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Eating in Netherlands


Eating in Netherlands

A fancy serve of herring at a restaurant
A fancy serve of herring at a restaurant
Pea soup (snert) with bacon
Pea soup (snert) with bacon
The Netherlands is not known for its cuisine, but hearty Dutch fare can be quite good if done well. A conventional Dutch meal consists of meat, potatoes and some type of vegetable on the side. The Dutch, however, are known for their specialties and delicious treats:
  • Dutch cheese is particularly famous, especially Gouda, Edam, Leerdammer, Maaslander and Maasdam.
  • Raw herring (haring), which is actually cured in salt. It's available both from ubiquitous herring stands and fancy restaurants, usually served with chopped onion and occasionally even plopped into a bun to make broodje haring. New herrings (Hollandse Nieuwe) is a special treat available around June.
  • Pea soup (erwtensoep or snert), made of green peas and smoked sausage. Can be very hearty and a meal itself if there are enough potatoes and other veggies mixed in.
  • Bitterbal (a round ball of ragout covered in breadcrumbs and deep-fried), served in bars as snacks with drinks and usually arrive in groups of at least five or as part of a bittergarnituur, always with mustard. Be sure to try these, Dutch people love them.
  • Bittergarnituur, a plate containing different warm and cold snacks, like blocks of cheese, slices of sausage, bitterballen, perhaps something like chicken nuggets or mini spring rolls, and mustard or chili sauce for dipping. One usually orders a bittergarnituur along with (alcoholic) drinks, from which the name of the dish is derived (translated to English "bitterganituur" would become "Dutch gin garnish").
  • Borecole mash pot (boerenkool), mashed potatoes with borecole, often served with a sausage.
  • Asperges Flamandes. White asparagus with Hollandaise sauce, ham, crumbled hard-boiled egg and served with boiled new potatoes. Highly seasonal and usually only eaten between spring and summer.
  • Dutch Sauerkraut (zuurkool), mashed potatoes with sauerkraut.
  • Hotch-potch (hutspot), mashed potatoes with onions & carrots. Served with slowly cooked meats or sausage.
  • Stoofvlees is the slowly cooked meat eaten with hutspot.
  • Endive mashed pot (stamppot andijvie), potatoes mashed with endive and bacon.
  • Rookworst (literally "smoked sausage"), available to go from HEMA department store outlets, but also widely available in supermarkets.
  • Dutch pancakes (pannenkoeken), which are either sweet (zoet) or savoury (hartig) in variety of tastes, like apple, syrup, cheese, bacon etc. Eat them in pancake houses (pannenkoekenhuizen)
  • Food from former colonies like Indonesia and Suriname. Many traditional dished from these countries have become part of the Dutch kitchen or even staple foods.
  • For dessert:
  • Poffertjes are small slightly risen pancakes with butter and powdered sugar Eat them in poffertjeshuizen.
  • Syrup waffle (Stroopwafel). Two thin layers with syrup in between. Available packaged from any supermarket or made fresh on most street markets and specialized stalls.
  • Limburgse vlaai (predominantly in the Southern Netherlands), dozens of kinds of cold sweet pie, usually with a fruit topping.
  • Other "typically Dutch" foodstuffs are:
  • Chocolate sprinkles (Hagelslag), sprinkled on top of buttered slices of bread (much like jam).
  • Chocolate spread on bread (like Nutella).
  • Unadorned chocolate bars (Pure chocolade).
  • Dutch peanut butter on bread, which is considerably different from e.g. US peanut butter. Dutch peanut butter is also the basis for Dutch Indonesian or 'Indo' saté (satay) sauce which also contains lots of Asian herbs and spices.
  • A bread roll with butter and a slice of cheese for lunch, rather than more elaborate lunches,
  • Dutch coffee (dark, high caffeine grounds, traditionally brewed),
  • Liquorice (drop) is something you love or hate, you can buy all kinds of varieties. You can get it from sweet to extremely salty (double salt) and in a hard or soft bite.
  • Tompouce (a mille-feuille or Napolean).
  • Nonnenvotten (a Limburgish braided doughnut sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. Usually seasonal in the winter).
  • Some of these "typically Dutch" foodstuffs taste significantly different from, but do not necessarily improve upon, specialties from other countries. For example, while Dutch coffee and chocolate can instill feelings of homesickness in expats and might be seen as "soul food", fine Belgian chocolate and Italian coffees (espresso, etc.) are considered to be delicacies. Other seasonal food: Pepernoten, Kruidnoten, taai-taai, kerststol, paasstol, oliebollen.

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    Netherlands Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

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