American picks up 6 Dutch habits - Life in the Netherlands & the Dutch lifestyle 

"I have never consumed so much sugar" is not a phrase I would expect from an American moving to the Netherlands. More like the reverse..

Fun fact; ventilating your home generally lowers humidity in your house. After ventilating you can warm up your house quicker (you don't have to warm up moisture first), using less energy and it will feel more comfortable.

'Een beetje frisse lucht', that was really pronounced with a major Dutch accent.

And today I learned from you that Horeca is actually an acronym! Thanks for that haha.

Hagelslag is definitly a normal thing for your sandwich at lunchtime. Also, maybe try some peanutbutter with that hagelslag

With regards to opening windows: I was taught that in winter you should change the air (in Slovak we call it "vetranie", I'm just now realizing English doesn't even have word for it?) intensively for short period of time. Like open all the windows for a minute or two. That way it will out change the air, but won't affect the heating bill because most of the heat is stored in the walls and floors not the air (air has pretty low thermal capacity). Personally I think there's nothing better than a breeze of fresh cold air in winter...

I am Finnish and we do groceries the same way Americans do. Once a week. And often either eat microvawe lunch or at the company diner. I've seen the Dutch little markets on youtube.. I wish we could have that. I think we would eat more fresh vegetables and fruits if we did. Now the bananas and whatnot will last for couple days after shopping. I envy the Dutch so much for so many things..

The difference with the US with regards to grocery stores is often rooted in urban planning. Residential areas in US are often not allowed to be mixed with for example stores, because that area is designated for 1 specific purpose and nothing else. So stores move far away, resulting in people having to take a car to do their shopping (or anything else), resulting in people not going that often, resulting in lots of cars, lots of busy roads, and a not so pleasant inner city to move around in. Having grocery stores nearby has a big impact on the "leefbaarheid" of a city. "Not Just Bikes" (a very nice channel) made a video about it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kYHTzqHIngk.html

A friend of mine is married to a Chinese women. His mother in law loves to visit the Netherlands. She comes from one of these big hot cities also known as the great oven cities. She says: " In the Netherlands, there is only one season and that is spring."

I grew up in the South of the Netherlands, and 'middageten' was refered to eating a warm meal. And for dinner we often ate sandwiches. Which actually makes more sense if you ask me. Afer a warm dinner, you will have more energy for the rest of the working dag, while with a warm dinner, you're not going to burn those calories while watching tv and relaxing.

A typical Dutch hot lunch: 2 croquets on a slice of white bread! With butter and mustard. You can get it at a lot of lunch places. Also, a "tosti"! I prefer left overs or hot lunches, but een boterham is just so fast and handy 😊 When you have kids and do not live in the city center, the grocery shopping will be much more like that in the US. Once a week you take the car or 2 "fietstassen" 👍

Opening windows for ventilation actually helps the heating of your house, as it removes moisture from the air. Of course don't take it to the extreme and keep it open all night during winter or something like that. 30 minutes during the warmest part of the day should be enough in winter.

Pastries should be bought at a “warme bakker”... buy local from small store owners especially now! Experience the difference 😃

I'm Dutch and do actually quite often eat leftovers from the night before as lunch. We probably go to the supermarket more often because, like you said, they are just closer by and there are many of them. If you can just go there on your bike in just 10 minutes, why wouldn't you? You want fresh food. This exremely spread out and bunched up way of building in the US is also why in places like Houston the bike will never be a popular mode of transport on its own. Manhattan wil be 1/3 bikelanes in 10-20 years though.

Thanks a lot for your channel. I’m an American getting ready to move to Netherlands and I really enjoy your videos. Keep it up!

I really like the new background! Lovely video as always 👏

Been reading your blogs as well, so much fun!

What a nice and positive summary of our habits. It cheers me up.

You described the Dutch supermarket situation very well... For cities. It made me nostalgic for the time before I moved beyond the suburbs!

Mid to late autumn is when stalls are set up that sell oliebollen, appelflaps, berlinerbol etc. Not very healthy but delicious and a must have

7:10 Must be an inner city thing. I tend to do my shopping on Friday or Saturday and only add an emergency trip, if I really need something. As you plan for the week and use a list, it saves you time and money. Both highly valuable.

