Tag: eating in the Netherlands

Like many other countries, Holland is often not known for its own cuisine, having borrowed and adopted dishes from elsewhere, including its former colonies Indonesia and Suriname. When the Dutch left Indonesia. they brought with them an undying appetite for Satay (spicy peanut) sauce and the rijsttafel (ryst-tah-fell, rice table in English), the serving of many small Indonesian dishes revolving around rice. There are many Indonesian and Asian restaurants in Amsterdam where you can enjoy this; for instance the Indrapura on Rembrandtplein.  Continue reading

The Dutch eat a fairly small (by American standards) sandwich for lunch. Therefore, a lot of restaurants remain closed until evening dinner. Yet, in many of the restaurants and cafes which do serve this limited lunch menu, it is surprisingly customary to put a blackboard outside at lunchtime listing the daily dinner specials! Dinner is not mentioned, it just says “Specials”. Apparently, the typical Dutch logic follows that the Dutch all subliminally understand these can’t be obtained at lunch time, but what is a poor unsuspecting tourist supposed to do for a warm lunch? Continue reading