If you simply ask them to serve you with their specialty, appeltaart with a side of whip cream will be served to you pronto! Don’t fancy sweets and you are after something quite ‘Dutch?’ You can then enjoy the snacks served at convenient outlets such as FEBO and Smuller found scattered around the city central. After inserting your EUR1.40 you can choose from a frikandel, croquet or fish sticks and a serving of patat (or sometimes they call it Flametjes referring to Flemish fries) met frites sauce (fries with mayonnaise or even peanut sauce) to fulfill your desire to taste a bit of ‘Dutch.’

When needing a puff, a drink and a night out: One thing everyone seems to know about Amsterdam is of course the city’s relaxed attitude towards soft drugs, most notably cannabis with a cacophony of coffeeshops (official weed selling and smoking establishments) spread around the city. The most famous of all coffeeshops is perhaps The Bulldog (Amsterdam’s first coffeeshop when the new cannabis laws were implemented in 1976), a chain of touristy coffeshops with many outlets found dotted around the city-the Red Light district and Leidseplein to name two. If it’s a coffeeshop with more pizzazz and less tourists you’re looking for, head down to Amnesia in the swanky Herengracht or the Dampkring on Haarlemstraat 24. As coffeeshops adopt strict age rules and compulsory identity verification, if you do want to enjoy a puff in a coffeeshop, always be sure to bring along some form of official identification with you and don’t bother trying to go into one if you’re under 18.

Besides coffeeshops and bars, Amsterdam does boast the two best live music venues in the country, the Paradiso and the Melkweg, both situated in the hip (yet touristy) Lediseplein area which often appear in Ffonz’ live music reviews.

Like the Paradiso, the Melkweg gained notoriety in the sixties and seventies yet has shaken up its image since those days as the venue offers not only two concert halls but also a photo gallery, small theatre and hip bar (with pricey drinks). Both venues have embraced the 21st century by both adopting the regulatory non-smoking policy, which can feel weird when attending a concert. For something much more mainstream, Amsterdam’s most glamorous club Jimmy Woo (Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 18) with its tedious (or perfectly normal; depending on your point of view) dandy dress codes would perhaps be your thing.

When it comes to bars and cafes, Amsterdam has a little too many to mention so the best we can do is point you in the right direction. Leidseplein (take trams 1,2,4 or 5 from Centraal Station) is always a great place to start as this small town square and its surrounding small streets are littered with cafes, bars and pubs from the seedy to the hoi polloi. If jazz happens to be your thing then be sure to check out Jazz Café Alto, a legendary jazz den at one time frequented by Duke Ellington and Count Basie, which on many nights feature live jazz trios/quartets/quintets on Korte Leidsedwaarstraat just off Leidseplein.

The streets around the canals (Herengracht, Prinsengracht and Kaizersgracht), Dam Square, Spuiplein are also jam packed with bars and cafes so picking one out would be quite easy. One of the most well known underground hang out places in the city is the squatter’s bar Vrankrijk (pictured) on Spuistraat 216 with it’s strange yet endearing entrance procedures (one would need to ring a door bell and walk past colourful squatter accommodations before entering the bar) yet is unfortunately currently closed due to the city’s ever hanging attitudes towards property squatters.