Grand Cafe Brinkmann

After arriving in Amsterdam, we took the train to Haarlem for our "day trip."  Our first activity was to find lunch.  We went over to Grote Markt, the center square of Haarlem, where there were a bunch of outdoor restaurants that were all crowded with people eating lunch.  We decided on Grand Cafe Brinkmann because the food looked good, the people looked happy, and there was an empty table outside where we could get fresh air and enjoy the mild weather.

We settled in at our table and ordered lunch, enjoying the view and people watching.  At one point, a group of musicians showed up.  Haarlem's center was quite a charming area.

A started out with a Jupiler, which is a Belgian beer.  He thought it was crisp and refreshing.  We like Belgian beer.  And it's so much less expensive in Europe (at least in the Netherlands and Belgium!).

Instead of a beer like A's, I opted for kriek (this one was by Liefmans).  Kriek was one of my favorite discoveries of our 2010 Europe trip, something that I hadn't known I was missing in my life (and something we never got up to discussing in the recaps).  It was also one of the best things to come out of the Brussels portion of that trip.

If you're unfamiliar with kriek (as I was before that trip), it is a cherry-infused beer, especially common to the area around Brussels.  Once I had it the first time, I kept getting it, except for the one meal where I got raspberry lambic instead and while that was good, I immediately regretted it.  I was really excited when A pointed out the kriek on the menu here.  It was only about 1 euro more than getting water, and considering a bottle of kriek this size probably costs over $10-15 here in the US (and there it was maybe 3 euro), there was no way I wasn't getting the kriek.  It was as good as I remembered.  Smooth, sweet, a little tart, completely refreshing.

We both decided to go with open-faced sandwiches for our lunches.  Back in the US, I would normally just close up the sandwich, cut it in half, and eat it, but it looked like everyone there was cutting the sandwiches with a fork and knife.  That was different for us, but we figured we would do what everyone else was doing, as maybe that's how it should be done!

I went with the hete kip sandwich - ciabatta gemarineerd kippendijenvlees met atjar, chilisaus en gefruite uitjes (ciabatta, marinated chicken with atjar, sweet chili sauce and fried onions).

Atjar, from what the internet tells me, is a dish of sweet and sour pickled vegetables, common in Indonesian dishes and rijsttafel.  This one included carrots and peppers, and the sandwich also had mixed greens, bean sprouts and peanuts on top. The Southeast Asian flavors of the sandwich were really good and the vegetables offered a nice, refreshing crunch to the sandwich.  The bread was crisp on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside (although not always the easiest to cut with a knife).  I was happy with the choice.

Lastly, the star of the meal - A got the ossenworst sandwich - panini met ossenworst, rode ui, mosterd en cornichons (panini with ox sausage, red onion, mustard and French pickle (cornichons are small pickled gherkins)).

Ossenworst is basically like a steak tartare in thick slices, where the meat has been mixed with a bunch of spices.  We had it before in Amsterdam at Brouwerij 't IJ, where A liked it but I wasn't a big fan.  Based on this experience at Grand Cafe Brinkmann, I guess I don't really like ossenworst plain, but love it mixed with other things or in sandwich form!  This ossenworst was extremely tender and really well spiced.  It came with a spicy, smooth mustard (which seemed horseradish-based), in addition to the mixed greens, pickles and onions.  Each bite was a great mix of textures and flavors - the smooth soft ossenworst, the crusty bread, the crisp pickles and onions, the spicy mustard. It was delicious.

Our lunch at Grand Cafe Brinkmann was exactly how we wanted to spend our day trip layover in the Netherlands - a nice, leisurely lunch with good food and drinks, soaking up everyday Dutch life.  If you find yourself in Haarlem, we definitely recommend Grand Cafe Brinkmann.  Of all the cafes in the Grote Markt, it seemed popular and looked like it was busy longer than any of the other cafes, and the food was delicious.  An ossenworst sandwich and a bottle of kriek sounds like a perfect lunch to me!