Meals

Breakfast

Dutch people tend to eat differently at breakfast time than most other countries in that they generally don’t eat cereal or hot food. Instead many Dutch people eat open sandwiches with the bread which is usually brown or at least seeded.

Toppings include such as jam, butter and peanut butter, others may even put fresh fruit and sugar on their bread. Another Dutch topping is Hagelslag, a form of sprinkles that come in a vast array of flavours including chocolate, fruit and liquorice.

Breakfast is usually eaten with either a cup of strong coffee or herbal tea both of which are usually black to the point where tea with milk is called Kinderthee (Children’s Tea) in the Netherlands.

 

Lunch

Lunch in the Netherlands is similar to breakfast however the toppings are closer to those of other countries with meat and cheese being the main toppings. The bread used is again brown with some people eating white soft bread rolls instead.

Meat can range from cooked ham to a spreadable sausage type of meat called leverworst with most meats in between being smoked or flavoured in some way.

As you may have guessed cheese is a big part of a Dutch lunch and has been suggested as the reason why Dutch people are so tall. It is not uncommon for a Dutch person to eat a sandwich which contains only bread and a slice of cheese with nothing else added. The most popular cheeses that can be bought in most other countries are Edam and Gouda, named after their home towns.

Lunch can also include a bowl of Dutch Erwtensoep or Snert, a thick soup made from peas and other vegetables with pieces of Rookworst sausage added to it.

 

Dinner

Examples of more traditional Dutch dinners include Stampot or Rookworst with vegetables, while other dishes include pancakes and a range of Indonesian dishes.

Stampot is a traditional Dutch dish which combines potatoes, vegetables and even a version of sauerkraut (Zuurkol literally sour cabbage), it usually eaten along with a rookworst.

Rookworst is a Dutch pork sausage that is similar to a hotdog but is much bigger and often very salty in taste. They are eaten as part of a dish like snert or stampot, with vegetables and potatoes or on their own as a snack in a bread bun with mustard; the Dutch store HEMA is famous for having pre-cooked rookworst on display in its stores.

Pancakes are another Dutch favourite especially among kids. Dutch pancakes or pannenkoeken, tend to be a little thicker than crepes but larger and thinner than American ones. Unlike other countries they are eaten all year around and toppings can be savoury or sweet. Savoury pancakes usually involve cooking a piece of cooked meat as part of the pancake with bacon/rashers being the most popular, sweet toppings are sometimes then placed on top of it. Sweet toppings include stroop (maple/golden syrup), fruit, chocolate spread, sugar and lemon among a variety of others.

Along with Dutch foods many Dutch people eat Indonesian dishes in particular the Nasi and Bami Goreng stir-fries, a combination of meat, usually chicken and shrimp, egg, vegetables and a spice paste. The difference between Nasi and Bami is that one is made with rice (Nasi) and the other with noodles (Bami). The dish is usually served with Indonesian satay sauce, which is less spicy and nuttier than other versions, and some sambal olek, a very hot chili paste. When buying it in a restaurant you get the choice of making it a “speciaal” special version which has a fried egg on top. Along with Indonesian restaurants the Netherlands has a number of Surinamese restaurants as well due to its history in that country and the Surinamese population in the Netherlands.

 

Coffee

While not exactly a meal, coffee is extremely popular in the Netherlands and usually bridges the gap between meals. A typical day could see a pot of coffee shared during  and after breakfast, another after lunch often accompanied by a stroopwafel biscuit especially if visitors are present and finally another pot but this time decaf, might be made after dinner. The stroopwafel mentioned above, known in other countries as a caramel waffle, is essentially two thin biscuits with caramel in the middle. The Dutch eat them by first warming them on top of a hot cup of coffee making them much nicer.