De Pijp and the Albert Cuyp Market

De Pijp is where Amsterdam eats, and its Albert Cuyp Market is the most famous street market in the Netherlands. The neighbourhood was built in the late nineteenth century, just outside the Canal Ring, as cheap housing for workers; its long, straight streets of narrow apartment blocks earned it the nickname De Pijp, the Pipe. Through the twentieth century it became the home of students, artists and successive waves of immigrants from Suriname, Morocco, Turkey and beyond, and today it is a dense, cosmopolitan, endlessly sociable district of terraces and kitchens. Its spine is the Albert Cuypstraat, where a market has been held since the early twentieth century and where, from Monday to Saturday, hundreds of stalls line the street selling vegetables, fish, cheese, flowers, clothes, phone cases and, above all, snacks: stroopwafels pressed and filled while you wait, fresh raw herring with onions and pickles, kibbeling (battered fish), poffertjes (tiny puffed pancakes dusted with sugar), Surinamese broodjes and Dutch cheeses to taste. The side streets are lined with cafés, bakeries, natural-wine bars, Indonesian and Surinamese restaurants and some of the most interesting modern kitchens in the city, and the Sarphatipark, a small, pretty nineteenth-century park in the middle of the neighbourhood, is the place to sit with your market haul. The Heineken Experience stands on the northern edge, the Museum Quarter is across the canal, and the Noord/Zuid metro line stops at De Pijp, making it easy to reach from Centraal. Wandering is free; the market is closed on Sundays.

How to do it: arrive mid-morning on a weekday, when the market is fully set up but not yet packed, and walk its length eating as you go. A classic progression is a warm stroopwafel, a herring or a portion of kibbeling, a bag of poffertjes and a few slices of aged Gouda, followed by a coffee in a side-street café. Then wander the neighbourhood's grid — the streets around the Gerard Douplein and the Sarphatipark are especially lively — and pick a terrace for lunch. On Saturdays the market is at its busiest and most atmospheric, but it is also crowded; keep an eye on your bag and phone. Many stalls take cards, but some smaller ones prefer cash.

Eating beyond the market: De Pijp has one of the densest restaurant scenes in Amsterdam, and it is a good place to try the city's culinary inheritance from the former Dutch colonies. Surinamese food, a mix of Creole, Javanese, Hindustani and Chinese influences, is a local staple — try a roti or a sandwich with roast pork — and Indonesian rijsttafel, the many-dish feast that is effectively a Dutch national treat, is served in several neighbourhood restaurants. In the evening, the streets fill with people heading to bars and brasseries, and the area stays lively without the rowdiness of the Leidseplein or the Red Light District. Reservations are wise for dinner on weekends.

Who will love it: food lovers above all, but also families, who will enjoy the snacks and the Sarphatipark's playground, and couples, for whom De Pijp is one of the best places in the city for a long, unhurried dinner. It pairs naturally with the Heineken Experience on its northern edge, the Rijksmuseum and the Vondelpark a short walk west, and a stroll along the Amstel to the east, past the Magere Brug.