Dutch FOOD!

I love food, and Dutch food is especially good. I suppose if it were to be summed up in two words, it would be: comfort food. Lots of breads, lots of casserole-type dishes... and, of course, cheese!

On our first day in Holland, we drove around a bit before going to a little cafe. Thankfully, my grandma could translate items on the menu for us; the people were very nice too. My favorite Dutch food (other than Gouda) is Krokets.

(Picture not by me)

Mmmmmmmm... It's meat (and gravy) wrapped in a breaded crust. Delicious. It was the perfect thing to eat on our first night, after several hours in an airport and airplane.

I don't know if this is a Dutch thing or just something everyone does... but wherever we went, there was always plenty of food. Here's an example from the day we went to the farm.
Sunday morning, we ate breakfast and then went to church. After church we went to my dad's cousin's house (not the one with the farm) for lunch. But before lunch, coffee (the Dutch love their coffee time!) and cookies.
About an hour later, lunch. Bread, yogurt, these strange Dutch sprinkle things that go on bread, krokets (MMMMM!!!), cheese, meat, and I don't know what else. There was enough to feed an army! Well, a small army.
After lunch, to the farm!
At the farm, we were treated to more food... M&Ms (which tasted better than American M&Ms) and nuts, and more tea and coffee.
It was like that everywhere we went. I definitely came home a few pounds heavier.

One thing we ate a lot of was bread and cheese. This is something I'm fairly used to, as we always eat bread and cheese (or ham buns) on road trips. I think it's a Dutch thing. My dad grew up on bread and cheese sandwiches for lunch and when we go up to visit grandma, that's usually what we have there too.
My mom said, "Take a picture, so we can know what we ate in the car every day for lunch!"

And now, a word on Dutch pancakes.
Most people, when thinking about pancakes, conjure up this image:

After many a year of eating pancakes with my cousin at Grama's house, however, I have learned to think of pancakes like this:

Mmmmmmm... Pannenkoeken... Where's the whipped cream?
They are more like crepes than something you would find at IHOP, but, oh, so infinitely better.
My grandma took us to a pannenkoeken huis while we were in Holland, to experience real, Dutch pancakes, like she had growing up on the farm.
These pancakes filled up the whole plate (and they weren't small plates either - they were bigger than any dinner plate I've ever eaten off of) and, if you so chose, had other things baked onto them such as...
Apples:

Or bacon:

Or, apples and bacon! There were a multitude of other choices as well... like with onion, or with cheese... I chose the one with apple.
My grandma, great-aunt, and mom all chose the one called "speck of bacon" which had one piece of bacon right in the middle.
And this wasn't regular old bacon (don't let the above picture fool you). This was all fat bacon. Very crispy and very, very good.
My grandma and her siblings would have this "speck of bacon" pancake for breakfast on the farm.
They were very, very delicious.

The other night we went out to IHOP with church friends and the pancakes just weren't the same... They were too light, too fluffy (and also, too cold!). I guess I've just been spoiled by pannenkoeken!

I bet you've had Dutch food, whether you knew it at the time or not... whether it be Gouda, oliebollen, krokets, pannenkoeken, poffertjes, or dropjes. Tell me about it!

Live long and prosper.