Try 13 Best Dutch Food in Caribbean Islands

Can you find Dutch Food in the Caribbean Islands?

Do you think it is unfair to expect such a preposterous wish? After all, the distance between Aruba Island (one of the Dutch Islands) in the Caribbean Sea and Amsterdam is roughly 8000 km!

You have to cross two seas namely the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea to reach the “A” (Aruba) of ABC islands in the Caribbean Sea.

The ABC islands point to:

Aruba
Bonair
Curacao

If you know who owns these three Caribbean Islands, you can say answer to my question.

“Yes, you can find Dutch fare in Aruba”.

Aruba and its two siblings are owned by the Dutch Government.

Dutch Food

Dutch cuisine is not all that popular in the world. Let me prove this statement.

Try two different searches in the Google.

How many Dutch restaurants are there in San Francisco?
How many Chinese restaurants are there in San Francisco?

From the Google search results, you will find “top 10…” for the first search and “400 Chinese restaurants” for the next search.

What does a typical Dutch dinner constitute?

The Dutch eat plenty of vegetables. A typical dinner in Netherlands would include one meat, one potato dish, and one dish containing other vegetables such as tomato, garlic, shallots, bell-pepper, and Belgian Endive (a kind of edible leaves).

Usually, the Dutch people finish their dinner early by 7 pm and it will be lighter than their lunch which will be an elaborate fare.

Best Dutch Food in Caribbean Islands:

Different Dutch foods you can eat in Aruba Island.

Please be aware that whatever you can eat in Aruba, can also be found in Bonaire, and Curacao Islands.

Hollandse Nieuwe

Well, the majority of us have no stomach for this Dutch food because the main ingredient in Hollandse Nieuwe is raw fish, more particularly, “Herring”.

The raw herring is served with uncooked onions and gherkins which is a kind of cucumber that is marinated in brine.

See how this traditional Dutch food is eaten:

Actually, tender fish fries are eaten like this only in Asian countries.

Bread, Bread, and Potato

The Dutch eat bread for breakfast, bread for lunch and potato for dinner. These are traditional foods for the Dutch.

Poffertjes

Ah, a typical Dutch word that is tough to pronounce like Russian words.

Poffertjes is a very popular dish in Dutch restaurants.

The natives of Holland call it as a ‘batter’ dish. It means a thick liquid that you can pour over a solid. The liquid contains flour and sugar.

Though it is a sweet dish, it is not eaten as a dessert at the end of the meal. I remember reading Poffertjes is eaten for breakfast.

Besides, I conclude it as a pancake but Wikipedia says it is similar to the Indian ‘paniyaram’. I don’t agree with this example.

Sate

You will find Sate in a bowl on the dining table in the restaurants in Aruba Island. It is a kind of sauce. The Dutch people pour it over rice or meat dish.

Pannenkoek

This is almost an equivalent to the familiar pancake but is much larger in a Ditch restaurant in Aruba.

As far as the toppings are concerned, it is up to your taste or imagination. You can even combine bacon with apple, and add shreds of cheddar cheese.

I have given you some guidance. If the waiter presents you with some options, you choose as per your preferences.

Uitsmijter

This Dutch food is unique though the ingredients comprising egg, bread, and cheese are common.

Two half-boiled eggs are placed on a slice of toasted bread. Again, on top of the eggs, melted cheese is rubbed.

Hmm… very different food it is for breakfast.

Boterham

The Dutch name is deceptive; we should not assume anything exotic combination in this Dutch specialty.

Boterham means ‘sandwich’’. You can eat a sandwich anytime of the day. It is considered as a ‘poor man’s food’ in the United States.

But a chef can get creative in what he places between the two slices of bread. The more creative he is, the more expensive a Boterham becomes.

I listed it here so that you will know what you can expect if the waiter suggests it in a café in Aruba or Bonaire Island.

BTW, when you find Wentelteefjes below the ‘Botereham; on the menu card, known that it is the all-familiar French Toast (toasted bread that is coated with cooked egg).

It goes well when each piece is dipped into a tomato or green chilli sauce.

Bitterbal

It is a sort of ball-shaped meat Dutch food. Bitterball will look exactly similar to the Indian dessert ‘gulabjamun’ without the sugar syrup.

Bitterballen are truly unique. Can you believe the solid balls were thick stew when prepared but they are solidified by keeping the bowl containing the stew in a fridge?

The thickening agent is known as ‘Roax’, a fine mixture of flour and meat fat.

I reckon it is one of the must-try Dutch foods in the Caribbean Islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.

Keshi Yena

Keshi Yena doesn’t sound like a Dutch word. Nonetheless, it is the national dish of Aruba, a Dutch island.

Keshi Yena is baked cheese and stuffed with minced chicken. Later day innovation saw raisins are also added in Keshi Yena.

This gets interesting and the combination is literally exotic.

Before the advent modern baking tools, the Dutch West Indies used to wrap the cheese, meat, and spices in banana leaves and bake it, placing the wrap in a primitive iron pan.

Sopis

If you want to know what is this, when you read it on the menu card, know that sopis means soups.

Arubans are very fond of the filling soup that is made with different fish, depending on the daily catch sold in the market.

Metworst

You don’t have to be a non-vegetarian to know this Dutch food as a sausage. Sausages vary of course, from continent to continent by the usage of different local spices but the meat is mostly pork.