Throw your diet out the window. Dutch cuisine favours deep fried dishes like Bitterballen, fries served with mayonnaise, Stampot with potatoes and smoked sausage, and poffertjes – tiny pancakes dusted with icing sugar to create lightweight clouds of heaven. The Dutch are not shy when it comes to alcohol either, producing world-class beers such as Heineken and Jenever gin. Don’t forget to try a ‘koffie verkeerd’ – literally ‘coffee wrong’, but in actual fact oh so right.
Entrees:
Erwtensoep (pea soup)
Bitterballen deep fried meatballs
Kroket (deep fried ragout and potato croquette) – served with fries or broodje (bread)
Mains:
Haring Raw herring
Kibbeling white fish, Smoked Eel
Dutch-Indonesian Rijsttafel (rice table) selection
Hotch-potch mashed potatoes with onions & carrots.
Asperges Flamandes asparagus, ham and egg
Rookworst smoked sausage
Kaassoufflé melted cheese and bread
Snacks:
Vlaamse Friet French fries and mayonnaise
Mixed plate of Bittergarnituur: cheese, sausage, bitterballen, chicken nuggets or mini spring rolls, mustard (normally served with alcohol)
Kapsalon (fries with döner and shawarma kebab meat)
Ontbijtkoek rye, cinnamon and ginger cake
Dutch satay peanut butter (Pindakaas)
Dessert:
Poffertjes pancakes
Stroopwafel (syrup wafel)
Pastries: Nonnevot, moorkop, bossche bol
Cookies: Kruidnoten, Pepernoten, and Taai-Taai
Oliebollen (deep fried dough balls)
Hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles)
Dutch liquorice
‘Magic’ Space Cakes!
Cheese:
Gouda, Edam, Leerdammer, Maaslander, Maasdam
Coffee:
Douwe Egberts, Koffie verkeerd
Beer:
Heineken, Grolsch, Brand, Bavaria, Amstel, Dutch white beers
Spirits:
Jenever (Dutch gin) Oude (old, sweet) and jonge (young, dry),
Beerenburg (jenever with herbs)
Oranjebitter
Courtney Gahan is a serial expat, traveller and freelance writer who has bartered with Moroccan marketeers, seen the sun rise at Angkor Wat and elbowed her way through crowds on NYE in NYC
