Australian soldiers serving with Dutch troops in Afghanistan have complained so much about the food on the Netherlands-run Tarin Kowt base that 10 special Australian cooks are being flown in, according to media reports on Wednesday.

The issue was even raised in the Australian parliament during a debate on defence spending, Australian tv reports. And because Dutch food is found by the Australians to be tasteless, more food with an Aussie flavour – including barbecues – will be served up.
‘The least they could expect when they are deployed for six months is that they can eat decent food,’ senator David Johnston was reported as saying.
Air chief marshall Angus Houston said the Dutch-prepared food was generally nutritious, but was not as fresh as Australians were generally accustomed to in their diets, ABC reported.
Most of the food eaten on the base is prepared in the Netherlands, frozen and shipped to Karachi and then transported by refrigerated truck to Uruzgan – a journey which can take up to three months, the NRC reported earlier this year. .
In addition, local vegetables and fruit are not used because of concerns about pesticide use. Instead, fresh produce is flown in from Dubai, the paper said.