Het Friethoes

On our last trip to The Netherlands, we did everything we could to try pretty much every fry shop we walked by. It was no surprise that when we made the trip out to Haarlem we opted to try one of the local offerings. From the minimal research that we did, Het Friethoes seemed to be the place to go.

 Het Friethoes Storefront

The first thing that we found back in 2010 was that the fries with mayonnaise were the thing to get, and they were also delicious. There's something different about the mayonnaise out in The Netherlands that just makes it taste better than the offerings that we get here in the US. On that note we opted for their haus mayonaise (house mayonnaise) for our topping. 

 Fry Cup with Logo

Fries with house mayonnaise topping

The way they double fry the fries is clearly superior to how we fry fries in the US, and that's part of the allure. They are crisp on the outside while staying moist and soft on the inside. Also, because they start out so crisp, they don't wilt under the toppings placed on them. As for the house mayo topping, this was the best mayonnaise we've ever had. Whatever they added to this to make it special made this amazing. We both tasted some garlic hints to it, but there was also something else that we just couldn't pinpoint. Obviously we couldn't find out since it's a proprietary mix, but if we get the opportunity, we would gladly have more in the future.

Haarlem Grocery Exploration

After an afternoon of wandering around Haarlem, we decided to make our way back to the train station, stopping at various shops along the way.  The first was Tromp Kaashuis, a cheese market (which appears to have multiple locations all around the Netherlands), on Barteljorisstraat.

There were so many different types of cheese at Tromp.  The sad thing was that we knew we couldn't buy anything because there was no way we could get on a plane (especially back to the US) with cheese.  No one wants to have delicious food thrown away at customs!  But we enjoyed looking at all the different types of cheese, including some we had never seen before like this green cheese (pesto cheese).  There was also sambal cheese and so many other varieties.

Near the front entrance, there were some cheeses to sample.  We tried the fenugreek one and it was really, really good.  If we were going to be around longer, and had time for cheese and crackers while hanging out, we might have gotten some.

Highly recommend a stop at Tromp.  Even if you can't buy anything, the breadth of their cheese selection is impressive and worth a look.

Our next stop was at HEMA on Kruisstraat, which I think is a Dutch chain of discount department stores.  They also have a food section with some ready to eat items and other grocery items.  I found a package of ossenworst for only 1 euro and was so surprised to find this liverwurst and other meats for under 1 euro.  So cheap!  Didn't look like the quality was that bad either.

Our last stop before grabbing a snack (next post) was Albert Heijn, the grocery chain you see all over the Netherlands including a small outpost in the airport.  (We've written about Albert Heijn adventures in Amsterdam before here and here.)  I figured, from past experience, they might have some Haribo candy so we stopped in and grabbed some snacks (sadly no Smurfs).  I know some people prefer the Turkish-made Haribo bears we get in the US, but I really like the German-made candy.  It tastes different and I'm convinced it tastes better.  Each European trip includes some Haribo souvenirs (if we don't eat them all before going home).

One of our favorite finds of the Haarlem trip was this lemon passionfruit water made by Crystal Clear.  It was a non-carbonated flavored water, and the big reason we liked it was the fruit flavor.  It was so natural and did not taste artificial at all, unlike some of the flavored water we can get here in the US.  We really liked it but unfortunately this Albert Heijn location was the only place we have found it so far.

We love stopping in at grocery stores and food shops when on vacation.  Often we end up walking around saying "why can't we get this at home?" over and over, but it's nice to see what is available elsewhere.  We'll be looking for that Crystal Clear water on future trips!

Jamin

One thing we are always on the lookout for in Europe is Haribo candy, our favorite candy brand.  Once we find Haribo, we start looking for smurfs.  I've mentioned these in the year-end recaps (since I never got to them in the trip recaps), but we absolutely love these berry-flavored smurfs.  So much so that we bought the giant tub of them the last time we were in Germany (on a layover).

We went wandering around Haarlem after lunch (mostly because I was looking for the post office), and then stumbled upon Jamin, a popular candy store in the Netherlands which had a lot of packaged candy as well as tubs of loose candy (and ice cream).

I thought it was a long shot, but we checked for Haribo Smurfs anyway.  And they had them in one of the loose candy bins!

I was trying to be good so I only got us 200 grams of Smurfs.  They were gone in less than a day (so quickly that I didn't even take a photo of the Smurfs themselves!).  We didn't find Smurfs at any other point on the trip, which was sad.  It was so great to have a small taste of them again, but I wish we would have been able to bring some home!

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!