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FOOD AND DRINK |
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The Netherlands is not renowned for its food , with local cuisine
drawing heavily on a sober, potato-eating culture. But, tempering this,
there's an enormous variety of ethnic restaurants, especially Indonesian
and Chinese, and if you're selective prices needn't break the bank.
Drinking , too, is easily affordable: sampling the Dutch and Belgian
beers on ready supply in every region is one of the country's real
pleasures.
Food
Dutch food tends to be fairly plain, mainly consisting of steak, chicken
or fish, along with filling soups and stews. In all but the very
cheapest hostels or most expensive hotels breakfast ( ontbijt ) will be
included in the room price. Though usually nothing fancy, it's generally
very filling: rolls, cheese, ham, hard-boiled eggs, jam and honey,
chocolate spread or peanut butter are the principal ingredients. Many
bars and cafés also serve at least rolls and sandwiches, and some offer
a set breakfast. The coffee is normally good and strong, around ¬1 a cup,
served with a little tub of evaporated milk ( koffiemelk ). Tea
generally comes with lemon if anything; if you want milk you have to ask
for it. Chocolate ( chocomel ) is also popular, served hot or cold.
For the rest of the day, fast-food options include chips - frites or
patat - sprinkled with salt and smothered with mayonnaise, curry, satay,
goulash or tomato sauce. If you just want salt, ask for patat zonder ;
chips with salt and mayonnaise are patat met . Often chips are
complemented with kroketten (meat goulash coated in breadcrumbs and deep
fried) or fricandel (a frankfurter-like sausage). Tastier, and good both
as a snack and a full lunch, are fish specialities sold from street
kiosks: salted raw herrings, smoked eel ( gerookte paling ), mackerel in
a roll ( broodje makreel ), mussels and various kinds of deep-fried fish.
A nationwide chain of fish restaurants, Noordzee , serves good-value
fish-based sandwiches and light fish lunches. Another common snack is
shoarma (kebab), sold in numerous Middle Eastern restaurants and
takeaways, which generally also have the chickpea-based falafel, a good
vegetarian stand-by.
The majority of bars serve some kind of food; if they do a full menu,
which many do, they may be known as an eetcafé instead. Most serve at
least sandwiches and rolls ( boterham and broodjes - stokbrood if made
with baguette); in winter, they serve erwtensoep , a thick pea soup with
smoked sausage, for about ¬3, and uitsmijters (literally "bouncers",
traditionally served at the end of a long night to kick guests out),
fried eggs on buttered bread, topped with ham or roast beef for about
¬6. Restaurants tend to open in the evenings only, until around 11pm; if
you're on a tight budget, stick to the dish of the day ( dagschotels ) -
¬7-9 for a meat or fish dish with plenty of vegetables. À la carte meat
dishes go for ¬10, fish for ¬12. Train station restaurants are a good
stand-by, serving full meals for ¬7, and in university towns student
mensa restaurants serve meals for under ¬9. Vegetarians will have few
problems: many eetcafés and restaurants have at least one meat-free item,
and you'll find veggie restaurants in most towns offering full-course
set meals for about ¬8, though they often close early. Colonial history
has led to hundreds of Surinamese and especially Indonesian restaurants
covering all budgets; at the former try roti , flat bread with spicy
curry; at the latter (with may also do Chinese food), go for nasi/bami
goreng (fried rice/noodles with meat), loempia (egg rolls), ajam (chicken)
or daging (beef) with peanut satay sauce, or gado gado (vegetables in
peanut sauce). A rijsttafel comprises rice or noodles served with a huge
range of sampler side-dishes, pricey but delicious, usually ordered for
two or more people (about ¬20 each).
Drink
Most drinking is done either in the cosy environs of a brown café (
bruine kroeg ) - so named because of the colour of the tobacco-stained
walls - or in more modern-looking bars , usually catering to a younger
crowd. Most bars are open till around 1am during the week, 2am at
weekends. You may also come across proeflokalen or tasting houses ,
small, old-fashioned bars that once only served spirits - though most
now serve beer and, usually, coffee - and close around 8pm. The most
commonly consumed beverage is beer , usually served in small measures
for about ¬1 (ask for een pils ); a bigger glass is een vaasje . From a
supermarket, you'll pay about the same for a half-litre bottle. The most
common names are Heineken, Amstel, Oranjeboom and Grolsch, though there
are other regional brews and you'll also come across plenty of Belgian
brands. Wine is reasonably priced; expect to pay around ¬3 for an
average bottle of French white or red. The indigenous firewater is
jenever or Dutch gin, served in small glasses (¬1) and traditionally
drunk straight; oud (old) is smooth and mellow, jong (young) packs more
of a punch, though neither is very strong. |
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