Saturday, June 6, 2009

Dutch Food Meme

I've decided to do the food meme that seems to be going around the Dutch expat blog sphere at the moment. Tagged from Life Abroad.

List 7 items related to food or drink you love, also list 7 items you don't like.

Dutch Foods I Like:

1. Bitterballen - Beer battered deep fried meatballs.

2. Mozzarella Sticks - Cheese wrapped in pastry and deep fried.

Bitterballen and Mozzarella Sticks

3. Poffertjes: Mini pancakes with lots of powdered sugar and butter.

Poffertjes

4. Patat - Fried potatoes with mayonnaise (only if the mayonnaise is on the side, not poured all over the top of the fries).

5. Heineken - Enough said!

Patat & Heineken

6. Hutsput - Mashed potatoes with carrot and meatballs.

7. Hollandse Nieuwe - Raw herring typically served with raw onions and pickles.

Hollandse Nieuwe

Dutch Foods I Dislike:

1. Patatje Oorlog- Fried potatoes with onion, mayonnaise and satay sauce, it's great for a couple bites then it gets sickly pretty quick.

Patatje Oorlog

2. Extremely salty licorice.
3. Oliebollen - Glazed and deep friend yeast dough balls, similar to donoughts.
4. Paard Vlees - Horse meat.
5. Ardenne Pate' - Pork and chicken liver pate' esp. the one from Albert Heijn.
I can't think of a 6 & 7. Most Dutch food is surprisingly good!

16 comments:

Ingrid said...

Nice to read what an 'outsider' thinks of the Netherlands (or at least of Amsterdam).
One correction and some suggestions.
The dish you refer to is called hutspot, with an o. Historical story is that the this is what the people ate in the besieged city of Leiden when they 'unsieged'on 3 October 1574. The only food left, by the fleeing Spanish army, was carrots, onions and parnip so they made a 'hutspot' from those ingredients. Later the parsnip has been replaced by potatoes (that in 1574 were still living quietly and undisturbed in the Andes).

Suggestions of food that you might like to put on your top 10 list: stroopwafels, good speculaas (or pepernoten! but that is in november/december - other story al together...), old (mature) cheese, real brown bread (there is no better lunch then fresh, warm volkorenbrood with cheese) and katjesdrop. And rijsttafel - we stole that from the Indonesians but they were a Dutch colony for a couple of hundred years so that counts as Dutch, right!

There is still some much to discover in this small country. There is a whole world outside Amsterdam.....

Life Abroad said...

Hi Angela,
Glad you completed the Food Meme! It was interesting to see some of the things you've put on here. I've never tried patat orlog, but it sounds very unappetizing. I'll put a link to your site in my expat blog section, thanks for adding mine!

pinkie said...

mmmm, you're making me hungry and miss the netherlands


I loooove olliballen!

Angela said...

Ingrid: I will have to try some of the foods you suggested! :)

It would be great to see more of The Netherlands outside of Amsterdam, so far we have only visited Haarlem and Zandvoort andere zee. But we are playing to take plenty of weekends away. Anywhere in particular that you would recommend? :)

Ingrid said...

Oh men, recommendations..... That depends so much on what you like. My personal favorite is Terschelling, one of the small islands in the north. Great for a (long) weekend with nice villages, beach, dunes, woods, meadows - everything. Plus a ferry ride to get there.

But please feel free to mail me (ingrid(at)ingridwong.nl) and I'll be glad to help you make a list!

Anonymous said...

I think stroopwaffels would be near the top of my list somewhere.
And bitterballen definitely NOT. (Hey isn't bitterballen horse meat???)

Were you here for the winter stalls all around town selling poffertjes and ollibollen?

Lekker!!

Angela said...

Ingrid: Terschelling sounds lovely! We have been meaning to check out those little islands for a while, we've also heard Texel is really nice. I will def. be emailing you! Thanks!

Angela said...

Amanda: I Loooove stroopwaffels too but they didn't fit on the list!

I didn't think bitterballen was horse meat? I thought it was minced beef? At least if it is horse meat the taste is covered up by all the creamy stuff they put in them haha!

I wasn't here for the winter stalls maybe this year I will catch that!

Unknown said...

Cool blog! I found your blog via Life Abroad's blog.

I forgot all about patatje oorlog! This would fall under my dislikes as well.

This meme-series reminded me that I had done a similar meme about a year ago with my Dutch food likes/dislikes, & it would be interesting to look back on it to see how I feel now about it.

Breigh said...

Wow I have never seen Mozza sticks here in NL! I would love to have them too. One more reason you guys have it better than we do in Rotterdam I guess! haha

Anonymous said...

you actually make me homesick with this luscious food!
greetings from berlin

Leif Hagen said...

Poffertjes! I'm in! I'd try some Dutch pancakes any day - different than the puffy "Paneokuchen!" Fun blog - just discovered today. Kind regards from EAGAN daily photo in Minnesota, USA

Unknown said...

Hey Angela,
About recommendations i could give you one good advice that's go to friesland/sneek during the "sneekweek" a lot of sailing competitions at that time, the most important being "Skûtjesilen", has a great overal atmosphere. Try read http://www.travellerspoint.com/guide/Friesland/ it has some good info.
By the way you should try a "broodje rookworst" from the HEMA, and include it in your list ;).
Anyway Nice blog to read about your experiences here in The Netherlands.

Greets

Geert said...

Usually one of the main ingredients for bitterballen is horse meat!

Angela said...

Mmm horse meat!

Anonymous said...

Nice blog, I just wrote about some food in Australia that has a very similar idea to patatje, and it made me think of Nederland, then I found your blog.