Dutch food
when in The Netherlands, eat like the Dutch!
All that cycling, the traditional mode of transport in The Netherlands, creates a healthy appetite.
The bicycle, combined with the unpredictable Dutch weather, heavily influenced Dutch
cuisine, which offers substantial, simple, and straight-forward fare.
Here is the daily eating pattern of the Dutch: round the clock.
breakfast
Start your day with a wholesome Dutch breakfast: an egg, some fresh bread with butter and jam, cheese, ham, peanut butter
or chocolate sprinkles ('hagelslag'). Yes, you've read it correctly: Scatter chocolate
sprinkles on your buttered bread. Breakfast cereals and muesli are also popular, served with milk or yoghurt.
You might also want to eat a slice of 'ontbijtkoek' (breakfast cake, tastes a bit like gingercake), a cake containing cinnamon and cloves as well as ground ginger. Be sure to
drink lots of coffee or tea! Get yourself ready for the chilly rain, strong wind, wet snow
storm or radiant sunny day. The Dutch climate is full of whimsical surprises.
coffee
At around 10:30 a.m. it's time for the traditional cup of coffee.
A cup of coffee isn't just a cup of coffee in The Netherlands. The small, but strong, cup is to be
savoured while reading the newspaper or conversing at length with friends or collegues. Coffee is given
as much time and consideration as a full meal! It is served and observed everywhere: at
home, at the office, in shops or at school.
lunch
Lunch is another bread and butter meal, perhaps a bread roll this time, served with thinly
sliced cold meats. More coffee, tea, milk, buttermilk or a fruit juice. Most Dutch people also have some fruit at lunchtime and sometimes a nice, healthy salade.
Most Dutch people still take a packed lunch to work, typically consisting of a sandwich with brown bread and cheese (known as a bruine boterham met kaas) and half a pint of buttermilk, with a piece of fruit. Dutch office workers often eat a similar meal in their office canteens. Alternatively, they may go for a broodje bal (a meatball on a soft white bun), a sausage roll, a tosti (usually a toasted sandwich with ham and cheese ), a broodje kroket (a deep fried meat ragout croquette on a soft bun), soup or a salad, with a buttered roll and a boiled egg.
An 'uitsmijter' will satisfy
your hunger pangs. It consists of bread with slices of cheese or meat, topped with fried
eggs. In winter a simple order of Dutch pea soup (erwtensoep) will satisfy your hunger and
re-charge your batteries. Look for these specialties on the menu.
tea time
At about 3.30 p.m. it's time for tea.
Be sure to try a delicious Dutch pastry ('gebak') or a piece of 'vlaai' from the
province of Limburg. If you walk past a cafe‚ or small restaurant that advertises 'poffertjes',
be sure to walk in and try these mini pancakes with lashings of butter and sugar. If you're
in the mood for a snack while on the move, grab a cone of French fries ('patat') smothered in
mayonnaise or sate sauce. Try it before you judge!
the 'borrel'
At approximately 5 p.m. it's time for a drink, a 'borrel' as the Dutch call it.
A glass of beer, a nip of Dutch jenever (Dutch gin), a glass of wine or sherry accompanied
by cheese, nuts, or crackers. A favourite snack is 'bitterballen', deep-fried breaded
meat balls, eaten by toothpick and dipped in mustard. Mmmm! Lekker (as the Dutch say!)
Speaking of mustard: In the picturesque restored village of Zaanse Schans, you can visit a
genuine mustard mill and see how mustard seeds are actually ground into the delicious
result. The Zaanse Schans mustard is well worth tasting and purchasing!
dinner
Come dinnertime, the choice of food in The Netherlands is as varied as the weather. Restaurants
representing The Netherlands's multicultural backgrounds have mushroomed all over, ranging from
French to Indonesian to Thai to Pakistani.
