Situated on the corner of the Houtstraat and the Lange Hezelstraat, the Blonde Pater is my favorite spot for lunch on a busy shopping day in the center of Nijmegen. They excel in sandwiches with a variety of breads ranging from toasted cornbread to crisp ciabatta. The fillings ranging from goat cheese vegetarian concoctions to a mean mouthwatering pastrami. On a paleo diet? Then go for their sumptuous salads. My favorite is the Sydney salad generously topped with large shrimp and prepared with an Asian dressing.
In accompaniment to the great dishes, the Blonde Pater has an excellent range of coffees, teas and thirst quenching fresh beverages. Personally I almost always go for their homemade fresh ginger tea in the winter and homemade ginger ale in the summer. The ginger tea featured in the photo below is on its own a treat consisting of paper thin slices of ginger, a stick of cinnamon and a wedge of lime served with honey.
For the adventurous, I recommend planning your visit on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday evening when they serve pinchos. These are culinary creations mostly stacked on small slices of bread. Ordinarily, you would be able to eat pinchos as finger food. However, their pinchos are quite formidable. The way each piece of bread is stacked with a tower of creative ingredients makes it physically impossible to take a bite without causing an avalanche down your shirt front. I’ve enjoyed their pinchos in several occasions and am surprised they have not yet run out of creative ingredient combinations. An example would be grilled eggplant with a sweet sauce topped with a dried date stuffed with cream cheese or a half egg stuffed with salmon tartare and shrimp and avocado. The pinchos go for 1.90 euros each and the end tally is made by counting the decorative toothpick that holds the tower of food in place. Note, six of these pinchos is enough to fill you up for the evening.
