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Although this area of Holland is home to some of the country's most worldly restaurants, keep in mind that most bars also offer house specials whose prices are usually cheap enough to keep students and young people sated (keep an eye out for the kleine kaart, or lighter meal menu, usually offered in the bar area and available throughout the day). Perennially popular dishes such as satay and pepper steak never come off the menu.
Stepping into "The Laughing Javanese," off an old Haarlem street that hasn't changed in centuries, you are hit with a flash of color and pungent smells. You can sit upstairs at one of the window tables and look out over the sober gabled houses while eating kambing saté (skewers of lamb in soy sauce) and kipkarbonade met sambal djeroek (grilled chicken with a fiery Indonesian sauce), or cobble together a meal of 12 or more small dishes if you want.
