Foodies and Flowers: Aelbert Cuyp Market

“I can’t imagine living without a bicycle” - Most repeated quote among expats living in Amsterdam.

“I’m so tired of sandwiches.” - Second most repeated quote among expats living in Amsterdam.

With that sentiment in mind, I spent a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the Aelbert Cuyp Market, Holland’s iconic open air market that stretches for several city block in the old south section of Amsterdam.

A walk through the market gives you a first-hand introduction to the high-quality, fresh, and local products for which The Netherlands is famous.  It’s fitting that this small country is the greenhouse of Europe--and I don’t mean GHG gases, I am talking about the wonderful product and of course, the stunning flowers that are grown here.

If you are a fan of open markets, Aelbert Cuyp (yes, as in the old Dutch Master painter), ranks up there with Namdaemun in Seoul, Riga’s retrofitted aircraft hangar market in Latvia, and -ahem- the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market, of course.

So after three days of sandwiches at the GRI Conference, I traipsed around Aelbert Cuyp, where I bought--ingredients for sandwiches.  It was a feast perfect for Julia Child or Lynne Rosetto Kasper: a whole roasted chicken (not the lopsided-breast variety endemic in North America); Greek olives slathered in garlic and oregano; fresh local tomatoes; local strawberries whose fragrance spoke to me; a slab of Dutch cheese; and chocolate covered orange peel (from a vendor that also had chocolate creations in the shape of genitalia, which I skipped).  I passed on all the pirated clothing and accessories--it's all similar to what you find in downtown L.A. or New York.

Sadly, what I really wanted to buy were the flowers from the gorgeous stands, but I already had some arrangements that I poached from the conference.

I then biked to Amsterdam’s Vondelpark, which makes for a perfect lazy Saturday afternoon--I was especially zapped since I had gotten lost, foolishly, along the way.  The results of my picnic are here (no, I didn’t eat all that at one sitting):