Up next in 10
Whether you are heading to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, or somewhere in between The Netherlands has a lot of great food options for travelers. From the famous FEBO snack food shops around the country, to the pancakes, to the frites or fries to the Indonesian food, there are a number of great foods to eat in The Netherlands. Traditional Dutch Food. Traditional Food from The Netherlands
Wolters World for Food! Our videos focus on helping travelers know what to eat when they travel, the traditional food that you always want to eat when you travel.
Copyright Mark Wolters 2025
#dutchfood #amsterdam #foodie
Our Main Channel: https://www.youtube.com/woltersworld
Visit Our Amazon Store for Drinkware, cookingware, travel gear, and other necessities of life. http://www.amazon.com/shop/woltersworld
Follow Jocelyn on Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/jocelynwoltersworld
Follow Wolters World on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/woltersworld
Follow Our Shorts Channel for quick travel tips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmSIWRrLCcqamLlTEEBLFLA
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Hey there fellow hungry travelers, Mark here with Walter's World and today we are here in Amsterdam
0:03
and today we're going to talk about are some of the traditional foods you should have in the
0:07
Netherlands because there's actually some really good stuff and I know people usually get this impression that Dutch food is boring, basic, and blah and some of the things might fall into those
0:18
categories and I'll talk about those later but I want to talk about the stuff you're really going
0:22
to enjoy when you're here and you know I like to start my day with pancakes but I have to tell you
0:26
this you don't just start your day with pancakes here in the Netherlands you can have pancakes
0:30
any time of the day and the thing is they're not like U.S. pancakes which are like those thicker
0:34
ones but it's not as thin as a crepe but it's I would say more in the direction of a crepe than
0:39
the American pancake and what's cool is yes you can have the sweet stuff on if you want jam if you
0:43
want Nutella you want whatever on you can do that but also you can do it where you have savory things
0:47
like maybe you want ham and cheese on it or maybe you want you know gravy on it with some meat I
0:52
mean there's so many different varieties and you'll see pancake houses you can go to and you
0:56
could eat it any time of the day. The Dutch probably prefer to eat it in the evening time
1:00
And oh, by the way, Dutch dinner time, you know, 5.30, 6 o'clock. Like my dad loved it here because
1:05
it's like when he likes to eat dinner. So my Southern European friends would like to eat dinner
1:09
at 9, 10 o'clock at night. Restaurants might be closed by 10. So just heads up for that. Now
1:14
Amsterdam, maybe not so much, but in other parts of the country, it's probably a good idea to check the hours if you want to have a later dinner. Okay. But honestly, pancakes is a must
1:22
when you're here. Another thing that for tourists, which we really like to have
1:26
or very popular, you'll see these little tiny pancakes. Like, wait, what are they doing with that butter
1:30
Like, what are those little tiny pancakes? Now, I could try to say the name in Dutch
1:35
but I would butcher it and probably spit all over myself. So I'll just put it down here. And I just like to call them
1:39
the little tiny pancakes. The thing is, if you get them, they're going to offer you
1:43
all kinds of other toppings to put on. Like a jam or a chocolate or something like that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no
1:48
What you want is you want to put the butter and the powdered sugar on them. that's the way the role like that's the way you have to have and yeah you're getting some
1:54
powdered sugar on yourself who cares they're so tasty you won't mind and they're a street food
1:59
kind of thing and that's the thing i think you really need to realize some of the best foods you're going to have when you come to the netherlands is basically like street food or
2:07
walking around food or like appetizer kind of things and i think that leads me into like
2:12
another area we need to talk about and that's fabo and fabo is basically a vending machine store
2:17
right and it sells hot food in the vending machine things like here it's usually fried stuff because
2:23
they love fried food here now I will say most people think that they must be eating the Fable
2:27
every single day and the fried food every day but that's not the case they only do it occasionally
2:31
I'll tell you what they're eating all the time but at Fable you might get a bitabalin which are
2:35
these balls it's a meat basically it's a meatball but the meatball inside is like a student's got a
2:41
crispy coating outside they fry it and I will warn you be careful when you bite into the first time
2:45
because like I've melted my mouth so bad so many times on those because they're so good
2:49
So you can get those, dip those in the mustard here. Oh my gosh, the mustard here is fantastic
2:54
You will have that. But you can get those at bars, you can get those at restaurants
2:59
That's kind of a typical starter, but that's one thing. The fricadella, which is basically like a bechamel interior
