"Dutch Food is designed for Winter nights when...

...you come home from working hard in the fields and you want something big and greasy"


Well that was David Dale in 1991 (The Obsessive Traveller ISBN 0-207-16991-8)

In fact he goes into Dutch Food at length - entertaining but not complementary

 Anyway - in the intervening 21 years things have got much better:

This is "Mustard Soup" - wonderful, the best I have tasted all year

Just barely cooked cod with shrimps and a sauce that tastes like Bouillabaisse

I liked the look of this restaurant and menu from the start - but it was necessary to humour my companion with a pleasant walk around the centre of Steenwijk before returning to take a table

The restaurant is in an old building, associated with the port at Steenwijk (pronounced stain-vye-ck - as in stainless steel and vikings) - the port is no more (a car park), because the sea is now a very long way away - and the building nearly met the same fate as its demolished neighbours.  Is now serving as temporary employment for theatre restaurant staff while the theatre itself is being refurbished.  My whole meal with drink was €22 - less than one course at your typical Dublin restaurant.

The next day we, again, had a successful result with Dutch cuisine at the Huis Ten Wolde:

We assayed the "surprise menu". "Would you like to choose your main course?"  Uhhh no - because then it would not be a surprise then would it?  For our €32 + drinkies this is what we got...

You don't get to choose the size of your drink - as each beer comes with its own specific glass

The amuse bouche - lobster, olive oil, butter with crunchy salt crystals (and home made bread rolls - not pictured)

The waiter made me close my eyes for this one "to make the surprise more surprising".  Lots of interesting tastes here

This was 'thigh of beef' - of course we did not get to choose how well it was done - and it was done just right - why do folks think they know better than the chef?  In addition there were potatoes with cheese

A close up of the dessert - this is mango with a mini-sprig of mint

A mojito ice cream - a surprising taste but it worked well.  I have not had a Mojito since I was last in Havana

Although the bar was well stocked with Lagavulin my habit is to try the local spirit as a night cap - this is a very special genever.  A lot nicer than the Bols I had on my 1984 visit to Amsterdam - a swig of which was the forfeit while playing multilingual fizz-buzz (reverse and change language on 7) on the train back towards the ferry port.  I seem to remember Erling threw the empty bottle out the window