Comfort carbs in Amsterdam

First stop, the Prius Heerlijk breakfast joint across from Central Station. Love the portion size on the cappuccinos.



Oh-so-yummy Dutch pancakes or pannekoek, which are like French crepes only the size of hub caps. This is apple, cinnamon ice cream and whipped cream at The Pancake Bakery, just down the street from the Anne Frank House.


This is deer and poached pears. Also yummy. You can get almost anything on a pancake, including fried chicken.


Tom does this at home.


Dutch food tends to be stick-to-your-ribs fare, which was great in December. Here is a ham, egg and Gruyere cheese sandwich at The American Cafe, which is where Mati Hari had her wedding reception. I'll bet the guests were stuffed.

Here is a dark bread sandwich with cheese and croquettes, which are little fried things. Not sure of the contents. I guessed potatoes, Tom guessed fish.

For real flavor, the Dutch go Indonesian. (Indonesia was a Dutch colony.) We had an incredible spread at Long Pura. This is a rice table, or rijsttafel. You sample a half a dozen different small goodies over rice. The rice itself was amazing, light and lemony and steamed in a banana leaf. It was a meal in itself.

Beautiful presentation. I wanted to eat the carrot flower in the middle but it got taken away.
The waiter said a flower behind one ear means you are married and a flower behind the other ear means you are in love (I forget which ear was which). If you eat the flowers, it means you are in love with food. OK, I made that up. But I did eat the lemongrass, which was apparently intended for decoration. For the record, it tastes lemony.

We skipped the hotel buffet breakfasts. They ran 20-30 euros a person.

Here's our 7 eruo all-you-can-eat breakfast, picked up at an Albert's grocery store off Dam square and eaten in our deluxe apartment. You can take the girl out of the budget hotel but you can't take the budget out of the girl.