4 typical Dutch habits

We as Dutch people sometimes have some really weird habits. These habits feel normal for us but foreigners think we are a little bit crazy.. Here is a list with typical Dutch habits! 

Pepper and salt

In the Dutch kitchen we use a lot of pepper and salt. We actually use it with every dish and when you are in a restaurant there is always a jar of salt and pepper on the table. Where in most cultures many herbs and spices are used in cooking the Dutch seem to prefer thin solid duo. Table condiments range from country to country, think about olive oil and balsamic in Mediterranean countries or vinegar in the UK to compliment your chips/fries. In the Netherlands you will mostly find pepper and salt on tabletops. So shake it!

Sweets on bread

In the Netherlands we eat sweets on bread. When I talk about sweets I mean things like ‘’hagelslag’’ hagelslag are delicious  chocolate sprinkles. We also have ‘’schuddebuikjes’’ , which are small pieces of speculaas. Basically small cookies you can put on your sweet sandwich for that extra crunch, it comes from the old tradition of eating speculaas cookies on bread as a treat. Next to hagelslag we also have vlokken, chocolate curls you can also have on a nice buttered sandwich to give yourself a good treat.

Two Christmas days

Christmas is one of the best times of the year, so Dutch people celebrate it two days instead of one! We can divide our time over two days, so one day we can go to our in-laws and the other day to our own family. What a great solution! In the UK they have a second day called boxing-day.

Sinterklaas 

Sinterklaas is a big holiday in the Netherlands, during Sinterklaas children get a lot of presents. children can put their shoes under the chimney or at the door and then they wake up to a shoe  filled  with gifts  the next morning. At 5 December it is package night, this night the children get the most presents. Package night is also the end of Sinterklaas. But the weird thing about Sinterklaas is that we say that he comes with the steamboat from Spain. But when you say this to a Spaniard he has no idea what you are talking about!