It’s our first week in Amsterdam, the kids were still jet-lagged and we of course decide to book a food tour because… well, we love FOOD! Luckily, we found this wonderful street food tour company in Amsterdam called HUNGRY BIRDS, who tailored a special food tour just for our kids! (BTW, they were awesome… visit them on TripAdvisor for reviews)
This store was full of Asian goodies! 🙂
We meet up with Esther-Hanna our wonderful guide near McDonalds in Albert Cuypstraat, a bustling area in Amsterdam full of restaurants, markets and shops. We must have walked a few feet to our first foodie location, TOKO RAMEE an authentic Indonesian produce store that sells different types of specialties the Dutch have come to love. One of the items Esther and the owners shared with us was a Spekkoek, when literally translated means “fat cake”. This Dutch version of an Indonesian recipe is a layered spiced cake. It was so rich and flavorful you could taste all the spices tht accompanies this recipe. Lou Lou was the first to try it and ate her piece as well as the other half of Jaf’s who preferred to look at all the shrimp chips and candy nearby.
Yummy Indonesian snacks!
Spekkoek or “Fat Cake” 🙂
“Can we have this?” (Shrimp Chips)
Continuing on, we walked another 2 blocks all the while Esther is telling us about her lovely city and all the wonderful street food vendors we will be sampling nearby. The kids were starving by then and conveniently we walked into the Yogurt Barn.
The Yogurt Barn
There was a reserved table waiting for us, we felt so special. 🙂 Jaf was very excited – he loves yogurt! Apparently, here at the Yogurt Barn you can select what type of topping you want on your yogurt!
Dutch Hangop
But since were here to experience what the “local kids” eat, the choice was thankfully made for us. The yogurt had the taste and texture of greek yogurt, but far better. Topped with fresh raspberries and a ginger-tasting cookie, the Dutch Hangop is a popular meal for breakfast, but I reckon kids and adults must eat it all the time… it’s better than frozen yogurt.
“uh, it’s yogurt?!!”
Sizes 🙂
Hangop means to “hang up” and is a very old Dutch dairy dessert. It’s made with yogurt or buttermilk and strained through a towel which used to “hang” over a colander to drain (hence the name). Lou Lou isn’t a big fan of yogurt, so Jaf ate his and hers in a matter of minutes. He also asked for thirds?! We plan on revisiting this place again to try other toppings soon.
We were special guests 🙂
“Give it to me, I’ll eat it!”
You’d be interested to know that this shop raised money for their restaurant through crowd-funding. If you’ve donated a substantial amount you’d get a nice little tile painted with your name and placed in the restaurants dining area. We have no clue what this signs says in the bathroom, but thought it was cute – whatever it means.
Wall dedicated to crowd-funders
I guess we should donate!
Can you translate?
Since this was a 4-hour food tour, we’re going to break this story up into a few blogs so until next time…
See you soon..
Stay hungry!
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