from holland with love

Let's face it, the Dutch are hardly world famous for their cuisine. But over the past year and some, I've come to hold many foods near and dear. This is hardly a list of all Dutch foods, but my most favorite (and most eaten)...

Dutch or Belgian Fries

Also called: Frites, Vlaamse Frites or Patat

Best eaten after or during a night of drinking. Served in a paper cone, or in a plastic tray (the former most certainly being messier than the latter), with a variety of sauces in a variety of combinations:

• ketchup
• mayo
• curry sauce
• pindasaus (peanut sauce)
• pinda-mayo (with or without onions) (fave!)
• mayo-ketchup (fave!)

Stroopwafels (pronounced strope-waffles)

Basically, two round, flat waffles glued together with Dutch syrup, called stroop. They're not that unheard of in Canada, sold in packs of 8 or so. But nothing beats the fresh, warm stroopwafels sold on the weekends in the centre of The Hague. If you're anywhere within a 1km radius of a stroopwafel truck, you're sure to smell their deliciousness wafting through the streets.

Oliebollen (pronounced oh-lee-boh-lin)

Literal translation: oil balls.

At donut shops in Canada, you can most likely find Dutchie donuts, which I think are actually North American knock-offs of oliebollen. They're basically deep fried balls of dough (hence "oil balls"), most traditionally with raisins. Some are plain, but they also come with many other delicious fillings: apples, pineapple, cherries, custard, pears, and even speculaas (we'll get to that soon enough). Served with or without powdered sugar.

The best olibollen (in my opinion) are those made by the professionals, at bakeries or oliebollen trucks. I thought for sure homemade is always better than store bought, but I guess not in all cases! Unfortunately, oliebollen only come around for a few months of the year, starting somewhere in October/November, and disappear after New Years (since they're traditionally eaten at midnight on New Years). You can also find them at carnivals any time of the year, if there so happens to be a carnival passing through.

Speculaas (pronounced spek-you-lass)

In short: those spiced windmill cookies that kinda, sorta taste like gingerbread. They're quite common in Canadian grocery stores (and I highly recommend you go out and buy a package if you've never had 'em!).

Pepernoten (pay-per-note-in)

Round, bite sized cookies made out of the same ingredients as speculaas cookies. They only come around Sinterklaas season, and are highly addictive. They come plain, or covered in chocolate (white, milk, and pure), or as an assortment with schuimpjes, a Dutch candy that comes in the shape of Sinterklaas figures.

Poffertjes (pof-er-chyus)

Basically bite-sized pancakes, served with powdered sugar, stroop, and a disgustingly huge dallop of butter.

There's a pancake house in Rotterdam with an open kitchen, and is it ever entertaining to watch the cooks make poffertjes! They can pour and flip at lightening speed! Well, ok, not quite that fast, but hell, it's pretty damn quick.

Appelflap (apple-flop)

Apple turnover sprinkled with large granules of sugar.

Ontbijtkoek (ont-bite-cook)

Literally translated to "breakfast cake."

A dense, spiced, yet sort of sweet type of bread. Eaten for breakfast (as the name implies) or a snack. Most delicious with a disgustingly thick layer of butter.

Hagelslag (I won't even try to spell this out phonetically)

Literal translation: hail stones (because they apparently look like hail).

Basically, sprinkles. But they come in so many flavours:

• milk chocolate
• pure chocolate
• white chocolate
• mocha chocolate
• white and milk chocolate mixed
• berry flavored (my favorite!)
• citrus
• anise (you know, that licorice sort of flavor)

There's also chocolate flakes, called vlokken, which come in all the chocolate flavors listed above. And also muisjes ("little mice"), which are small round sprinkles, flavored with aniseed, and are most commonly used to celebrate a new baby (pink and white for a girl, blue and white for a boy).

The most common way to eat hagelslag is on bread. Yep, that's right, on bread: as toast, or a sandwich, with a slathering of butter (to make the hagelslag stick, of course!). They're also commonly sprinkled on beschuit, which are basically large, think rounds of melba toast.

For more on hagelslag, here is a handy site on how to eat hagelslag.

The Dutch are big on putting things on bread... hagelslag, pindakaas (the Dutch version of peanut butter), chocolate spread (Nutella), jam, cream cheese, sandwich spread, appelstroop (apple jam) and last but certainly not least...

Speculoos (spek-you-lows)

I think this is actually a Belgian spread, because when I first came here I could only find it in Belgium, but it's finally made it's way to Dutch grocery stores. It's basically speculaas flavored spread, but much sweeter, and has the same sort of consistency as peanut butter. It is by far my favorite bread spread.

Goudse Kaas (ghowd-suh kass)

Everyone knows Gouda cheese, called Gouda after the city it's derived from. Gouda cheese in the Netherlands is basically what cheddar cheese is in Canada. It has a pretty mild taste, and is used in most dishes that require cheese: grilled cheese sandwiches (called tosties), tacos, lasagne, cheese sauce, pizza, etc. Unless a recipe requires a distinct cheese flavour, or a specific type of cheese for the texture, it's Gouda. It comes in several varieties, the most common being jong (young), jong belegen (slightly more matured), belegen (which is what I can determine to be the equivalent of "medium"), oud (old), and komijn (with cumin seeds... my fave!).

Stamppot (pronounced like it looks)

Basically means "mashed dish," and is exactly that. The main ingredient is always potatoes. You can really add any other sort of vegetable you like, but most common is kale, or carrots and onions (which is called hutspot), and then you mash 'em all together. It's not a very flavorful dish, but I still think it's really delicious. It's a really good winter dish, since it's hearty, and warm, and well, the main ingredients are winter veggies.