Comparing Dutch and U.S. Food Cultures
People find other cultures strange as it can be. Take food, for example; some cultures believe not to eat some kind of animal, while it is a delicacy in another culture. There are a lot of differences between cultures in the United States and the Netherlands as well.
The United States, on the other hand, has a lot of similarity to the Dutch culture. For example, the Dutch eat supper between 5 and 7 PM, just like the American citizens. The old fashioned Dutch farmers eat supper a little earlier because they get up early in the morning and work until late at night. The Dutch loves healthy food, but sometimes it’s ok to eat a greasy, fat hamburger. Dutch citizens love their friends to come over for supper when it’s a sunny day. That way they can fire up the barbeque and eat all together. Food brings people together, whether it’s in the Netherlands or in the United States.
When there are similarities between cultures, there are also things completely different between both of them. One of them is the way people eat in the United States. For breakfast, they eat unhealthy food, such as a hamburger, from McDonald’s. This is unacceptable in the Netherlands. The Dutch always eat something like a sandwich or cereal and milk for breakfast. In the Netherlands, most families eat two cold meals a day and one warm meal for dinner. When you take a look at the eating style of the United States, it seems very different. One family eats whatever, the other eats healthy, and the family around the corner eats Burger King every day. The Dutch take more time to cook for their family than most families in the United States do. Going out to dinner is too expensive in the Netherlands. That’s why they eat six days out of seven at home. Some families don’t even bother going out for dinner and cook every meal themselves. They like to cook with fresh vegetables and other items used in their food from the local market.
Finally, most people don’t even see how many differences there are between certain cultures. It’s really interesting to find out that something abnormal is considered normal in another culture.
