Amsterdam (Rough Guide) - Martin Dunford [107]
Dutch food tends to be higher in protein content than in variety; steak, chicken and fish, along with filling soups and stews, are staples, usually served up in substantial quantities. At its best, though, it can be excellent, with many restaurants, and even bars and eetcafés, offering increasingly adventurous crossovers with French and Mediterranean cuisine, at reasonable prices.
With Amsterdam’s singular approach to the sale and consumption of cannabis, you might choose to enjoy a joint after your meal, rather than a beer; included in this section is a selection of “coffeeshops” where you can buy grass or hash. Be aware that, due to recent legislation, smoking tobacco inside bars and coffeeshops is no longer permitted, although tobacco substitutes and pure joints are still available.
Bars, cafés and restaurants are marked on the colour maps and listed in the index at the back of the book.
Eating and drinking |
Breakfast
In all but the cheapest and the most expensive of hotels, breakfast (ontbijt) will be included in the price of the room. Though usually nothing fancy, it’s always substantial; rolls, cheese, ham, hard-boiled eggs, jam and honey or peanut butter are the principal ingredients. Many bars and cafés serve rolls and sandwiches in similar mode, although few open much before 8am or 8.30am.
Dutch coffee is normally good and strong, served with a little tub of koffiemelk (evaporated milk); ordinary milk is rarely used. If you want coffee with warm milk, ask for a koffie verkeerd. Tea generally comes with lemon – if anything; if you want milk you have to ask for it. Chocolate (chocomel) is also popular, hot or cold; for a real treat, drink it hot with a layer of fresh whipped cream (slagroom) on top. Some cafés also sell aniseed-flavoured warm milk (anijsmelk).
Eating and drinking |
Snacks and sandwiches
Dutch fast food has its own peculiarities. Chips/fries (friet or patat) are the most common standby. Vlaamse or “Flemish-style”, sprinkled with salt and smothered with lashings of mayonnaise (frietsaus), are the best, and other accompaniments include curry, goulash, tomato or saté (peanut) sauce. If you just want salt, ask for patat zonder; fries with salt and mayonnaise are patat met. You’ll also come across kroketten – spiced minced meat (usually either veal or beef), covered with breadcrumbs and deep-fried – and fricandel, a frankfurter-like sausage. All these are available over the counter at pungent fast-food places, or, for a euro or so, from coin-op heated glass compartments on the street and in train stations.
Much tastier are the fish specialities sold by street vendors, which are good as a snack or a light lunch – see "Restaurants". Another snack you’ll see everywhere is shwarma or shoarma – another name for a doner kebab: shavings of lamb pressed into a pitta bread – sold in numerous Middle Eastern restaurants and takeaways for about €4. Other, less common, street foods include pancakes (pannenkoeken), sweet or spicy, also widely available at restaurants; waffles (stroopwafels), doused with syrup; and, in November and December, oliebollen, greasy doughnuts sometimes filled with fruit (often apple) or custard (known as a Berliner) and traditionally eaten on New Year’s Eve.
Bars often serve sandwiches and rolls (boterham and broodjes) – mostly open, and varying from a slice of tired cheese on old bread to something so embellished it’s almost a complete meal – as well as more substantial dishes. A sandwich made with French bread is known as a stokbrood. In the winter, erwtensoep (or snert) – thick pea soup with smoked sausage, served with smoked bacon on pumpernickel – is available in many bars, and for about €5 a bowl makes a cheap but hearty lunch. Alternatively, there’s the uitsmijter (a “kicker-out”, derived from the practice of serving it at dawn after an all-night party to prompt guests to depart);