Enlightened by the Buddha in Almere

On a foggy morning at 2'C I was in Almere. Thinking that the library would be warmly heated, as it always were when I was here, I was to be surprised. I was quite cold, or was it perhaps the yummy Malaysian porridge which Mic bought for me (prawn flavour to be accurate) which I had for breakfast was already digested within two hours?

So instead of my pure Dutch lunch of hard bread (I believe you could injure someone with it by throwing the bread) for lunch as originally planned,  I wanted something savoury and soupy; and that would naturally be Chinese food. Off I hunted for Chinese food in the heart of Almere.

I was pleasantly surprised to come across Buddha's Restaurant - yes, that's the name - at the Belfort 142.  I have never tried the Cantonese cuisine here so I thought of dining here. Now this restaurant is quite fancy and large unlike the usual Chinese cafe which I go to in Almere. I thought the cuisine here would be quite similar but no, it wasn't.

Typical Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands usually serve only fried noodles and fried rice. I thought I had found a gem in the Chinese cafe which I usually go to as they also whip up soupy wantan noodles and char siew noodles. Yet here, at Buddha's Restaurant, I was escatic to find my favourite Xiang Di Mee Fen - the crispy deep fried yee mee noodles in egg sauce. Here on the menu it was known as "crispy fried noodles".

It only took about 15 minutes waiting for the dish to arrive and it was simply delicious. My noodles was served with pak choy and pork filet. The Xiang Di was also accompanied with sweet chilli and cut chilli on the side.

Like every Dutch serving, the portion was enormous. However I ate nearly to the last bite. In fact the noodles were healthier than those I had in Malaysia because although deep-fried, they were not oily in texture.

I also thought of ordering chicken feet dim sum which was on the menu. Good for my diet, there was only so much I could eat so I refrained. This is by far the only Chinese restaurant in Holland which serves chicken feet on the menu. Of course to make it sound less scary, they call it "chicken claws" here. They have a few different sauces for the chicken feet to choose from.

The bill was however twice the amount of the usual Chinese cafe I went to but it was well worth it. The ambience was comfortable and cosy, to quote the Dutch gezellig!

http://www.buddha-almere.nl/

PS : Thanks Mic for the Knorr's instant porridge perisa udang!