are highly prized and, therefore, highly priced, in part because of the very short autumn/winter seasons in which they are found, and also because they have traditionally been very hard to farm. Truffle hunters used highly trained pigs or dogs to snuffle out the tubers, and the best specimens can be sold for many thousands of dollars.

They are, however, definitely worth the cost and bring a unique earthy and savory note to any dish. In my opinion, they are best served simply over pasta or even creamy scrambled eggs with asparagus. If you do buy one, I suggest storing it in a sealed dish with some Arborio rice. Not only will that keep it from going off, but the rice can then be used later to make a stunning truffle risotto.

Finally, I was interested to read this article about the steps being taken to prevent cheating by some stallholders at many of California’s farmer’s markets. I have long been a critic of the way such markets are going and it would now seem that the days of the consumer buying directly from the farmer to their mutual benefit are over, perhaps never to be recovered. Caveat emptor.

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Drink Of The Week: Maple Old Fashioned

Maple syrup provides a darker, more complex sweetness to this drink.Maple-syrup season is in the spring - but this is a perfect winter drink.The best time to serve the Maple Old Fashioned? After dinner on a chilly, snowy evening.

"It's a manly cocktail that you?d have to work hard to emasculate."

In the past, we?ve lamented the bastardization of the classic Old Fashioned. We?ve decried attempts to modernize and improve upon the original, which may have been the first cocktail ever mixed. But before you call us turncoats in the war against bad mixology, hear us out. This is, yes, a variation on the original, in that it?s sweetened with maple syrup rather than simple syrup. But the important elements -- the bourbon and the bitters -- are intact, so the purists among you can lower your slingshots. Maple syrup season is technically in early spring, when the sap flows from maple trees in the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada. But we consider this more of a winter drink, given the warming qualities of the bourbon.
An Old Fashioned, we?ve said before, is a bourbon-lover?s drink. As such, it?s a manly cocktail that you?d have to work hard to emasculate. Adding maple syrup doesn?t so much weaken this drink?s potency as it does deepen it -- the straightforward sweetness of white sugar is replaced with the darker, more complex sweetness of maple syrup, which you might say is the bourbon of sweeteners. This is a perfect drink to mix for guests after dinner on a chilly, snowy evening.

Ingredients:
2 oz. bourbon whiskey
1/2 oz. maple syrup
Slice of orange
Dash of bitters

Instructions:
Measure maple syrup into a glass. Add some ice, pour in bourbon a bit at a time, stirring in between to ensure you?ve properly combined it with the syrup. Add a splash of bitters. Rub an orange slice around the inside of a rocks glass, add fresh ice, and strain the bourbon mixture into the rocks glass. Garnish with orange and serve.

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Drink Of The Week: Grog

Very few mixed drinks can be credited with actually keeping men healthy, but here's an exception. Grog was first mixed in 1740, when Vice Admiral Edward Vernon of the British Royal Navy ordered that his sailors' rations of rum be diluted with water. (He clearly wasn't going to win a popularity contest for that one, but we digress.) To cut down on the foul taste of the (typically filthy) water, a bit of lemon juice was added. At that time, no one knew that vitamin C prevented scurvy, but it turned out that Vernon's grog-drinking sailors ended up being the healthiest crew in the navy. In 1747, when the scurvy-vitamin C connection was made, the grog drinkers had yet another reason to raise their mugs.

Today, the word "grog" is often used to describe any random mishmash of booze and mixers thrown together for maximum potency, but here at AM we're all about historical accuracy, so we're giving you an update of the original recipe. Although you're unlikely to be enjoying this while sailing (we certainly don't recommend sailing drunk), this is the time of year when beer starts to taste a little thin at the tailgate party, and the chill in the air has guys hankering for something with a little more gravity. Here's your poison.

Does it contain a cinnamon stick? It does. Can you drink it out of a teacup with your pinky sticking up? If you want to, sure. But a true manly drink stands up to such indignities. After all, if it's good enough for a bunch of toothless British sailors, many of whom were probably criminals before they joined up, it's good enough for you.

Instructions:
1 shot rum of your choice, dark or white
1 tsp sugar
Squeeze of lemon
Cinnamon stick
Boiling water to fill a mug

In a mug, mix together the rum, sugar and lemon with the cinnamon stick. Add enough boiling water to fill the mug, or to taste.

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