The history of Dutch food

Apparently it wasn't always bland. From the NYT:

... Wilde Zwijnen reminds the Dutch of the utilitarian ethos that has dominated its cuisine for decades. It wasn’t always so, writes Karin Engelbrecht, a restaurant critic for Time Out Amsterdam. The Dutch, she explains, cooked with élan until the start of the 19th century, and you can tell from still-life paintings of the era, which showed off tables piled high with delectables. A peek at cookbooks dating back a few hundred years reveals dishes like mussels with saffron and ginger, and roast goose with turmeric root. Meals were lavish, multicourse affairs that started with leafy greens and ended with pastries and hippocras, a wine sweetened with cinnamon and served warm.

Then, as the Dutch started to lose their colonies — mostly to the British — and population growth started to strain resources, the country’s golden age ended and a new frugality took hold. But what really set Holland’s kitchens on a path toward stodgy was the popularity, starting in the late 19th century, of huishoudschool. A type of domestic-science school, it taught girls to ditch the herbs and spices and produce meals that favored nutrition and cheapness over flavor and pizazz.