#broodje bert

[extraordinaryeyes]

Holiday Diaries.

Day one has been so good.

Walking Maya and Sesh in Vondelpark was a dream come true. So much of this lifestyle- cute house, lots of food, working couple, happy children, happy dogs, improving at adulthood- this is how I picture it and it's so nice to be able to have a peak of it. 

It's been rainy and gloomy (and appears to be getting worse) so after the walk, I thought I'd just continue Pitch Perfect (got our Netflix working on the living room TV) and just had toast and coriander hummus and it was so yummy and so chill and so good. 

Then decided that the weather wasn't going to magically be sunshine and rainbows, so I might as well head out anyway. Took the tram to Dam, walked to Spui, found the Broodje Bert sandwich place and had the best BLT ever and a warm warm hot chocolate. Walked to the De Negen Straatjes and managed to rummage around some old book stores and travel book stores and map and print shops and second hand clothes shops (with glittery dresses that were amazing but the arms were weird) and an underground grocery market and pesto cheese and tea labels I couldn't read and being asked for directions "sorry i don't speak Dutch" and just somehow finding my way home.

Hung with Michiel and the boys and ended up having a nap (I didn't mean to!) but then hung with Jay a bit and walked the dogs with her and tried to get swept away by the wind, the way my bag did a couple of times today and spoke to Angus for a very short while and finished Pitch Perfect and I am happy in this duvet.

Goodnight, day one. 

[thefoodcult-blog-blog]

Amsterdam for lunch : Broodje Bert

One of the tricks that I have learned as a frugal, traveling college student is that long painful layovers can sometimes be redemptive. On my way from Cairo to Taipei, I had a 12 hour stop in Amsterdam from 8 AM to 8 PM. So, rather than treating my first step into Europe as the pitiful twelve hour layover that it was, I decided instead that it would become for me a mini-packaged vacation that KLM airlines was granting in compensation for the fact that their flight left Cairo at 4 am. What was pretty incredible about the whole adventure was that my friends who were studying abroad in Florence happened to be in Amsterdam that same day! It was awesome. I got to meet up with them for lunch (I'm not sure what meal it was, they didn't stop eating from the moment that I met up with them until we left) at Broodje Bert.

The place was a corner sandwich shop, tiny and packed like you wouldn't believe. Cozy with that mom and pop shop feel with a lot of regulars who knew exactly what they wanted. They are known for their great sandwiches with reasonable prices. 

My friend and I shared the Mozzarella and Tomato Pesto sandwich because we had both just eaten a little while ago. The sandwich was warm, fresh out of the oven. The combination of the melted mozzarella and pesto blended together nicely with their subtle flavors. It was one of those things that just made you happy on a gloomy day...kind of like a hug, but delicious.

However, the uncontested favorite and what Broodje Bert is famous for was the Homemade Broodje Bert Burger. I didn't have a chance to get a photo because when I looked over, the burger was already half gone. I looked around and it seemed that everyone came in and only ordered that one thing. Though it was a "burger" it was still french bread, with what looked like several falafel sized meat patties inside. While I was pretty satisfied with my mozzarella pesto, I am definitely ordering that burger next time. Apparently, it was the bomb. 

Don't worry, I have another layover on the way back.

- PT