Dutch Table: The Best of Dutch Food | Season 1 

What is your favorite Dutch food? And...what's something you recommend that most people (foreigners) don't know about? 🇳🇱

Its not erwten soep if you spoon won't stand on its own.

The KLM cheese sandwich is ridiculous. I have no problem eating broodje kaas for lunch but not on my crazy expensive transatlantic KLM flight ffs😭😂

Most foreigners (and also the rest of the NLs) are totally unaware of the specific food of the Zeeland province. As a kid (i’m in my 50s now) we often went to the estuaries to collect shell fish (mussels, cockels, oysters and sea snails), we ate salt water vegetables (zeekraal, lamsoor) and many traditional dishes of organ(meats) thar were kind of considered as “poor man’s food” because the “better” meat was more expensive… people nowadays eat easy prepared food like fried snacks and it may be popular but they are considered Dutch but it really is not the traditional Dutch food.

Fun story, I'm Dutch and I live in Romania. I live in Brașov and there's a Romanian guy who lived in Rotterdam for a few years. He started a fastfood restaurant with Kapsalon, Kibbeling and Poffertjes :'D

My mom's specialty was 'rundvlees met stoofperen'. I still can see the family table what all of us children, and dad, reacting to this special dish, typically at Christmas. Thanks, Mom, I love you and miss you!

Other people just don't appreciate the efficiency, and the 'niceness' in the simplicity of many Dutch dishes.

As a Surinamese/Indonesian person myself its really great that you highlighted our cuisines, usually people do not mention this in these kind of videos.

Don't forget the stews, asparagus and seafood dishes! These are all more popular in the south of the country but they are SO GOOD. One traditional meal is asparagus with butter sauce, boiled salted potatoes, boiled eggs, and a couple of slices of oven-roasted ham on the bone with honey-mustard sauce.

We're an "almost nordic" country where farming and fishing were (and kinda still are) major occupations. Of course our traditional dishes would be simple, efficient, and with lots of energy/nutrients in them. They had to be. Add to that that our ports became one of like the top 3 hubs for world trade, and our food culture shifted to incorporate dishes from all over the world as time went on. (adapted to our tastes of course)

I would say that this is more of a list of stereotypical foods associated with the Netherlands, rather than a definitive list of the best ones. While fries, bitterballen, and frikandels are certainly popular, they are usually served as part of a larger dish, rather than on their own. For example, locals often order variations of fries, such as "patatje met" or "patatje oorlog" In fact, 'kapsalon' is another variation. Similarly, while we do have frikandels, they are typically served with sauce and not as standalone pieces, which include curry sauce, mayo, and onion. When it comes to snacks, going to a chain like Febo is seen as somewhat of a faux pas. It's better to visit a smaller, locally owned 'snackbar' for a more authentic experience. As a Dutch person, I sometimes find it frustrating when people assume that we only eat cheese and bread, or hagelslag and bread, for breakfast. While these are quick and easy options, they're not necessarily representative of the wider range of breakfast choices available in the Netherlands. The reason people eat just cheese or hagelslag is is because those are fast meals you would eat if you have to go to work early in the morning or you are a university student. "broodje gezond' is a more indicative sandwich options, and for lunch "brootje bal" would be appropriate. Personally, I'm not a fan of 'stamppot' or 'erwtensoep', but I recognize that many Dutch people love these dishes, especially when served with 'roggebrood' (rye bread). Besides these, we have a lot of potato-based dishes, including spinach with potato, asparagus with potato, and 'aardappel anders'. As a country that produces a lot of potatoes (we're the fourth largest producer in the EU and the second largest exporter in the world), it's no surprise that we have so many potato-based dishes. In Dutch culture, it is commonplace to have a simple dinner consisting of potatoes, meat (usually pork or chicken), and vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, or green beans are popular options). This reflects our cultural tendency to "do normal." While we don't have many famous dishes, this basic meal structure is prevalent in Dutch cuisine. In my opinion, the Netherlands is more of a country focused on sweets. We have a wide variety of pastries, breads, candies, and more. While 'stroopwafels', 'poffertjes', and 'pannenkoeken' are certainly popular, we also have 'bossche bollen', 'oliebollen', 'appelflappen', 'tompoucen', 'spekkoek', 'drop', and 'hopjes'. The numerous bakeries and candy shops throughout the country are a testament to our love for all things sweet. This isn't meant to be a critique of your video, just my personal opinion as a native Dutch person.

As an Indonesian newly relocated to Amsterdam, I just love that there are Toko's everywhere. So easy to get Indo groceries. Great thorough list you made here!

