Are you hungry? A guide on where to eat in the US or the Netherlands

By: Fleur Strik

As a foreign exchange student I get to experience the two similar, yet very different cultures of the United States and the Netherlands. One of these cultural aspects is food. I love food, although I’m a picky eater, and I have noticed some big differences in these two countries when it comes to food.

There are differences in sit-down restaurants, fast food chains, quick bites, the options you have at supermarkets, food for on the road and then the difference in price with all these things. There is also a big factor that influences all these options, the variety of different ethical groups and with that different foods. The United States is very big and since I live in California I compare the Netherlands to California, which is bigger than the Netherlands anyways.

One of the biggest differences I noticed right away is the amount of fast food chains in California and the Netherlands. Here in the United States the option between different fast food chains was incredible for me. There are so many options and all of them are very cheap while in the Netherlands there are ten fast food chains, and all of them are fairly expensive. Because we have so little option and the prices are high we tend to just buy food at supermarkets and cook for ourselves or buy our meals here.

Dutch Supermarkets are much cheaper compared to Californian supermarkets, and much healthier too. Since fast food is so cheap here people tend to spend more money on that and not cook as much or eat as healthy because buying at supermarkets can be more expensive.

Another reason why fast food is less optional in the Netherlands is because we can’t drive until eighteen, which makes a drive through less optional. You can’t really go through there with your bike or scooter. When we are on the road however, we eat dinner at one of the few fast food chains we come across, but we tend to pack food for on the road because you won’t always come across a place to eat very fast. Americans pack some snacks too, but they know for sure they’ll be able to catch food on the road so usually eat here. America’s big diversity in ethnic groups also gives for a lot of different fast food chains we don’t have in The Netherlands.

In America you’ll be able to get most different ethnic foods like Chinese, Italian, Mexican, and of course American. It might not be as good as in the original countries but you still have the option. In the Netherlands however it’s harder. You’ll be able to find most kinds of food but you’ll have to look really hard to find it. It will also most likely not be in the form of fast food but in pick-up food or sit-down restaurants.

In the Netherlands it’s very common to cook for yourself most of the days and otherwise you get pick-up food. This is Dutch peoples’ form of a quick bite since we don’t have a lot of fast food chains, it means that you’d go to a nearby restaurant that’s usually mostly made for people picking up food they order or ordered ahead and then bring it home to eat. This is big business in the Netherlands, mostly because this is a cheaper form of getting food without having to cook it yourself. Americans tend to just go to a fast food chain or go eat out somewhere, a sit-down restaurant, pick-up food is less common.

The different ethnic groups make for a lot of variety in your restaurants and a lot of different styles. It can be more casual or very formal and classy. It’s more common for Americans to go out and eat dinner somewhere when they don’t want to cook, in the Netherlands this is a very special thing. We don’t go out a lot, mostly because this is fairly expensive, but it’s also because we don’t have a lot of non formal sit-down restaurants.

If you try looking for that you’ll find yourself at a place you don’t really want to sit down or you’ll find yourself at a pick-up place. Going out for dinner is usually a very special thing for Dutch people. Even lunches are usually pretty formal unless you go to a pick-up place or one of the few fast food chains. Going out to lunch is also more expensive so this is something more special to do with your friends or family.

Going out to dinner or lunch and sitting down in a restaurant isn’t nearly as common in the Netherlands as it is in the United States, but picking up food is a lot more common here than in the United States. Both countries have their normalities on how they eat their food and where they get it, and price affects it a lot. The Netherlands has less options in going out of the house and eating cheap than America but they have less options in eating cheap and healthy from a supermarket. Ethnicity definitely influences the options of food you have in a country but it doesn’t decide it all, money and popularity play big factors too.

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