Hiya!

I was born there (in Apeldoorn) and raised here in Canada but VERY Dutch foodstuffs. I hear your pain! Some of my favourite dishes still (and I don't get to eat them much, as you can imagine) are Hutspot or Hachee over potatoes...My mum used to do a TDF creamed endive over gehakt bolletjes (meatballs), all of it over potatoes. I actually make a similar dish, and with the cream cheese version of the endive (instead of the white sauce made with flour, cheap filler, eh?) I don't miss the potatoes anymore (well, much).

I recommend for breakfast, ask for an Uitsmeiter and skip the bread. Lunch, deli sandwiches (home buffet is easy, load up on the meats and cheeses, lettuce if there is any, just skip the bread, or keep an eye out for a Wasa or RyKrisp kind of crackerbread, fairly high fiber and low carb in gentle moderation), ask for the innards only. Salads. Broth style soups and go around the noodles. Dinner, more salads and the meat entrees. The meatballs are good and usually have a pretty minimal amount of crumbs in them. Watch out for the croquettes, loaded with flour. Cheese, cheese and more cheese! Street food, get used to the herring (salted or brined, not the mildly sugary pickled or rollmops if you can manage it), the best is a dish called matjes, with finely diced white onion and skip the buttered white bread, avoid the wonderful frites (fries) and enjoy the sausages and "smokies". Carry a cloth napkin (a knife, fork & spoon rolled up in it) everywhere and you're set to dismember the buns, rolls and other assorted white stuff.

Hope that helps!

from Canada