The Dutch know how to make some pretty tasty things.  Cheese.  Chocolate.  Beer.  But when it comes to actual meals, they aren’t as proficient.  Here’s what to eat in the Netherlands…

Before we list the very limited selection of meals available in the Netherlands, we’ll admit that we didn’t eat any regional cuisine (besides desserts) when we visited Amsterdam.  There weren’t that many restaurants serving Dutch cuisine to begin with.  As a result, we ate at an Indian place, a Thai place and an Italian place… and sadly, those weren’t very good.

Breakfast

A typical Dutch breakfast is loaded with carbs.  Fresh bread is served with a myriad of toppings: butter, jam, cheese, and even chocolate sprinkles (called hagelslag).  There’s also ontbijtkoek, a cake containing clove, ginger and cinnamon.

Lunch And Dinner

Stammpot is an inexpensive and dense dish comprised of boiled potatoes mashed with vegetables, the most popular being kale, endive or sauerkraut.  It’s usually accompanied by a fried speck, a type of bacon similar to prosciutto, or rookworst, which translates to “smoked sausage” even though it’s not actually smoked.

Boerenkoolstamppot, a variety of the stammpot, is kale mixed with potatoes, gravy, mustard and rookworst.

Hutspot is particularly bland dish of boiled and mashed potatoes, carrots and onions.  It’s typically accompanied by a smoked or cured meat like bacon or sausage.

Hete bliksem, which means Hot Lightning, is boiled potatoes mixed with green apples and diced speck, served with syrup.

Slavink is one of the few popular meat dishes.  Take a mixture of ground meat and pork, wrap it in bacon, pan fry it in butter, and you’ve met all your daily requirements of fat, cholesterol and sodium in one dish.

Balkenbrij is a meatloaf of pork liver and other left over parts of the animal mixed with oatmeal and seasonings, served with gravy.

Vegetable stews are prominent in Holland and can either be served for meal or as a side dish.  Popular soups include red cabbage with apples, red beets, and the most popular, snert, a thick pea soup that includes pork or sausage.

Frikandel is a deep fried minced-meat sausage that’s served at lunch with French fries (called patat frites).  Other fried lunch goodies are kroket, a croquette of meat covered in breadcrumbs, and bitterbal, a deep-fried meatball served with mustard and mayonnaise.

Zoute haring is raw, salted herring, often eaten with chopped onions and gherkin (pickle).

Uitsmijter is a sandwich made with bread and cheese topped with a fried egg.

Dessert

The most popular dessert in Holland is vla, a milk custard that is often flavored with vanilla, chocolate, nuts or fruits.  Hopjes-vla is an alternative flavored with coffee and caramel, and bitterkoekjes-vla is custard mixed with almond biscuits.

A more elaborate version is the vlaflip, which are layers of custard, yogurt and syrup.

This is not to be confused with vlaai, which is a fruit pie.

Poffertjes are freshly baked mini-pancakes covered in melted butter and icing.

Zoute drop is an unusual sweet and savory combination: licorice covered in salt.

Broodpap, or bread pudding, is another popular dessert, as is appelflappen (apple fritters) and ontbijtkoek (ginger bread).

You can never go wrong with a stroopwafel, which basically translates to waffle and syrup.  The syrup, a mixture of brown sugar, butter and cinnamon, is tucked between two halves of the waffle, creating a dessert sandwich.