Food experience at the Netherlands

All space and little substance
A canteen serving industrial food at The Hague

It's true to say that I did not much enjoy the industrial food at the Netherlands. I call it industrial because I saw little art in the food that was served up at numerous establishments.

The canteen offers an extremely limited range of fast food, including the nation's favourite food - the frinkandel, a sort of Dutch minced meat hot dog, without the skin. There were a good choice of bread - if you like bread - and slices of various kinds of cooked meat all neatly packaged in cellophane bags. One quickly gets the impression that the Dutch consider lunch as snack time only.

Even at the spacious canteen at one of the mobile operator's HQ, the food choice was limited. It occurred to me that the Dutch do not care for ready made sandwiches like the British do. I was often reduced to grapping two slices of brown bread and a few slices of cooked meat - these were so thin that you could see daylight if you held them up to the light. Granted, the canteen was spacious and modern, but one cannot eat decor! The Dutch are anaethesized to such meagre offerings, and it made me think that the prosperity of a nation does not necessarily result in good food.

Mexican meal at Breda, the Netherlands

In the eveving, although there is a wide range of restaurants to choose from, I cannot say that I had a memorable meal. One of the visits was to a Mexican restaurant at Breda. Not a fan of Mexican food, I was struck by the hardness of the chicken and the adornment of chips with every dish. The rest had nachos and tortillas, an artless type of food, filling perhaps, but utterly unsatisfying. One saving grace though, the restaurant offered one of the best wild mint teas I have tasted outside of Marrakesh.

On the occasion that I travlled to Delft and decided to dine al fresco at a pavement cafe in the main square, I realised to my dismay that there was only one dish that I would eat: hamburger. For a fish eater, that was a novelty! In the event, the hamburger came, and it was greasy and tasteless. The price for that humble hamburger and a bottle of fizzy water came to €18.00. I dare say a hamburger at Macdonald's would taste better. Harsh words perhaps, but it is a rip off to charge €16 for a greasy hamburger and some chips.

A cafe / restaurant in the centre of Delft

Eventually I decided to give a Japanese restaurant a try. The Sumo restaurant at Breda does a busy trade, serving "all you can eat" sushi and sashimi for €32. On closer inspection, the items on  the menu resembled Japanese food only in the chef's imagination. In all my travels around Japan, I had not seen such kind of Japanese food. In the end, I chose a la carte and had the beef udon noodles. Even that came with a piece of carrot and sweetcorn, vegetables that are local but not necessarily true to the concept of udon noodles. However, such pseudo food clearly appeals to the local population. The waiters and waitresses were nearly all second generation Chinese working part time to support their studies - not a Japanese in sight.

On the subject of udon noodles, the worst I had was at Schiphol airport where the beef was wafer thin, overdone, full of gristle and worse still, tasteless. And for that, the stall charge €16. I wonder how many punters would return to eat such bad food!



Udon noodles at Breda, the Netherlands

There was one exception though. We dined at the Chocolat restaurant at Breda. It was recommended by a colleague and it served modern European food - fixed menu only. In comparison to other experiences, the food did taste good and was artfully presented. The waitress who served us was a cheery Dutch girl who spoke English with an American accent, and spotting a British crowd who liked their drinks, plied the group non stop with beer and wine. I remembered having a chocolate trio for dessert, and that was probably the best dish I had at Netherlands.

What more can I say about Dutch cuisine? I did not sample the food at any of the Michelin star restaurants at the Netherlands, so I remain skeptical about the kind of food served to the masses. Cheese, pancakes, sweets, not to mention herring, well they don't sound that appetising to a Chinese .