Amsterdam's Biggest Market!! Albert Cuyp Market Food Tour in The Netherlands!!

Houtenmorhaan, u gaat me doeli. Today I'm here in the Alper Kuip market here in Amsterdam. This is one of the biggest and most famous markets in all of Holland. And today what we're doing is Amsterdam street food. All traditional Dutch street food. Let's rock and roll. First I put warm water, and then I have a coffee. And I use the hot sand to cook this coffee. Because this way it's very old traditional way from the desert in Yemen. And also cooking the coffee on the hot sand will give it a special taste. And where are you from? I come from Syria. From Syria? Yes sir. Damascus? Damascus. I would like to make a small Syrian trick for you. Oh my gosh. It's the cardamom in the coffee. Still scorching hot. You guys love it hot. Like too hot. And what's the name of your place? Daraas. Great. And they're right here in the center. Well not the center. I guess at the beginning of the market. Because we passed one area and then we're making our way to the very end. It's huge market though. So how many vendors do you think are here? Change regularly. Sometimes they're on the Tuesday and not on the Monday. So it's like you always are surprised. Because maybe... Are you here every day? Some have a day spot. Yeah so it's always surprising. Normally on Saturdays. Let me show you. This is how you cool the coffee. One big cappuccino. You go like that. What is the cooling? What's the effect of this? It just cools down. Because remember this cup is hot. And now this cup is cold. And also on the bottom you have the sediment of the coffee. So you leave that out. The mud. Yeah you don't want to drink this mud. Oh that's amazing coffee man. I had some coffee. Yemeni's coffee beans. In south of Saudi Arabia. In like Jeddah area. Yeah yeah it was super light. Beans are tiny. Tiny beans. I love it. I love it bro. We had some incredible Arabic coffee. Next up we're gonna have some Lebanese street food right here. Hello how are you? We're back in Lebanon. From Beirut or where are you from? I'm half Lebanese half Syrian. Oh perfect. I think really typical Lebanese za'atar. Let's do it. I love za'atar. I'll do something very good. Za'atar. Thyme. Wild thyme. It's like thick. Oh the best bro. Yes. Right here is the pizza. This is the pomegranate. I need a little bit of pomegranate first. Yeah they're the country of pomegranate bro. Yes. I feel like Syria, Armenia all these countries are pomegranate. Like everything's pomegranate. We said traditional Dutch food but here in Amsterdam huge you know multicultural communities. So you're gonna get everything. So we start off with some delicious coffee. Now we're getting some Lebanese food. Oh what are you gonna add to it? Some more mint? Yeah fresh mint. Should be with the za'atar. And now here we check the za'atar if it's ready or not. And so what's your story? How long have you been in Holland? Since 2015 I started. I came here. After that I worked for other people. Till I start to think about to open something for me. And I started this kind of small business. Almost two years. Good for you bro. Good for you. Yes. It's 100% ready. Add some labneh. Labneh. Yogurt. Yes. This is gonna be good. Some tomato. Good. One bite. Yes. Good. One bite. Some cucumber. Fresh mint. It looks amazing. Olives. Arugula. Sumac. Sour spices. Oh sumac. Now. Wow it's beautiful. That's it. More sumac. A little bit olive oil. There you go. Hey cheers my friend. Cheers. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Dude it's amazing. You have to add a little bit of pomegranate syrup. Pomegranate syrup. Just a little bit. It's like black honey. Here we go. First bite. Oh my gosh. The labneh. Oh my gosh. Super creamy. With the za'atar. I have many customers come from other cities just to try my za'atar. No way. Yeah. No your za'atar is phenomenal. Za'atar is the key ingredient in Lebanese cuisine. You have it with everything. It's a wild time. I'm so happy. So I think the cameraman he is not happy because he wants to try something. I'm fasting man. All right I'm gonna make one special one for you also. Wow I'm blown away my friend. It's like 14 kind of ingredients inside. The za'atar is almost 7-8 ingredients. Feels