Writers Blog About Eating, Part 2

Following on Tori's post, I wanted to contribute my two cents- and not just because the East and the South of Amsterdam were totally ignored! (I suppose that's the point of cheap eats: you go with what you know, and that usually ends up being in your own neighborhood.)

As a "global" city, you can find every type of food in Amsterdam, but given its small size (801,000 citizens in the 2013 census), it does not do all of them well. For example, the Italian food in Amsterdam is forgetful (and do yorself a favor and skip pizza until you leave). What passes as Mexican food has been thoroughly "Europeanized" for local taste buds. What passes for Greek food here is borderline indedible.

That being said, when Amsterdam does well, it does very well indeed. Some of it is an event rather than a meal - like the only Micheln-starred Asian restaurant in the Netherlands: Yamazato at the Okura Hotel. Much of it is no-nonsense food, like the Dutch themselves, and will fill your belly with good quality food for 5 euros for lunch, and 15 euros for dinner.

Going with what I know, I will kick off with the place I visited two to three times per month: Tjin's.

Tjin's is a fine example of Surinaams cuisine, though heavily weighted towards its Chinese, rather than its African or Indian (AKA Hindustaans) roots. This is because Mr. Tchin was, well, of Chinese descent. Mr. Tchin has passed on, but his family is still at it. You can get all the usual Surinamese fare, but I strongly recommend their sauto soup - a chicken soup with tauge, spring onion and spices) served with a side of white rice and dollop of pureed adjoema pepper (looks like a habanero, smells like a habanero, but sweeter and a tad milder). This is the perfect meal to cure or fight off a cold during those wet windy days, which sadly seems to include every day between May and August.

I never visited their flagship Van Woustraat location just off the Albert Cuyp Market, I only frequented the less glamorous sister, found literally under a bridge at the Bijlmerpoort. It looks like a skid row soup kitchen that needs renovation following a grease fire. In all fairness, they have replaced some of those cheap plastic chairs with other cheap plastic chairs that do not have cracks in the seat that pinch your rear. They have replaced some of the sadder linoleum and recently covered some of the lighting and plumbing fixtures with a false ceiling reminiscent of rattan. You get the idea. Helpfully, there is also a map of Suriname on the wall, in case you have no clue where such diverse cultures combined so maginificently in the kitchen.

Do not let appearances fool you. Amsterdammers know this is still the best sauto soup in the city, which makes it the best in the Netherlands. That probably makes it the best in the world. A large soup with a mango juice will set you back 5 euros and 50 cents.