Food in the Netherlands is characterized by the fact that the local cuisine consists of simple and tasty dishes.
Food in the Netherlands
The diet of local residents contains meat, fish, rice, vegetables, dairy products, soups (the basis of the popular soup is ham, smoked sausage, carrots, celery, peas).
In the Netherlands, you should try Dutch cheese (Edam, Maasdam, Gouda, Maaslander, Leerdammer); salted herring; pea soup; Dutch pancakes with apple, cheese and other fillings (pannenkoeken); mashed potatoes with sauerkraut (zuurkool); fried meat goulash (kroketten); smoked eel (derookte paling);
Where to eat in the Netherlands? At your service:
- restaurants with European and Chinese-Indonesian cuisines;
- snack bars, street stalls and other fast food establishments (McDonalds, FeBo).
During your holiday in the country, you can taste different cuisines: for example, in big cities you can taste Thai cuisine (“Nieuwmarkt”, Amsterdam), and in the Chinese regions you can enjoy real Chinese food.
In the Netherlands, you will never be hungry - at every public transport stop you will find local eateries called “cafeteria” and “friture” - here you can buy fried potatoes, ordering ketchup, mayonnaise, cold applesauce, peanut or curry sauce.
If you decide to visit a restaurant, then you should take into account that you will have to wait for your order for a long time (it is not customary to serve customers quickly, since they do not go here to have a quick meal, but to relax with a family or a company of friends).
Drinks in the Netherlands
Popular drinks in the Netherlands are tea, coffee, juices, cocoa, beer, liqueur, juniper vodka (Enever).
Various types of beer (from light to dark) are brewed in the country, so lovers of the foamy drink should try Heineken, Bavaria, Brand, Amstel, Grolsch, Oranjieboom.
Gastronomic tour to the Netherlands
Cheese lovers will be able to go on an excursion involving a visit to the Big Cheese Market in Alkmaar, as well as the city of Edam, where Edam cheese is produced. Alternatively, you can taste Gouda cheese when you visit the family-run cheese factory and the Cheese Museum.
Since the country is famous not only for cheeses, but also for wine, as part of a gastronomic tour, you can visit wine farms (there are more than 200 of them here). So, a trip to the oldest winery Apostelhuwe (located in the province of Limburg) will be organized for you, where you can learn about the production technology and taste different types of wines.
If your goal is to learn how to cook national cuisine with your own hands under the guidance of an experienced chef, you should go to the culinary school, which is located in The Hague.
The Netherlands is not only a country of windmills, canals and tulips, but also of delicious food (the number of restaurants awarded with Michelin stars increases every year).
