Dutch Street Food

Never try Patat Oorlog on my own, which is Dutch's fries with Mayo, Peanut Sauce, and Onion. I ordered a normal size plus 0.90 Euro for the Pindaspeciaal. Yum. How fattier can you get. That's why I ordered a dutch soft drink SiSi to wash it down. A special design cone-shape fries stand is available on the table for you to hold the fries and let the hungry customer finish them at the place.

Was passing one of many canals and bridges there in Amsterdam, couldn't resist when seeing the fish monger cut and clean the herring in front of you. This time I chose not to tilt my head and get my hands with fishy smell, so I told him to cut the herring into small pieces. The sweet gherkin acutally isn't bad with the fish. A best way to enjoy the Amsterdam canal view. By the way, I think that's the location where Lonely Planet's Amsterdam Episode had the herring. The fish stand also sells deep fried fish, deep fried mussels, and shrimp sandwiches.

On my second last day of my Netherland's trip. I visited the shopping district(Grote Marktstraat) of The Hague. I found a Stroopwafels stand right at the middle of a busiest shopping intersection. Locals were buying freshly made Stroopwafels. Both in single peice and in pack. Stroopwafels is a Caramel Syrup Waffle Cookie, and means "Syrup waffles" in Dutch. It is 2 pieces of round waffel wafers with caramel syrup fillings. There are 2 sizes available. The bigger size which is about 7 inches in diameters is around €1.5 and smaller 2.5 inches in pack of 10. There was a bit of breeze and chill on that day in The Hague, that hot freshly made syrup waffles really kept me warm. In the waffle stand pictures, you can see the owner was spreading the caramel syrup fillings and combining the waffels together.

As usual tried to grab something quick and fun that never tried before for the train ride. I bought it from the 'automatiek', a typical dutch snack vending machine which serves some hot snack food. Just finished the trip to Den Bosch. Is a very beautiful town there with canals boat ride, gothic designed church Saint John's Cathedral (Sint Jans kathedraal), and lots of shops. I've had alot of Bami(indonesian fried noodles), but never a Bami Blok(block). It is a deep fried indonesian noodle block. It is not my kind of food, but I've got to take picture to let you guys to see this interesting snack. And this thing did make me full. Oh yeah ... I was enjoying the tulip field on the train as well.

Fell in love with Filet Americain the first time I tried it 5 years ago when I first visited Holland. I was a trying to catch the train to Den Bosch('s-Hertogenbosch) for travel and visit a friend. Still had 8 minutes before the train departs at 11:30am and havn't had my breakfast. Ham and Cheese are just to boring for me. Filet Americain sure is my choice. It is basically a Holland version of steak tartare on a sandwich. Seasoned raw beef which looks pretty orange served with egg or onion. Yup, it tastes like some good raw beef. Wish my country I live in have these quick grab sandwich stand that sells filet american !!!

Picture of Lieke & Hilde (from www.thefamilypodcast.nl) eating a spring roll

"Patat Oorlog" (means something like "french fries in war", because of the messy look). Ate this during queensday, which is the biggest event of the year in the Netherlands, you can buy beer throughout the city and you can drink it anywhere. There are little 'snackbars' where you can buy this food, it's simply french fries with mayonaise and peanut sauce as you can see but I think pretty much 90% of the total population of the Netherlands would eat this without any problem.

Salted herring with onions, eaten by the seaside always the best way!! a Real Dutch treat.

Salty, rich in flavour. I'm told you have to eat the herring before it eats the onion - its so fresh. And you have to eat it standing up.

I bought this herring partly to try it and partly because the guy selling them had a large bicycle with a huge 'tray' on the front. As a cycling nut I wanted to support my fellow cyclist. However, I was his last customer for the day and he then packed his bike away inside a smelly old van and drove away - hence the low come-back rating.