Belgium and Dutch food?

[Brian Reay]

We are thinking of visiting the Netherlands and Belgium and we always
make a point of trying local food. We see no point in going somewhere
and looking out an 'English Pub' etc. - the idea of traveling is to see
new things and, in our case, try new foods etc.

I've looked on the internet and, so far, not been especially inspired- I
don't mean to insult the cuisine of either country, simply suggest that
the sites I've found don't do them justice.

At the risk of insulting anyone from Belgium, I would expect a French
influence in the south of the country, but I may be incorrect.
(Where countries meet it is natural that dishes etc cross frontiers,
I've seen it elsewhere, as I'm sure others have.)


Can anyone recommend some 'must tries' for both countries, please? We
will be eating in restaurants and cooking ourselves.

(I'm aware of Eels in liquor, that doesn't appeal, as much as we
normally like fish/seafood.)

[Malcolm Loades]

In the Netherlands I suggest you visit an Indonesian restaurant and
have a 'rijstafel' (literally translated a 'rice table'), all Indonesian
restaurants offer it so there will be no problem in finding it on the
menu. There will be lots of small dishes making up the table so it's a
good introduction to Indonesian cuisine. On the street markets try
'gerookte paling' which is smoked eel - absolutely superb but getting
expensive nowadays, and 'groene haring'. You'll recognise groene haring
as what looks like raw herring which it actually is although it's been
sligthly salted. Drag it through the chopped up raw onion in a bowl on
the stall, tip your head back and eat it as if you were a seal! Dutch
chips are nothing like UK chips from a chip shop, no "one lump or two",
they are always fried to order and are hot, crisp and separate. You'll
be asked "met" (with) or "zonder" (without). Say 'met' and they'll come
with fritesaus which is neither mayonnaise nor salad cream, it's really
good. If you want more than the chips add a "Frikandel special",
different type of sausage split horizontally and with added raw chopped
onion, mayo and curry sauce. Alternatively try "Kibbeling" which were
originally deep fried cod cheeks in batter but are now usually diced
cod. I prefer kibbeling to regular battered cod fillet, much more
crunchy batter! Typical Dutch cuisine is pretty plain :-( Boiled
carrots, green beans, cauliflower etc usually come with a sprinkling of
nutmeg which makes them all taste the same. If you want horse meat
that's easily found, I particularly like 'gerookte paardenvlees' which
is very thinly sliced smoked horsemeat usually eaten on bread as part of
breakfast.

Now to Belgium ...... the beer! Look for Trappist beer brewed by monks
in monasteries. Many different monasteries and many different strengths
of beer. Just enjoy! Also look out for 'lambic' beer which is brewed
entirely by the use of wild yeast. Every other brewery is hermetically
sealed so that only their particular yeast kicks off the fermentation.
The lambic brewery leaves everything open so only wild yeast activates
the mash. Street food is much the same as Holland. But you wont find
Indonesian restaurants there since they were never a Belgian colony.
'Waterzooi' is on most menus, a chicken stew and Moules Mariniere.
Generally I fail to get very excited about eating in Belgium :-(

Hope this helps.

Malcolm

Post by Brian Reay
We are thinking of visiting the Netherlands and Belgium and we always
make a point of trying local food. We see no point in going somewhere
and looking out an 'English Pub' etc. - the idea of traveling is to see
new things and, in our case, try new foods etc.
I've looked on the internet and, so far, not been especially inspired- I
don't mean to insult the cuisine of either country, simply suggest that
the sites I've found don't do them justice.
At the risk of insulting anyone from Belgium, I would expect a French
influence in the south of the country, but I may be incorrect.
(Where countries meet it is natural that dishes etc cross frontiers,
I've seen it elsewhere, as I'm sure others have.)
Can anyone recommend some 'must tries' for both countries, please? We
will be eating in restaurants and cooking ourselves.
(I'm aware of Eels in liquor, that doesn't appeal, as much as we
normally like fish/seafood.)

[Brian Reay]

In the Netherlands I suggest you visit an  Indonesian restaurant and
have a 'rijstafel' (literally translated a 'rice table'), all Indonesian
restaurants offer it so there will be no problem in finding it on the
menu.  There will be lots of small dishes making up the table so it's a
good introduction to Indonesian cuisine.  On the street markets try
'gerookte paling' which is smoked eel - absolutely superb but getting
expensive nowadays, and 'groene haring'.  You'll recognise groene haring
as what looks like raw herring which it actually is although it's been
sligthly salted.  Drag it through the chopped up raw onion in a bowl on
the stall, tip your head back and eat it as if you were a seal!  Dutch
chips are nothing like UK chips from a chip shop, no "one lump or two",
they are always fried to order and are hot, crisp and separate.  You'll
be asked "met" (with) or "zonder" (without).  Say 'met' and they'll come
with fritesaus which is neither mayonnaise nor salad cream, it's really
good.  If you want more than the chips add a "Frikandel special",
different type of sausage split horizontally and with added raw chopped
onion, mayo and curry sauce.  Alternatively try "Kibbeling" which were
originally deep fried cod cheeks in batter but are now usually diced
cod.  I prefer kibbeling to regular battered cod fillet, much more
crunchy batter!  Typical Dutch cuisine is pretty plain :-(  Boiled
carrots, green beans, cauliflower etc usually come with a sprinkling of
nutmeg which makes them all taste the same.  If you want horse meat
that's easily found, I particularly like 'gerookte paardenvlees' which
is very thinly sliced smoked horsemeat usually eaten on bread as part of
breakfast.
Now to Belgium ...... the beer!  Look for Trappist beer brewed by monks
in monasteries.  Many different monasteries and many different strengths
of beer.  Just enjoy!  Also look out for 'lambic' beer which is brewed
entirely by the use of wild yeast.  Every other brewery is hermetically
sealed so that only their particular yeast kicks off the fermentation.
The lambic brewery leaves everything open so only wild yeast activates
the mash.  Street food is much the same as Holland.  But you wont find
Indonesian restaurants there since they were never a Belgian colony.
'Waterzooi' is on most menus, a chicken stew and Moules Mariniere.
Generally I fail to get very excited about eating in Belgium :-(
Hope this helps.
Malcolm

Thank you.

Some interesting points.

For some reason, we both have an aversion to eel, not sure why.

The Cod cheeks sound good, although I'd prefer the real ones.

I've tried horse meat before (on purpose, not in some strange burger ;-)
) and, while it was OK, I can't pretend it was anything special.

Beer, not a great beer drinker these days- one now and then, mainly on
holiday! But we will try some.