1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (41 page)

The unparalleled Dutch way with light is on full display in
Still Life with a Glass and Oysters
(c.1683) by Jan Davidsz. de Heem, with its refreshing green grapes, curled lemon peel, and sparkling green goblet filled with white wine. An even more elaborate spread is offered in
Still Life
, by the Antwerp painter Osias Beert the Elder (1580–1624): white wine in a clear goblet, a chunk of crusty bread, and ten shimmering, open oysters.

Where:
Still Life with a Glass and Oysters
is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, tel 212-535-7710,
metmuseum.org
;
Still Life
by Osias Beert the Elder is in the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain, tel 34/913-30-28-00,
museodelprado.es/en
.

The deliciously plump, firm-textured eels that slither and writhe off the North Sea coast of Holland and Belgium lend themselves to a host of richly succulent dishes. Although the Dutch love eels any way they can have them, the rich oiliness of these tasty, snakelike fish makes them perfect for smoking. The lubricating, subtly flavored oil under their skin adds much to the eel’s meaty, salt-tinged appeal, and if it results in high calories, there’s consolation in the fact that it also brings a healthful dose of the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E.

The traditional smoked preparation results in skin that takes on a golden, savory crackle, while the long fillets of meat lifted off the bone achieve a woodsy, deep-sea flavor that vies even with that of other luxury smoked fish, such as sturgeon, trout, and salmon.

Served with buttered dark bread or toast and dabs of creamy horseradish, or alongside scrambled eggs, smoked eel—
gerookte paling
—is one of Holland’s most elegant appetizers, especially washed down with a few shots of old genever gin (also known as Dutch gin and Holland gin).

Flemish cooks in Belgium prefer their eels “greened” in the style they call
paling in ’t groen
, or in French,
anguilles au vert.
The most critical herb in the bright green sauce is sorrel (
oseille
in French), its distinctly needling, elegantly sour edge joining other herbaceous greenery such as chervil, parsley, tarragon, and chives. The minced herbs are whipped into egg yolks and further acidulated with lemon juice, before being slightly warmed on the top of a double boiler. The warm sauce is spooned over fork-size cuts of eel that have been braised in white wine. Most people like the verdant dish served fragrantly hot, but some like it cold, when the eel’s bones form a silky gelatin—a related preparation, if far more elegant, to the British favorite, jellied eel (see
listing
).

Where:
In Brussels
, Le Bugatti, tel 32/2-646-1417,
lebugatti.eu
.
Further information and recipe:
erecipe.com
(search anguilles au vert).

Candies on a classic tin.

About 215 years ago, there lived in the Dutch city of The Hague one Baron Hendrik Hop. The good baron was much depressed, as his physician had ordered him to stop drinking the coffee he so loved. Fortunately he had a friend in the baker Theodorus van Haaren, whom he urged to create a confection to sate his urges. Playing around with coffee, sugar, butter, and good sweet cream, van Haaren devised
Rademaker’s Haagsche Hopjes
(named after Baron Hop and The Hague), a resounding success that is considered Holland’s national candy.

The sweets were packed in the red, black, white, and gold silk-screened tins that are still used today, and the square hard candies known as
hopjes
are as soul-soothing as ever, notable for dissolving in the mouth without becoming sticky or soft. They exude hints of all the good, fresh ingredients they are made with: coffee enhanced by overtones of butter and cream, all mellowed by caramelized sugar. It’s a combination that does as much to soothe the throat as to enliven the spirit and, even more practically, its doses of caffeine and sugar are doubly energizing. Fans can borrow an idea from the Russians, who hold a lump of sugar in their mouths to sweeten tea as they sip; learn to do the same with a hopje while drinking unsweetened black coffee. It’s easy to do without dribbling, once you get the knack.

Mail order:
amazon.com (search rademaker hopjes coffee candies);
hollandamericanbakery.com
(search rademaker hopjes).

