Our foodie tour with Hungry Birds was fantastic. We met our guide, a Singaporean named Charmaine outside Macdonald's in the suburbs and quickly moved next door to somewhere more authentically Dutch - which was in fact Indonesian as Dutch food is heavily influenced by their many past colonies. In common with most of the places Charmaine took us, I wouldn't have looked twice at it; but inside what a treasure trove of spices, cooked dishes and fresh vegetables and the longest greenest snake beans ever. Here we had little meaty bites dipped in different sambals (chutney/jam) of varying degrees of chilli heat.
At the next "tako" - Tjin's - we ate bom from Surinam, another colony in South America, inside baguette and so delicious!
That's Charmaine, holding the tray. To get to Tjin's we walked through a vibrant market all along a closed-off street with stalls selling everything from flamingo-patterned scarves to hardware to the most luscious-looking strawberries - and no time to browse.
And the flowers!
And the fish!
We stopped for fish and chips - Kibbeling - and herring. Loved the herring (in a small serve) and even liked the beer, Heineken naturally. Of the thousands of beer available in Amsterdam apparently Heineken is what you have with Kibbeling.
Next stop Poffertjes, tiny little Dutch pancakes, a vehicle for lashings of best butter and maple syrup
Sorry to leave the market, but more awaited in the city, quite a trek through parks, over canals and through the flower market. Remember the flower market Jenny? David and I kept getting left behind through stopping and looking
Ah...peonies!
At this tiny cafe we had spinach pie and exquisite green pea with mint soup. There are jars of biscuits on the table for customers to help themselves and take home for free - because the owner loves to make people happy with her food.
Ah...more peonies, seen as we whizzed by.
There had to be some culture so we stopped for a while at the sculpture of Rembrandt's famous painting "The Night Watch".
The pigeon seems underwhelmed.
Then we dived off down an alley to a weird little bar that specialised in Dutch croquettes. Charmaine said to think of them as deep-fried gravy which is rather off-putting, but I liked them with a soft filling and crisp crumb coating. This place has had virtually the same menu since it started in 1945, and it's not on the tourists' agenda.
The croquette place around the corner is on the tourist trail and it's automated: put in your coin and receive your croquette. We didn't sample.
Next stop Dutch Delicacy - the most amazing cheese shop. We'd walked past so much cheese but this was special.
Charmaine with the two girls from Tel Aviv; we were an eclectic group, 4 Australians, 2 Swiss, 2 Israelis and Charmaine from Singapore, married to a Dutch chef.
Inside we had a cheese tasting with Robert and a glass of South African wine
All the cheeses were good, especially the truffle cheese (dearer because made with real truffles.)
I was fascinated by the coloured cheeses
They are soft cheeses, flavoured with various pestos, and natural colours except for the bright blue which has food colouring.
A beautiful shop!
Onwards and upwards - nearly finished now - to a tiny shop in a back alley with a line stretching around the block. Fortunately Charmaine had pre-ordered ours. This shop sells only one thing - a chocolate cookie with white chocolate inside
To die for! and certainly worth lining up for. In 6 months the business has built by word of mouth to selling 1700 cookies a day, hand-made on the premises in 2 little domestic ovens.
You can go up-market and buy them 6 in a tin (a tin is going to Tel Aviv) or wrapped in a ribbon.
Last stop - the pub across the lane where we had a final drink together.
What a great tour - five hours of eating, drinking, walking and looking at a foreign city. Can't beat it!
No comments:
Post a Comment