With only three hours to explore Amsterdam, I spent my time walking and walking and walking. The city is beautiful; the architecture, the crowds, the ambience of a vibrant city full of people from all over the world. I loved it. So I didn’t want to waste a moment of my time sitting in a restaurant when there was still so much to see. Instead, I opted for street food. The most popular item seemed to be frites (French fries). There were competing frites stands everywhere, even side-by-side.
Though there were many frites toppings available (ketchup, curry, cheese, mustard), by far the most popular seemed to be mayo. In fact, several frites stands boasted their own special sauce (doctored-up mayo). So, I did what everyone else did: I ordered mine with mayo and received a cone full of frites and a tiny wooden spork to fish out the last few frites from the bottom of the cone. It was delicious! I walked around with my treat and explored more of Amsterdam. I forgot to see how many of these frites stands were next to the multitude of coffee shops where I’m sure most of the people emerging had the munchies. Let’s just say the number of coffee shops and frites stands were about even.
Browsing The Atlas 
When I was in Amsterdam, I was on a “Fries & Mayo” diet! I remember those things being expensive but they filled me up so quick! I’d walk it or bike it all off in the afternoon or early evening, because lets face it, as good as those things are, they’re probably like 1000calories!
I wasn’t there long enough to learn if they were called anything else. Patats sounds right. They were delicious!
Frites with mayo – yummy! The best frites with mayo I ever had was in Montreal. We went to a little shop that had a menu with countless different mayos you could put on them. I’m not even a big mayo person, but these were delicious!
Same with me. I barely ever use mayo, but tried the frites with regular mayo and curry mayo. I liked the regular better and thought I’d eat them that way in the States when I got back, but it just wasn’t the same. I’m sure the fries in Montreal were as good, though I would have spent my French fry calories there on poutine. 😉