How to pronounce Bitterballen

In the International Phonetic Alphabet it is /ˈbɪtərˌbɑlə(n)/. In plain English letters that is BIT-er-bal-un, with the stress on the syllable in capitals. There is no recording by a native speaker yet, so use the spelling and the IPA.

What is Bitterballen?

Bitterballen is a snack of the Netherlands. Where it comes from: North Holland. People usually eat it as a snack and late at night. Its main ingredients are beef and wheat & flour. It tastes savory and rich.

Where Bitterballen comes from

Bitterballen is one of 30 signature dishes of the Netherlands on this map. See all dishes from North Holland.

• Stamppot · Main dish · Holland

  Stamppot means "mash pot": potatoes boiled and mashed together with one or more vegetables, such as kale (boerenkool), sauerkraut (zuurkool), endive or carrots and onions (hutspot).

• Edam cheese Edammer kaas · Snack · North Holland

  Edam is a semi-hard cow's milk cheese named after the small town of Edam in North Holland, from where it was traded.

• Ossenworst · Snack · North Holland

  Ossenworst, "ox sausage", is a raw beef sausage from Amsterdam.

• Tompouce tompoes · Dessert · North Holland

  The tompouce, or tompoes, is a rectangular pastry of two layers of puff pastry with sweet yellow pastry cream between them and smooth pink icing on top.

• Stroopwafel · Dessert · Gouda

  A stroopwafel is two thin, crisp waffles pressed together with a layer of warm caramel syrup, the stroop.

• Hollandse Nieuwe Hollandse nieuwe haring · Street food · North Sea coast

  Hollandse Nieuwe is the first herring of the season, caught in the North Sea in late spring when the fish are fat before spawning.

Food of the Netherlands

Dishes like Bitterballen in other countries

Same type of dish and similar main ingredients as Bitterballen:

• Olive ascolane olive all'ascolana · Snack · Ascoli Piceno (Marche), Italy

  Olive all'ascolana are large green olives, pitted in a spiral, stuffed with a mixture of beef, pork and chicken cooked in wine, with cheese and nutmeg, then breaded and fried.

• Pastel de Chaves · Snack · Chaves, Portugal

  The pastel de Chaves is a pastry of very thin, flaky layers wrapped around a filling of minced meat, and it is the best-known delicacy of Chaves, a town in Trás-os-Montes in the far north of Portugal.

• Forfar bridie bridie · Snack · Scotland, United Kingdom

  The bridie is a horseshoe-shaped meat pasty from Forfar in Angus: minced steak with butter and beef suet, seasoned with salt and pepper, folded into pastry and crimped along the edge.

• Empanadas salteñas · Snack · Salta, Argentina

  Empanadas, pastries filled and baked or fried, came to South America with the Spanish, who had them from Galicia and from Arab cooking.