Typical Dutch fare

The Dutch are not renowned for their cuisine - their food certainly does not reach the giddying heights of French haute cuisine ... and here's why.

In this picture, you see Grace enjoying two typical Dutch foodstuffs (albeit one wouldn't normally eat them at the same time, but she is three and so we shall excuse her). On the right you can see a 'bitterbal' (plural 'bitterballen') which is a favourite deep fried Dutch snack made of a meaty flavoured roux, covered in breadcrumbs. On the left, you can see Grace pouring chocolate sprinkles onto white bread and butter. (I don't know what I was thinking - letting her have that for lunch. The rose wine and the sunshine had clearly gone to my head).

Back to the food - I kid you not, the latter delicacy is (apparently and on good authority) typical Dutch children's breakfast fare. ( It was one of the few children's menu offerings at this particular cafe.)

Many typical Dutch dishes are based on ......stodge: pancakes (self explanatory), stroopwafel (a waffle made from two thin layers of baked dough with a caramel-like syrup filling in the middle), poffertjes (a traditional Dutch batter treat, resembling small, fluffy pancakes, they are made with yeast and buckwheat flour), croquettes (small breadcrumbed fried food roll containing, usually as main ingredients, mashed potatoes and/or ground meat or fish). As you can imagine, Richard and the children love these foods. Alternatively, if you wanted to move away from the stodge, you could always partake in the famous Dutch brined herring.

Then of course there is cheese - and a lot of it too. But that's another story and another picture.