Cheese! And other good Dutch food.

Paulus Potter's impressive image of cattle in Mauritshuis.
Larger than life-size, the bull dominates the entire room of the museum.

Dairy cows are part of the Dutch landscape, and have been for centuries. I love Dutch cheese, and I love to look at the cheese shops and market stalls that sell small, medium, and huge Dutch cheeses. The airport has its own brand of cheese to sell to departing tourists -- of course we couldn't resist and came home from last week's stay in Holland with a wedge of cumin-flavored gouda.

Cheese in a painting by Clara Peeters, 1615.

A cheese shop in Delft

All kinds of Dutch seafood, especially herring, make a particularly delicious meal or snack.

A classic painting of a kitchen by Adriaen Brouwer
shows delicious chickens
roasting on a spit -- you still see them at markets.

I enjoyed the delicious bird in the photo at a restaurant in Amsterdam last week (actually a guinea fowl, not a chicken). Just about every meal we ate was delightful! And the correspondences with paintings in the museums was an added amusement.