Amsterdam

One of my all time favourite things about travelling to another country is trying out new food or any kind of food. I had looked up the top ten things to eat in Amsterdam before heading over there last week and I was looking forward to ticking each delicious food off the list, let the eating commence, om, nom, nom. 😀

The first stop, with my travel buddy from an African trip last summer, was in a chippers for a cone of Dutch chips called patat. There were three different sized cones and about 10 different sauces to choose from, once I found out what each flavour was I went with the classic curry sauce. I went with the sauce on the chips option, you can ask for it on the side either. The chips were lovely, really crispy on the outside and the sauce was delicious with a nice little kick to it.

The next morning after a walking tour we stopped off in De Laatste Kruimel, a very inviting bakery on a little side street. One display window had all sorts of savoury baked goods, there were so many different quiches too choose from, each one bigger than the last. The second window was full of sweet baked goods, so many different cakes. In we went and ordered two of the quiches at the till. It’s pretty cramped inside so we sat outside on a little balcony and ten minutes later our food came out. Perfect comfort food but it’s a pity they don’t serve it with a little salad on the side as well.

After a quick trip to the Van Gogh museum to take a selfie with Sunflowers and a fantastic tour doing the Heineken Experience we headed to Kanjil & de Tiger for some Indonesian food. I was eager to try a rice table. So we ordered the rice table between us, it was a ridiculous amount of food as you can see. There were three meat dishes, two fish dishes and about 9 side dishes, which included prawn crackers, curry eggs, crisps, roasted coconut (I loved this), pickled veg, rice, peanut satay with prawn crackers, this was so spicy and tofu. We made a fairly good dent in it, but I don’t think it was really worth the price tag at E35 a head, eek.

The following day we went to Rotterdam to see the cubed houses and off to Delft to do some tile painting at the factory. Delft is beautiful little town, like a mini Amsterdam, less touristy and with so many little cafes and restaurants to choose from. Using TripAdvisor we set off to the top lunch spot, Kek. It was a gorgeous little spot, really funky and with the best food we’d tasted so far. I loved how they served up their food in the most original and unusual ways. I ordered a fruity iced tea and out came the iced tea with an egg timer, I was instructed to wait until the timer had ended and then to twist the top of the canister, once I did this the tea from above mixed with the fruity water below, amazing.

We ordered from the breakfast menu, I had the avocado on sourdough toast which came with feta cheese and guacamole, I added in some bacon too. Sinéad had eggs and sourdough with salsa. Lets just say that there was very little talking while we both ate our contentedly ate our dishes, unreal. We decide we’d go for dessert too while we were at it, when on holidays and all that.

I went for the coffee, which was nearly a dessert in itself, it had macadamia nut milk in it and it was decorated with melted chocolate and white, milk and dark chocolate little balls as well as whipped cream and little wafers on top. I had a little coconut and date ball on the side. Sinéad ordered carrot cake and tea. Everything was so tasty.

This is a little sample of the other desserts they serve there too, plenty of choice. After we finished at the Delft Factory we came back for some tea and to relax for an hour or so.

I had the green tea this time which came with a little thermometer and little green tea balls in a side dish, I added them into the water once it had gotten to around 60C and while I let it stew for a bit I ate the little shortbread square on the side. A few minutes later I noticed that the little balls had unfurled to little tea leaves, I’m quite easily amused so I thought this was brilliant, so different. The little picture at the end is just a taste of the little cards they sold at the tills, plenty of funky little gifts as well as food to be bought here. We bought a few things in the shops and then wandered over to ‘t Postkantoor for dinner. We were lucky that we managed to get the last table there and sat down to browse the menu. Again it was another funky place, a big open space with a room onto the side, there were tables and seats of all sizes, from couches to large oak tables etc.

We both ordered the pie of the day, which was described to us as a beef tartlet with mashed potatoes on the side. What came out was a beef patty and a frittata, it just melted in your mouth, nice and rare too so not for the faint-hearted. I wasn’t planning on getting dessert but when I spotted a chocolate creme brulee I found it hard to refuse. It was served with a mini brownie and white chocolate mousse, just heaven. I waddled out of the place very happily, haha.

Our flight had been postponed for a few hours so we decided to make it a foodie day. On our way to Anne Frank’s House we came upon Puccini Bomboni, a chocoholics heaven, a table covered with plates of all sorts of chocolate delights.

After the museum we went to PIQNIQ for lunch, it was like sandwich tapas, great fun. You could choose from two dishes, three dishes or four. I had the tomato and basil soup with a multi-seed roll, a salmon brioche bap and a salami, rocket and olive tapenade role. Everything was so fresh and scrumptious. I had a ginger, cinnamon and orange tea, all fresh ingredients of course and a snickers slice which had dates for the caramel, yum.

Before we headed for our evening flight we had pizza in a tiny, little Italian spot called La Zoccola del Pacioccone. It served proper Italian pizza with a thin crispy base, a passata bursting with tomatoes, fresh, creamy mozzarella and strips of pancetta. This is my kind of pizza, I could happily eat Italian style pizza everyday if I could.

When we checked in at the airport we were given amenity vouchers from KLM to use either on food and drink at the airport, airmiles or on duty free on the plane. We found a lovely little spot called Café Coco and decided to spend the tenner there. I had a flat white with a complimentary caramel chocolate and a little chocolate mousse cake, yum. Sinéad had a savoury tarte tatin, there were no complaints out of either us heading back on the plane to Dublin. I really enjoyed the trip to Amsterdam but if I was to do it all again I would have stayed in Delft and tried more of their little cafes and restaurants, another time perhaps.