The tags in the tweet by @TabletMag for Katie Robbins's article in Tablet magazine would have been a dead give away, but it was the announcement of a Dutch Treat in Tablet's newsletter that caught my eye before I'd even logged in to my Twitter account. What could it be? Something about our proverbial thriftiness perhaps?
The moment Tablet's website had loaded and I saw the photograph with the article I knew, and so did the little guys who work at my physical memory bank. My mouth started watering. Even although pickled herring isn't my favorite, the sight of soggy pickles coupled with the white flesh and blue skin of the marinated fish did the trick. Can't help it, I'm conditioned that way. No matter that I have a sensitive stomach, been suffering from hiatus hernia since childhood and GERD will hit me with a vengeance (I'll spare you the details, if you're interested, just click on the links) if there's anything that proves my Dutch heritage it's the click, click, clicking in my memory bank when I see a ***haring***.
"Oh, wat snak ik naar een Hollandse Nieuwe."
Oh, how I crave a New Dutch Herring I thought in Dutch, yes, that's what happens, just the way I'll think of "poffertjes", "oliebollen" and "Nieuwjaarsrolletjes" in Dutch, I "Snak naar een Hollandse Nieuwe." And don't think (with all due respect to the hosts) that the haring we eat on Koninginnedag in Seattle comes even close to true Hollandse Nieuwe!
The Volkskrant reports that the first barrel worth €58,000 has arrived, but if I go by Tablet Magazine's article New Yorker's have got their own! OMG if it was just a matter of getting on the subway, I'd rush to The Grand Central Oyster Bar for the Holland Herring Festival.
Anybody going to/ coming from N.Y. one of these days?
Do you have a similar response to a food or drink of your native country? Any food memories that turn you into a lyrical fool?
This work by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
6 comments:
I am 3rd generation American; other than that my great grandparents came from Germany, Italy, Ireland and England. Perhaps this is why my favorite drink is tea (hot or cold); I make a mean lasagna; love corned beef and cabbage and love (occasionally) a beer!
What a mis mash I am!
That's one of the things I like about America, that citizens can list such variety in nationalities as their background. At expatharem writers discuss their hybrid lifestyle, I wonder whether your great-grands would have considered their lifestyle hybrid?
I'll think of you while I'm eating my first 'Hollandse nieuwe' this week with a jonge borrel and lots of finely chopped onions at the fish stall under the Oosterkerk! Bottoms up!
But I'd swap the haring any day for a good old English Cornish pastie in a pub with a half pint of lager and lime!
Linda, I'd give you my Cornish pastie, but say cheers to that lager and lime! Thanks for stopping by! Yesterday I very quickly wrote and sent off a short essay on the meaning of being a Mother Writer (for one-year anniversary celebration of SheWrites and imagined waiting in line at the Butcher's on Wittenburgergracht!
Found you through First Impressions. Wanted to just stop by and say your points were articulate. It is how I see fear. Do stop by when you get a chance
http://www.yogasavy.blogspot.com
Thanks for stopping by. As you noticed I relate to your remark on Mansi Bhatia's blog First Impressions.
I visited your blog Living Laughing Breathing, very informative, you sure are yoga savvy. I'll have to visit again to read more and post a comment. Meanwhile, with your page still active, I'm listening to your Music from the Heart :-)
You've made good use of our platform's latest features. Yours could be an example of what's possible on blogspot these days. While my lay-out shows how it used to be. I've only switched to "modern" lay-out off late.
When I started 5 years ago you still had to implement html code in the templates yourself and there was no such thing as "gadgets". Got to love it.
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