Before I came to the Netherlands, I had googled Dutch cuisine. As a Turkish person, food is very important to me. I found some interesting Dutch foods on the internet, most of which are not proper meals – like kroketten, patat and pannenkoeken. I knew Dutch cuisine was not very rich but it was only after I started my master’s programme that I realized quite how important bread is to the Dutch.
The Dutch can eat bread with everything. Students take a whole package of bread to the classroom. They even prepare and eat sandwiches during the lecture. The Dutch take a piece of cheese to make a sandwich with. And they can eat that bread the whole day as breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Everyone in the Netherlands has a lunchbox, even the grown-ups. The lunchbox is for carrying sandwiches – it is obviously not for cooked meals. When I say we eat a cooked lunch in Turkey, they look very surprised: a cooked meal is just for dinner! And the weirdest thing for me is that they eat bread with butter and the sprinkles that are used for cake decoration. They even have a name for it: hagelslag.
Everyone in the Netherlands has a lunchbox, even the grown-ups
Now, I have a very busy schedule and I can understand why sandwiches are so important. Preparing a sandwich is so simple and time-saving. If I do not have much time for lunch, I do not want to wait for my meal. I can eat my sandwiches anywhere, anytime. So the sandwich has become an important part of my life, as it is for every Dutch person.
Meltem Meydankaş, MSc student of Biosystems Engineering, from Turkey
Do you have a nice anecdote about your experience of going Dutch? Send it in! Describe an encounter with Dutch culture in detail and comment on it briefly. 300 words max. Send it to Resource@wur.nl and earn 25 euros and Dutch candy.
