Amsterdam: a foodie's delight

When one thinks of Amsterdam's pleasures, the cliched view runs to two kinds. This stereotype is disappointing because the port city offers a great range of delicious and interesting food. Everything from restaurant meals to take out snacks was above par. Furthermore, it's not just cheese and chips. There seems to be a very wide range of international cuisines, namely Indonesian and Surinamese. Two days and night my wife and I spent hardly seemed enough.

We arrived in Amsterdam on Friday night. After a total travelling time of about five hours, including trains, I had one thing on my mind. Dinner. More specifically I wanted to try one of city's Indonesian restaurants. I had quite a good experience from a previous trip and good Indonesian food is hard to come by in the Czech Republic.

The concierge at our hotel was able to direct us to Tempo Doeloe  a place he said was the best Indonesian restaurant in Amsterdam. Even better, it was about ten minutes away on foot. Unluckily, it was completely booked. Luckily, there was another Indonesian restaurant right next door at 73 called Tujuh Maret. They seemed to have a spare table.

Before I get to the food, I have to share a description of the waiter with you. The restaurant seated about thirty people and the whole place was served by this one flustered, brisk individual. After removing the reserved sign from a table and hurriedly shepherding us to it, he shot off to take another table's order, dashed to the kitchen for three plates of food, hurried to show two new customers to another table then back to the kitchen. A butterfly net may have helped us get our order a little faster.

However, the wait was worth it. I ordered a Besengek Daging, which was a spicy beef dish served with beans. My wife ordered chicken cooked with fresh turmeric and coconut milk. The Besengek Daging was very fragrant with enough kick from the chilli. The beef pieces were large and tender, with the flavour through out. The chicken was also very delicious. The meat was no swimming in coconut milk, merely coated in it. Both servings were huge and one would have been sufficient. The total bill with two soft drinks came to 40 Euro. This is not cheap, then again not much is in Amsterdam.

After dinner there was time for a local beer in stylish 'bruin' up the road. 'Bruin' is apparently the Dutch term for these older pubs. The name derives from the Dutch word for brown on account of the wood paneling. Unlike the UK or Australia, Dutch 'bruins' seem to serve a limited range of beers. The glasses are also smaller. One custom which we couldn't get enough of was the way they scraped the foam. After pouring the beer, the bar tender drags something resembling a toothless comb over the glass so the foam is even with the rim. Even the sharp flick of the wrist recalls a barber's final flourish on a freshly coiffured head. This particular bruin, Cafe Krom [http://www.timeout.com/amsterdam/amsterdam/venue/1%3A234/cafe-krom], is also notable for its juke box filled with old 45s. Sadly, I couldn't get it to work. Anyway, after such a big meal it was time for bed.

Breakfast the next day at our hotel was better than the average continental spread. We had croissants, organic butter, fresh rolls, fresh coffee, so were more than ready for a day of walking around the markets. One of the markets was an organic food market. Since it was after noon when we got there we decided on something smaller, a few pieces of cheese and a couple of rolls by one of the canals.

I've eaten a lot of Swiss style cheese in my life including imports from the Netherlands. What we got from the market was on par with the better quality brands. The rolls were crispy on the outside, soft and light in the middle. After such a heavy dinner it was all we wanted. As it was starting to rain, we thought it was the perfect time for a coffee, or in my case a wine at a nearby pub then some more meandering along the canals like the twenty somethings we no longer are.

It must the height of culinary arrogance for Winkel to serve only one type of dessert. It basically says there is nothing better, so why bother. The full tables and long queues would suggest a lot of people would agree. Moreover when that dessert is the traditional Dutch apple pie I can understand. The cake certainly looked delicious, crispy golden crust, large chunks of apples and a great mound of cream. Appearances, I'm happy to say, were not deceiving. The crust was also buttery and just sweet enough, the apples slightly firm and just tart enough, the cream thick, heavy and real. After that, we decided to leave dinner for much later.

A cuisine I'd long wanted to try was Surinamese food. Suriname located in the north of South America was a former Dutch colony. Its history of slavery and indentured work, along with connections to Dutch's former trading empire, has created a culturally diverse society as expressed in its cuisine. I had heard a lot about the food but until this trip had not tried it.

Again the staff at our hotel were able recommend a place. This time it was not full. In fact there were not many seats at all, just a raised counter a few stools. We had with a piece of paper on which the woman from the hotel had written her favourite Surinamese dish: broodje pom.

It turned out it was some type of sandwich. Broodje means bread roll. Perhaps my incredulity was a little too obvious because the guy working at the shop asked me what I knew about Surinamese food, particularly the dish we were about to try. Pom he explained is both a dish and the name of a root. The root can fetch quite exorbitant prices and was brought to Suriname by Jewish settlers. The root was adopted by other communities to become a staple and later national dish. The dish is something like a mild chicken curry, but that comparison doesn't do it justice. The best thing is to try it the next time you're in Amsterdam.

Having well and truly sated our stomachs on our first day, we spent the next and final day feeding our mind at the Rijksmuseum. I won't bore you with my love of the old Dutch masters. Instead I'll take you straight to the chips or fries or pomme frittes or whatever you call strips of potato fried in oil.

A friend of mine once said the best chips she ever had were in Amsterdam. It was another things I failed to check the first time I was there. Suffice to say, my friend was right. The chips here are something else. I'm not sure if it's the potatoes or just perfecting the frying process but the chips, which are nice and chunky, came out an even gold and were firm without being crispy. One bag was enough for us for lunch.

We had hoped to go back to the cafe for another piece of apple pie but couldn't manage. Oh well. Next time. Besides, we have to go back for more broodje pom, and that apple pie.