O.K. everyone! Let’s sidle up to the rijsttafl and have a few herring and some kaasdoop. We can wash it all down with Genever!
(“Dutch Treats” was a Jeopardy! catagory tonight. I just had to use my newfound knowledge…)
Hey, we’re still fighting ignorance, right?
There we go.
Rijsttafel: a Chinese and/or Indonesian dish, basically a combination menu. Very popular in the Netherlands, but not really Dutch.
Herrings: haringen in Dutch. The quintessential Dutch fish. Preferably eaten raw, in its entirety, hanging from the tail (which you hold in your hand), after being dragged through raw onion pieces. Boy, I’m getting hungry just explaining it!
Kaasdoop: actually, this is the Afrikaan (South African) name for it. We call it “kaas fondue”, meaning cheese fondue. But it IS very popular, although I think it is originally Swiss.
Genever: strong booze. The modern spelling is Jenever, although Genever is also still used.
I live in a great country. Wanna come??
Hey clogboy. You truly suprise me with your english skills.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, most other countries teach it better than we do here. Sad isnt it?
And yeah I would love to come say hi and hang out, but I dont think I would be any fun, I dont drink or do drugs, and I am waiting till I get married to have sex with hookers. I hear that your Kentucky Fried Chicken is the best.
I wonder if this is the origin of the goldfish swallowing fad?
OUR KFC is the best? I’d say Kentucky is where you should be for good KFC
As for the goldfish thing: maybe. Although I’ve never heard of a Dutchman that tried to swallow one. We’ll stick to the herrings, thank you very much!
Goldfish aren’t so bad. I have to say that it was the only time where I have passed over food for the sole reason that it was dead. OK, I’ll admit that it was a combination of alcohol and peer pressure that led me to do it.
Isn’t jenever kind of like gin, but not as good? I believe the etymology of gin is from jenever, which in turn is from juniper.
Um, when you say the herring are consumed in their entirety, do you mean their ENTIRE entirety? Not gutted or nuffin’?
I’d love to visit just for the cheese. The gouda and edam available here these days are just “processed cheese food.”
and how’s your split pea soup?
How about your black bread (yum!)?
Remember…there’s a whole lotta tokin’ goin’ on in the Netherlands. Anything tastes good when you’ve got the munchies.
Side note: Some friends of mine and I were travelling through Holland back in the 70’s. We decided to stop for dinner in some little town. The menu was all in Dutch (of course), so I took a guess and ordered something that looked similar to the word spaghetti. When it arrived, it consisted of spaghetti noodles with two slices of good ol’ Kraft American Cheese on the top. No sauce, nothing. I found that amusing, but it wasn’t too bad after adding salt, pepper and some olive oil.
Later, the waitress told us that if you wanted tomato sauce on it, you had to order it separately.
Yeah, jenever is the same as gin, I think. The ethymology looks accurate.
The herrings are gutted and decapitated. You eat the flesh, hanging by the tail.
Split pea soup: erwtensoep. A Dutch winter soup, and a meal in itself. Preferably served with tiny pieces of fried bacon and slices of smoked sausage in it.
The word heavily associated with it is: Elfstedentocht. Now, what American, Brit, Irishman or Canadian can tell me what THAT is?
Black bread: I think this refers to our roggebrood. Coarse Dark Rye Bread. Preferably with fat butter and spek (bacon)!
“Elfstedentocht”
I don’t want to know what you do with Santa’s helpers…
Other Things We’ve Read About the Dutch
Chapter Two
We just got a new children’s book in the relates (among other things): “When the weather is freezing cold in Holland, people sometimes lay a soft, velvety lamb’s ear across their noses and under the bridge of their glasses for warmth.”
I’ll wait a beat before clarifying…they mean the plant, lambs ear, not the dismembered ear of the baby sheep. Well, Coldfire, what say you? 
And I don’t think I want any elf-kebobs either, thanks.
Elfstedentocht is a skated, one-lap tour/race (tocht) of the eleven (elf) cities (Steden) of Friesland.
What do I win?
Do they at least pickle the herring or is it fresh out of the sea?
For some reason, I can’t eat herring. I’ll gladly chow down on anchovies…herring just makes me shudder. Sorry, Coldy. Maybe you could list some American foods that gross you out?
They do make the best sandwiches in the world in the Netherlands. Brodje, I think they call them. It must be the great ingredients, because they don’t use any special sauce or anything. My favorite is the kind with just a slice of ham, a slice of good cheese, and salad on a fresh roll. MMMMMMM.
And of course, there is my true love, Stroopwafels. These, my friends, are heaven in the form of a cookie. Imagine two little crisp wafel cookies sandwiching lucious Stroopvulling. I have no idea what that is, it seems to be every kind of sugar known to man mixed with something called Roomboter. There are days when I am tempted to drive all the way to the border and buy all that my arms can carry. For some reason, the only kind I can find locally are made for diabetics, which kind of defeats the purpose (although it is nice of the diabetics).
My husband likes these meat logs that you find at the gas station. You get them out of an automat. Coldfire, do you know what I’m talking about? They are probably the Circle K hotdog of the Netherlands, but bless his heart, he makes a special effort to get them every time we are there.