You should definitely make your own pancakes, since the recipe is simple and cheap. You can also add any toppings you like. My personal favorite is apple slices with brown sugar and cinnamon. Or just plain with syrup or apple/maple syrup. We usually also add butter to our cheese sandwich. And there is a more rich variant called broodje gezond which translates into "healthy sandwich" which is cheese, tomatoes, egg and lettuce usually with butter or mayonnaise. And yes we are aware it's not actually that healthy. 😅

I'm surprised at how good he is able to pronounce most of the names of our meals lmao, usually english speaker's completely butcher the pronounciations.

A Dutchie here: one thing that I haven't seen in the video OR the comments: the bread and cheese are efficient, yes but we like have 1000 different cheese flavors here in The Netherlands. So there is like a few different bread flavors to choose from and multiply that with cheese flavors = million combinations. Young cheese tend to go hand in hand with very white bread for me, but also dark brown bread with old cheese with lightly spread butter. Intense combination. All that from 2 simple ingredients together.

10:25 the difference in face expression from eating bitterballen and having to eat haring is hilarious😂😂

Hi David defenitely a nice selection but you could've maybe represented a couple of foods eaten more outside of the Randstad. Think of Frisian Suikerbrood (sugarbread), drogeworst from the northeast and vlaai, bosche bol and zeeuwse bolus from the south. Also hachee and koeken (gevulde koek, speculaas, bokkenpootjes, boterkoek, etc.) and festivefoods would've been nice to see (kruidnoten, chocolade kruidnoten, oliebollen, (oranje)tompoucen, gourmetten, eastereggs). Maybe interesting for a follow-up video?, much love from Overijssel!

The cheese sandwich for lunch was VERY accurate 😂 However, bread and hagelslag is not that common for breakfast. Most kids would love it, but parents often require a savory bread topping like cheese or cold cuts meat to start the day with. Then, the second sandwich of the day could be sweet, as sort of a dessert to the first sandwich. For dinner, I would like to add the “AVG” to your list. Being an acronym for Aardappels, Vlees, Groente (potatoes, meat and vegetables), the dish consists of just that: potatoes, a piece of meat and vegetables. Cooked until mushy, and barely seasoned (which makes you wonder where all the colonized spices ended up) it is the pinnacle of the Dutch strife for efficiency.

KLM used to do boxes with stroopwafel inside (along with the broodje kaas) as a snack on the flight. As a Dutch person, I'm sad they removed the stroopwafels.

Dont forget that we not only eat chocolate in our sandwiches, but some also just straight up put speculoos koekjes (a type of cookie) on their bread.

Btw, adding gingerroot to carrot and onion stamppot is amazing. Adding salt and then whatever spices you want can make it veeery savory. Add any popular spice mix from whatever culture and the mashed up goodness can become anything, just like an omelette

Kruimelvlaai with custard filling, or vlaai for that matter, is amazing. I usually get them from the local supermarket because they buy them fresh from a local bakery. Buttered ontbijtkoek is a pretty nice and quick breakfast option. Zuurvlees with fries is also pretty nice Also, did you actually just use Dixieland as background music for the hagelslag lmfao

Tbf, most 'mayo' served in Dutch snackbars (and even restaurants) isn't mayo but 'fritessaus'. Very different flavor profile, less fatty, and a lot sweeter. Real mayo is more tangy, nor sweet, sometimes with a slight lemon flavor if it's made with lemon juice, and more eggy. And goes very well with hot cheese dishes such as kaassoufflé or tosti 😁

The fact you were able to make a 15 minute video about the best of dutch food is extraordinary 😂😂. As someone born and raised here, I would've stopped after the first clip. "The country that taste forgot" The end 🎉

People that say my country’s food is bland have never actually had any of the food here. Our food is simple. Yes. But simple does not equal bland. Add to that that our country is one of the most multicultural in the world and there are so many different tastes, from Japanese to Chinese to Surinamese to Turkish to Mexican etc etc And even just traditional Dutch dishes, which mostly came from eras where there was poverty so they had to create simple dishes from anything they had/leftovers, taste lovely. The only thing I wish is that the Netherlands had more spicy food natively, but sadly most Dutch people don’t do well with spice. As someone with Indonesian heritage I grew up with spicy food and I adore it. Thanks for the video 😊

Finally someone who doesn't make fun of the simple yet effective cheese sandwich. My American friends always find it weird because sandwiches are more elaborate over there.

as a dutchman i have to say well done ❤️

This has to be the best video I’ve seen about Dutch food. Now I can show my friends from abroad 😂

You do a good work telling people about the Netherlands, thank you 🙏🏾

OMG…. This episode is full of your hard work and fun. 👍👍

Flavor wasn't forgotten. The Dutch had an entire monopoly on it even.