I certainly already got that of the fresh air with the upbringing. If it is winter just open the window for an hour, especially in the bedroom. nice and fresh. And as a Dutchman I also love our temperate climate. Not too cold and too warm (except last summer!!) But after a long dark winter, spring is wonderful again!

Bringing krentenbollen (raisin buns) with cheese in them for lunch or underway. I think that's pretty Dutch of me to do.

Have you seen Not Just Bikes' video called Why Grocery Shopping is Better in Amsterdam? It talks about the differences between NL and NA.

Hi sweetheart. Your videos are so awesome. My mother is the only one born in Australia, and all the rest are from Terschelling - the island up the top which is basically full of our relatives... My grandfather was known as The Dutch Schindler... last year I decided to legally change to my mother's maiden name, and take on the language properly - I have always had an "urge" to go with something and keep going with it - how Dutch does that sound!!! Anyway your Dutch ways are certainly spot on with ours, and it's great to see your videos of your adventures - I think they so identical to us is awesome. Well love & hugs to you and your girl... I certainly do go shopping daily - the hagelslag supply in my town is good enough for us... I do have alot of Dutch traits - I love my Dutch side a lot more than the average Aussie lifestyle - we certainly are Cloggies... 😎♥️

And a time will come when you will eat a speculaas sandwich...

I celebrated my birthday in Mississipi, in 1997. We couldn't find pastries like we are used to in the Netherlands, in the grocerystore. We had a horribly sweet meringue pie :-(

About the grocery shopping, when I lived with mijn Oma in Amsterdam, I used to go grocery shopping every day or every other day to the kaas winkel or the brood winkel or the slagerij, mainly because Oma's refrigerator was very tiny compared to the humongous American refrigerators so there wasn't much room in the refrigerate to store a ton of food. Also, it was easy to go grocery shopping, since most neighborhoods have neighborhood shops. I could walk to all of the shops and be done in twenty minutes. You don't have to drive ten miles to get to the nearest mega-supermarket. Finally, Here in the states, I have a very large refrigerator in the house, and two freezers out in the garage, all of which are stuffed to the gills. And despite having that much food, we still go grocery shopping most every week and try to find room for it all. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we can usually find lots of things (mostly unopened and past their due dates) that we can throw away because we totally forgot we had them stuck way in the back of the refrigerator or freezers (how wasteful and stupid is that), but ... it's the American way. Americans throw away 40 MILLION tons of food every year. I think the Dutch way of going shopping often and in much smaller quantities sounds way better.

You should try to put your hagelslag on a layer of peanut butter. If u never tried this before: you're welcome :)

The way we shop mostly has to do with cityplanning. In most cities and places in the US planning is car-centric. Theres a lot more distance between places to get food. Whereas here, theres more smaller stores but also more densely packed. Distances are tiny. So that influences how we behave.

I remember the time every body having diner at lunchtime. My family was ‘modern’, cause we had diner in the evening. The lunch break was longer in those days. Fathers came home for diner.

I only do groceries once a week. My mother did it and i still do it. I plan ahead for the week make a list and go to the store. Most people I know do it the same way. Only if I forgot something or I really want something different I go to the store during the week. I’m Dutch.

I live in Chicago, but I grew up in a suburb in Minnesota. In Minnesota, there were big supermarkten, and you had to drive 20 minutes to get there, so we went once a week to stock up the fridge and freezer. Here in Chicago, we have a small grocery store a 10 minute walk away, and go there almost daily. There is a bakery there so we can buy bread donuts, croissants, pies, much like you describe.

Pastries are my kryptonite... one of the things I miss about living in the Netherlands (there aren't many, but that's deffo one); I love eating hot lunch out of doors, because it'd save me having to cook at night. The boterham-for-lunch is fine, but when I first lived abroad, we had a cafeteria at work and that was so convenient that I quickly lost the habit (and haven't gone back to it in 20 years)

in winter time especially in cold winters we tend to eat more warm things for lunch even with the bread, like bacon and eggs fried on bread or a sliced reheated meat bal from last night or sausage or a cup of soup with or without bread preferably a winter soup like green peas soup or brown beans soup it the idea that you can resist the cold better after eating something warm

I got the same Dutch habits as you! Except I would love to have warm lunch everyday. ;-) I am from Brazil, living in the Netherlands for 4 years.

