So, have I got this right? You went to the Netherlands, where you ate Indonesian and Greek (twice) food, and were tempted by Nepalese / Tibetan but resisted. Dutch food didn't enter into the picture at all? I know Indonesian is obligatory, but is there NO indigenous cuisine?
(I've only ever been in the Netherlands just passing through, but I've eaten pancakes there. And liquorice).
Dutch food: patats (fries) and mayonaise! (You may be asked 'met' (with) or 'zonder' (without), the 'mayonaise' is implied and by default you get them 'with'.) You find those everywhere, in particular from street vendors. Yes, they do have other food, some of which they share with neighbouring countries -- cheese of course, croquettes, waffles (similar to Belgian), chocolates (and drinking chocolate), thin-sliced smoked meat (think smoked-salmon thickness, almost transparent, but made from beef and other meats, even horse), biscuits (cookies) cakes and breads (many similar to German ones). A lot of those we now get commonly in the UK (although the cheese they keep for the local market is much superior to that which they export).
I don't remember seeing any restaurants serving specifically Dutch food, the more local foods I saw in shops (in raw form) and private homes. I don't know that they have a local 'couisine' as such which is particularly distinctive, main meals tend to be vegetables and meat with waffles or pastry dessert.
Yes, Amsterdam is /the/ place for Indonesian food. (It's easy to tell where various empires were -- we have Chinese and Indian food, the Dutch have Indonesian...)
The Oud Kirk area is also where to find "coffee shops" (with notices on the door saying "please smoke your joint only inside the shop"!) and the Cannabis and Hemp museum (it goes into the whole history of hemp for clothing and sailing as well as the use as a drug). There is also at least one information place about the sex and drug trade.
I was interested in one shop that had aliens and other weird things in the window, until D pointed out it sold magic mushrooms...
There were some rather good Indonesian restaurants in Den Haag too, when I was there for the 1990 Worldcon. That's where I learnt that Rijstafel is Dutch for too much food! :)
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(I've only ever been in the Netherlands just passing through, but I've eaten pancakes there. And liquorice).
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I don't remember seeing any restaurants serving specifically Dutch food, the more local foods I saw in shops (in raw form) and private homes. I don't know that they have a local 'couisine' as such which is particularly distinctive, main meals tend to be vegetables and meat with waffles or pastry dessert.
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There was one restaurant that did Dutch specialities, dumplings etc. that looked very stodgy. D was not keen.
Oh, we did have a sandwich lunch on Sunday, which was sort of Dutch.
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The Oud Kirk area is also where to find "coffee shops" (with notices on the door saying "please smoke your joint only inside the shop"!) and the Cannabis and Hemp museum (it goes into the whole history of hemp for clothing and sailing as well as the use as a drug). There is also at least one information place about the sex and drug trade.
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I was interested in one shop that had aliens and other weird things in the window, until D pointed out it sold magic mushrooms...
There were some rather good Indonesian restaurants in Den Haag too, when I was there for the 1990 Worldcon. That's where I learnt that Rijstafel is Dutch for too much food! :)
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