We had a bit of a laugh when we looked at the Wikipedia page for The Netherlands traditional food. It just didn't look very nice. Pea soup, bread, potatoes, pickled herring with raw onion etc.
For our last evening we thought we'd make an effort to eat genuine Dutch cuisine.
We found Moeders Restaurant that does a 3 course fixed price menu. When we tried to order all three courses, the waitress stopped us, explaining that she'd come back later for the dessert order as "often our costomers are too shtoffed for dessert".
We started with "Snert" which is a pea and ham soup. Apparently you can stand your spoon up in a good Snert. I couldn't stand my spoon up, but it was delicious all the same, and very substantial.
This was followed by a Stamppot, a big pile of mash and sauerkraut, with a well of gravy in the middle. On the side, a very salty, fatty, smoky sausage, a pile of very salty, smoky, fatty bacon, and a big meatball. In a separate dish on the side you get a bowl of extra gravy, and lots of mustard.
We were indeed pretty "shtoffed" by now, but we felt a duty to see our Dutch cuisine experience through to the end.
To finish, a tasting plate of three traditional Dutch desserts: a curd topped with blackcurrant, mini pancakes, and ice cream made from 'speculaas', a kind of spiced biscuit.
All this was washed down with a couple of bottles of La Chouffe beer. I was a bit worried that Chouffe sounded like it should be a French word for fart, but the waitress kindly explained that it meant 'gnome'. At 8% alcohol who cares what it's called?
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