Mouth, meet money. Money, meet mouth.

[thattallguy201]

I've been in Amsterdam for a year and a half now, and in terms of Dutch food I've primarily been exposed to snackish stuff:

• french fries with mayonnaise-like sauce
• the "cheese souffle", cheese wrapped in a packet of something which is sort of halfway between pasta and dough, then breaded and fried
• and of course herring -- pretty good smoked, but

Comments

[trdsf]

Heck, I'd eat that. It looks like where a lot of good ol' Midwestern food came from. Besides, being a Polish kid, I say that anything that involves sausage is a good thing.

[thattallguy201]

I guess I haven't made my thought clear. I was surprised by the fact that the food was OK. :)

Without having had the pickled herring, and the cheese souffles, and bad beef, and the tasteless poffertjes, and all the rest, you can't put stamppot in context. And remember I was told a different recipe for the stuff.

But even so, some little touches would have made a big difference in the dish: a thicker gravy, maybe with a little pepper in it. Sausage with actual flavor. Something a little juicy on the side, like applesauce would have been good with it.

[trdsf]

Well,yeah. I mean, I consider the pinnacle of sausagery to be a good heavy wiejska kiełbasa or kiszka, not an oversized Oscar Meyer hot dog. This is not to say I don't appreciate a good sopressato or prosciutto or even the odd liverwurst, but hey, I got my roots to think about. :)

Now that you mention it, though, yes, I have seen precious little on Dutch cuisine.

[thattallguy201]

Here's why you've seen so little.

the land before potatoes

[zodra]

Potatoes were only "discovered" when the Spanish explored (read invaded) the Americas and brought back the rugged crop to feed the lower classes in say...1492 and a half? Then it had to catch on in the rest of Europe, including Holland in say...1692 and three quarters? So, the question isn't why does Dutch cuisine make such bland use of potatoes, but rather how much worse was Dutch cuisine before potatoes? Just think of stamppot without potatoes!