I like to see how this is nornal for me cause i life in the netherlands and im dutch and see him enjoying food i can eat everyday

Don't forget to try a Bossche Bol! (banketbakkerij Jan de Groot) Also tompouce and gevulde speculaas! 😊

😂😂 how that sandness-sandwich brings absolute Joy at times. Sweet. Quick. Simple. Good. Sometimes, i don't even have the patience to put the butter on the bread.

When I got children I introduced them as young a possible to all kind of food and flavours, and that has really paid off. They like almost everything. We used to go to the market on saturdays and buy groceries, but also went to eat a herring of kibbeling. The children loved that. Once a german tourist wanted to make a picture of my 2-year old son eating a herring with onions, they thought it was really strange. I must say I learned to appreciate the old-fashioned food more when I grew older. I love all kinds of stamppot in wintertime, you can make all kinds of variations to them, into a casserole, combined with more vegetables and different spices.

Very nice video David, thank you. I grew up in the Netherlands, my mother was born in 1939 and she cooked usually potatoes, vegetables and meat. A lot of cabbage. Stamppot ofcourse and snert, but also vegetable soup (to me that is very dutch too, but I know it isn't). Later on she tried other dishes like nasi goreng and italian pasta, or baked potatoes with salads, like chicory salad. When I went to live on my own, I never cooked potatoes, because that was old-fashioned. I ate Italian, Indonesian, Greek or Mexican food, although I never thought about it in terms of countries. To me it is all (also) Dutch, because it is available here.

Great premiere. The food looked delicious 👍

The indonesian rice table was good information! Didn’t know that there were other food like tokos as well besides cheese and bread there. Nice video David. Will look out for these whenever I visit Netherlands

Love the Herman Brood painting in the backround!

Thank you for showcasing these foods of the Dutch cuisine! Gives me some reassurance as to what to expect when I travel there for a visit. Good video!

Ive been living in the netherlands for most my life, but also lived in norway, scotland and italy. Our food isnt the greatest this is true, but it is somewhat unique, but the most unique part is indeed the multicultural food. Whenever i eat there is a 50% chance of eating simple dutch food, hearty, easy to make, cheap but with decent taste, or i eat something international, wether it be italian, french, indonesian, south american, thai, afghan, turkish, etheopian, you can find everything anywhere and since i was young have been taught these recipes. I love how youe enthousiastic about the dutch food even though it is both special and not special (still better than scotland with fried mars bars and fried pizza... though haggis is very good).

Love the effort you put in making this video😳.

Looks amazing!

Dutch food is a synonym for "fill my stomach" and "waste not, want not".

My favorite is hachee, it's a stew of beef, onions and spices it's delicious.

my go-to pannenkoek is a bacon pancake with pancakesyrup/maplesyrup, its a classic.

Love the Chef's Table vibe in the beginning 🤌

You’re a trooper for trying everything!

I would definitely fit very well into the Dutch culture of the cheese sandwich, quick and simple 😄 thank you for sharing all these interesting foods!! I can't wait for you to make a video of Taiwanese foods if you ever get a chance to visit!

Chocolate sprinkles on healthy Dutch bread is so much better than sugary American cereal 😜 Oh and don’t use simple white bread for sandwiches… 🫣

Both the bread and cheese are of the highest quality

This is legit one of the best Dutch Food videos I've come across. You should make another episode with seasonal snacks like kruidnoten (normal and chocolate covered), pepernoten, oliebollen, "feest"stol, but also snacks like the tompouce and the Hema/Unox rookworst

Honestly a great and pretty wide selection you've put here. Quite a few things I wasn't aware of myself (rijsttafel being our invention for example). There's of course plenty of other stuff but I think you did a great job showcasing different kind of foods and snacks, good stuff!

I feel that erwtensoep is really different and much better when homemade, you should give that a try.

what a nice person you are, I really enjoy watching you

Amazing video!

As for the cheese sandwich, you can pick a yellow cheese of any age. The older the cheese, the stronger the hearty flavour. And if you want some melted cheese, a medium aged cheese still melts well and also gives you that nice salty cheese flavour.

Raw andijvie stamppot with bacon and gravy 😊 And a simple pannenkoek with bacon and syrup

I literally had my wisdom teeth removed yesterday, can't eat at all, watching your video about food and CRAVING kibbeling right now.

My granddad used to make me an authentic Dutch apple pie for my brithday every year. I would eat almost the entire thing by myself because it is so incredibly good. Love it.

