Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1891 — IN A DUTCH TAVERN. [ARTICLE]

IN A DUTCH TAVERN.

The Fare Laid Before a Stranger In That Land of Good Appetites. A stranger dining for the first time in a Dutch tavern sees a few novelties. First of all he is struck by the great size and thickness of the plates, proportionate to the national appetite; and in many places he will find a napkin of fine white paper, folded in a three-cornered shape and stamped with border flowers, a little landscape in the corner, and the name of the hotel or case. The stranger to be sure of his facts, will order roast beef, and they will bring him half a dozen slices as large as cabbage leaves; or beefsteak, and he is presented with a sort of cushion of raw meat, enough to satisfy a family; or a fish, and there appears a marine animal nearly as long as the table; and with each of these come a mountain of boiled potatoes and a pot of vigorous mustard. Of bread, a little thin slice about as big as a dollar, most displeasing to us Latins, whose habit it is to devour bread in quantities, so that in a Dutch tavern one must be constantly asking for more, to the great amusement of the waiters. A ith any one of these three dishes, and a glass of Bavarian or Amsterdam beer, an honest man may be said to have dined. As for wine, whoever has the cramp in his purse will not talk of wine in Holland, since it is extremely dear; but, as purses are pretty generally robust, almost all middle-class Dutchmen and their betters drink it; and there are certainly few countries where so great a variety and abundance of foreign wines are found as in Holland, French and Rhine wines especially.