Chinese food in the Netherlands: a quick and tasty introduction

Let’s be honest: Chinese food is the staple of Dutch people who are too lazy to cook. There’s a massive amount of Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands: from frugal takeaway to high-end floating establishments, there’s one for every palate.

As a culturally aware expat living in the Netherlands, you must have heard native Chinese people complain about the Chinese food here. Ever wonder why they’re being so critical?

One reason is that most so-called Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands that do delivery are not strictly Chinese, but something of a hybrid between Indonesian cuisine and Southern Chinese cuisine. 🍛

Hence, you will see restaurants offering this kind of “Invented in the Netherlands” Chinese food with the apt descriptor: Chinees-Indisch.

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Here are some features of this breed of comfort food that Dutch people love so much!

When getting Chinese food in the Netherlands, expect names you can’t pronounce

Dish names are often transcribed into the Latin alphabet, meaning that even Chinese people wouldn’t understand at first glance.

Despite this, Chinese restaurants are going strong in the Netherlands. “Foo Yung Hai”, “Tjap Tjoy”, “Tau Foe”, “Tjap Ha”, “Koe Yuk” — these are just some words that almost every properly fed Dutch kid knows.

Luckily, restaurant owners are usually kind enough to provide Dutch — and sometimes even English — descriptions of the dishes under the unfamiliar names.

Enjoy meat or fish — and often both!

Europeans, especially foodies, often complain about how meat and fish should not be mixed in the same meal, let alone in the same dish.

Dutch-Chinese restaurant menus may have different sections for meat and fish, but don’t be surprised if you find big chunks of beef in your oyster sauce with your squid dish or pieces of shrimp in your stir-fried pork.

And you know the best part (or worst, if you have allergies)? This isn’t always written on the menu. Some things are better kept a surprise, as fortune cookies teach us.

Expect an avalanche of food

Some of us may have this experience: no matter how many times you have ordered takeaway, it never ceases to amaze you how much food you are given.

Sambal: you’re going to get it whether you want it or not

I’ve mentioned that Chinees-Indisch food consists of a lot of Indonesian and Southern Chinese cuisine. Normally, the Southern Chinese influence is prevalent, as most of the Chinese restaurant owners (or their forefathers) are Cantonese speakers from the South of China.

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In Southern cuisine, however, spicy food is almost non-existent, because it is simply way too hot to eat spicy food when the temperature hangs around the thirties most of the year. ☀️

Of course, this would not apply to people living in the Netherlands, where summer days’ temperatures are rarely over twenty degrees, or my Dutch-Indonesian friends, who carry mini-bottles of Sambal in their bags. That’s how you know that the ubiquity of Sambal is an Indonesian legacy.

Congratulations! The Chinese food you eat in the Netherlands can’t be found in China!

Given the prevalence of Chinees-Indisch food here, you might think that you would find this everywhere back in China.

But, you would also be very proud to know that you won’t find it anywhere else in the world. (Okay, maybe in Chinatown in Indonesia, or Indo-town, if it exists, in China).

Dutch-Chinese food apparently fits into every occasion. Wait, really?

I love Chinese food, but I wouldn’t want to eat it all the time.

Let’s say you are invited to a movie night or birthday party or, even Christmas at a Dutch household. You will inevitably run into the situation where your Dutch friends are pouring boxes of Chinees-Indisch takeaway onto their dinner plates.

And best yet, they announce that (surprise!) dessert is going to be sweet rice pudding ordered from a Dutch bakery. (Well, rice pudding is actually Dutch.) 🍮

You can’t blame your Dutch friends. After all, ordering Chinees-Indisch food is just one of the most convenient and cost-efficient meals.

It is the kind of food you won’t mind presenting to your visitors — unlike delivery pizzas that remind everyone of all-nighters in college or shoarma that brings up memories of partying till 5 am and being as hungry as a cow.

At least it fills the stomach without, arguably, making you too bloated, unlike the all-occasion Dutch borrel food!

What do you think of Chinese food in the Netherlands? Let us know in the comments below!