AMSTERDAM FOOD TRAVELS

My favourite thing about travelling (apart from getting to know new places) is the food! Before I go anywhere I will spend hours doing research on the best things to eat and where to find them! Last year in New Orleans I made my family trek all the way from the city centre to Treme…during a thunderstorm… to get what the Internet told me was the best fried chicken money can buy…I was not disappointed!   I’m an organised person…some have even called me too organised so not only did I have a pretty detailed list of all the things I wanted to do in Amsterdam – Anne frank house, canal tour etc- but I also had a pretty detailed food list! I marked all the food places off on my map and set off! 

The item I was most excited to try that made my mouth water in the weeks leading up to my trip were poffertjes –mini Dutch pancakes! We ended up going to get them after our visit to the Anne frank house – we had worked up quite an appetite after climbing all those stairs! It just so happened the pancake place I wanted to go to – The Pancake Bakery – was about 5 mins away. We did have to queue for a while but it was definitely worth the wait. The menu had every different type of pancake and pancake topping you could think of but I decided to go traditional. I got mine with butter and sugar. The poffertjes were so fluffy they almost melted in your mouth. Amazing! I’m only disappointed that I didn’t go back and get them again before we went home. While I didn’t get to see how they were made in the pancake bakery I saw them being made in some of the food markets I went to! They make them on this cast iron tray type thing that has small domes in it. They pour a small bit of batter into each dome and then carefully rotate them round until all sides are cooked! 

The next item on my list was cheese! You can’t visit the  Netherlands without sampling some cheese! As I was the only one who liked cheese I decided I would not make my friend go into cheese shops so I didn’t plan to go cheese sampling during my time there. We decided to take a day trip to zaanse schans to see the windmills. Yes zaanse schans is a tourist trap but it was a pleasant day pottering about the windmills and the little Dutch shops. One of them happened to be giving out free cheese samples! Great news for me because I really wanted to try some Gouda. The cheese was good but because I’ve lived in Portugal I can’t say that cheese from the Netherlands is better than any other cheese I’ve had. I did enjoy seeing all the wheels of cheese stacked up. 

Stroopwafel meaning syrup waffle, is a Dutch treat that originated in Gouda but is found all over the Netherlands. I was really excited to try the originals not the ones you get in Tesco! We ended up getting them at Rudi’s Original Stroopwafel in the Albert Cuyp market. Knowing me I had researched were to get them and this was the best option in the market because they use an authentic recipe from Gouda and the stroopwafels are really inexpensive. So many vendors were selling these Dutch treats that when you walked into the market all you could smell was the sickly sweet smell of caramel.  Although enjoyable, one was enough for me because they are so sweet! It was fun seeing the man making them. He had a ball of what looked like biscuit dough and then placed in it one of those waffle cone makers and cooked it for about a minute or two. Then he very carefully sliced the  waffle into two and then sandwiched a layer of caramel between the two. They were so hot I could barely hold mine let alone eat it without letting it cool down! 

Next stop Bitterballen! Now you’re probably reading this and thinking what is bitterballen? Well it’s really hard to describe! It’s basically a deep fried ball containing meat (traditionally either beef or veal) beef broth, butter, flour, parsley, salt and pepper which is then served with mustard for dipping. We got ours at the SkyLounge which is the top floor of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel. We got 1 portion between the two of us because it cost €8.50! That’s all we got…we didn’t order anything to drink because I wasn’t going to pay €5 for a coke! The waitress actually came over and asked if we wanted water and I said if it was free we would take some. Anyway the bitterballen was different to anything I have ever eaten…it was made of veal which gave it a very particular taste. While I wouldn’t go rushing back for more it was a really fun experience and the views in the SkyLounge are breathtaking! 

Final stop before heading home – chips! On our last day we decided to have chips before heading to the airport. We didn’t fancy walking far because we had our suitcases to lug behind us so we found one while we were souvenir shopping. I love the way they put the chips in the cones – it made it a lot easier to carry whilst lugging the suitcase behind! There seems to be a chip shop in every corner in Amsterdam and all offer the same options. You choose your size and then whatever condiments you want on it. I got ketchup on mine - not the traditional mayonnaise and  onions but I'm not really a fan of either of those things! 

Anyways these are some of the things I ate while I was in Amsterdam! If you’d like to see more food travel posts let me know in the comments below!