I suppose then that I do have a fair amount of exposure to home cooked Dutch cuisine.

Somebody mentioned small game as meat. My father recalls having rabbit a fair amount growing up. They'd raise them and eat them. Never had it myself. As others indicate - nothing was very spicy but I do recall everything tasting rather rich. My mothers cooking was an attempt at what grandma would do, but it was bland. Mom wasn't Dutch - Dad was. Mom tried to imitate, but it was like "The Squire of Gothos" - all of the form, none of the substance. Okay, it wasn't that bad.

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Spock Jenkins of the Vulcan Jenkins'.

Letters. A's, for example. But other than that, no, never.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Avoid Haggis? Im outraged! Im going to paint my face blue and invade!

However theres a huge differance in haggis tastes. Avoid at all costs the supermarket haggis which tend to be the bits of a sheep that are leftover from pet food manufacture. Instead hunt your own.

The sinister haggis or left handed haggis (Which runs around mountain tops anticlockwise) has huge left legs which are very tasty. Boil with potatoes some leeks and a hint of marjoram for a real taste "O' the Heilands"

The very much rarer Royal Haggis which runs around clockwise is only eaten by royalty (and poachers) has a much more delicate flavour and should be marinated in whisky for 24 hours (Its a tradition in scotland for anyone eating a royal haggis to also be marinated in whisky for 24 hours), then grilled with a hint of rosemary and a dash of thyme. Many a Scotsman has swapped his wife for just a mouthful of this dish.

To hunt haggis you must wear the kilt but forget that old saw that a scotsman wears nothing under his kilt. When going haggis hunting a wise scotsman will wear his armoured plated underwear. The haggis is the second most vicious beast in the world*. Once you see the tusks on a royal haggis you'll understand why.









*The most vicious beast in the world is a scotsmans wife who has just been swapped for a mouthful of haggis

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Beer, the cause of and solution to, all lifes problems

I thought I saw Moose posting some time ago today...

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Andre

"They did not know it was impossible, so they did it!"
Mark Twain

At the risk of railing this thread back on topic, I actually did eat in a Dutch restaraunt somewhere along the north coast of Vancouver Island a few years ago. It was pretty good, although I can't remember what we had. I do remember it was very hot outside and the place didn't have AC.

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Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant.

I was born in the Netherlands but raised in New Zealand so what I describe as "Dutch food" may actually be a bit off (and the spelling will be wrong).

Examples:

New years treat - Ollie Bollen. A yeast based dough, deep fried. Eaten with icing sugar. My Mother would make raisen-less ones for me.

New years lunch - Slatia. Plate based with lettuce. Covered with a kind of potatoe salad. Includes Gherkins and Sardines. Eaten cold.

Dinner - Nasi Gorang. A sort of baked/fried rice thing with bits of cut up fried (beaten) egg and some meat and stuff. Some spices (sambal olek?) added. The Dutch used to "own" Indonesia.

Cheap filler - Stum-pot. Basically boiled potatoes with sliced cabbage on top. Then mashed. More yummy than it sounds, but I once cooked this for a flat dinner (at University) and nearly had a riot. Best with Endive instead of Cabbage as this has a tang. Another version uses carrots and onions instead.

Sea food is also big. Love rollmops (pickled herring rolled around a Gherkin) and smoked eel.


(We emigrated to N.Z. mainly for my Fathers interest in fishing and hunting. I grew up on Deer, Rabbit, Goat and Fish. He's 70 and still launches his [tenth, hand-built] boat off the beach by himself and goes fishing. He's only recently given up on spending 2 weeks alone in the bush during "the roar" [when male deer are herd building] but still goes in for a few days at a time.)



What we eat in restaurants is often not the same as "actual" local food. My wife is Indian, and she makes^* great curry (etc) but it's not the same as going out for dinner. For a start, the stuff one cooks at home, after a days work, is not going to have the same time spent on it. The cost and availability of ingredients comes into affect too - as also seen by the ways the Dutch use Potatoes etc.

(* I cook too, but not as well.)

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Measure once. Cut twice. Power tools are fun.