The Dutch dine early, with many families eating as early as 5 or 6pm. The meal often consists of meat and two vegetables, or a stamppot (vegetable mash, consisting of one or more kinds of vegetables, and served with a gravy, rookworst, a smoked sausage, or another meat). Stews and hearty legume-based soups that are a meal in themselves are very popular too, e.g. brown bean soup, pea soup and lentil soup. Dinner is often followed by a dessert of fruit, cold custard or yoghurt and a cup of coffee.
If you ask a Dutch man or
woman what is being served for dinner, he or she will first mention the vegetable being
served. The meat, fish or chicken takes second place.
after dinner
After dinner, the Dutch enjoy a cup of coffee or tea. In fact, if you are invited to someone's home after dinner, you'll first be served coffee or tea with a biscuit or a piece of cake or pie. This is followed by a drink. Visiting friends and family in each other's homes is part of traditional, fine Dutch hospitality. It's a way of life.
Delicious Dutch Treats:
bitterballen
Savoury Creamy Meatballs would be an appropriate translation of the word 'bitterballen'.
These deep-fried meatballs are filled with a beef ragout and have a crispy outside. They
are often served at cocktail parties or as a snack with a pre-dinner drink. You eat these
tasty deep-fried morsels hot, on a toothpick, dipped in mustard.
kroketten
These golden brown fried tasty titbits can be eaten as a cocktail treat, but they can also be inserted in a bread roll, smothered in mustard, and devoured as a tasty mini-sandwich. The kroket is the larger version of the bitterbal. Any snack bar has a kroket for you.
beer
There are many famous Dutch beer brands, some of them are probably familiar to you. Names such as Heineken, Amstel, Bavaria, Dommelsch, Grolsch and Oranjeboom: they are all Dutch and sold worldwide. Would you like to see how Dutch beer is made? At the Heineken Experience, located in the former brewery of Heineken, you can experience the history of Heineken and enjoy a tour where you can see the process of making beer, test your knowledge and even taste some! The Heineken Experience is located at Stadhouderskade 78 in Amsterdam.
herring
The herring season in The Netherlands opens every year, on a Saturday, in late May with a festival
called 'Vlaggetjesdag', or Flag Day. Large and small ships are decorated with a
rainbow of flags in the harbour at Scheveningen, a holiday resort and seaport located near
The Hague. Herring and Scheveningen are so closely related that the city's coat of arms bear three
herrings topped with a crown of gold.
People from nearby fishing villages put on their
traditional costumes, while folk dancing and folk orchestras entertain the crowds with
local music. This is a tradition that dates back to the 14th century when fishermen went
out to sea in their small boats to capture the annual catch. Today this ritual has become
more of a tourist attraction and a way of promoting the new herring season.
The Dutch herring industry today boasts around 25 large ships, about 300 feet long, containing all the facilities necessary to mechanically catch, clean, cure, freeze, and store the fish. When the boats have caught the herring they all race back to port where the first ship to arrive is awarded a $1,500 prize. This money is then donated by the winning ship's captain to Greenpeace, an environmental group. Queen Beatrix is given the first barrel of the new herring sold at the auction.
Restaurants, stores, and herring carts announce the new season by posting signs. Abroad in Belgium, France, Germany, and England a Dutch flag is hoisted before a fish market, store, or restaurant also indicating the opening of the new season.
The way to eat the fish, usually as a snack, is to hold it by the tail over one's mouth and
lower it while eating. It can also be consumed on a roll, with or without chopped onions.
Herring can be known by various names. Some of these names are Maatjes, Schmaltz, Kipper, and Bismarck. Maatjes are a delicate, young fish which was once only servant's food but now feasted upon by all. They are juicy and salty. Schmaltz, or the fat herring, is less saltier but fattier. This is a direct result of adding spices and sugars to the Maatjes. Kipper, once a British breakfast fame, is a herring cold-smoked after pickling. Bismarck herring is so called because at one time the German chancellor, Bismarck, loved herring and ate it preferably marinated in vinegar and salt. All these forms of pickled herring are cured in a salt brine of varying strengths.