Top 10 Restaurants in Amsterdam 2016, Amsterdam, Netherlands

I think we can pretty much agree that 2016 was the epitome of a shitty year. Just as we were all starting to get over the sofa-sobbing, miserable stupidity of Brexit (or rather, just as I’d applied for Dutch citizenship), America got jealous and decided to steel back the Crown of Idiocy from the Brits and elect Donald Trump. In the midst of a refugee crisis, no less. And if all that wasn’t bad enough, our childhood heroes were being picked off one by one: if it wasn’t David Bowie it was Prince; and if it wasn’t Alan Rickman it was Muhammad Ali. But all these I could bear with the relative equanimity that generally comes with the death of people you don’t actually know. Then, just when I thought 2016 couldn’t (surely) have much more misery to bestow, it took my hero as well: AA Gill. A wordsmith whose lyricisms about “wedding night thighs” (I believe he was talking about crème caramel at the time) I’ve been plagiarising ever since. AA Gill’s restaurant reviews were to a great extent the inspiration behind why I went into food writing (or really, any writing) to begin with. And as a journalist, I’ll miss him far more than any musician or actor.

Then, just when I thought 2016 couldn’t (surely) have much more misery to bestow, it took my hero as well: AA Gill. A wordsmith whose lyricisms about “wedding night thighs” (I believe he was talking about crème caramel at the time) I’ve been plagiarising ever since. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).