eating out

Dutch restaurants

Yes, there is an indigenous Dutch cuisine. We're sorry to have to report that it's not particularly good. With as many different mammals, fish and birds as are raised in the Netherlands, they certainly have as many meat ingredients as could be imagined. (OK, they don't eat snails or civet as do the French, but that's all right.) Dishes are indeed based upon meat, with potatoes or beans used as starch. Vegetables tend to be cooked to death at least once and sometimes twice.

The national dish is erwtensoep, a form of split-pea soup that traditionally is made with sausages, bacon and pig trotters. Other specialties include hutspot (mashed potatoes cooked with onions, carrots and sausage), stamppot -- much the same, but with chopped kale, jägerschnitzel (stewed venison), saté (cubed meat with an Indonesian peanut sauce) and tartar -- minced, raw steak. A popular lunch food is uitsmijter: a slice of plain bread topped with ham, cheese and a couple of eggs, sunny-side up. The worst-sounding regional specialty surely must be balkenbrei -- pig's blood, lard and flour cooked with bacon.

The problems with Dutch cuisine are threefold: things tend to be cooked to death, there is little subtlety in flavor and meat goes in everything. This not only excludes vegetarians, it is simply unimaginative. The French -- against whom Western cuisines are rightly measured -- are perfectly happy to make many of their dishes without meat. Not so the Dutch, who put it in salads, soups, with vegetables, and perhaps in desert as well. Since the dairy industry is a pillar of the Dutch economy, milk products are in everything they make. It is nearly impossible as a vegan to eat in restaurants in the Netherlands.

Thankfully, the country is not devoid of vegetarian restaurants, and they will often make dishes vegan upon request. Here in Rotterdam we have "Bla-Bla", which is actually quite good. In Amsterdam are de Bolhoed (the Bowler Hat) and de Vliegende Schalten (the Flying Plates).

The Dutch don't grow a very broad variety of vegetables. For greens, they rely mostly on kale, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, green beans and peas. Other vegetable staples include carrots, onions and lots of potatoes. For fruits, the apple is king, but pears, oranges and grapes are eaten as well.

ethnic restaurants

Naturally, since there are large communities of Indonesian people in the Netherlands, Indonesian restaurants are plentiful and popular. The specialty is the rijsttafel (rice table), an epic feast of usually around 25 different dishes and sauces served at once, from which to sample at will. The food tends to be extremely spicy, which appeals to the Calvinist Dutch.

baked goods

Dutch pastries and breads are excellent and reasonably-priced. The specialty is apple tart, which is available in an impressive variety of styles. These are usually served with slagroom (heavy whipped cream).

fast food

Patat, frites -- whatever you choose to call them, they're French fries. Here, they are made fresh from peeled potatoes forced through a sharp metal grid, and deep-fried as you wait. Then, they're scooped into a large paper cone and the dip is pumped on top. In a curious touch, they are eaten with a small, two-pronged plastic fork, which keeps the oil off one's fingers. For all their freshness, they aren't necessarily any better than good, fast food fries, but they do have the widest imaginable variety of dips. The most popular one is mayonnaise, which is surprisingly good. Tomato ketchup is next most common, but curry ketchup is favored by some. How about pindasaus (peanut sauce)?! For those who want the works, the "special" is ketchup, mayonnaise and chopped raw onions atop the fries. "Eet smakelijk!" ("enjoy your food!")

Poffertjes are a bit more elegant, and the stands that sell them are decorated correspondingly nicer. Poffertjes are deep-fried fritters, whether sweet or savory, and are often nothing more than flavored batter dropped in the hot oil. An indigenous version of doughnuts falls into this category, although they are less sweet than American donuts, they are fresh and have much more interesting flavor.

Stroopwafels may be the best Dutch fast food of all, but we can't tell, since they include egg and milk. They are round waffles made with lots of vanilla, grilled up right before your eyes and served hot with a caramelized sugar syrup. There are few food smells more appealing than stropwafelen cooking in a stand as you walk by. We're going to try to devise a vegan equivalent that we can make at home.

Right out of the question are haring -- whole, raw, pickled herring, served with chopped raw onion. Some Dutch people take a perverse pleasure in eating these in the traditional manner: with one's head tilted back and mouth gaping open, whereupon the fish is lowered in head-first and swallowed whole. We're not usually ones to criticize a culture's practices, but this tradition is repulsive and vulgar.

note from anna: sure the fish head is removed and its NOT swallowed whole...it really tastes good