Traditional Dutch Food

Although food from all over the world is available in restaurants and supermarkets, traditional Dutch cooking shows no sign of dying out. Its origins lie in Holland’s agricultural past and it features local produce such as bread, potatoes, root vegetables, greens, pork and beef products plus a variety of dairy produce including the famous Dutch cheeses.

A traditional Dutch main meal would include mashed potatoes sometimes mixed with green vegetables ("stamppot"), pork in the form of smoked sausage or bacon cubes and a rich gravy. Meat balls are also popular served with gravy and potatoes. Lamb and mutton are rarely eaten and hard to find, horse meat is popular, however. Some of the more unusual vegetables often eaten are sauerkraut, chicory and kale.

Thick soups form another popular meal, the most famous being "erwtensoep", a substantial pea and ham soup containing the ubiquitous smoked sausage and brown bean soup ("bruinebonensoep") with brown beans replacing the peas.

Holland has a colonial past in the far east and the Dutch have acquired a taste for Indonesian dishes. Indonesian ingredients are available in supermarkets and some have found their way into mainstream cooking.

Holland borders the North Sea so a lot of fish is eaten both smoked and fresh. The most notable fish dish is the "zoute haring" which consists of an uncooked herring, filleted while you wait and eaten with chopped onions as a snack . Herring is usually picked by the tail and dropped whole into the mouth or with a fork from a small plate. Very much an acquired taste for the foreigner but extremely popular with the Dutch. Smoked eels are also considered a great delicacy. Stalls selling seafood, including ready-to-eat fried fish, such as smoked salmon, smoked eel, Dutch shrimps are common in all Dutch towns.

Dairy products loom large in the Dutch diet. A lot of milk and buttermilk is drunk by all ages and yoghurt is sold by the litre in supermarkets. A lot of cheese is consumed and whole cheeses can still be found on display in shops. Pieces are cut and sliced while you wait. The most popular variety is Gouda, not the red-coated Edam often seen in the rest of Europe.

Snack-bars are found everywhere selling all kinds of filled rolls and deep-fried snacks . Most notable of these is the "kroket" which is a kind of meat ragout, coated in bread crumbs and deep fried. Chips (patat or french fries) are popular and served with mayonnaise. Visitors are often surprised by the coin operated food dispensers found in snack bars. They consist of many small compartments with glass doors which open when a coin is inserted.

Restaurants selling Indonesian and Chinese food are found all over Holland and a take-away meal is a popular choice. Vietnamese street vendors are also a common sight selling "loempias" a kind of spring roll.

A popular late night take-away snack is the "shoarma". This is a kind of middle-eastern kebab which consists of highly spiced meat served with salad and hot sauce, garlic or tomato sauce in a pita bread roll.

Dairy products play a large part in the Dutch diet.                                        Horse meat is eaten in Holland and specialist horse meat butchers are quite common.                                                                                                     Sea Food is widely available in specialist shops and street stalls.             Mussels are popular in season with restaurants doing "all you can eat" deals. Wholemeal bread and other dark varieties outsell white bread.                   Salted liquorice sweets ("drop") are enormously popular and come in many varieties.                                                                                                   Dutch Beer is world famous. It’s cheap and plentiful in supermarkets, crates containing 24 bottles are often taken home.                                            Holland’s favorite strong drink is Dutch gin ("jenever"), which is made from distilled malt wine and juniper berries (borrel) a small glass of jonge jenever.                                                                                                    Cakes and pastries containing marzipan and almonds are popular at Christmas. "Oliebollen" are a type of spicy doughnut traditionally eaten on New Year’s Eve. Mobile shops making and selling them appear in late autumn.                            Bar snacks include a plate of borrelhapjes – kroketten (meat or shrimp croquettes) or bitterballen, meatballs coated with breadcrumbs, deep fried and served with mustard. Satay sticks met pinder saus – pieces of meat with either pork or chicken served with hot and spicy peanut butter sauce.                         Ontbijtkoek or peperkoek is a healthy cake often eaten with butter for breakfast.                                                                                           Croissants sold with cheese, ham, liver, shrimp, smoked eel, steak tartare (raw spiced meat, minced) salad or herring                                               Stroopwafel – 2 thin wafers sandwiched together with syrup served warm.          Appelgebak – (appel pie) made with special rum soaked raisons and apples and cinnamon topped with warm cream                                                             Quail, partridge, pheasant, hare and rabbit all popular winter dishes, mostly cooked in beer, wine or cognac.                                                             Surinam hearty curries with roti bread                                                     Chicory and ham baked with cheese                                                          White asparagus served with ham and chopped egg (in May and June)Boerenkool – stampot met worst (cabbage mashed with potatoes and served with smoked sausage or rookworst

Restaurants selling Dutch cuisine in Amsterdam is Dorrius, Haesje Claes, De Blaauwe Hollander, De Poort ( Hotel Die Poort van Cleve)                            Menus consists of: ‘Hutspot’ met Klapstuk (Hotchpotch of meat with mashed carrots and potatoes. ‘Stampot’ van Zuurkool en worst’ (sauerkraut mashed with potatoes and sausage).                                                                     Traditional recipe – ‘Jachtschotel’ (Hunters Dish) made with stewed venison covered with mashed potato, topped with slices of apple and breadcrumbs and served with red cabbage.                                                                             Fowl accompanied by appel sauce or ‘stoofpeertjes’ (little stewing pears cooked in red wine and cinnamon) or red current sauce.                                             Sweet Pancakes – Crepe Bresillienes, filled with ice-cream coated with a warm chocolate and half coffee sauce. Pancakes also topped with Grand Marnier, strawberries or chocolate sauce and whipped cream or syrup.                   Savoury Pancakes – topped with meat, tomato, cheese or mushroom ragout, egg and bacon.                                                                                           Poffetjes – small pancake balls filled with cream, served warm with sprinkled sugar                                                                                                         Toco bar – Indonesian take away food and speciality spice and herb store.