My Amsterdam.

Gareth's Photos of The Beautiful Welsh Countryside.

Yesterday I was putting together some useful tips for a good friend,about markets and shops and coffee shopsin Amsterdam.

Places that I used to go to and was surprised how many of the shop and street names I could recall so long after going to them.

Some places I have not been to for a couple of years, others still went to regularly until last summer, since I have been in bed last August I did not think too much about what was unobtainable.

But now I can dream again about the places that I liked to visit and who knows soon I can go there myself.

Here are my recollections of the Amsterdam that I want to visit soon:

The Pijp is good neighbourhood, one our favourite shops, a Bangladeshi shop is on the Ceintuurbaan on the last bit before the Amstel brug/kade, it is an excellent shop for caribean vegetables as well as Indian and they have a wide range of Bombay mix and on the Van Wou is a Polish shop with loads of good dry soya products.

The Albert Cuyp market is good but can be abit more expensive than the Ten Cate and Dappermarkt, I used to shop there daily, when I worked in the Pijp.
You can pick up bargains, if you look, they have alot of clothes and knick knacks as well as some good plant and flower stalls

Oh and other big favourites,is coffeeshop the Katsu on the Ist van der Helststraat, street crosses Albert Cuyp market, great neighbourhood café, full of interesting people, such as poets and writers.
Good coffee and toasted sandwiches.

And not far up the road is one of our favourite Suriname/Chinese sandwich shop Tjin's,they have an even better shop, if that is possible on the Dappermarket and they both are a great source of other good things like Tempe/Tofu and other delicacies and excellent Tempe sandwiches in both shops.

One of our other favourite coffee shops is the Yo Yo on Hermony straat it is on a road off the Amstelkade, it started as a squat run by a great woman called Josefien (very fond of her).
Great select ion of teas and good coffee and homemade cake and biscuits.

Oh and if you cycle past the Okura hotel cross the water and cycle into Scheldestraat on the other side you will find the only authentic Jewish bagel shop in Amsterdam, excellent bagels and cream cheese and salmon if you eat fish.

Have heard that Gary's Muffins here on Kinkerstraat is good to, it is actually run by Gary.

Ten Cate markt.
At the beginning of the market is Surima, an outstanding Saurinamse shop, feels like being home in Trinidad whic is a lovely feeling.
The shop has good v egetables such as ochra, plantain (banana you fry)indian auberegine (smaller and tastier)and the sandwich shop sells excellent food and sandwiches such as Tempe or Prawn or saltfish to name 3, it is well worth a visit and open daily until midnight.

Richie gets fish on the Ten Cate markt and there are always excellent bargains to be had, the cheese stall on the other side of the Kinkerstraat is the best I have found in town for quality, variety and price much better than the one on the main market, just down from the Cheese stall is an excellent Moccocan vegetable stll, bargains to be had, Saturdays around 4 pm great time to pick up great bargains, in Dutch koopjes.

Dappermarkt.
Good veg and cheese, Dutch and Turkish cheese and fish and lots of Turkish olives, olive oil and other goodies.
Lovely shops, on and around the Dappermarkt, got some great posters of Indian gods in a Sri Lankan, Tamil shop, sadly only two of the posters survived our move, we had quite a few more at the Passeerdersstraat, miss them they are so colourful, great way of adding instant colour to a room without having to paint.
Cafe de Pontanneur corner Van Swindenstraat and Javastraat has good coffee and appeltaart, applecake.

Asian Supermarket.
Cheapest shop for Tempe/Tofu is the Asian supermarket on Nieuwmarkt, opposite the Waag, they make the Tofu/tempe themselves and have all sorts of pulses and coconut cream (thickest is cents more than milk) Richie makes ice cream and custard and uses it in food cooking, like curries and dips and soups and stews.

Great shop used to stock up once a month, Tofu/Tempe is about 1 euro each, lots of good things and round the corner on the Kloveniersburgwal is the best fresh fish shop in Amsterdam, it is the cheapest, best days are Tuesday and Friday.

And round the corner from the Asian shop on the Nieuwmarkt direction Waterlooplein, on the Antonius Breestraat are a good record shop and best of all a great second hand shop, full of wonderful clothes and run by a rather nice and grand queen.

Up the road from the fish shop on the Kloveniersburgwal, walk up along the canal and cross to right over the second bridge and go into the Basjoe coffee shop this is my/our absolute favourite shop,

Excellent coffee and hash, best weed cake, James’s special/secret recipe and great fruit smoothies, James used to roll me the best pure joints.

The terrace is a good spot and the atmosphere is relaxed and tolerant of all and good music.
If you go in please ask for James, big dreadlocks or Leo and please say Herrad and Richie recommended their place, please give them my love, miss seeing them we went there at least 3 times a week.

Great stroll there through the old centre of town, the Nieuwmarkt and such a good reception on arrival from the ‘boys’ miss hugging James and kissing them both, we had been going in there since 1989.

Starting to feel confident that soon we can go by some of these favourite places, for now I shall sit and day dream about future outings.

The sun has been shining all day which is good for the spirits.