One in particular looked very traditional. Various local fish dishes, mostly herrings. Last attempt, I saw a stand selling herrings on the day before my departure from Amsterdam. The Picalilly sauce wasn't the best - it's basically pickles and catsup, a bit like the curry sauce for chicken nuggets in Singapore's McDonald's - but it'll do. That prompted me to order frikandel, which turned up to be burnt sausage (deep fried was the intention, I believe). The sandwich was ok, but I really would have loved a bit more flavour from other ingredients. Thank goodness again for the french fries. OK at least they gave me a packet of mustard. No veggie, meat, or whatever things that sandwich usually comes with. What I got was really just that: a bun, and two slices of Gouda cheese in it. Unfortunately I didn't know the Dutch are really literal with their menu. I ordered sandwich with old Gouda since I like it strong, and again with french fries to be safe (they had about 8 sauces to choose from - I took Picalilly, which I didn't know what, just trying). Quite gourment, I wonder if it's chicken or ham that goes well with gouda. Oh, Gouda cheese sandwich, with choice of old or young cheese. The special sauce for the fries was just mayo on one side and tomato sauce on the other side with some garnishing. Luckily I did, since the food didn't really inspire me. To be safe, I ordered french fries also (which was fried fresh), with special sauce. Upon entering, it was just like a quick-grab counter with pre-fried hotdogs, chicken wings, sausages, in lockers where customers just put in the coin payment to unlock the door and take the food. I spotted FEBO, which seemed to be THE primary local food chain in Amsterdam. I decided to go even lower, scour for cheap food that any locals would get casually, the equivalent of hot dog in US. If only I had tried to pronounce it more, I could have realised that it's just an alternative spelling of shawarma, which I know is same as doner kebab, which I doubt is a specialty of Holland. But the hunt for local, respectable, and affordable cuisine was rather futile that I settled for Lebanese lamb shoarma, that I hadn't heard before. Since I refused to eat Indonesian food even in Singapore due to price (and authenticity) problem, I am definitely not spending Euros on tahoe goreng (fried beancurd). I still can't explain the proliferation of Argentinean steakhouses though, of which I saw more than a handful. I guess that's where they get the interestingly spelt tjasiuw pau (to Singaporeans, that should read char siew bao). Other local ethnic food would be the Suriname Chinese food, again another absorption of culture from a former colony rather than a true Dutch fare. For the non-Indonesians: basically those are traditional Indonesian food (chicken satay, fried rice, cucumber pickles, prawn crackers), spelt with Dutch spelling - which is kinda retro to me, because it's a throwback to old spelling used in Indonesia until early 1900s and represents antiquity. The unique delicacies touted as good unique local food are the likes of sate ajam, nasi goreng, atjar timoen, kroepoek oedang, etc. I discovered, to my dismay, the reason why Dutch cuisine hasn't made its name around the world. I haven't heard much about food in Holland apart from herrings and space cakes (erm), so I went with much anticipation of discovery. As was the case in my short KL trip, I was also looking for opportunities to sample local fares when I went to Holland and Germany.
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