Anyone live in the Netherlands that can help me?

Chezzie84

Hello,
Next week I will be travelling to holland for a 5 day break.
While my holiday motto is "I am on holiday so I want to enjoy myself" I also want to be sensible whilst having a good time.
Since we are self catering, I am going to be taking cereals and juice for breakfast.
But once we are out and about I have limited control over what I eat. (What I mean by this is, I can chose what I eat but not how it is cooked.)
Can anyone advise what I should look out for either good or bad?

mariannehgv

A classic Dutch street food that is quite healthy is herring: you have it as a filet, with raw chopped onions if you like, and often with gherkins.
If you have a choice between "bitterballen" and "kroketten", the latter are the best choice. Both are ragout with a bread crust that is deep fried, but a kroket is bigger, so in proportion less of it is crust.

A healthy, classically Dutch dish is "snert", or Dutch pea soup. More of a winter classic, but you might find places that serve it.

Definitely avoid "kapsalon", although this literally means hairdressing salon, it has now come to mean a very calorific combination of Flemish fries, doner kebab, salad, sambal, garlic sauce and grilled cheese on top. It can be delicious (I still dream about it sometimes), but it contains about the calories for an entire day :-(

But don't forget that you'll be cycling everywhere, so maybe a few extra calories are allowed :-)

BWBTrish

Holland has a wide range of fresh food. Also a lot of organic if you want too. There is no good or bad.
Lot of fresh foods are the same as in the US btw.
You will find less fast food ( restaurants) frozen meals etc

Restaurants have smaller portions and forget about buffets lol They are there dont get me wrong but not that much. The glasses of soda are smaller and no refills

Lot of restaurants get their food from (organic) farms and cook fresh from scratch and while you are waiting for you food.

BWBTrish

Lots of fresh fish and meats and again smaller in portions.
There is variation and the fast food places called snackbar for example you have to try out...but of course calorie dense

try some patat with pindasaus ( fries with peanutbutter sauce) and a kroket. You will be in for a fast food treat

Just enjoy your trip dont worry to much about it. Get some fast food some restaurant food and cook some yourself. There isnt really much difference except for the fact that portion are smaller and quality is high and lots of access to fresh food.

jumblejups

Cheating here... I'm not in the Netherlands, but I've been a few times

There are plenty of 'healthy' restaurants - salad places, vegetarian restaurants (I know these can still be fattening but I've eaten in a few Dutch veggie restaurants, usually dishes available that are things like lentils, vegetables, not particularly oily or in need of oil, such as baked or stewed).

Higher cal options that you will see most often (imo) when out and about: vendors selling fries with (tons of) mayo, pancake houses, and your average fast food places. I remember seeing a lot of chicken nuggets in Rotterdam but maybe I was just paying too much attention to them

The Netherlands doesn't exactly have a reputation for lots of big serving sizes or high fat food, and in my experience pretty much everywhere has a great variety of nutritious foods, lots of restaurants and cafes serving balanced and lower cal meals. The fast food places are pretty easy to spot, like anywhere.

Oh, and they make quite a bit of cheese. So just go easy on the cheese

jumblejups

PS if you don't speak Dutch, a lot of people there are very capable with English, so you can probably easily ask about the food in a lot of restaurants, especially in more touristy areas where they expect English-speakers.

BWBTrish

rofl cheeseeeeee yeahhh
something i miss so much Good lovely cheese
Goudkuipje in particular ( not available in the US)

Chezzie84

Thank you

Nony_Mouse

TheOwlhouseDesigns wrote: »

rofl cheeseeeeee yeahhh
something i miss so much Good lovely cheese
Goudkuipje in particular ( not available in the US)

Oh I feel for you! I'm lucky that there is a Dutch shop in my city (my Pa is Dutch), so I generally have a good supply of delicious Dutch cheeses. NZ has some very good Dutch cheesemakers, so some I get are locally made. Always, always go for the imported Maasdam though! I also have an unopened jar of speculoos spread in my cupboard that I'm to scared to open for fear it will be me, the jar and a spoon until it's all gone!

OP - you need to try oliebollen too!

halilozkal

Can confirm, typical dutch meals:

judiness101

I'm an expat living in the north of Belgium and I've been to the Netherlands many times. The raw hareng is absolutely delicious and healthy. Personnally, I don't like kroket and bitterballen, but it's definitely a local specialty.

I know it's not Dutch food, but they have a lot of awesome Indonasian restaurants in the Netherlands.

mariannehgv

judiness101 wrote: »

I know it's not Dutch food, but they have a lot of awesome Indonasian restaurants in the Netherlands.

Yes, I always tell people to go for Indonesian. Good point!
Actually, the Indonesian cuisine in the Netherlands has adapted a bit to local taste, and the "rijsttafel" (rice table, which is a collection of many small dishes with rice) is from the colonial time.