Dutch food & culture

Start with a market, bakery or café

You do not need a formal tasting menu to get to know Dutch food. A bakery is a good place to try a stroopwafel or a slice of appeltaart. At a fish stall, look for kibbeling: pieces of battered, fried fish, usually served with a sauce. Herring is a different experience, often eaten with onions and pickles.

For something savoury with a drink, try bitterballen. These crisp, round snacks have a hot ragout filling and are usually served with mustard. Prefer a full meal? Dutch pancakes come with sweet or savoury toppings, while stamppot combines mashed potatoes with vegetables.

Our guide to traditional Dutch food explains the dishes, so you can choose what sounds good before ordering.

Make food part of your city visit

In Gouda, cheese and stroopwafels fit naturally into a walk around the market square and canal streets. Alkmaar is another place to explore the cheese-market tradition. These markets run on selected dates, so check the programme before planning your trip around one.

In Den Bosch, leave room for a Bossche bol: a large chocolate-covered pastry filled with cream. A visit to Schiedam gives you a different food-and-drink story, with windmills and former distilleries linked to the town’s jenever industry.

Choose one stop that interests you and build the rest of the day around the neighbourhood, a museum or a walk.

A few words go a long way

Goedemorgen means good morning, dank je wel means thank you, and alstublieft can mean please or here you are. You will often hear gezellig used for a pleasant, sociable atmosphere: think of a café table with friends rather than one exact English translation.

English is widely spoken, but a few Dutch words make signs and menus easier to recognise. Our Dutch language guide also introduces Frisian and the other languages you may encounter.

Look beyond the familiar symbols

Windmills and tulips are part of the picture, but they tell different stories. Mills were used for tasks such as pumping water, grinding grain and sawing timber. Flower fields belong to a working agricultural landscape, so enjoy the view from public paths and only enter where visitors are invited.

Use our guide to Dutch windmills to choose a mill visit, or read where to see tulip fields when planning a spring trip. Leave space for the smaller details too: a local market, a neighbourhood bakery or a conversation over coffee.