Why The Dutch Don't Do Curry.

A good curry, in the eyes of any Scot worth their salt usually consists of a good combination of spices, flavours and ingredients, with a good dollop of pilau rice on the side and usually from some small curry-house down a Glasgow side-street (where the Indian guys behind the counter probably already know your order before you even wrench open the door).

Yes, us Scots like a good curry. And due to the large number of immigrants from India, Pakistan and the surrounding region over the years (hence sprinkling Indian take-aways and restaurants across the country), we have access to some pretty damn good ones too.

We like them firey, exciting, full of flavour and sometimes just darn-right abusive - much like the Scottish mentality and use of language.

However, since coming to the Netherlands I have noticed something about the Dutch eating style. They tend to have absolutely no taste for - or interest in- spicy foods or subtle flavours. I think this is quite fitting as it seems to equate with the Dutch attitude to life and their own use of language.

You see, the Dutch language includes a staggering lack of synonyms or subtlety. Which then seems to inform their direct, to-the-point and sometimes borderline rude persona. 

Most typical 'Dutch' food consists of straight-forward and to-the-point dishes such as mashed potato with carrots and some meat. Stodgy thick pea soup. Lots of mayonaise. 

When choosing Eastern food, they tend to opt for the 'Dutch take' on Indonesian food (lots of Indonesian immigrants in the Netherlands due to it being an ex-colony). This Indonesian food contains alot of fried egg and slabs of meat covered in bland tomato-ish sauces with a hint of something that tastes suspiciously like bbq-flavour-sauce. The popular Dutch-Indonesian food destroys any ounce of subtlety of flavour or excitement for the taste-buds. This is 'my-fatty-night-in' or hangover food.

So I'm glad to be back home about to order a good proper curry from the local Indian take-away.

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