Picking up mainly fried dishes from the proverbial "snack bar around the corner" has been a practice for many millions of Dutch households for at least seventy years, and therefore for generations.
The use is even deeply anchored in the Dutch language. Under the motto “what one loves chastises one”, the take-away tradition is accompanied by standing statements such as “today we get greasy”, “get a greasy mouth” and “today we take it easy and quickly get something from the snack bar around the corner ”. Many households traditionally have a more or less fixed "fries day" in the week.
French fries are the core product of the approximately 5,700 frying companies in our country. The range of deep-fried dishes enriched over the years. In the fried snacks, the frikandel and the beef croquette are the runners. The frikandel in sausage form is a completely Dutch product. The croquette comes from French cuisine, but no other country has a croquette / snack culture comparable to ours.
With rite of frying food, the snack showcase is inseparably connected. Many visitors of the snack bar look and choose from the extensive range in the refrigerated display case. Here we find dozens of deep-fried snacks that have emerged over the years and are almost without exception unique in our country and worldwide. Looking at the offer in combination with the preparation method, no other business concept can be imagined that is so unique and characteristic of Dutch culinary culture, both nationally and internationally, than our snack bar. Although every country has its own snack / frying culture, the frying range and the business concept of the Dutch snack bar have no equal. For the lion's share of the frying companies in our country, pick-up represents 70 to 80 percent of the turnover. Although take-away use is under pressure, many hundreds of thousands of Dutch people take away fried dishes at their “snack bar on / around the corner” every day.
The take-away use in the Netherlands led to the creation of complete industries. Thanks to the take-away use, Dutch fry pre-bakers and builders of deep-fat ovens grew into important international players. In addition, an increasing number of Dutch snacks can be found in Belgian fries. It is also noteworthy that the Dutch culture of deep-frying manifests itself in tourist resorts where the Dutch celebrate their holiday. The latter may be a sign that many Dutch consumers are very fond of their frying rite.
The typical Dutch custom of drawing hot snacks from a vending machine and eating it on the spot (“pulling something out of the wall”) is also a practice that is closely linked to our frying culture. Many automatic take-away shops offer an “appetizer” while customers wait for their order to be ready. Even the flimsy plastic snack bag (which is losing ground for environmental reasons) can with a bit of goodwill be considered an iconic image of an iconic Dutch food scene. Secretly taste a little bit from the family bag on the way back home. Moreover, home consumption is closely linked to the “plate on lap”, traditionally especially on Sunday evenings, watching the football matches at Studio Sport.
