Adventrues in Amsterdam

I'm not sure that I can even begin to recap the amount of things we did on this trip. The Holocaust memorials and events were incredible and profound. In my spare moments, I wandered the streets of Amsterdam, 11 pages of food notes gathered online in hand,  in search of good food and a little beauty to balance the seriousness of the trip. Two great English language resources were the blog Dutch Grub,

and ChowHound's Europe board. You can find most of the things I mention here on those two sites, or on google, but I linked them here to the dutch websites as well.

Gartine

A fabulous little restaurant in an unlikely part of the bustling city center. Run by a couple who grow most of the food for the menu and clearly love what they do. they also have a beautiful new cookbook. We had an impressively good spinach soup, salad and took home a piece of marscapone and pear tart.

Lanksroon

homemade crispy stroop waffles, which are thin waffle cookies with  syrup (stroop in dutch) inside. you can find these packaged everywhere, even in the U.S. at Trader Joes, but at this little bakery in the canal area near the 9 little streets you can get a special variety which are a little crispy, and you can choose from 3 fillings: fig, honey stroop or hopjes (coffee stroop). I went for the coffee one and it was fabulous!  They also have special whipped cream filled chocolates here called slagroom. When refrigerated the filling is hard like cold butter cream, but if left to come to room temperature they are a little more like whipped cream, or "slag". I also had one of these chocolates at a fancy goodbye dinner hosted by the government, and it was really like freshly whipped cream in the middle, yum!

Pancakes!

Pankoken in dutch are like thick crepes with fruits or vegetables baked into them. They are everywhere, and they are delicious! we stopped at a popular spot in the nine streets area of Amsterdam for breakfast. I had apple with fresh slag (whipped cream) and my sister had lemon and sugar. we both had fresh mint tea which is also served everywhere in Holland.

We passed this little restaurant with outdoor seating. They had blankets on the bench in case people got cold!

The Jordan

a great neighborhood with little streets, nice shops, sweets, bars, restaurants and markets. While searching for an old sweet shop with dozens of kinds of dutch licorice, we found this delicious tiny pastry shop and this cute little car.  

My sister had the raspberry tartlet. This is typical french pastry, but it was fresh and done very well. Almond cake, framboise, buttercream and fondant. I had the Avocat which is a dutch custard with a strong liquor, delicious as well. 

There is so much more to share, especially chocolate shops and flowers, so check back soon for more pictures!