You cannot know a country unless you know the food. First of all, let us explain what a typical Dutch breakfast, lunch and dinner would look like. Breakfast and lunch are pretty much alike. Dutch people like to eat bread with different kind of toppings. Typical Dutch toppings are cheese and chocolate sprinkles. If you want to go all Dutch, drink a glass of milk with your breakfast or lunch. Dinner is usually taken relatively early, around 6pm. A typical Dutch dinner consists of soup as a starter, for example vegetable soup or tomato soup with little meatballs. The main dish consists of potatoes, meat and vegetables. Dessert is often a bowl of custard.
We made a list of Dutch typical foods that you have to try:
- Herring with union. This fish must be eaten raw. Some people even eat it without cutting it, just holding it on front of their mouth and eating it. It is absolutely delicious and also good for your health because it is full of vitamin B.
- Bitterballen and kroketten. Ask a Dutchie what he or she misses when living in a foreign country, and they will most probably include bitterballen in their list. This snack consists of beef ragout with a crust. People eat it with mustard. Bitterballen are the small, round versions of it and are commonly shared on a terrace. Kroketten are regularly taken as a side dish to fries. If you really want to go Dutch, go to the snackbar FEBO or Smullers and pull a kroket out of the wall (true story).
- Fries with different sauces on top. The Dutch love their fries with different sauces. For example fries ‘special’ with mayonnaise, ketchup and unions. Or fries ‘oorlog’ (war) with peanut sauce, mayonnaise and unions.
- Cheese. Did you know that the Dutch on average eat 17 kilograms cheese per person each year? Go crazy and try different kinds of cheese, old cheese, young cheese, goat cheese, sheep cheese, cheese with cumin, with pesto, with Italian herbs and so on.
- Licorice. This black Dutch candy can almost only be bought in the Netherlands. Most of the people who try it at first don’t like it. Just keep one trying, because once you love it you cannot stop eating it.
- Stroopwafels. You have to try this delicious Dutch cookie.
- Stamppot with a smoked sausage. The Dutch love to mash potatos with vegetables to make it a stamppot. Eat it with a (vegetarian) smoked sausage and you have a typical Dutch dinner.
- Pancakes. The Dutch eat their pancakes not for breakfast, but for dinner. There are a lot of different pancakes, pancakes with cheese, with salami, tuna, you name it.