Oudewater, bridge

Sorry, this is not an astronomic guide to Dutch restaurants. It is just meant to help hikers and bikers to make a choice when you enter one of the many villages and small towns to find a place where to eat something. I will describe some of the more interesting choices.

Chinese-Indonesian restaurants

Since the end of the forties in the last century we lost Indonesia as a Dutch colony. In that time many people who have lived in Indonesia came back to Holland. They introduced the Indonesian kitchen. `Nassi Goreng` soon became very popular. The Chinse people entering the country got the mesage. Many of them started relatively cheap restaurants, serving dishes from a mixed Indonesian-Chinese kitchen.

They still exist, but don't expect to get the real Indonesian of Chinese food here. Altogether what they serve is nice and you can choose form al large menu. Prices range from Euro 10-20 for a course. 

When you order dishes they ofter you a choice to eat it with rice, nassi goreng or bami goreng. Nassi goreng is this form is rice with a little bit of egg, bacon and vegetables. Bami goreng is the same, but with noodles instead of rice.

At the table you always will find Sambal Oelek, which is a very hot red pepper sauce from the Indonesian kitchen. You should not use it if you order Chinese dishes. You also will find a dark brown soya sauce, normally ketjap benteng, which is a sweet soya sauce. Use it modestly with Indonesian dishes.

Some popular dishes:

  1. Nassi goreng: Fried rice with some meat or chicken
  2. Bami goreng: like nassi goreng, but with noodles instead of rices
  3. Fu Yung Hai: Omelet with meat or fish
  4. Babi pangang: roasted porc
  5. Tjap tjoy: boiled vegetables, with or without meat
  6. Kroepoek: crispy side dish a bit like chips but made from sea food
  7. Loempia: Roll filled witch vegeatbles and meat. (Tip: cut it open and put some ketjap on it)
  8. Saté: sticks with chicken or porc meat and sauce made of peanut butter.

By the way: there is no need to eat with chop sticks.If you want, them you must ask for it. Most restaurants also have a take-away department. (look for the word "afhaal" or "afhalen").

Chinese restaurants

Especially in The Hage, in the centre of town you find a large number of real Chinese retaurants. My limited experience is that you sit aroud a round table wtih a turn table on top of it. You order some dishes and share them with your company. Tea is very popular as a drink in these restaurants. If you wnat to eat more, just order some extra dishes. I think you may find some of these restaurants as wellin Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

Indonesian restaurants

If you see a restaurant that claims to be Indonesian, you are very lucky. Watch out that they say nothing about Chinese food. I really recommend to try. Food tens to be very spicy, so you must be a bit careful. You should order "rijsttafel" (rice table). They will serve you 8-12 Indonesian dishes.

Pancake restaurants

Especially in the rural parts and more tourist parts of the country, you may find restaurants focussing on pancakes (Dutch: pannekoeken). Pancakes are baked from white flour, milk, some eggs and salt. Sometimes they will put other grains into it for a better taste. A good combination is pancake with bacon and sugar sirup ("spekpannekoek"). Also the combination with apple and raisins tastes excellent. Your kids will love it!.

So always look for `pannekoeken` if you go for lunch somewhere.

Eetcafé

Eetcafé means something like a pub also serving food. Normally they will serve cold lunches with bread and salad. They also will serve soup and warm meals. These may vary from very simple to luxury dinners with restaurant quality. The common element is the informal atmosphere, you may appreciate as a hiker.

Pizzerias and Italian restaurants

Most Italian restaurants focus on pizza and simple Italian noodle dishes. If you want to eat real Italian food, look for restaurants not using the tern Pizzeria. This is not a guarantee, but it increases your chances.

Greek restaurants

In most towns you may encounter Greek restaurants. They serve similar meals you would get when eating in a simple Greek restaurant is Greece. Usually they serve big portions of food of reasonable quality. The big disadvantage is that most of them serve the same courses, the same cabbage salad, the same glass of Ouzo. So, for once in a holiday it´s OK, but nothing more.

Snackbar, cafétaria

The Dutch consider McDonalds as a luxury snackbar. Snackbars focus on fried food. Pommes Frites with some sauce, kroket (delicious, try it especially with bread!). They also will sell soft drinks, bear and ice creams. Don't expect healthy food here, but it still may taste well. Warning: never order something they have ready in the vending machines they somethimes have. They may just pick your order from the vending machine and you will be eating a half cold kroket, which tastes horrible.

A new invention is `Kapsalon` If you are extremely hungry, just give it a try, it provides enough calories for a whole day!