Hi there, fellow American expat living next door in Germany :) I definitely relate to many of these, especially the grocery one LOL. I find myself going to my nearest Aldi every other day sometimes

Humid indoor air is harder to heat. In winter the outside air is drier than the air indoors. Opening a window to let in cool, crisp fresh air also makes the air indoors less humid, therefore cheaper to heat. So the opening windows habit is a very good habit to have picked up

my mom has always taught me "don't constantly turn up the heat, it gets expensive real fast. just put on a hoodie, a blanket, and done""

Warm meals for lunch are quite common in the Netherlands like in most nursing and retirement homes. I still have a few my 'old' Dutch habbits that when I get out of bed, I also start preparing for lunch and take my sandwiches with me to the office. Lunching outside I also something that I still love to do and yes also opening windows every day (even a little bit if its raining). I have lived in DC for 5 years after which I moved to Fairfax country and to be surrounded by more nature and also to have a larger garage office. It took me 4,5 years to fill the 2 garage office in Silverspring, but the 4 garage office in Centreville was overcrowded within a little over a year and than I hired some real office units on L-street. Now we have an entire office floor which sounds way bigger than it actually is. It consists of an central staircase entry (the office only has 3 floors) and than 4 corner offices and 4 offices on the straights. You what is funny. I love eating my lunch outside and some workers like to join me. But to my surprise also people from the other two floors started to join us. And now (actually until March) we actually had to hurry to get a seat because there is limited seating.. Working at home with 3 young children is quite a challenge. Our au pair (which was studying at John's Hopkins) moved in April back to Kentucky and live with her parents as classes came to a grinding hold. In about two hours I going mountain biking with my oldest daughter which she loves to do. I was actually very surprised that bike child carriers are sold right here at Target.. But they are a little bit different from the Dutch ones. Out carrier comes with a spoke protected so the toddlers child cannot caught into one of the spokes, has a five point harness and it has a handlebar so she can hold herself and I paid only $30 for the whole package. I placed a bell on it, together we're making more noise than the average fire truck ;-)

I guess where I live in Maine is a little different than your experiences in the US regarding grocery stores. Wonderful gluten free bakery in my local area where I can buy pastries, soups, sandwiches, etc. Incredible butcher, also. Growing up, my mom bought groceries once a week, with a stop at a bakery or dairy store if we needed those items to fill in. As an adult, since there are only two of us in the household, doesn't make sense to buy in bulk regarding food that we want to eat fresh, so we make quick stops about 3 times a week. I like this a lot better than eating basically the same thing all week, except for grocery day when we would have fast food and the end of the week when it was TV dinners.

We are the Borg. Resistance is futile. You WILL be assimilated.

Roggebrood met kaas (Ryebread with cheese) is a favourite of mine when it comes to lunch :)

Thank you vey much to this interesting video.

I will often open the windows in summer to get some fresh air in the house. Not so much in winter though. And i ride my bike usually in the summer when it's weekend and the weather is good. Not to get anywhere, but mostly just to enjoy the countryside. I'll easily spend 5 hours cycling on a single day, including rest stops at benches in the woods.

About the pastries, I don't know if it's the same, but when I lived in Amsterdam back in the 70s it was common courtesy to always show up with a box of DELICIOUS pastries when visiting family or friends. IIRC the hosts provided the coffee and the guests provided the pastries. My favorite were the tompoesen and, of course, olliebollen during the holidays.

