‘Typical’ Dutch food tends to be wholesome and hearty, rather than elegant. Large towns, however, have a wide range of restaurants specializing in international dishes. Indonesian cuisine, a spicy legacy of Dutch colonization in the East Indies, is particularly good in the Netherlands.
National specialties:
• A Dutch breakfast usually consists of fresh bread, cheese, cooked meats and sausage, butter and
hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles), jam or honey and often a boiled egg. Lunch is generally similar.
•
Broodjes (sandwiches) are a common daytime
snack, served in the ubiquitous sandwich bars -
broodjeswinkels.
•
Poffertjes (pancakes) served with butter and sugar are a teatime favorite.
•
Matjes (salted herring) is widely available from street stalls, and smoked eel is another seafood specialty.
• Holland is famous for its cheeses, among them the
Gouda,
Edam and
Leiden varieties, also obtainable with flavorings such as caraway seed and cumin.
National drinks:
• Coffee, tea, chocolate and fruit juice are drunk at breakfast.
• The local spirit is
jenever (Dutch gin), normally taken straight and chilled as a chaser with a glass of beer, but it is sometimes drunk with mixers. It is available in numerous flavors.
• The most popular beer brands in Amsterdam are
Amstel and the ubiquitous
Heineken, which is also produced in the city. There are also a number of smaller breweries producing specialist beers and ales for the connoisseur, including the
Trappist Brouwerij De Koeningshoeven.
• Dutch liqueurs are excellent and include
Curaçao,
Parfait d’Amour,
Triple Sec (similar to Cointreau) and Dutch-made versions of crème de menthe, apricot brandy and anisette.
Legal drinking age: 16 to drink beer and wine, 18 to drink spirits.
Tipping: All hotels and restaurants include 15% service and VAT. It is customary to leave small change when paying a bill.
NightlifeThe Dutch like to have fun, and have a reputation for an open-minded approach, so a night out in The Netherlands can be something of an eye-opener for the first time visitor. Large cities are well-supplied with sophisticated
nightclubs and
discos, but the late-opening
bars and cafes are just as popular. There are no official licensing hours, so it is possible in the big cities to get a drink more or less at any time.
There are
theaters and
cinemas in all major towns - the arts are popular in Holland and play a big role in life. Amsterdam is a cosmopolitan city, with some of the liveliest nightlife in Europe. The
brown cafes are an institution - Holland’s equivalent of the local pub. Its famous (or infamous)
red light district,
de Wallen, is a magnet for visitors, and there are numerous bars, clubs and
‘coffee’ shops (for those in search of a different sort of stimulant, namely marijuana) in the vicinity. Interestingly, although tobacco smoking is now banned in enclosed public spaces, joints rolled purely with marijuana can still be consumed in these places, which are also evident in most other Dutch cities.
Rotterdam has an excellent selection of nightclubs, and a lively harborside café and restaurant scene, while The Hague leans heavily on theater and dance. University city Utrecht offers a large casino and the lively nightlife scene associated with a large student population.
Another popular option is a
dinner cruise through the canals and harbor aboard a glass-topped boat. There are legal
casinos in several main towns and cities.
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