like I'm in Lebanon. Which is also 7-8 ingredients so. The freshness. Yeah. So fresh. No but the labneh with the za'atar with this nice pita. I love how it's still a little crispy outside. Do you have a vegan vegetarian? I have vegan vegetarian. It looks you know it is like cream. Normally the labneh in our country it's like a little bit sour. But here I use the labneh a little bit creamy like a little bit sweet. So that's what with the sourness for the za'atar with the sweet cream. Give really good combination with the freshness pomegranate, olives, tomato, cucumber, arugula. It's perfect. Oh I know. This makes me so happy. So he's saying he mixes sometimes haoude which is gouda. Haoude. Haou haou. Haou. Haou with a g. Haou haou. So I'm gonna try some haoude. It's like this man. Cheers. It's like typical Dutch sandwiches. I'm going to combine it with the pita. Oh I love it. We can understand each other. Ball man. You're too kind bro. Cheers man. Thank you. This is real traditional Lebanese but with a twist. My man. Thank you so much for coming back. Thank you. I see you next time. Sure. Okay. Thank you. Bye bye. Let's go. Thank you. So here in the market they also have textiles and they have vintage items. This is amazing. 145 euro handmade. Where is this from? No idea. No one's telling me where it's from. No this is not his. Oh not his. He's from the hair shop and this side from the store. Okay got it got it. That's cool stuff though. So it's 10 a.m and the reason why you don't see that many people in this market is because this is the first cold day of entering winter. October 18th today. You're gonna get gloves? I might get a scarf or something. Yeah I'm checking. I might buy one too. 10 euro? Do I look good? Important that they keep also warm. Yeah. Problem is that I came here unprepared. I didn't think it was gonna be this cold. Like it's freezing. A scarf too. I need a scarf. Yeah. Her favorite is spaghetti with clams. Best the best. I love fish so that is my favorite. I love this. Every time I run into Italian it's like my brain. Yeah yeah so where my family's from it's all truffles. Oh I feel way better. Like it just got warm. Oh no no amazing. Like the switch is like. No no it's like up. My friend. Vegan food. Oh man this is awesome. This one right here. So Syrian hummus beans. Lots of food. Man it's like I filled up with one dish though. Yeah and we're still searching for traditional Dutch food. And that's the thing in Holland. People like also the traditional food. But the traditions are slowly. Yeah yeah obviously because now with everybody coming in and the cultures are mixing. It's mixed more so it's nice that you have everything. And you can mix it you will see with the stroopwafel later. Stroopwafel. Both can exist next to each other. Because also the new vendors I see. Every time I see a new vendor. New vendors so it keeps changing. And then over here we have like flowers. We have rings. This is like traditional. This is tulips? Yes. So these are tulips. And you put them now in the winter. And in the spring they come up. And they come up. So now is the time to put them in the garden. And is that the seed? Like you place this. It's like an onion. It's like an onion okay. It's not a seed. It's a bulb. And you put it in. And in the World War II. They were so hungry. They eat this. They eat this? Yeah. So this is really like Dutch. 50 for 10 euros? The colors. Then spring is coming. Wow cold. I'm cold. You know warm up. Oh I've never seen this. Over here we have the Suriname flag. Biggest population of Surinamese outside of Suriname. Holland. Chicken? Yes chicken. Chicken breast from Sandwich. Super juicy. Thank you. Oh my gosh. You cut them right here? Yes. The whole chicken. A little bit of spices. Looks like maybe some paprika. No no chicken seasoning. Chicken sesame. Seasoning. So just chicken? Everything is chicken. Everything is chicken except you? Thank you. No it's delicious. Thank you. Where are you from? I'm from Miami. First time here? Miami. Third time in Amsterdam. First time as an adult. Okay. As a real adult. These guys have a funny joke. They're like everything chicken except for us. You can say it also in Dutch. Yeah? Yeah. Yes. Good enough. Yeah good enough. More