Piled High: 17th-Century Dutch Banquet Scenes
12 comments
·January 26, 2025csswizardry
I’m on-site with a client in The Hague this week—the food and drink in this city is phenomenal, so these paintings definitely still ring true for me at least.
yurishimo
From my experience after moving here, the Dutch have three types of restaurants.
1. Cheap snack food hole in the walls that sometimes sell pizza too. Döner/kebab/fries etc. These are family owned and operated and generally just hanging on by a thread financially and it shows.
2. Slightly upscale bistros that are only open for lunch-5pm or dinner-10pm. The prices are such that they can support wait staff and skilled cooks but fall short of fine dining. Popular with middle class folks for a date night. Expect nicer serviceware and to spend €100 for two people after 1 drink each and dessert.
3. Fine dining with all the bells and whistles.
As a tourist, you often get lured into #2. If you’re coming from the US, it can seem quite fancy when you compare it to chains like Chilis and Olive Garden but the trends become very easy to spot after you see it enough times.
But what’s nice about #2 is that the staff do actually somewhat give a shit about their jobs and make an effort to provide an atmosphere that is inviting (gezelligheid). This also extends to the food which is artfully plated, even if the ingredients aren’t anything special.
Enjoy your trip!
kaaskop
Interesting, I live in NL now and the food is definitely one of my least favorite things here compared to other places I've lived.
May I ask what specifically gave you that impression? Any spots or dishes in particular?
Etheryte
As someone who's lived in the Netherlands for quite a long while, this is downright funny to read. No offense to the Dutch, but food is the last thing they're good at and they're pretty infamous for its blandness. Pretty much every good meal you can find in the Netherlands is either French, Indonesian, or etc. That said, the KLM sandwich is a very fine thing.
wbl
That's primarily an 19th century event and its results, with the emphasis on economizing.
trgn
Highly recommend to go see these sorts of paintings in a city palace like https://www.snijdersrockoxhuis.be/en/, subject matter and setting complement each other so beautifully.
Yeul
The Netherlands was rather unique back then for not having any starvation or food riots. Lots of dairy products and fish.
yostrovs
I noticed that strangely many Dutch still life scenes include lemons whose skin has been partially peeled and made to hang from the side of the table. Does this have more meaning than just showing off access to lemons and ability to draw the shape with the peel?
quuxly
I had the same question, after seeing one of my great uncle’s paintings with a peeled lemon motif. There’s a good Reddit comment here that goes into a lot of detail:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/nz47rz/still...
Galatians4_16
Could they have been used to degrease hands durning the meal?
Interesting read. Maybe a replica, high-quality poster or glass print would be a cool ornament in the kitchen or dining room :)