Perhaps nothing better represents Amsterdam's international cuisine than my first meal of the day at Pancakes! (Berenstraat 38, Amsterdam). Pancakes!, located in the delightful "9 Streets" district of Amsterdam, serves Dutch and international pancakes of all shapes and sizes in their small, fun cafe. I ordered a dutch pancake topped with smoked salmon, creme fraiche, guacamole and sprinkled seeds. This was delicious, the pancake flavorful and well cooked, the topping nice and fresh. And with the check, Pancakes! even gives you a key chain with a wooden clog with their logo painted on. Can't beat that.
For a snack, we tried Amsterdam's world famous french fries at what may be the best french-fry stand in the world at Vleminckx Sausmeesters - say that 10 time fast (Voetboogstraat 31, just off the Spui). These are worth going to Amsterdam for. They are perfectly golden fried, not-too-thick-not-too-thin, and topped with whatever you like (from plain old ketchup to "hannibal sauce," which the man at the counter would not tell us what was in it: "you just have to try it.") I had mine with mayonnaise and ketchup. And they were oh-so-good.
Then a little later, a stroopwafel - the classic Dutch cookie-waffle of thin, brittle cookie with sugar cream inside. They are addictive, so watch out.
For dinner, some Thai food. On a recommendation we went to Thai Snackbar Bird (Zeedijk 74, Amsterdam), a small hole-in-the-wall serving fantastic, fresh, flavorful Thai food. We started with spring rolls, and then I had a beef salad with cilantro, onion and cucumber in a flavorful broth. Sarah's green curry was super tasty too!
