20 Traditional Dutch foods you must try in the Netherlands

The Dutch are known for their apple pie, piled high with cinnamon-spiced apples, raisins, and sometimes topped with a sweet crumbly crust. It’s often served warm, with a dollop of whipped cream on top.

This popular Dutch snack with Chinese-Indonesian influences consists of a slice of bami goreng (stir-fried noodles), coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried.

Also called Dutch drops, black liquorice in the Netherlands isn’t at all sweet; instead expect a strong herbal flavour and a curiously salty taste.

You’ll find these classic Dutch nibbles — deep-fried, bite-sized balls of meaty gravy — on just about every menu.

Called frites, friets, or sometimes fries, the Dutch chips are double-fried — making them super-crispy on the outside and fluffy within — slathered in mayo (or other specialty sauce), and almost always served in a paper cone.

This thick pea soup, typically made from Dutch split peas, is a favourite cold-weather warming dish. It usually contains roots vegetables and some kind of fatty smoked pork.

Yet another deep-fried Dutch snack, this one is a long, thin sausage consisting of a mix of different meats and spices.

By far the most famous Dutch contribution to the culinary world, gouda in the Netherlands isn’t just one kind of cheese. There are around seven varieties, based on how long the cheese has aged. The youngest ones, like graskaas, are soft and mild, while the more mature cheeses, such as overjarige kaas, are hard and strong in taste, with a slight crunchiness due to the crystallized bits from aging.

In the Netherlands, chocolate sprinkles aren’t for ice cream; kids and adults alike scatter them on their buttered toast for breakfast.

Jenever, more commonly known as ‘Dutch gin’, is the juniper-flavoured, strongly alcoholic traditional liquor of Netherlands and Belgium from which gin evolved. It’s still popular with the locals today, notably in Amsterdam’s traditional ‘brown cafes’.

Basically fish and chips without the chips, these battered chunks of fish (usually cod) come with garlicky mayo or tartar sauce and are a favourite Dutch street food.

You know them better as croquettes: breaded, deep-fried and stuffed with meat, seafood, or cheese; the Dutch like to put them on a sandwich.

These bite-sized Dutch doughnuts — served hot and sprinkled with sugar — come out in full force over the New Year’s holidays, with stalls set up all over the city. It’s a New Year’s Eve tradition to have them with a glass of Champagne.

Unlike the typical pancake, the Dutch version isn’t necessarily sweet; these large thin pancakes — sometimes as big as a pizza — also come with savoury toppings like bacon, onions, and cheese.

You’ll find these small spiced cookies on just about every store shelf during the winter holidays; on December 5th, they are tossed at the traditional parades welcoming Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) to the Netherlands.

Dutch herring is pickled and served raw, and often eaten by hand. It is, however, an acquired taste.

Fluffy mini-pancakes dusted with sugar — they are a particularly popular street food during winter.

Rijsttafel (Dutch for ‘rice table’) is an elaborate feast served in Indonesian restaurants; it features dozens of small plates — everything from spicy grilled satay to sweet fried coconut — all served with plain white rice.

The ultimate Dutch comfort food: this is potatoes mashed with one or more vegetables, and usually topped with rookworst (smoked pork sausage).

This caramel-stuffed waffle cookie is now found beyond the Dutch borders — namely, in Starbucks — but the real thing is made hot and fresh, with lots of warm, gooey filling.