chicken. This is the competition. Benny chicken. Yeah there's Chris chicken and here you have Benny's chicken next to each other. This is the Suriname store. The toko we call it. The toko. Yes where you buy everything. Like your herbs. All right follow me inside. And if you don't know what this means. Winkel means store. Wow so this is like a traditional Surinamese market. Mike what do we have here? Some hot sauce man. Extra hot pepper. Oh my gosh. We have some strawberries. You want to taste? The strawberries? That's not strawberry. Why are you joking? You want to try some Surinamese strawberry? It's really sweet. Do you want to try it? Just try it man. You're crazy. It's like all peppers. Wow chili. Man there's so many chilies here. This is like Suriname. Oh some bara. The only problem with the bara is it's so filling. Yeah it's fresh they made it homemade. Have a nice day. Bye bye. Bye. So we try to stay away from all the customers. But the guy's super nice in there. Lots of amazing Surinamese spices, peppers. You have hot sauce. Hot sauce. Suriname strawberry. No it was the hot pepper. Yeah you find everything in such a small place. And that's what I love. I love the smell and everything is fresh. What's that? Pizza romana. La pizza romana. So finally we found some Dutch food. The poffertjes. It's a mini pancake poffertjes. But it's more fluffy. More fluffy. So this is poffertjes. This is poffertjes. Oh and they have the mini pancakes. But the poffertjes are fluffy and you made it on this. So they make it on these. Yeah. It reminds me of something else from Japan. Just this how they make this. They put batter and then they add like you know Japan they add octopuses. Takoyaki. I think it's takoyaki. So it's savory. Yeah it's savory. This is not. This is sweet. So what are we doing 10? I think 10 is fine because just you and me. Yeah it's fine. Your favorite. And there's the batter. How long does it take to cook? A few minutes? While she's filling the whole thing up. When I think they are okay. When you think they're okay? They're ready? I think cream and the Nutella is for tourists. We eat it traditional with butter as well. Oh wow. I mean Nutella is amazing though. Nutella? I can live off Nutella. Puffer Jess. Dutch pancakes. Very small. Fluffy powdered sugar on top and the butter. Oh it's like it's like melting. Yeah where it's hot you have to put it. You gotta like just mix it in. And if you take it with the sugar. So you're ready? I'm ready. They're fluffy. A little crispy like the doughiness though. It's amazing. They're so tiny. You don't have a timer. Yeah yeah. Just she already knows. I love the butter. Oh my gosh. This is the most traditional thing you can have in Holland. Yeah. It's in the same category as the cheese, the Klompa, the windmills. Yeah. I know a lot of people in the States that are like no we invented pancakes. No the Dutch invented the pancakes. They claim the Puffer Jess. No this is the best. So very small. Very delicate. You know 10 for what is it? 4 euro. If you want to add Nutella that's for tourists. That's one more euro. Oh we lost a flag. It's okay. We'll get it. What's the timer? How many minutes? 49 seconds. Stroopwafel. Stroop. Stroop is like what you put on the pancakes. Syrup. And waffle is waffle. So stroop is syrup. Waffle it means. Got it. And so it's nice crispy. Very very thin. Yeah now they're going to. When it's open it's like flat. But because of the heat they call it open. With caramel. Caramel right? Yeah the syrup. So that's the syrup over here. We have Nutella so you can add that as well. But that's again for tourists. Yeah. I don't eat. It is it is. I don't eat with chocolate just like this. Ah Nutella with everything. Oh wow he cuts it in half. Smell it's so amazing. It just hits you. They're all with syrup. It's caramel right? Caramel. Yeah it's not syrup it's caramel. Melissa what do we have here? The cheese stand. With I think yeah only Dutch cheese. Only Dutch cheese. And you have here I think also the Gouda cheese. You want to taste? I'll have a taste yeah. And the cheese is Kaas. He asked what you want to taste. Do you want a little bit spicy or creamy? Spicy. That's for me. This is strong. This is this is oh this is old cheese. Like