3:05
then fried up in like a little tube thing of goodness. That's fantastic. So this is a fricamble, and basically it's a sausage or hot dog without the skin
3:15
deep fried of course so um another snack you should have when you're here so i might have
3:20
misspoken this one so i want to make sure i clarify the frikandle these are basically
3:24
hot dogs deep fried i mean that's the closest i can tell you what's the sauce is deep fried
3:28
not too bad so another our next little snack you want to have is you're going to see these little
3:33
vending machines you'll see in amsterdam another place around the netherlands it literally is a
3:37
vending machine but it's hot like you get hot food out from it so i'm going to get a croquetin
3:41
our croquette which is like meat fried together and now it's kept heated
3:45
so just switch your money in say which one you want three, two, no change given
3:51
that's fine because I just want to grab my one thing and grab your napkin
3:55
shut up and there we got it, my little croquette here mmm
4:04
it's smoking hot remember if it's hot in the Netherlands blow on it because holy crap
4:11
it's burning my mouth. Hey look, she's already replaced it. So you can hound that. So croquetten
4:16
is another monster with the little snack foods. Another one you probably won't expect to see when
4:19
you're there is the bami ones, which is basically like noodles inside a packet. Then it's fried
4:24
You bite into it. Wait, there's noodles inside here. Yes, there is. That's one that's fantastic
4:29
It actually has what we call flavor, which is nice. But the thing is, there's so many good
4:33
fried things at Fabo you can get. And that's why I would say have some coins just so you can go
4:37
grab something on the go and you'll see locals do that as well. And it's one of those fun
4:41
cultural things is going to a vending machine where they slide in like fried stuff and it's
4:45
still hot by the way. Like it's not like oh it's been sitting there forever. No it's still like whoo piping hot when you pull them out okay. Now another street food I think you need
4:53
to get when you here is the fries The frites And the thing is when you get the fries here they big thick fries You get them in like a little tube thing Oh my god it so good But what amazing is they have
5:05
all these different sauces. And that's one thing I got to say, just in general, I think I need to have this part of the Dutch diet. The gravies and the sauces, they make everything here. And you have
5:14
fantastic stuff, like the peanut sauce. Oh, put that with your fries. Oh my god, it's so good. I
5:20
I actually do mayo a lot of times. You have that. But all kinds of different sauces you can put on your fries
5:24
And then, of course, you have to have the fries when you are here. Usually you have a little funnel kind of thing
5:30
But we've got a medium size to share with our buddies here. So say hi
5:34
Hey, guys. Hey, guys. So we're having all the kinds of stuff here. So we've got with the peanut sauce, not the mayonnaise
5:39
Yes, mayonnaise is more traditional. But peanut sauce is pretty good. And just like everything, if it's fried in the Netherlands, it will be hot as hell when you do eat it
5:48
So do be careful. So, there you go. But also, I think if I want to talk about gravy, probably one place you're going to see the gravy the most popping up is stampat
5:58
And stampat is basically take mashed potatoes and different vegetables and you mash it all together at the same time
6:04
So it might be mashed potatoes and carrots or it might be mashed potatoes and endoes. But there's something there and they mix it together
6:10
But it's not like they make mashed potatoes and the other stuff, imagine they mix it. No, no. They put it together and then they all mash it together so it becomes more integrated together
6:16
and this is when people say it's kind of basic and boring and blah yeah stomp pot is kind of that but
6:22
what makes it is you might have the smoked sausages with it which are really good or you
6:26
might have a meatball that's on there for it and then they put the gravy on it the gravy it makes
6:31
I'm gonna tell you the gravy yeah they're a little heavy-handed on the gravy sometimes you'll thank
6:36
them for it later now another thing I like to get when I'm going around is the saute chicken which
6:40
is basically it's you know spiced up chicken on a little skewer you have with the peanut sauce and
6:45
It's so good. And the thing is, what you don't realize is there's actually really great Indonesian food here in the Netherlands
6:52
And so when you go around and you want to have something with like really lots of flavor, go to an Indonesian restaurant
6:57
You will not be upset. And one of the easiest ones to get are the little sauteed chicken
7:01
Oh, my gosh. It's just cooked up. And then you have the sauce, the peanut sauce. Oh, so good
7:07
Seriously, the chicken saute with the peanut sauce. Oh, my God. this is amazing like it has flavor I'm like a lot of Dutch food this has a lot of really good
7:21
flavor so don't pass it up now there's something about the Dutch food culture I think you should
7:26
know and that is in the Netherlands it's not really popular to have more than one hot meal a
7:30
