Jul 07, 2026
|
Amsterdam’s Essential Food Journey
Discover stroopwafels, raw herring, and hidden gem markets that define Dutch culinary culture.
|
|
Love Netherlands
|
|
Dear Netherlands,
The first thing you notice when you arrive in the Netherlands is how much of it is water. The second thing is how comfortable the Dutch are with it. They cycle past canals, they eat herring leaning over the side of a railing, they build cities below sea level and make them look effortless. It’s the quiet confidence of a country that knows exactly what it is.
|
|
Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe free and never miss an edition →
|
|
If the daily newsletter brings you closer to the Netherlands, our Sunday Premium Edition takes you deeper into it. Every Sunday you’ll receive travel deep dives, curated itineraries, regional stories, and hidden gems you won’t find anywhere else.
Upgrade for less than the price of a pint and see the Netherlands in a completely new way.
|
Photo via Love Netherlands
|
In today’s email:
- Amsterdam Food Guide: What to Eat, Where to Eat, and Dutch Dishes You’ll Love (2026)
- At The Café — Café ‘t Smalle — Jordaan’s Tiny Canal Hideaway
- Around The Web — The Dutch Words That Don’t Translate — and What They Tell You About the Netherlands, The VOC Trail: Following Your Dutch Ancestors to the East, Dutch Healthcare for American Retirees: What You Need to Know (2026 Guide) + more
- From Love Netherlands — Retire in the Netherlands: The Complete American’s Guide
- Dutch Food You Will Love — Dutch Cheese Beyond the Tourist Shops
|
Amsterdam Food Guide: What to Eat, Where to Eat, and Dutch Dishes You’ll Love (2026)
👉 Read the full story
Amsterdam is one of Europe’s great food cities — but you’d never know it from most tourist guides. Beneath the surface of its famous canals and museums lies a thriving food culture built on centuries of trade, immigration, and an unshakeable Dutch love of good produce. This Amsterdam food guide covers everything you need to know: the street snacks that define the city, the markets where locals actually shop, the traditional dishes worth sitting down for, and the neighbourhoods where you’ll eat best. Love the Netherlands? Join our free newsletter for hidden Dutch gems → inlovewithnetherlands.com/subscribe Dutch Street Food: The Essential Amsterdam Bites No Amsterdam food guide is complete without street food. The Dutch have been feeding themselves on the go since the Golden Age, and the snacks they’ve refined over four centuries are some of the most satisfying in Europe. Raw Herring…
👉 Read the full story
Have you been there? Do you have a memory of this corner of the Netherlands? Hit reply and tell us — we’d love to hear your story.
|
|
“Want deep dives into the Netherlands every Sunday? Our Premium readers already have their next edition waiting.”
|
At The Café
Café ‘t Smalle — Jordaan’s Tiny Canal Hideaway
Café ‘t Smalle is exactly what its name says: small. It’s tucked on the Egelantiersgracht in the Jordaan, with a handful of tables inside and a tiny floating terrace on the canal that’s always full the moment the sun comes out. The building has been a café since 1786. You don’t go for the menu — you go because it’s one of the most beautiful places in Amsterdam to sit with a glass of wine and watch the boats drift past. Rain or shine, locals have been doing exactly this for two hundred and forty years.
👉 Visit the café
|
Around The Web
|
From Love Netherlands
Retire in the Netherlands: The Complete American’s Guide Canals, world-class healthcare, a country built for cycling, and cities that feel like living museums — what Americans actually need to know before trading their ZIP code for a Dutch postcode. An introduction to retiring in the Netherlands There is a particular kind of envy that sets in during a first week in the Netherlands as a visitor. The cycling paths threading every city and village.…
👉 Read the full story
|
John Lothrop Motley via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
|
Dutch Food You Will Love
Dutch Cheese Beyond the Tourist Shops
The cheese in every Amsterdam tourist-shop window is usually young and mild. Nice enough for a sandwich. But the real Dutch cheese is aged — four, six, sometimes twelve months — and it’s where the country’s centuries of dairy craft actually show up. Aged Gouda picks up tiny white crystals and a deep nutty flavour that sits somewhere between an English cheddar and an Italian Parmigiano. You have to find a farmhouse dairy, or a Friday market stall in Alkmaar, or the kind of small family shop that closes at lunchtime for 90 minutes and nobody complains.
👉 Read the full story
|
|
Know Someone Who Loves the Netherlands?
If you’re enjoying this letter, the best thing you could do is forward it to one friend who’d love the Netherlands too. This newsletter grows by word of mouth alone — every single subscriber came from someone sending it to someone else. Thank you for being one of the first.
|
|
Our daily newsletter is free and always will be. But for less than the price of a pint, you can upgrade to our Sunday Premium Edition, which gives you access to our travel deep dives, curated itineraries, and regional stories. Consider buying us a stroopwafel — it’s the Dutch way to say thank you.
|
Also From Our Family
Love Ireland too? Over 64,000 readers wake up each morning to the Love Ireland newsletter — loveireland.substack.com
Or Scotland? Join 43,000 Scotland lovers — lovescotland.substack.com
|
|
You’re reading Love Netherlands — a free letter about canal towns, hidden villages, and Dutch stories, delivered Monday to Friday.
inlovewithnetherlands.com ·
Unsubscribe
© 2026 Love Netherlands · Part of the Love To Visit LLC family
|
