Mushy, but in a good way: golf fans enjoy Dutch snacks at the Solheim Cup

DEN BOSCH, Netherlands — Sherry Ford took a bite of her Dutch meatball roll and wiped mayonnaise off her chin. And her coat. And her sleeve.

“It's very tasty,” the 76-year-old from near San Francisco said of the snack known in the Netherlands as a broodje bal as she sheltered with friends from a light rain drifting across the Bernardus Golf course on the first morning of the Solheim Cup. “A little mushy, but in a good way.”

Thousands of golf fans visiting the tournament from overseas can get a taste of local and national specialties as they wander around the course hosting the international women’s team competition, or the nearby city of Den Bosch.

The three-day showdown is being played in the Dutch province of North Brabant that is known for its good food and partying.

The city of just over 162,000 people gives its name to the calorie-heavy Bossche Bol pastry – a large, choux pastry bun filled with cream and covered in a shiny deep brown layer of chocolate fondant icing.

Another classic Dutch snack to satisfy any fan’s sugar cravings are poffertjes – tiny puffed-up pancakes that are often served slathered with butter and icing sugar.

Josef Doelfer, 64, from Heidelberg in Germany, enjoyed a paper plate of the sweet snacks that were served with a big slab of butter spiked on a plastic fork for ease of spreading over the poffertjes.

“It's a Dutch thing,” he said.

At the “Grandma's Poffertjes” food truck, they are fried in pans with small, circular indentations that are filled with the batter. A cook deftly flicks them over once one side is ready and then tips them onto a plate once the other side is done.

The Brabant region is also known for its variant of sausage rolls, known as worstenbroodjes. Unlike other Dutch sausage rolls, those from the Brabant region are made up of minced beef wrapped in bread dough — as opposed to puff pastry — and baked.

A Dutch cultural heritage organization estimates that some 25 million are eaten each year. Houben, a baker famous for the rolls, says on its website that they can be enjoyed “for breakfast, a snack, lunch, a treat, with soup or just out of your hand.”

For those with less of a sweet tooth, the aroma of deep frying oil is also wafting across the manicured fairways and greens.

French fries, sold in paper cones, were selling well in the cool autumnal weather at the Solheim hospitality areas. Best known as a Belgian snack, the fries are thicker than the skinny fries served in American fast food restaurants and are served with a big dollop of mayonnaise.

A lot of the food was being washed down with plastic beakers of the local brew.

“The beer is divine,” Ford said.