When I arrived in the Netherlands back in 2015, I didn’t have a clue how to navigate the culinary culture here.
At the time, there weren’t many young Italians in The Hague. The Italian “community” was mostly made up of immigrants from the 1960s and niche professionals with families.
In my university program, out of 500 students, there were only four Italians in total. It was such a rare occurrence that one of our professors commented once that he was surprised by the growing presence of Italians. Mindblowing in a way.
When I graduated a couple of years later, the number of Italians in the course, over the years, had increased tenfold, if not more.
The real turning point came when I moved to Hilversum to work at a major multinational corporation. Suddenly there were Italians everywhere and they had just recently arrived.
Naturally, like good Southern Europeans, our most heated debates were always about food. Where can you eat well in Holland or in Het Gooi? What on earth is satay sauce? Have you ever actually dared to try it? And so on.
This environment allowed me to embark on culinary adventures, test out local spots, see where the food is actually good, and find places worth returning to.
Today, the Italian community is bigger than ever. From small villages to big cities, not a single day goes by without hearing a fellow Italian on the street. And some of them are importing their culinary wonders: cicchetti, supplì, cakes, and so forth.
Our habits are, in part, even starting to influence the Dutch.
But enough rambling, it’s time to get down to business.
Plura sequentur!
Gooische Eats 
Leave a comment