If you read NYSF regularly, you know that we are in Amsterdam this week.
Before we left, we contacted eat-amsterdam.com and dutchgrub.com for some street food recommendations, but they both said it doesn’t exist. Instead, they gave us a few restaurant recommendations.
The first place we went to yesterday was Thaise Snackbar “Bird”. They started out with a small snackbar that has 4 tables and 5 stools at the window. They have since expanded to a full restaurant across the street.
We were told it’s tough to get a table at the small snackbar, but our schedule was off from flying overnight, and we went out for food around 4pm. That was too late for lunch and too early for dinner, so we lucked out with a seat.
Feeling out of sorts from overnight travel, and it being cold and wet, we ordered a hot, spicy soup, tom yam talee, and an appetizer, pangsit.
The tom yam talee had that hot and sour Thai soup taste, with squid, fish, shrimp, crab (stick), mushrooms, scallions, and thin noodles. This hit the spot.
Pangsit were 4 deep-fried puff pastries with a mixture of prawns, crab and chicken in the middle. It came with a dipping sauce that was like duck sauce, but a little fruitier.
Thaise Snackbar “Bird” was a nice, informal place for some comfort food when we were feeling a bit off. Definitely recommended. It’s on Zeedijk, which is the basically Amsterdam’s Chinatown, with all sorts of Asian restaurants and shops lining the street.
In a new city, you never what you’re going to run across. On the way back to our hotel, we saw a really cool sculpture over a doorway with the Latin inscription “Spes Altera Vitae”.
After doing a little research, we found out this is over a doorway to the 2nd oldest church in Amsterdam, St Olof Chapel, which was built in the first half of 15th century. It’s now a hotel (argh!).
The inscription means “Hope for a better life.” Judging from the motif, we assume they mean the afterlife.