I think people appreciate Dutch breakfast and lunch. Like it’s not only the chocolate sprinkles and cheese, people have a whole plater of things to put on bread that they just take out in the morning and noon to eat. Also a Dutch dinner is not completely without vlan

Let me be the first Dutch viewer to give this video the official "GEKOLONISEERD" comment. You have now been approved by the Dutch viewerbase that will inevitably find your video after it has been hit by the algorithm. But in all seriousness, I highly enjoyed this video. As a Dutchman myself I am not particularly fond of our "traditional" dishes (mainly stamppot and the classic AVG of potatoes, meat and veg), but I do adore our fusion kitchens such as Indonesian, Surinamese and various Chinese/general Asian influences, so thank you for highlighting them. People tend to forget how much of a culinary impact our former colonies have had on our eating habits.

Start the day with four slices of bread, butter and chocolate sprinkles. In my 50+ some years, i never skipped a day.

Oh man I was expecting you to like the raw herring--that was my favourite when I was in the Netherlands. Thanks for this video. I'm hungry now

vlammetjes are also a great fried dutch snack and i can't believe you made this video without mentioning licorice. If i think longer about it i will probably find more .

Love me some stampot! Haven't had it in decades (not since I left my mom and dad's house). Historically, just a way for poor Dutch people to use what they could scrounge together or had available to fix a hearty, if sometimes bland, meal. OTOH my American wife makes a wonderful Erwtensoep that she'll make for me on a regular basis. Always tastes like going home (my mom and dad's house and Nederland). Thanks for the video. And, yes, I still eat Hagelslag on a regular basis. It helps sort of living near the Dutch colony of Grand Rapids/Holland/Zealand/etc., Michigan.

Those stampots look really good!

so manny good food that a lot of people dont now realy old dutch jummy food

This might be more a part of the sweets culture of the Dutch, but I am surprised at how few people outside of the Netherlands (and I think Scandinavia + Finland) enjoy salted licorice and salmiak. You've got the classics like the salmiak lollipop and zoute drop. Definitely not for everyone, but very quintesentially Dutch.

I have to recommend a restaurant called Moeders. It’s like a theme restaurant, about (Dutch) mother’s cooking. I found it by watching a UK travel show 😛 It was really fun and tasty last time I visited.

I loved this, my attention was kept the entire video! And guess what? As a dutchie i didnt even know what the ‘bitter’ in bitterballen ment, and i never knew that a rijsttafel was a dutch invention! 😂

As someone who lives in the far northeastern part of the country, I saw a lot of things in this video you can't get here. Very interesting that despite being same country, there still is divide when it comes to food

Thanks for the video. Well done! I would like to hear a bit more culinary opinion on each dish, but hey, it’s not that complicated I guess. I grew up in NL as a Swede. My mom never cooked this stuff so I learned through the years. Basically, all the foods should be homemade, like the erwtensoep, or pancakes. And I grew up with Surinamese and Indonesian fiends… I can’t tell you how many times I called my mom at 6pm: “can I stay here for dinner?”. Which was perfect, because Dutch people don’t let you stay for dinner that easily 😂

my personal favorite dutch dessert is called 'Bossche bolle' they are big, round with a donut like crust cream/ice cream filled. with a layer of chocolate on the outside covering the whole thing, or 'tompoes' a traditional cream filled dessert with normally a pink glaze, but on kings day (the birthday of the dutch king) it's orange. the crusts are the same on the bossche bol and the tompoes

Nice video David! As a Dutch myself, this is a very good overview to show to my foreign colleagues!

Great video explaining dutch food and what it has to offer! Thanks from a dutchie who always recommends surinamese food :)

I rarely leave my village and I have never heard of ''febo'' in my life. Can't believe I learned something in a video from my own country which is apparently already considered a huge part of our culture.

Broodje kaas is the best if you get cheese from the market that u have to slice yourself :) way fresher and has a lot more flavour to it. The prepackaged cheese from the supermarket is normally more bland and not fresh. And i know many like “jonge kaas” bus I prefer old cheese bc it has way more flavour.

I loooove toko’s and Surinamese food. Can’t go wrong with some classic roti.

