Amsterdam Day 2 7/15
Through TripAdvisor, I found a company called Hungry Birds that got great reviews. I booked their food tour 9:30 to 1:30. The meeting point was in the DePijp neighborhood, near the large outdoor market. The tram didn't seem to easily go from our apartment to the meeting point & Joanna had assured us that we could walk, although it was about 40 minutes. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for a walk. We found our meeting point & found our tour mates right away - a couple & group of 3, all from Germany. Our guide, Rachel, showed up a few minutes later. Rachel had immigrated from either Indonesia or Singapore, I think (sorry, Rachel, can't remember!) a few years ago & now makes her home in Amsterdam.
Rachel quickly led us to the first stop - a yogurt bar, with pastries, coffee, etc. Our group was set up in a cute lower room & the eating began! We were brought fresh yogurt topped with fruit, nuts & honey. Waters flavored with fruit were already on the table & we could order tea, coffee or hot chocolate. Kids & I ordered the hot chocolate. What fun! It came as a big glass of very hot milk, topped with a small glass dish filled with chopped chocolate. You mixed the chocolate in & made your own hot chocolate. Very tasty! We were also offered some kind of fruit/nut bread. We all relaxed and go to know each other a little bit.
We moved on to the outdoor market. Looking at my pictures, it appears that we stopped at the herring stand next. Rachel got us lots of raw herring - both whole with the tails & smaller cut up pieces. For myself & the kids, that didn't want the raw fish, she got fried fish bites (kibbeling?) with 3 types of dip & a huge plate of fries. Husband tried the herring, but it was not his thing! We gave our portions to our tour mates & they ate every bite! We also shared the fried fish & fries as Rachel had gotten a ton.
At this point, we were already getting full and it was only the 2nd stop! Next up was poffertjies (like small pancakes covered with butter & powdered sugar). We watched the talented man at the stand quickly make them & we were each given a good size serving. These were delicious! Then on to the stroopwaffles! I had been looking forward to trying these as I love anything with caramel. They were very sweet, but good.
We had a little walk to our next stop, so Rachel gave us some history of the neighborhood. She also made it a point during the tour to talk to each group & get to know us a little bit. We were glad of the walk to try to get hungry for the next stop. Next up was some Indonesian food. She took us to a little antique shop, set up in the back was a dining table set with pretty dishes & our meal ready and waiting for us. The owners of the shop also have a little restaurant, which was being renovated right now. In the meantime, they still hosted the Hungry Birds, but in their antique shop. There was so much food! Chicken satay, rice, fresh vegetable salads & other things I can't even remember right now. All very good. We ate as much as we could, but were still so full from the earlier stops.
Next Rachel took us to a small grocery store. This place had all the foods that Americans living overseas might crave. It was fun to see all the snack foods, cereals, condiments, etc. that we have at home. They also had Asian prepared foods. We were given some kind of spicy sandwich. Too hot for my taste!