day so breakfast and lunch might be something simple and then dinner is something big or
7:34
lunch is the big hot meal then at dinner you have like a sandwich or something and so when you're
7:39
going around, you'll notice that there's sandwiches all over the place. And yes, the typical go-to
7:45
like lunch sandwich that people will bring to lunch and they'll bring on the train, they'll
7:48
bring on their picnics is just bread and cheese. Not like thick, thick, thick, thick, thick, thick
7:54
thick cheese. It's not just like a slice of cheese on it and that's their kind of sandwich thing
7:58
There's other kinds of sandwiches you can have when you're here. I mean, that's not a problem, but if you want a little bit more, but yeah, like just a cheese sandwich is like the most typical
8:06
Dutch lunch you're going to have because it's economical, it's practical, and it tastes pretty
8:12
good because honestly the cheeses here is something you should have. And it's not just the
8:16
goudas and edema. There's so many great cheeses you can have when you come here. So definitely
8:20
try some. If you go to the market, pick it up. You can get little parts, little cuts and little
8:24
times and try it out and see which ones you like because then you say, hey, that's a cheese I want
8:28
to try when I get back home because the Dutch exports so many great cheeses. You probably can
8:32
get some other stuff back home that you're going to love. But honestly, don't sleep on the cheese
8:36
than bread. It's tough to good. And another bread-related topic when it comes to eating in the Netherlands is, uh, don't be
8:45
surprised if you have bread and butter with chocolate sprinkles for breakfast. Yes, like if you're at your hotel and you
8:52
notice, oh, they have chocolate sprinkles out, did they have an ice cream bar last night or something? No, that is a
8:57
relatively common thing to have, that you have just bread and butter and you sprinkle the, uh, the chocolate little
9:04
sprinkles on there and you eat it that way so it's a little bit of a sweetness in there. Now I know
9:08
those of you that are watching, especially the Dutch viewers, are like he hasn't talked about
9:12
the most important stuff yet. No, no I haven't. I'm going to save those to the end because we got
9:17
other things we got to talk about. Another thing you might want to have when you're here is kibling and kibling basically it's like chunks of fish that they batter and fry. I think fish chunks and
9:27
chips, like fish and chips but fish chunks and chips. You can have that. I actually like to share
9:30
that one sometimes but it's actually quite nice. Like that could be something you can have as a meal, snack, whatever, but kibling is quite popular too
9:36
So we've got our kibling, which is fried fish, and they put a little Troida sauce, herb sauce
9:43
or herb, not herb sauce, but sprinkles, rice on top with the mayonnaise stuff on there
9:48
so let's dip it in. Yeah. Always need sauce. It is I mean it is the other ones You have to have some kind of probably mayonnaise sauce somewhere It hot though You got to be careful Holy
10:03
Yeah. You're a beginner. You've got to blow the thing. It's a little hot in the beginning. Holy..
10:10
Don't you like when you eat something hot, your eyes start watering? Yeah, and you're like, oh my god
10:16
Oh, there is one thing I noticed. When they have fried food here in the Netherlands, they fry the hell out of it
10:22
Not like overcooking it, but it is super hot because you get it fried fresh
10:25
Like this, the dude just fried it for us. I mean, you could hear it crackling over there
10:30
And when I've had fries, when I've had, what else do I have with fried stuff? The pitruballen that we'll have later
10:36
I mean, I had another place. It was so hot. I'm like, ha, ha. Literally, I don't think I have much to get inside of my mouth
10:40
But the food's so good, I don't really care. We'll find a way to make it. But, yeah, do be careful
10:44
We should have a little warning here on the bottom. Yeah. Be careful. Blow your food first
10:48
Yes, blow on the food first because holy crap. It was really tasty from what I could taste before
10:53
I was like, oh, my God, I'm going to die. Now, if you're here in the wintertime and you need something to kind of warm you up for your day
10:59
the pea soup here is actually pretty good. And no, it's not just peas. There's other stuff in it as well
11:03
But that is one of those things you might want to have. And honestly, when you're thinking about it, you're like, hey, that could be a nice
11:09
like, I'll just have that in a pancake and I'll be good to go. And you really can because it really does hit the spot
11:14
All right. I want to talk about a couple of the big ones now that you're probably like, hey, hey, dude, you got to talk about these
11:19
You can't leave those out. Yes, I'm going to talk about, first off, we're going to talk about the Stroopwafel
11:24
And the Stroopwafel, basically, it's like two waffle wafers, and then it's like a caramel interior in there
11:31
They put it together. Now, you can get them freshly made in some places. It's very hard to find, but you'll see it
11:35
Every single store will have it for tourists to buy. They have the airport. Heck, if you go to your local Walmart, I'm probably back home in the U.S.