Most traditional pancakes in Holland; to eat at home are rolled (kinda thin) pancakes with schenkstroop or bruine suiker in them. And a glass of milk;)

Love the delivery, great video! you could try old Dutch candy there is quite a variety although modern candy has replaced them in the average grocery stores. Also speculaas might also be familiar to people from USA because i've heard they sell it nowadays as speculoos cookie butter (with emphasis on the cookie butter part). But in Belgium and the Netherlands its eaten as a cookie (although you can also get it as a spread)

Dear David Wen, You did better than most people on RU-vid. Thank you for that. Still... A lot of the things you mentioned (and most other foreigners mention) are snacks. Not daily food. Snacks. Also: don't forget you live in Amsterdam. In other parts of the country they do eat warm lunch for example. I was happy though with you mentioning rijsttafel, toko's and Surinamese. What people, also in the Netherlands, don't seem to realize is that most European food comes from elsewhere. The famous "French" ratatouille for example is, ingredient wise, more Mexican (tomato, pepper, zucchini) than French. Eggplant, onion and garlic come from Asia. So how "French" is it? Is it more French than rijsttafel? Not at all. Rijsttafel is as dutch as ratatouille is French. Simple. Now I already saw some Dutch people with good comments. Mentioning all the fish for example. As a kid, I always enjoyed the so called "fish trio" for a starter. Back then, kind of cheap. Nowadays, quite expensive. The classic one is with eel, grey (Hollandse) shrimp & smoked salmon. Add some leek, some horseradish sause and fresh lemon... It's the best❤🎉 Don't forget all other typical dutch soups: white asparagus, traditional tomato soup with little meatballs, mustard soup, "brown bean" soup, etc, etc... All for a starter as well. Main course: cod, angler (in English also known as monkfish) or sole. Three very traditional and very delicious fishes. They go together with krieltjes (small potatoes), green beans or Brussels sprouts, some sort of sauce (usually butter, lemon or crème fraîche), zeekraal (salicornia... See Wikipedia) and... Nutmeg for the vegetables! Or: fresh kapucijners! (field peas)... Get them in summer. Our national hero Annie MG Schmidt (author of many wonderful children's books) wrote about Kaapse Raasdonders and the basis is simple : field peas, onions and lard. To build a very popular and traditional dish: add cooked potatoes, piccalilly sauce, Amsterdam Zuur (pickles and tiny marinated onions) & eat it with stoofvlees (beef stew). I swear... You can wake me up in the middle of the night for this :) There is so much more but... Time for dessert : Griesmeelpudding met warme stoofpeertjes... (semolina pudding with warm stewed pears...) You don't get that anywhere else!! 😊 Now, this is the real thing! Bon appétit !!

The moment i saw a kapsalon. i instantly ordered one. Thanks brother

Nothing better than sauerkraut mashed with potatoes, covered in thick ass gravy and some sausage on the side.

You briefly showed Dutch fries but you didn't mention "patatje oorlog", it's fries with mayonnaise, peanut sauce and onions! (You also didn't mention bapaos, it's a steamed savory usually with a bit of meat inside)

thank goodness there are a lot of non-dutch food in The netherlands. I laughed really hard when you showed bread and cheese as a lunch, hahahaha. don't forget bread and pindaskaas! (this is my daily breakfast though)

you can litteraly wake me up in the middle of the night for Boerenkool! my absolute Fav!

As a dutch one thing from a specific toko I go to called "Toko bob" is the resoles I love those things

If you don’t want to make erwtensoep yourself. The Hema had a really good one. You should also add their Rookworst in slices to it. It is so delicious! In the beginning with the breads I thought you guys were a bit negative but oh well. We do eat other things than bread for breakfast and lunch. Like kwark, cereal, muesli, Swedish rye bread, for lunch we have salads, wraps, broodjes with more than cheese, our deli section is very big as you may have noticed in stores. Soups etc 🫠

when you are in Leiden again i would suggest going to the national museum of antiquities, its an amazing museum, that also has some really cool restaurants nearby (moana poke is a really good place to get some custom pokebowls + its really good) .

Very good video!

Cool that you have a painting of Herman Brood. A sweet and a very funny man. So many laughs.

you should've had some roggebrood (rye bread) with spek (bacon) alongside the pea soup! its a classic sidedish to the soup.

Snert is also delicious with rice in it…😋 you should try it!

Watching this while the boerenkool is on the stove and the appeltaart is in the oven is very relatable and I think that means this video is right hahah

I started salvating when the stamppots showed on screen, that boerenkool looks delicious.

Don't forget ''Appelflappen'' especially if you like apple pie and appreciate efficiency.

I live in the Netherlands and u forgot a funny detail. It depends where on the country you are. For example you can only these snacks in the north part like Groningen, you can get "raspatat" (different kind of fries) or "eierbal" (deep fried egg). Hope you visit different places in the Netherlands :D

I live in NL for 6 years now and i love most of these dishes. I eat sandwiches for lunch and mostly enjoying it but I also miss the more “elaborate” food of my homeland

Erwtensoep is basically the English mushy peas that you get at chip shop, but tasty