Dutch Food in Amsterdam
By sandra. Filed in Food, Holland, Restaurant |
Even though our guide said that Amsterdam is so multinational that “you can find any food except Dutch food”, we found some delicious traditional food at Restaurant Haesje Claes (www.haesjeclaes.nl). In the six Dutch-style buildings bedecked in wood – walls, ceilings, tables, we dined on crispy cheese croquettes and hearty pea soup heaped with carrots, sausage and potatoes. We licked our plate clean of a memorable “hotchpotch” with carrots and onions in mashed potatoes and meatballs, sausage and bacon. We could’ve had stamppotten, smoked eel or fish stockpot with cheese.
We tasted the old-fashioned dessert made with raisins, brandy, egg liqueur and cinnamon ice cream and Grandma’s semolina pudding with red berry sauce. The liqueur page brought smiles, for you can drink “my aunts water, tears of a bride, Hans in the cellar, parrot soup or mistress in the green”.
If you’re near the Central Station, you can eat at Restaurant De Kroonprins (located in www.hotel-prinshendrik.nl). It’s pub-like, with beer on tap and simple dishes like Indonesian sate with peanut sauce or the popular Dutch steak with yummy fried mushrooms, salad and fries, wiener schnitzel or sea perch, and even a Dutch shrimp cocktail. For dessert, we tried the traditional Dame Blanche, a cousin to the hot fudge sundae.
Indonesian food is ubiquitous in Amsterdam but you can expect a warm family welcome if you dine at Puri Mas (www.purimas.nl), popular for the past 22 years. Ordering is easy because their speciality is rijsttafel; It’s a set meal of many small tastes – about 17 plates – served by friendly waitresses in traditional dress. The dishes in their distinctive sauces are carefully explained to you and placed in order of cool to hot.
Starters would be a crispy egg roll and fried prawns while mains are chicken brochette in peanut sauce, pork brochette in a spicy sauce, lamb in curry, chicken in a Balinese sauce, spiced cucumber salad, veggies in peanut butter sauce, fried potato sticks, coconut powder to dust about, and you finish with tropical fruit and ice cream or fried banana.