terms

Vla: a thick, fluid, sweet pudding made mainly from milk
and offered in a variety of tastes ranging from vanilla and
chocolate to strawberry. Certainly try hopjes-vla and
bitterkoekjes-vla which have very typical and also
unexplainable tastes.

Karnemelk: literally 'churned milk'. It has a thin substance
and is rather sour. It is supposed to be quite healthy, but
admittedly you must acquire a taste for it.

Poffertjes: these resemble very small pancakes and are
traditionally served warm with lots of powdered sugar
sprinkled on top. You can make them at home if you
have a special pan, but it might be easier to go to a
poffertjeskraam (kraam is literally a market stall, but also
indicates larger eating-houses) and get them ready made,
for example at the Neude square.Hagelslag: traditionally
lots of chocolate-snippers which the Dutch spread on
their bread. Nowadays it comes in quite a number of
(chocolate-) varieties.

Muisjes: literally meaning 'mice', it falls in the same
category as hagelslag and is also used as bread-spread.
Of course the ingredients do not consist of an actual
mouse, although the blue & white muisjes do resemble
very small mice crawling around on your slice of bread.
Traditionally the blue & white muisjes are served on
beschuit (a kind of thick, round and very crispy cracker)
to celebrate the birth of a child. Although now available in
different varieties (like gestampte muisjes or 'crushed
mice') it is essentially made from anise with a sugar
coating.

Drop: a sweet (liquorice) that comes in a very large
number of different forms and tastes, from salt and hard
to soft and sweet. It is very popular among the entire
Dutch population and is claimed to have something of an
addictive-effect if eaten regularly in very large quantities.
Look out for your teeth as well.

Stamppot: a very down-to-earth meal consisting of
mashed potatoes with varying ingredients like carrot
(wortel stamppot) or endive (andijvie stamppot) and
usually served with rookworst, a juicy sausage.

Patat: patat or 'french fries' may not be an exclusively
Dutch food, but the thickness of the french fry itself and
the fact that it is very often eaten with mayonaise (patat
met is french fries with mayonaise) does make some
foreigners stare. Even more extreme is a patatje oorlog -
literally meaning "french fries war" - indicating french
fries with mayonaise, ketchup and sat�-sauce sprinkled
with raw onions. Patat in all its varieties can be obtained
in any snackbar.

Kroket and frikandel: both are fried, roll-formed snacks
containing (some kind of) meat. Available at any snackbar
and not advisable for vegetarians (see picture page 20).

Haring: a typical Dutch delicacy is eating a raw herring
(fish) with raw onions. You pick the fish up by the tail
and let it slide into your mouth gradually. Of course the
head is removed and the fish has been cleaned. The first
catch of the season is called Hollandse nieuwe ('Dutch
new') and is considered a special treat.

Vlaai: this a pastry or a sweet pie typical of the southern
regions of the Netherlands (Limburg and Brabant) but
available all through the country. It comes in many
different varieties and usually contains some kind of fruit
filling.