Like every country, Holland has a cuisine of its own. We’ll introduce some snacks and candy you can get in the Netherlands that are particularly weird for people not familiar with Holland.
Frikadel Speciaal:
The frikadel is a kind of snack sausage. The ingredients are all sorts of left over meat, from intestines to brain. Eaten together with mayonnaise, ketchup and onions, you can get this in every snackbar. Even though it might not sound that tasty, it is really popular among the Dutch!
Herring with onions:
This is raw herring that is fermented in chopped onions. Fresh from the sea, you can usually buy it in stalls outside in different places in the city, or in fish stores. The tradition of how to eat it is holding the fish by its tail between your middle finger and thumb, lean back and let it slide in your mouth.
Drop:
This candy is often bought by the kilo. It’s a sweet that is available in different tastes. It can be really salty, so if you are not used to this type of candy it is a good idea to start with the sweet ones!
Poffertjes:
These are tiny pancakes, with a diameter nearby one inch. It’s served with a lot of butter and powdered sugar. It is a good snack when it’s cold outside, sometimes sold in stalls on the street or in pancake restaurants.
Speculaas:
These cookies are sold in different shapes, but the most traditionally Dutch one is speculaas in the shape of a windmill, sold in every supermarket. They have an unusual taste, that comes from a combination of the multiple spices used. Dutch people have made a habit out of dipping the cookie in their coffee.
If you ask the people in the Netherlands about the origins of Hutspot, people wil tell you that it’s been popular since the Nazi takeover of the Netherlands. During the Nazi occupation, Dutch crops were confiscated. Everything was confiscated, except for the potato. Supposedly, potatoes (aardappel) can be grown underground, hidden from sight; especially from the Nazis. The potato rose to become a symbol of resistence against the Nazis. Soon after the war, Hutspot came to represent the national cuisine of the Netherlands. The carrots In hutspot came to symbolize the Dutch royal family or the House of orange. Since carrots are orange, and the royal family traces their lineage to the House of Orange, the two came to symbolize the pride of the Netherlands. Kind of a neat story if you ask me.
Then there’s stamppot. Stamppot, like hutspot, contains mashed potatoes. Unlike hutspot, stamppot has cabbage (boerenkool) and brussel sprouts (spruitjes). Some people eat it with gravy and get this, with applesauce as well. There’s also the folks who like it with bacon and onions. Stamppot is usually served with some sauerkraut (zuurkool) or sausage (rookworst). Stamppot is great because you can easily get it anywhere for a good low price.