a year and a half they ripened it. So now it's more it has more flavor. So it's still soft but you have that old that that flavor that it's it's ripe. It's ripe but it's creamy as well. Wow so it's a little dense creaminess. And he has like 10 different variations. Yeah and the young cheese. We can taste it also that you can feel the difference. It's more creamy. Younger the Kaas. So young cheese younger Kaas. It's better to that we started with a young. Oh I got it got it. So you taste it like better but we're going to taste this one now. I would just like to have. Oh yeah it's way softer. Yeah and the flavor is softer. That's why you taste first the young. Because the flavor is softer and then you go to young and then you go to older. Because it's like stronger the taste. So next time when we're going to taste cheese. First young and then you go to old. And it's like this you have young. Then you have young belegen. What's the name of belegen? Belegen is like more ripe. It's the ripening process. Then you have belegen. Then you have extra belegen. Then you have old. And then you have extra old. And then to the point that it breaks when you want to cut it. Got it. Raw Kaas is like totally different. It's smoked cheese. Yeah he said close. But that smoke if you put this raw Kaas on a grilled cheese. It's next level. And grilled cheese is grilled cheese sandwich is a toastie. So if you do this the smoked cheese on a grilled cheese sandwich. It's like a game changer. You have to try it. Traditional. What herbs goes inside? Because I smell cinnamon. The most important is the cinnamon. Yeah. That's the most important thing. So it's sweet cookie dough. Sweet cookie dough. Sweet cookie. Important herb is the cinnamon. That's what you smell. That's what you smell the spice. Yeah. And it goes good with the caramel. That's savory? Yes that's the caramel. Caramel right there. Shall I cut them? It's better for me to eat it. Three euros for this beautiful Stroopwafel. Stroop. Stroopwafel. Let's do this. It's like a sweet cookie. Oh my gosh. Check this out. Open this up. It's hot. That caramel. Break it open. It's like a nice cookie. This with a coffee. Perfect. All right. Lekker. Oh. What was the main thing? Cinnamon? Cinnamon is the main herb. Cinnamon is the main thing they add to the Stroopwafel. To the Stroopwafel. It's a super decadent cookie. Now it's cooling off. So it's not that chewy anymore. No now it's hardened. I think trying this one time is enough. Yeah. Two times too many calories. I'm going to go in the inside because there you really have the caramel. I've never had a cookie like this. So thin at the same time. Crunchy. Yeah and the cinnamon just with the caramel is the perfect combination. The only thing I would combine it by is with cream. Ice cream. Yeah. Like some vanilla. So Melissa how much have you eaten this in your life? I mean is this like an everyday thing for Dutch people? Or is it like once a year, a party? This is something or you come with a Dutch grandmother who gives it to you. Then you eat it. But for me it's not a common thing to eat. If I'm in the market and I can eat it fresh like once. Once in the six months. It's a lot. But I like it. It's a nice tradition. So if you want some good herring come here the Wallendammer Fisvinkel. Which means fish store. What is this place called? This is Vlaardings Haringhandel. And the funny thing is Vlaarding is next to Rotterdam. But we're in Amsterdam. In the old days there was the fish handle where the fish came in. Where the sailors come in. That's why he was close to Rotterdam. But it's in Amsterdam. I'm from Amsterdam. He's from Amsterdam. We have to make that really clear. They only went to take the fish there. So and the syrup bomb is the pickle. Bread and herring. It's a lot of fish my man. Only herring. Since 1916. I'm gonna have herring the old school traditional way. Almost like a seal. So hands get a little slimy. Pick it up. Just like this. Oh my gosh. This is amazing. Cold a little bit of bones in there. I love how tender it is. It really just falls apart in your mouth. It's amazing. That's difficult. I was telling you about the first parade with herring right? Yeah 40, 50 Christmas. I was on the Alperkaapmarkt. Bye.