Our Thanksgiving Feast (Amsterdam Style)

It has become a tradition for us to eat our Thanksgiving dinner in Amsterdam at the Pancake Bakery. The restaurant is a small little place on the Prisengracht canal, just down from the Anne Frank house. When we first started coming to Amsterdam, we just happened to stop by on a cold day and loved the food. Since then we have found it listed in almost all of the tour books!



The bakery is on the 1st and 2nd floors of the building. A steep wooden Dutch staircase leads to the 2nd floor.


The menu is amazing! Most of the pancake and omelet selections were created in honor of specific countries or regions of the world. Pancakes are traditional thin crepe-style pancakes that are bigger than a normal-size dinner plate (yes, the plates here are bigger than a Corelle dinner plate!).


The staff cooks the pancakes and other foods on a grill not far from the tables on the first floor.


That's the Thanksgiving spirit! Jagger stares off into space, Justice chews an extra straw, Journey sips his Chocomel, while Jeff checks his "Crackberry". Of course I was embarrassing them all by snapping pictures and having the flash light up the whole restaurant!






My plate. I was the boring one this trip. After too many Stroopwaffles and slices of spice cake the night before, I just couldn't stomach a sweet pancake, so I ordered the ham, cheese and onion pancake. It was delicious - the pancake was fried with crispy edges. It was excellent with my fresh squeezed orange juice (we watched them squeeze it).

Jeff was a little more adventureous. He ordered the Canadian Omlet.


It contained Canadian ham and cheeses and was served with salad.



The look on Jagger's face when they brought his plate was priceless. He was quite amazed!



Jagger and Justice both ordered the Dutch Pancake plate. It was an enormous thin pancake, covered in powered sugar, cherries, vanilla ice cream, and mounds of whipped cream (the normal version usually includes cherry liquer too).

The first spoonful - all whipped cream, of course!



Whipped cream all over his face, he goes in for another bite.

Journey - the boy who loves chocolate - chose a pancake drizzled in chocolate syrup, with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and powdered sugar. I don't think he knew where to start!


Look at that develish face!


Justice tries to figure out where to start too!


He likes it!

All three kids tired out before their plates were empty (thank goodness!)


Journey sits back to relax after eating all of the whipped cream, ice cream, and half the pancake.


Justice wrestles with cutting the last of his pancake and then gives up.


Journey starts to go into a sugar coma.



Jagger can't take another bite. "Someone take it away!"

-After filling the childrens' stomach with complete sugar, we were sure to take the long way - the very, very, very long way - back to the apartment. And it worked! After walking through Amsterdam looking at the sights for almost two hours, the sugar had worn off and they were tired!

Overall it was a nice time. The kids don't usually eat a lot of sweets so this was a very special treat - something we only do in Amsterdam. And even though everyone was a little tired, we were able to give our thanks and discuss our gratitude for our health and happiness.