Amsterdam Food Tour: Going Dutch

It goes without saying that Food IS Travel. What a culture eats says so much about its history and preference, the Netherlands is no exception. In all the tours I’ve done while taking some photos for GetYourGuide, the food tours are consistently among my favorites. This proved just as true for Amsterdam as for past travels, with the Amsterdam Food Tour being an excursion I was happy for the privilege of tagging along on; convenient as several of my Top 10 Things to Do in Amsterdam have to do with food!

 There were cheeses and frites, of course, but also a couple of dishes a bit more exotic; herring (tasty raw fish served with onions) and poffertjes (pancake puffs with powdered sugar!) and some apple tarts that looked tantalizing but which we sadly didn’t linger long enough to try.

In a bit of a power move, we also filed into a grocery to check the shelves to see what Dutch home cooking was like. Alot of barbecued sausages and ready-to-eat Indonesian and Indian foods, if the most prominent displays are to believed. I love international grocery stores, though, and thought it was really cool that we detoured through here.

After all that food, our stomachs needed a bit of settling. To that end, we headed over to the Wynand-Fockink spirit bar to sample to house-made traditional liquors. The taste was surpassed only by the atmosphere. A stiff but lovely end to a delicious day in the Dutch capital.

If you’ve still got some stomach space as you finish up the day, here’s a bonus spot for you:

The Ij Brewery, built into an old windmill a short bike ride outside of the city center, is apparently one of the ‘it’ spots in town. Ride out and have a beer to cap off your day of gluttony.

(Special thanks to Jonny Duncan for his cheese modeling abilities.)

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I shot most of these photos while I was working as a photographer for GetYourGuide’s Amsterdam Food Tour. You could definitely try all of these foods for cheaper, but the guide was cool and I enjoyed the experience. The spirits bar at the end, especially, I never would have found on my own.