Hi Eva, you're of course correct in your observations of eating habits, and it's indeed nice to have inexpensive easy accessible fresh food available. Interesting to hear about your research into Dutch eating habits. Bit worried about what you mentioned about your sugar intake though ;-). I've always lived in the Netherlands and I hardly ever buy pastries or cakes. It's not something I snack on anyway, maybe that stems from the time that I lived at home with my parents. We baked a cake every week and that was it. Now, for a special occasion that 'requires' cakes, I prefer to go to a bakery. Or I'll make it at home, but only if I really feel like it LOL. You shared your eating habits, these are mine, my friends and family have roughly the same habits. For breakfast I usually take oats with dried fruits (warm), for lunch I prefer a ('maaltijd') salade, an omelet with veggies (warm), plain yoghurt (and not that awful fat free super sweet diet variety) or a sandwich with hummus or veg sandwich spread. So that more or less confirms your findings. I don't know people who are adamantly opposed to warm lunches, but yes are against spending too much money in restaurants for lunch every day (you know prices there are very steep in comparison to grocery store bought 'maaltijdsalades' like 400% more expensive.) I wouldn't mind eating leftovers for lunch when I i.e. work from home, but normally I don't have anything left over from dinner. I sometimes cook dinner for lunch, if I have to go somewhere early in the evening, but not as a habit. My grandparents ate dinner mid-day and sandwiches with i.e. an omelet in the evening, but the people in that era 1960-1970 had long lunchbreaks from work and school, and in the 1980's not anymore.

The grocery shops are a lot less dotted throughout the more rural areas in the Netherlands though, so if you live out of the city it is less common to visit the grocery shops daily or every other day.

Your dutch pronunciation is actually friggin' good. Props!

At my grandparents we always eat hot lunches, and then for dinner we have some boterhammen. That's way old-fashioned though! :)

Great video but miss the knit fox in the frame... 😁

Did you ever tried a brown sandwich with hagelkaas? A brown sandwich “boterham" with peanut butter and chocolate sprinkles. Pindakaas met hagelslag.

Well I just learned something, thanks

I love seeing that building in Utrecht (at 4:51). It's the municipal office and is supposed to look like a U, for Utrecht, when seen from the other side (city center) but it always looks like a 4 to me.

I love how you pronounce Eva the Dutch way.

3 foods you must try if you are in the Netherlands 1 Kibbeling (it is a fish nuggets basically and you can get it at any fish store) 2 Stroopwafel (it is a waffle with syrup on it and they taste the best if they are warm) 3 Zoute or zoete drop (liqourish and the Dutch have perfected this candy for sure)

My boyfriend and I order from this Japanese/Hawaiian place once or twice a month and the portions are so big that we keep the leftovers for lunch the next day. Idk if it's bc we're part of a younger generation but having leftovers for lunch doesn't seem weird to us. Although, a nice cold lunch can be very good too. Might also depend on your mood that day & what you're craving. 😊

To be fair, as a dutch person, i haven't biked in years. I either walk everywhere or take the car. I know, i'm a disgrace for my country :P

I'm Half canadian and my wife is full dutch and we can relate. she actually enjoys hot meals when she comes home from work but the boterham with hagelslag thing made us both giggle. there is a thing at albert heijn called "choca vlokken" she swears by them. enjoy your boterham next time you put those on them. much love from Delft.

A typical dutch thing you should try is ice skating on natural ice,fingers crossed that we get a cold ass winter this year ;).

Not typically Dutch, but some tips anyway: - Don't heat at all in winter, just put on some extra clothes. It is not that cold here. Saves you a lot of money. Don't want to be sky-heating, as all heat goes out eventually. (How absurd to FEEL shops blowing out their heat through open fronts.) - Open up your bedroom window a bit at night. There's your fresh air for the day. - NEVER combine heating or air-conditioning with an open window. So that's back to your own thing.

Yes, yes ypuvcan eat hagelslag any time of the day. And a big tip is this. Buy your favorite kind of bread, put a good layer of butter on it, then strawberry jam, en then milk chocolate hagelslag. Boom! You just made yourself a little piece of heaven. One of my all time favorites! (And ofcourse feel free to experiment with types of jam and hagelslag how ever you see fit)

I'm definitely do all of that. I'm my parents and grandparents are dutch. We also live in west Michigan where everyone mostly dutch. 😁

I used to work in specialized construction all over the world, also in th US. We often went to Subway during our lunchbreak. Healthy, tasteful sandwiches at a reasonable price .

My grocery shopping is a combo of the Dutch and the American way I think. I do my 'weekboodschappen' once a week where I buy everything I think I'll need, and stuff like rice and pastas that are finished. And I between I go a few times per week when I crave some snacks, or when I need something I didn't buy, or when a friend is coming over and I want to get some extra food for my guests.

