Food and drink could use a national boost
It’s quite true that tourists don’t come to the Netherlands for the food like they would in France or Italy. The Netherlands has wonderful things to offer tourists and inhabitants, but culinary delights, unfortunately, remains a major point of contention.
The Dutch Centre for Folk Culture and Intangible Heritage is apparently compiling a list of suggestions of what the Dutch would like to see on the World Heritage List and Foodlog.nl says none of it is food. Ouch.
Many events such as celebrations of holidays and traditions have been suggested, many of which can be found in other countries, but nothing to eat or drink. Suggestions made by Foodlog.nl to get the ball rolling include:
- Pepernoot from Van den Brenk (1752), not to be confused with ‘kruidnoten’
- Dutch-style appetizers (‘bittergarnituur’) made up of liver sausage, beef sausage, mature cheese and ‘bitterballen’.
- Vlaggetjesdag (Flag day, as in cocktail flags day), the Dutch haring eating tradition by dropping the whole fish in one’s mouth.
- I’d like to add jenever (aka gin), but it already has protected status.
Anything else? Go for it in the comments.
(Link: www.foodlog.nl, Photo by Quistnix, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 1.0)
Erwtensoep is definitely my favourite soup here.. I still cannot get on with witloof or Boerenkoolstamppot with rookworst (the less said about bitterballen, kroketten and haring, the better!) White asparagus, even in season is still a no-go area for me…. So indeed, your article does indeed carry weight with regards to reasons for the Foodlog.nl apparent dislike of Dutch cuisine. My Dutch wife and her family however love ALL the above as I suspect do 99.9% of the rest of the Dutch population. However, my toast will most likely remain Hagelslag free at breakfast time for many years to come! ;-)