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Comment by leg100 | Hacker News Reader

Personally, I find the Dutch diet to be pretty unadventurous and poor. Sandwiches predominate, with not a lot of variety in cooking. This may well be irrelevant to the OP; nothing but cheese sandwiches and sour buttermilk may well be the perfect diet for growing tall.

As for the Rotterdam argument, I suspect fresh food would have to be flown in rather than shipped, which takes weeks.

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> nothing but cheese sandwiches and sour buttermilk

It's better than hamburgers an coke, or fish and chips and beer, I guess. Which are just as much b.s. stereotypical views of US and British diets as yours is of a Dutch diet.

Oxfam doesn't seem to agree with you, and ranks The Netherlands as having the best diet [1]. Dutch cuisine might not be very diverse (boiled potatoes, boiled veggies and some meat), but the Dutch eat a lot of food from other cuisines; pasta and rice dishes are very popular in the Netherlands.

[1] http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what-we-do/good-enough-to-eat

Dutch food is the worst. The Dutch think of eating as a chore. When was the last time you went out for Dutch food? There's a reason the answer is never.

Even living in the Netherlands, I've yet to see a restaurant where you can actually order typical Dutch foods, eg. the mentioned boiled/mashed potatoes + meat + veggies or stamppot [1]

I've heard foreigners being quite fond of 'stroopwafels' though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroopwafel

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamppot

What restaurants do you go to? In the Netherlands, if you pick a piece of meat it's almost always served with potatoes and vegetables.

Depending on the season you can definitely order stamppot or hutspot. In most cities you can even order it and have it delivered, just like pizza.

True, you do get that a lot. Restaurant have nicer presentation than me and my mother do, I considered that more towards French cuisine [1] somehow.

I've never seen something like wortelstamp/hutspot (mash of potatoes and carrots) with a smoked sausage in any restaurant. That, to me at least, is the epitome of the Dutch kitchen.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_cuisine#Foods_and_ingre...

How many countries the size of the Netherlands do have a typical cuisine that's recognized around the world?

Jamaican, Greek, Lebanese, hell even Belgian (mussels and frites!)

Size is no excuse.

So just 4? My point is there are not many countries that have highly recognizable cuisines.

Cuba? Greece? Portugal? Switzerland? Lebanon?

When was the last time you went out for danish, swedish or finnish food? These countries are small and their food isn't known around the world, but that does not mean that it's bad.

>> Dutch food is the worst >> When was the last time you went out for Dutch food? There's a reason the answer is never.

These two statements I can somewhat agree with, typical Dutch food isn't very special, all we have that could have some appeal is erwtensoep (pea soup) and pannenkoeken (dutch pancakes).

>> The Dutch think of eating as a chore

This is just plain and utter BS though, you couldn't be further from the truth with that statement. You see, Dutch people don't typically cook or go out for 'Dutch food'. Even the smallest towns have a variety of international restaurants and cuisine, supermarkets have a rich selection of international ingredients, cities are littered with shops that sell oriental ingredients, etc.

Tradionally, foods that are popular here (both to eat out or to cook) have always been very varied: indonesian, chinese, oriental/middle-eastern, carribean (suriname, antilles), european (french, italian, spanish), etc. This is probably because of the large cultural diversity of people living here, who brought their food tradition with them.

Of all the countries I've traveled to, the diversity of good food you can have is probably highest in the Netherlands. Compared to for example the US, where food and restaurants (even the expensive ones) are almost universally terrible, the eating culture over here is magnificent. Other countries usually have great food, but less diversity. This all adds up to a dining culture where 'the dutch think of eating as a chore' is an almost absurdist statement. People here like to cook and eat out, restaurants don't try to race you through 3 mediocre courses, straight to the check in the shortest time possible, like in the US, families or friends take time to eat together to socialize, etc. Eating is anything but 'a chore' for most people I know of...

Our main dishes may not be very imaginative, but there's lots of great stuff besides: old cheese, herring, stroopwafels, vla (custard), ...

Dutch pancakes are delicious. I never would have thought to try savory pancakes with ham and cheese before I went to Amsterdam and visited a pancake house.

Worst is Dutch food ;)

For reference, here is David Rosengarten, apparently a famous food critic, waxing lyrical about Dutch food (and the Netherlands in general): https://davidrosengarten.com/blog/hollandwhere-have-you-been...

Yes, but they are the best sandwiches I've ever had anywhere. The Dutch treat every sandwich like a little work of art, I've had countless since visiting the Netherlands that made me wish other countries knew what they were doing!

The strong emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables (and fresh mint tea, which is as common as water in Holland) is also really nice compared to the greasy, messy, fatty foods of the U.S. and Germany.

I dunno. Just give me plain sliced bread with a slice of aged cheese (preferably "farmer's" cheese, i.e., unpasteurized), and I'm happy. No work of art needed.

I don't like fresh mint tea myself, but nowadays you can indeed get it literally anywhere drinks are sold.

I agree, the quality of Dutch cheese is excellent and can often suffice for a sandwich.

But there are many more elaborate ways the Dutch make sandwiches that continue to please me.

The foodies will probably lynch me for heresy, but I think the best diet/health advice is to seek boring food.

I just ate dessert, which consisted of the following:

Finely chopped red and green cabbage mixed with Greek yogurt, sprinkled with mixed dried fruit, a few apricot halves from a can and some chopped canned pine apple (canned fruit because I'm slack).

I wouldn't call it boring, but that has got to be bloody healthy, right?

The Netherlands actually is one of the largest /exporters/ of agricultural products in the world, second only to the US [0] & to the tune of 83% of its GDP [1].

[0] http://www.economist.com/news/business/21613356-dutch-farmer...

[1] http://www.nltimes.nl/2016/01/26/netherlands-agricultural-ex...

Interesting tidbit: when asked what's for dinner, the answer in the Netherlands usually only mentions the type of vegetables, even though meat is generally also part of the meal. The stereotypical Dutch dinner (the only warm meal of the day) consists of (cooked) potatoes, vegetables, and meat. (On Sundays, the warm meal moves to a delayed lunch time; the evening meal then is bread again. Social/regional variations possible, of course. Again, this is stereotypical of when I grew up in the '70s/'80s. We also ate pasta, rice, Chinese, and other stuff, don't worry.)

Do not forget kaaskroketjes!

Hmm, I didn't grow up with those. Anyway I'm more of a frikandel person than a kroket person.

  Sandwiches predominate, with not a lot of variety in cooking.

If you look at what people eat for a main course, it's more a cosmopolitan diet really.

  I suspect fresh food would have to be flown in rather than shipped, which takes weeks.

A lot of the fresh food is grown locally and really affordable, we have one of the largest greenhouse industries in the world.

You can go to the neighbouring Belgium to enjoy food.

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