Dutch food has a modest reputation — honest, filling, a bit plain — and to some extent that reputation is fair. Traditional Dutch cooking is peasant food: potatoes, cabbage, root vegetables, and whatever came from the sea or the farm. But the Netherlands has been transformed over the past 30 years into a genuinely exciting place to eat, and the best Dutch restaurants now rank among Europe's finest.
The national comfort food is stamppot — mashed potato combined with vegetables like kale (boerenkool), endive, or sauerkraut, served with a rookworst (smoked sausage). It is winter food, and it is very good. Erwtensoep (split pea soup, also called snert) is thick, slow-cooked, and deeply satisfying on a cold day. Look for it at snack bars and markets from October onwards.
Street food is where the Netherlands truly excels. Haring (raw herring) is eaten whole with raw onion and pickle, tilted back by the tail into your mouth; you can get it from fish stalls all over the country for a few euros. Bitterballen — deep-fried croquette balls filled with a meaty ragout — are the definitive Dutch bar snack, eaten with mustard. Stroopwafels (thin waffle sandwiches filled with caramel syrup) are a Gouda invention and one of the great things to eat with a cup of coffee. And Dutch frites (chips) are excellent — thick, crisp, served in a paper cone with a terrifying quantity of mayonnaise.
The great overlooked Dutch culinary contribution is Indonesian food. Three centuries of colonial history mean that the Netherlands has an extraordinary range of Indonesian restaurants, and the rijsttafel (rice table) — a spread of a dozen or more small dishes — remains one of the best meals you can have here. The Indonesian population also brought sambal, satay, and nasi goreng into Dutch everyday cooking. Amsterdam and Rotterdam have the best Indonesian restaurants.
Cheese is serious business. Gouda, Edam, and Leiden (cumin-flavoured) are all Dutch originals, and the artisanal versions found at cheese markets — Gouda, Alkmaar, and Edam — are far superior to the sealed supermarket versions. Buy from specialist kaasboeren (cheese shops) and taste before you buy.
Dutch gin, jenever, is the ancestor of London gin — sweeter, softer, more herbal. Oude (old-style) jenever is the richer, heavier variety; jonge is lighter. Drink it neat, chilled, from a tulip glass — never with tonic. Most traditional brown cafés (bruine kroegen) serve it.