Your vid was really fun to watch! Yes, true... These habits are all so recognisable, hehe! How about washing dishes in soapy water (and preferably rincing afterwards) in stead of washing under a running tap? What do you do?

Have you tried the boterham which in my family they call “gebakje”? It’s a boterham with cheese, then you put 4 slices of cucumber on top, on each cucumber you put some ketchup. Then you can stick a slice of tomato on each cucumber. Then you put a bit of mayonaise on each tomato. Sprinkle the whole with some freshly ground black pepper. Cut the sandwich in four squares, each containing one cucumber/tomato slice!

I Started to live in Nederlands 2 months ago and I ride bicycle much than I ride before all my life. And you see sun you go out.

I can feel you on the grocery shopping. My fiancee is Canadian (Windsor, Ontario) when im there and we go for grocery you buy for atleast a week indeed. And the variaty of the same products is huge. While when she is here we will just go 2~3 times a week and its a quick in and out vs the 1~2 hour shopping in Canada 😅 And for pastries. I managed to find mini minced meat rolls in the freezer in Canada (mini saucijzenbroodjes). Thing i still miss the most there is decent bread 🥴 Hot/cold lunch variates at every person in The Netherlands.

About buying pastry-treats in the grocery store, these are OK, but you should try the "warme bakker", the quality bakers that make their own stuff, fresh. Much better than the supermarket. Get some fresh croissants or kaiser brotchen. Or a "gevulde koek". Sure to make your day.

K, so, as a Dutch man living in the USA for the last 18 years, I recognize a lot of the things you speak about here... Speaking of "boterhammen met hagelslag": you should try a "boterham met pindakaas en hagelslag". It almost taste like Reese's peanut butter cups on bread.... Added bonus: when picking it up to eat, you don't drop 80% of the hagelslag! Finally, I've tried the chocolate sprinkles here as a substitute for hagelslag, but they're just too "waxy" for my taste, not real chocolate at all. Anyway, love the vids!

The lunch thing is funny. I used to always bring 'boterhammen' for lunch and usually still do, however I also bring left overs if I have them. The first time when I brought 'stamppot andijvie' to work, some people were being amazed. I just replied by saying: "I'm not going to throw it away, now am I?!"

Open the windows is more a German habit but a lot of Dutch do it also. Very healthy. I used to bike to school, 12km to school and 12 back, the whole year through but that’s a very long time ago. I bike since I was 5 yo. Nowadays I bike regularly for about 30-45km. Enjoy the moment, enjoy the sunny weather. A lot of Dutch go shopping mostly for ones or twice a week unless the grocery is within a five minute walk. Lots and lots of deserts in the Netherlands. Speculaas on a buttered slice of bread.mmmmmm

You can have hagelslag whenever you want. Breakfast, lunch and if you decide to have bread for dinner, then dinner.

Supermarkets and shoppingmalls are not allowed in industrial areas in the Netherlands (with an exception for furniturestores and gardencentres). Supermarktes are in that parts of town where people live. That makes sence to us as Dutch people. You can do yours shopping on your way back from work or sports or whatever. That also means that you don't need a car. You can do your shopping by bike or walking. In Germany, where supermarkets are allowed in industrial areas, you seen that many elderly peple still drive a car because they need it to do shopping.

Hey Eva! (or is it Ava?) Love your content!

Now I wonder when stamppot season arrives that will change too... 🤔😉

Nice Dutch cupboard in the background, another Dutch habit! ;-)

Another charming episode and a new background! 👍(But where is Mr. Fox!?) If you like chocolate sprinkles, try some chocolate flakes (the grown up version of sprinkles) and then milk chocolate variety!👍😋 Thank me later!, 🙏

Totally correct about "frisse lucht". Share a hotel room with a Dutch person, first order of business will be opening the window for "wat frisse lucht". Germans do this, too, btw. Share the same hotel room with an American, and they will immediately close the window, crank the heater up to the max and possibly request more blankets because "I'm American, we want to be comfortable !!". Reversely, when I lived in the US, there's over 2 ft of snow outside, and my gf cranked every heater in every room up to "standje tosti" tropical temperatures so she can prance around the house wearing a bikini. Bikini in the winter ? To a Dutch person, that is very strange.

hagelslag can go anytime, for breakfast on bread or ontbijtkoek, for lunch on bread, for dinner on pancakes, for dessert over your icecream(milk based icecream not the ones we call sorbet) or have like a straciatella yoghurt or kwark, the weird thing is I don't even like chocilate but I like the things mentioned before. I know someone who was a fan of peanutbutter and hagelslag or peanutbutter and cheese on bread.

