A Dutch café is like a coffeehouse, and a pub. Many will sell a few simple items of food — the tosti* being king — but the principal fare is coffee and beer.

The average café in Holland has three beers on tap, and some in bottles. It will have some wine and harder drinks — plus coffee and tea. It would have juice and soft-drinks, as well, normally, and hot chocolate.

All I'd normally have in a café is coffee or beer. For coffee, the cafés are excellent. For beer, they are atrocious.

Yesterday, a Tuesday, I showed up at de Blaauwe Hand, here in Nijmegen, just as the guy was opening it, at 1:00 in the afternoon. I sat at my favorite table, outside, kind of around the corner from the activity, by the lane that goes up around and behind the old church. I got a "koffie," which is strong, small, black, and very tasty. With it, I got a small square of chocolate — there should always be a chocolate or a cookie. I also got a complementary half-shot of liqueur. I've only seen that here in Nijmegen; not in Amsterdam, when I lived there.

But none of that is the best part of a Dutch café. The best part of a Dutch café is the relaxed nature of service. It'll make you crazy, if you're waiting with any impatience; but its rewards come if you can wait.

Having gotten coffee, I sat for as long as I wanted to. I wrote. I "read" the Dutch newspaper, with my dictionary, and made notes. I relaxed, and worked at my own business.

The waiter never returned. He never came to clear my table. This is normal.

I sat for an hour — I checked. It's normal to sit for an hour or more. It doesn't even look strange. The two women who sat at the adjacent table had arrived at the same time I had. They were still sitting when I left.

That's the beauty of Dutch coffee. You can enjoy it, unbothered. It's a remarkable sensation.