11:42
I bet they have Stroopwafel there. But the thing is, you can eat it plain, and it's really good
11:47
because the syrupy caramel-ness always sticks together. like doesn't melt super much so it's like enjoyable any time of the day any time of the year but what
11:54
I like to do is if you have coffee or if you have tea or hot chocolate I like to lay it on top of my
12:01
glass and then it lets it warm up so then the caramel stuff gets a little warm too oh that is
12:07
so good and and you know there's also the big the big the big little fish that we need to talk about
12:15
in the room and that is herring. Look, the people here love herring. Like there's three
12:19
ways to eat herring. We actually have a video about how you eat the different ways of herring
12:24
but you'll see is especially when you get to, you know, early June when like the fresh
12:28
herring starts coming out, but you'll have it all year round. But you'll see these little herring shops and little herring kiosks all around you can go get herring. They literally
12:35
are fixing it for you right there. And it's really actually good. It seems weird that I'm saying herring is good, but it is. It's pickled herring. And so sometimes you'll see people
12:43
like drop it in their mouth like that. Or they'll cut up and you have your little toothpick and pick it up that way
12:48
The more fresh it is, like the closer it is when they first came out, that's when you're going to have it with less stuff on it
12:53
But if you need a little bit of things on it, usually it's going to have pickles and onions on it. So you could do it that way
12:58
Not going to lie, probably not going to get too many kisses after you have it, unless it's a Dutch lady or a Dutch man and they like that
13:05
So hey, it might work. Now there's an old wives' tale that basically says, oh, the herring will help you with a hangover
13:10
And I'll be honest with you, I've had a few drinks here and I've had herring the next day and actually it did kind of help a little bit. So just saying if
13:18
you had a few too many last night you might want to have some herring to get your day going all
13:22
right. So I've been to the Netherlands quite a few times over the years and I may or may not have had
13:26
a few drinks while my times were here. There's some things I think you should know and you should
13:30
try when you're here and yes there are big Dutch national brands like Heineken you probably have
13:35
back home and Amstel you probably have back home. You can have those here. You can do a Heineken
13:38
tour. It's kind of a tourist retrapy kind of thing but it's worth doing. It's fun you know but I would
13:42
say, try the local beers when you're here. Like when you go to different towns, you go exploring
13:47
around craft beer places. There's, you know, local breweries you can drink at. Go to those and try
13:52
those because that's going to give you more of a diverse palette of beers than just a Hamsdell
13:56
or a Heineken. Also, if you're getting beer here, remember, no foam, no drink. Because if there's no
14:03
foam, it means the beer's been sitting there for a while and it's not very good, you know. So you want to have at least two fingers of foam on your beer when you drink it. That's why when they pour
14:10
you'll notice that wipe it off on the top, but here you go. And you're like, oh, cool. Thanks
14:14
Now, another drink you should have when you are here is Jennifer. And Jennifer is basically, it's Direction Gen. It's more like a gen, but like more juniper-y, I guess you'd say
14:23
You can have that here and you'll get it in a little tulip glass. It'll be full at the top
14:26
You know, they have very much about how you're supposed to fill things and all that kind of stuff here. Very, very efficient, very practical when you're here in the other ones, okay? But
14:33
that's something you should have if you're looking for another adult beverage. A mistake the tourists
14:37
make while I drink Genova or Yenneva is realize they have a little... they fill it so high
14:45
that there's that on the top. Oops. And so you have to come down and
14:52
sip the first sip Yenneva or Genova is not a shot Okay You want to sip it All right so be aware of that But I think if you looking for a non beverage i a kid drink or a kid
15:05
at hard drink, you got to go to Choco Milk. It's the chocolate milk here. I mean, the chocolate
15:10
milk, Choco Milk, it's like a thick chocolate milk, not like curdy. I'm just saying like, it's
15:14
like, it feels like it's like whole milk, but like Dutchified, you know, like on there kind of stuff
15:20
and you have that you make sure you shake it up before you drink that i mean i get it at the
15:24
airport like when i'm leaving i'll drink it at the airport like as i get on the plane to have one
15:27
last little taste of tastiness from here in the netherlands now of course it'd be wrong with me
15:32
not to mention some drinks when we're here and of course choco bell is the chocolate milk here
15:36
this is what you drank when you're a kid it's what you drink when you're an adult make sure you shake it really well before you open it so it gets nice and mixed up but uh
15:42
it's got that thick rich creamy chocolateyness but with the good milk kind of stuff i mean
15:52
you can't go wrong and choke them out you just can't there's a lot of things you can have when
15:56
you're here obviously you can drink the water and you get tap water at the restaurants no problem