9:15 Interesting fact: in the US you don't see that much grocery stores due to zoning. Since commercial isn't allowed in residential. That's why they are further away and more spread apart.

Oh that is what Horeca means! Jesus that took me 40 years.... :) Thanks!

There is also a lot of good in the american way of life. Like having warm food for lunch at the business restaurant.

You are getting really close to understand or being dutch! But personally yes, I have some stuff in the fridge or freezer! But I normally don't decide what to eat at evening, after lunch , its just what I may hear, or just come up to me. O yes, and the tummy agrees, and the mouth starts watering. Yes I want this meal tonight. Friday for most is take out day, after 5 days of work. And Saturday the meal mostly excist out of soup and bread with fancy dressing like , slices of roast beef dutch slices. And filet America some greazy greazy meat spread nobody knows what it is. And snacks! 😘

I actually dislike sunny days, I prefer semi clouded. I am a Dutch person who likes the to walk when it is windy and semi cloudy. Like this video

I am Dutch but I absolutely love hot lunches. Those leftovers often won't make it past breakfast though...

A very Dutch is making clear if you come over if you plan to stay for dinner or not, beforehand. Especially since Dutch people tend to have dinner very early (at like 17 or 18 o'clock), it can get awkward if people pop in at around 15 o'clock and are still there when it gets about 17 o'clock XD Sure, quite often people will ask 'hey, will you stay for dinner?' but if you pop by unannounced or on short notice, they will not calculate getting enough food for an extra person. I see so many cultures where it is just normal to have an extra person for dinner, whilst it is considered to be rude to 'invite yourself over' here in the Netherlands.

Sometimes at work on a friday we get hot lunch and always when we had that our drive to going back to work is gone

For the Dutch shopping for groceries is more about the stuff being fresh. Like ‘maaltijdsalade’. That should be sold AND eaten within two to three days. Therefore they do their shopping way more frequent.

Hahahaa you are evolving to a Dutchie my dear! I actually am starting to like you! ;-) Would love to spend time with you and your girlfriend :) I love the different perspective on "the American urban life" and compare to my own (well.. bit Flemish) life :-) I was born in Amsterdam and I am still a very much city-person! The Dutch habits you describe are very much the Dutch Urban City life and less the "plattelands vibe" . But I guess most of your audience will still recognize what you are telling about. Did you ever visit Antwerpen? It's my second home.

Ahh you should try a krentenbol met kaas, so good

You have a birthday calendar ? Is it in the toilet-room ? If so, do you use it? You have a agenda (digitally counts too) for all your appointments? Are you planning your social events ? Do you check a weather app before you going outdoor ?

Wow it’s weird to think of this. Me and my friends (16-17 years old) just go to the grocery store when we have a free period at school to buy a croissant or some other kind of bread. Never thought it would be weird in different countries. We do this because in the store it is like 30 cents and at school a sandwich is 2+ euros

You’re Dutch is great😃

In Utrecht you can eat an Italiaanse bol from a famous italian shop there...it's a very nice bread with cheese, salami and chili...

You remind me of being in Paris (as a Dutchman) and an American couple asked me the way to The Louvre. I could point them the way since we just got from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower LOL. I am the guitarist of a Dutch punk/rock band called HAGELSLAG! No I am just kidding, I am the singer.

Ohhhhhhhh wat leuk, zelfreflectie voor de Nederlanders.😍

for number 2, we dutch are also not cyclist people, we just went to go from 1 to b as fast and cheap as possible, most of the time it is taking a bike because the route is probebly shorter then taking a car and you can park much easer. I'm not a bike person but drive on my bike to go where I need to go.

Grocery shopping is a chore in most car dominated countries. NotJustBikes YT channel has a few good videos explaining why.