Is is just me, or does there seem to be a correlation with spiciness and the general climate the dish originated in?

If so, one reason why hotter countries tend toward spicier food is that it's harder to preserve food there, so the spices where originally used to hide how close to rotten the ingredients where.

These days that's not true of course, these days spices are there to hide how close the ingredients are to cardboard.

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

Dead pig. Holland has the highest pig to person ratio of any European country by far. Mmmm... trotters...

Yum! I love most variations on fried dough.

Henrik, I suspect it's even simpler. Most spices grow in hotter climates. There are herbs that grow in cooler climates, but look at where you can find wild cinnamon or pepper or whatnot.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

My son has Labs named Boris and Natasha. They love squirrel, but they've never seen a moose (we live in Florida). Can alligators substitute?

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"I want to write about people I love, and put them into a fictional world spun out of my own mind, not the world we actually have, because the world we actually have does not meet my standards." Philip K. Dick
No matter how strong, or brave, or pure of heart you may be; sometimes the dragon wins!

Mmm... Pannekoeken...

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Pork! I'm pretty sure that was what we had on Vancouver island. Parkeville, I think it was. They had potatoes, of course, and some kind of sauce containing apples on the pork.

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Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant.

Yes, I suppose in colder climates smoking and salting were the traditional methods of hiding the rottenness of the ingredients.
Of course, some cultures, like the ancient Romans, actually liked some of their food slightly rotten...

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"All your bias are belong to us." Ara Pacis
"A witty saying proves nothing." Voltaire

Actually, smoking and salting prevents rotting in the first place.

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

Many find that the tastiest of Dutch food migrated from Indonesia - above all the rijsttafel, a gigantic at the-table smorgasbord of tasty ad spicy tidbits. But there is more, of course. Wonderful baked sweets - oliebollen, sort of like oversized doughnut holes dipped in powdered sugar. (My wife and I made a point of driving by a Dutch import shop over spring break to reflll our stock of mix or these). Stroopwafels, thin waffle cookies with butter-caramel filling. It may be sacrilegious to note this, but I'll point out that a slice of Gouda on brown sesame bread brings new meaning to a grilled cheese sandwish.

Every time I visit family in Germany I have to make at least 2 trips over the Dutch border to have oliebollen mmmm! The fish markets are excellent, as a rule I dont eat much fish but I do in Holland!! must be the way they cook it. But I alway have a order for the Gauda from at least 6 of the family not including my self. I dont know what they think of me when I go through the customs and I have Gauda in the case! but no one says anything, they just grin at me!!! The supermarkets in the UK and the local Delis Dutch cheeses are stale and have traveled to long to be enjoyed!

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Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re.

Varium et mutabile semper foemina.

Partially to hide the rotteness, partially to prevent it (like salt and smoking, some spices also preserve) and partially, as Gillian said, because that's where they grow.

This trend certainly seems true across Asia and the Americas. I don't know how spicy food is in Sub-Saharan Africa, though it certainly is hot, nor do I know that Aboriginal food was like in Australia.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

When I lived in Holland for a couple years in the early nineties the typical meal I would have with natives consisted of lots of boiled potatoes with thin gravy (sometimes mashed potatoes with bacon bits and greens mixed in), a smallish piece of beef or sausage, and pickled red cabbage with ginger. Desert was vla, a sort of milky custard/pudding, with chocolate sprinkles or a raspberry sauce mixed in.

Strangely enough I never had much fish while there, though it was always in the markets.

Lunch for me was almost always simply fresh bread with gouda cheese, and maybe a tangerine on the side.

The restaurants I ate at were usually either indonesian (lots of spicy rice and peanut sauce, with egg rolls and shrimp chips) or greek/turkish (gyros).

I tried harring, raw herring with onions on crackes, once. Not too bad.
French fries (friets) with lots of mayonaise is a common Dutch snack, but I found it too greasy for me.
Do not try Dutch licorice - it resembles a chunk of rock salt with coal wrapped around it.

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky

In trademark space, certain parts of North America know what Old Dutch Foods are.

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For the most part : pancakes

I think that is the most dutch food there is.