16:00
um but it is one of those things you will enjoy yourself when you are here but realize that
16:06
sometimes it's hard to find traditional you know dutch food because the locals like to eat
16:11
international food that has flavor that isn't basic boring and blah and i told you some of the
16:16
great stuff here that isn't basic boring and blah and you can have that though champagne yeah that
16:20
that really fits the basic boring kind of thing that's why i'd say is experiment with different
16:25
vegetables in your stomp pot uh to like enliven it up i guess i would say but honestly if you're
16:31
coming here you have a great time eating you have a great time drinking you have a great time you
16:34
know enjoying your time here i will say if you're looking at service don't expect over the top
16:38
service when you're here you need might need to flag down your waiter to order another drink
16:42
because they're not going to come back and check on you every five minutes they'll take your order
16:45
drop off your stuff and between then they might not see them so it's okay when they're walking by
16:50
go hey can i get another drink because the dutch are very direct so they don't they don't take any offense to it it's like oh yeah sure get another drink they'll be professional but don't think it's
16:57
gonna be like over the top friendly also if you're gonna be coming here in amsterdam you always want
17:00
to make reservations for dinner like if there's certain restaurants you want to go to you can get
17:04
a lot of places anyway but it's a good idea to get reservations especially on the weekends
17:08
and if you're in some of the other cities as well like if you're going to Rotterdam this place you want to go just get reservations and believe me if you come up and speak English they'll speak
17:16
English don't you don't have to worry about that and I think that's one thing that tourists kind of like here is because usually everywhere you go the the menus yeah they'll be in Dutch but also
17:24
they'll be in English so you can make sure what you're getting so you make sure you get the right vegetable in your stamp pot you know carrots are kind of good because that sweetness goes very well
17:31
but sometimes just like the end I have one but you know to all their own and the thing is when
17:35
you're here, if you can go to some of the markets when you're here to get some of the street food and to get some of the local food, that's always a fun thing to do. I think if you're looking for
17:43
desserts, yes, they have some good stuff here. Two desserts I recommend. One is butter cake
17:49
so it's got like the crumble on top. It's really, really nice. Another thing is the apple tart
17:54
which is, you know, basically like, you know, you ever hear like Dutch apple pie? You have that. It
17:58
is so good. Like, you want to have that. Make sure you get the cream on it because literally anything
18:02
dairy here in this country is great the cheese the milk the chocomel the cream that goes on top
18:08
of your desserts you can't go wrong with it when you are here all right so another snack you're
18:13
gonna have in the netherlands is kapsalon which is basically a i would call it a donor salad
18:19
basically with fries and basically what it is you have the base of fries and then they put the the
18:24
donor kebab meat on there and then they put the gouda cheese and they bake that to get like the
18:28
cheese melted up and they put salad on there and lettuce and stuff and then the sauce is always like
18:32
the sauce on top but that's a nice little like um after a few heineken's kind of snack but you
18:37
always get a good donut kebab too they do pretty good at that as well and as a final warning or
18:43
word of advice um if the locals give you little candies that are black it's black licorice salty
18:50
black licorice it's not tasty locals love it non-locals unless they're like from finland and
18:55
scandinavia they kind of love it they love it but other one else is like oh this is horrible so
19:00
just be aware of that when you do get an offer from one of your Dutch friends um I don't know
19:07
anyway I wish you all the best my friends I hope you have a great time eating here in the Netherlands
19:11
eating drinking and just seeing the beautiful countryside from taking c tours seeing the
19:15
museums all kinds of stuff you can't beat it here in the Netherlands we've got tons of videos to
19:19
help you have five things you love and hate about coming to the Netherlands the don'ts of Amsterdam obviously what you eat here mistakes tourists make in the Netherlands all to help you enjoy
19:26
this country. So please check us on our website, waltersworld.com. And if you have other fun things
19:30
to eat when you come here to the Netherlands, please put it down in the comments below because
19:34
things change. Restaurants pop up, new foods come in. The bakery scene here has totally changed in
19:39
the last few years and now you've got cool bakeries you can go to. Not just everybody's serving the
19:43
same bread. No, they like to mix it up a little bit. So let us know some good places to eat when
19:48
you're here in the Netherlands and some great food. Obviously, I can't hit everything in the video. So please put it down in the comments below to help out other travelers and I'll say bye
19:55
from here in the Netherlands
#food
#Food
#Snack Foods
#Fast Food
#Tourist Destinations
#Gourmet & Specialty Foods