Netherlands Report

[Brad Ballinger]

As part of my month of continuous business travel, I found myself in Gorinchem, Holland, for eight nights. My company has a distribution center there, and the warehouse also has an office attached which serves as our European headquarters.

Prior to traveling there, I had pleaded with the Gorinchem office to put me up at a hotel in the center of the city (not at the AC off the autoway 5 km outside of town). All my reasonaing failed, and I was left in this sterile hotel in the middle of farmland. The only thing I ate there was the breakfast included in the room rate.

Fortunately the office provided me with a car. This resulted in several trips into Gorinchem (no ventures to nearby Rotterdam or Utrecht since most of the time I was accompanied by someone from the Gorinchem or Minneapolis office). So I was on a mission to find some decent food in this industrial town of 35,000 situated on the confluence of three rivers.

Satehut. This was the first night in town. I had been doing my best to stay awake the entire day after the overnight flight, and just wanted something simple. If I could find Indonesian, I'd take it. This place (which may be a chain, I don't know) would do fine. I had some pork satay that was nicely flavored, but the peanut sauce was too thick and bland. Oh well, it was food.

Grandcafe 't Gelagh. On the second evening, a Minneapolis co-worker and I found this place. I was attracted to it for the seating underneath some huge trees in a quaint plaza. The food was also a step up. I had a mushroom strudel made from puff pastry that had good earthy flavors, and a type of whitefish for an entree. The fish was perfectly undercooked. Along with it came the requisite bowl of french fries (accompanied by mayonnaise) and another bowl of salad. Although I'm a wine drinker, there are too many good beers available from both Holland and Belgium that I went that direction for much of the time. So it was Duvel on this evening. I found the beer very dry and then discovered why -- 8.5% alcohol.

Bistro de Poort. This was the site of the best meal in Gorinchem. It is positioned next to a lock on one of the rivers. And four of us had the porch all to ourselves. This was the third time I'd seen carpaccio listed as an appetizer (must be a thing here), so I went for it. This treatment was different than the typical Italian approach, including tomatoes, crispy fried angel hair carrots, and some other flavors. For the entree, I ordered a first for me -- kangaroo -- at the recommendation of the server. I found it to be much like venison, and quite good. No fries tonight. Instead, celery in a mustard sauce. Vos beer to start but then wine with dinner -- my colleagues knoew of my wine hobby and asked me to order for all of them.

Solo. This restaurant has the best reputation in Gorinchem, but I thought de Poort to be better overall. I was on my own this evening, and since I was driving to Maastricht early in the morning and then onto Hasselt, Belgium, for dinner with friends, I stayed in town. Solo has two seating options -- formal dining room or brasserie/bar. Nicely dressed people were in the restaurant. I sat in the bar. The wine list didn't do much for me, so I had Grolsch. I went for carpaccio as an appetizer a second time. This one had pumpkin seeds, greens, and other stuff I can't remember. Pretty good. For dinner, I asked the server for a recommendation among the fish options. He selected the sole. Makes me wonder about the other ones since the sole was very average. The vegetables accompanying it seem to have been from a frozen veggie bag. The bowl of fries was good. the menu option also included dessert. I had the profiteroles with ice cream and caramel sauce. The sauce was excellent, and this was the best course of the meal.

Dinner in Hasselt with friends, and lots of wine, topped all of the dinners in Gorinchem combined. Our host is an excellent cook. I especially enjoyed the white asparagus (we now get this in the states with some regularity, but it's never as good).

The remaining dinners in and around Gorinchem were all of the large group variety. There were managers meetings during the day and activities planned for the evening. One of those took us to a glass-blowing facility in Leedham, that has a brasserie attached. There was a buffet laid out, and at least I got to try raw herring and eel. I was the only American to have these items, and they were far better than many other options in the buffet line.

More to explore when I return in November.

[paulbrussel]

Well, you maid the best of it, I think, since Gorinchem is not the most exciting village in the Neteherlands, and not in the culinary sense either.

If you get back, I would be interested whether you could visit De Gieser Wildeman in Noordeloos (about 5 km from Gorinchem), and De Fuik in Aalst (about 8 km from Gorinchem), both having very good reputations.

[Brad Ballinger]

Thanks for these suggestions. I'll certainly be looking for new and exciting places to try.

[anil]

Rotterdam - This is a city belittled by many and mostly clueless - it a happening place - In terms of food,music and nightlife. Between 35-40% of Rotterdam's population is diverse (a.k.a non-native-dutch)

We were there earlier this week and had an excellent rijstaffel which rivals the best in AMS - But then what do I know :) I follow the advice of the natives (many of them geeky academics in search of good grub).