A beautiful blue spring sky greeted us this morning, bright and early for an 8am canal boat tour on a wooden boat built in 1928, the Jonckvrouw. We boarded with seven others to share a 90-minute early morning cruise through the canals with our guide Jan — a fantastic guide and guy, by the way — through Captain Dave’s Canal Cruises Amsterdam.

A Grand Dutch Food & History Tour in Jordaan

After that relaxing ride along the peaceful canals as the city started to come to life, we met up with Rudolph from Amsterdam Food Tours for our Grand Dutch Food & History Tour in the Jordaan neighborhood.

We began at The Papeneiland, a historic brown cafe, for coffee and apple pie.

Strolling to the next food stop…

Next was a stop at a 130-year-old butcher shop for a tasting of rookworst, grillworst, and Zeeuws spek. Excellent.

Strolling to the next food stop…

That was followed by a tasting of Dutch cheese and wine — cheeses we picked up at a local shop to have with the wine at Design & Wijn. We’re familiar with Dutch cheese, but Dutch wine? Who knew?

Around the corner we stopped at a takeaway fishmonger for very traditional herring and kibbeling. The herring was surprisingly good, and the fried cod was fantastic.

Further on brought us to a new establishment for Indonesian street food: chicken satay with peanut sauce, cassava chips, and pickled salad. This was all stunning, and the two young guys who opened and run this restaurant deserve all the best — they make everything themselves and serve it with care and pride. A shout-out to The Satay Club!

A final stroll brought us to our last destination for a drink of jenever and some bitterballen — a tasty treat to end a fantastic tour. A truly great morning and afternoon in the Canal Ring of Amsterdam.

An Evening to Remember

To cap off a wonderful day, we passed back through to the edge of Jordaan to a small restaurant, The Good Companion.

It has a small, all-seafood menu that changes regularly, broken down into bar bites, small plates, and large plates. We opted for bar bites of a seafood charcuterie, mussel croquettes, and anchovy toasts, and kept going back and forth over which one we liked best.

Then we had a series of small plates to share, starting with the sea bream crudo with lemongrass cream, blackberries, and Thai basil.

Next, local mussels in a delicious tomato fennel broth.

And finally, their take on a smash burger made with hamachi — all delicious.

Wonderful staff allowed us to pace our meal and shared in our joy over their magnificent food. And then back through Jordaan as the sun was beginning to set.

This was day two of our Amsterdam adventure — catch up on our first day arriving in the city. Next up we are on our way to Delft.