Stamppot: Mashed potatoes with boiled vegetables and meat are very popular. It should not be confused with Hutspot. The latter is a dish also with potatoes, onions, carrots and meat in one pot. It is especially popular in the winter months.

Apple pie is very popular. There is no restaurant, coffee shop or bakery that does not offer it for sale. Nowhere does it taste as good as there. It can be served with whipped cream (whipped cream) and with coffee it is delicious!

No one can make pea soup like the Dutch (pea soup). Inside this soup are thick pieces of ham and vegetables. It is definitely a national dish and a dish on its own and definitely not a starter. The Dutch love soup very much and in every restaurant you can find different types of soup throughout the year.

The uitsmijter is also very popular. It is bread with ham and cheese with one or two fried eggs on it. For breakfast, the Dutch usually eat what we would call here a continental breakfast. It usually consists of different slices of bread or sandwiches, with cold meat or different types of cheese and then also sweets such as jam and especially apple syrup, Dutch rusks with “muisjes” are very popular. Bread is usually eaten with a knife and fork.

In the afternoons, lunch also mostly consists of bread (they love bread very much) and because there is such a variety of types of bread, it is not monotonous to eat bread again.

The main meal or hot meal is in the evening when the whole family is together. This is then the cooked meal and potatoes are very important and you get them at almost every main meal.

The potatoes there have a much yellower color than here and taste delicious. The eggs there are also much yellower than here, because they are free-range eggs. These are from scrub chickens and not chickens that are kept in cages just to lay eggs.

Eating herring at a food stall will amaze you with the art of eating it that way. Herring is cleaned, pickled raw fish, which is taken by the tail and “thrown down” down the throat.

Foreign-style restaurants are also found in many places in Holland: Italian, Greek, Chinese restaurants, etc. It doesn’t matter where you eat and who you’re with, but it’s customary to say just before you start eating: “Eat tasty, eat tasty or eat them”.

In most restaurants in Europe, a 15% tip is already included in the bill, but the Dutch have the habit of adding something extra for the waiter.

You are also now in the land of the “dropjes”. This is Holland’s famous “licorice” candy and it became especially known as “salty liquorice”. You can buy it in packets or fresh where you weigh your own. For most South Africans it has a strange taste and these days you can also get sweet liquorice and it comes in all kinds of shapes you can think of.

If you are invited to someone’s home for a cup of coffee you will also be offered some form of cookie. It is usually in a metal can and as soon as you have taken one cookie, the can is closed and put away. If you don’t want to drink coffee, you don’t get a cookie either!

Washing dishes has become a ritual! First the dirty dishes are rinsed very well. Then a plastic bowl is pushed into the sink and the dishes are then washed in it. It is also washed with a small brush in very hot water. That is if there is no dishwasher! Nowadays, all modern households have it.

The disposal of peels, papers, glass pieces, plastic etc. is also not just thrown into the garbage can. Oh no, you have to be very sure how it should be done, otherwise you will get yourself into a lot of trouble. So ask first how it should be done, because some waste may not be thrown together.

The two most handy appliances in the kitchen are the cheese grater for cutting cheese and the bottle opener. The latter requires quite a bit of skill to use, but let me demonstrate it to you first. It is a handy appliance for getting the last bits out of a bottle or jar.