“Winter eggs are very poor eating,” warns Mynheer Kleef, the innkeeper in the children’s classic
Hans Brinker, or, The Silver Skates.
Be that as it may, when featured in Holland’s ubiquitous and homey open sandwich, the
uitsmijter
(AUTZ-may-ter, meaning bouncer), those lesser winter eggs can warm and delight even the coldest of ice skaters.

The sandwich begins with a slice or two of
white bread spread with unsalted butter and sometimes fried on one side. Over that goes a generous layering of sliced roast beef, veal, or ham, and two sizzling-hot, sunny-side-up fried eggs sprinkled with black pepper. A final topping of cool, crisp, and astringent slivers of pickled dill cucumber adds zest as teeth sink through the deliciously complex layers. Those eating abstemiously might have only one fried egg, in which case the sandwich is deemed a
halve uitsmijter.
Either way, it is a snack easily realized in an American kitchen for those unfortunates who cannot make it to Amsterdam.

Most difficult for the uninitiated to get used to is the glass of milk that accompanies the uitsmijter. Good Dutch beer or a cup of hot coffee might be more felicitous, if untraditional, in the Netherlands.

As popular as the uitsmijter is, it is not the only favored Dutch sandwich by a long shot. A wide variety of eat-and-run
broodjes
(BREWT-chahs) are offered in
broodjeswinkels
—informal spots (not to be missed by any visitor to Amsterdam) serving quick and relatively inexpensive sustenance by way of sandwiches on warm, freshly baked, buttered rolls. Fillings include beef tartare, all kinds of sausages, liver spread, and sliced pickled or roasted meats, salads, and Dutch cheeses such as Edam, Gouda, and the lesser known but more interesting smoky Kernhem and caraway-or cumin-flecked Leyden.

Where:
In Amsterdam
, Café Waterloo, tel 31/20-624-9831,
cafewaterloo.nl
; Broodje Bert, tel 31/20-623-0382.
Further information and recipes:
theguardian.com
(search broodje kroket sandwich);
design-your-travel.com
(search uitsmijter);
thedutchtable.com
(search uitsmijter).

White asparagus with Hollandaise.

Thick, white asparagus, with their silken ivory sheen, have been highly prized in Europe for many years, while in the U.S. and Britain they have only relatively recently come into favor, vying with green asparagus for gourmet status. Perhaps the reason for white asparagus’s lack of favor state-side was that the only type familiar in the United States was the watery, bitter, canned variety.

Actually, green or white, it is the same vegetable
(Asparagus officinalis)
. A member of the lily family, asparagus raised to be white are kept covered with soil as they grow so that light does not cause the development of chlorophyll (that said, some white varieties are allowed to develop pale, amethyst-tinged tips for visual appeal). White asparagus have a milder flavor and are somewhat more fibrous than their verdant cousins, and so require more peeling and slightly longer cooking.

Because they are among the first edible harbingers of spring, asparagus are celebrated throughout Europe, especially in the colder, northern countries such as Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, where special asparagus menus (called
spargelkarte
in Germany and Austria) are featured in restaurants at almost all levels. Each country has its own special way of preparing them—hot, cold, in soups, and in salads. In Italy they are served cold with a dressing of lemon juice and olive oil. In France, after being peeled and washed, the stalks are braised in butter, a little chicken stock, and with a bay leaf until tender. Once
chilled, they are dressed with a mustardy mayonnaise—a pungent sauce called
gribiche
—or the simplest vinaigrette enhanced with hazelnut oil and chervil.

However delicious the various preparations of white asparagus may be, the best of all is a standard in Holland and Belgium, prepared in a style the French have named
à la flamande.
If lucky, one can experience the full ritual of having the asparagus dressed at the table just before they are served, a practice still found in a few traditional, upscale restaurants in Holland. The hot, cooked asparagus are brought to the table folded into a snowy napkin and laid out on a
gueridon
(a rolling serving cart complete with burner and chafing dish), along with garnishes of melted butter, chopped whites and yolks of hard-cooked eggs, and whole nutmegs beside a silvery grater. The long, white spears are portioned onto individual warmed plates, doused with butter, sprinkled first with the egg whites, then with the yolks, and finally with a grating of the nutmeg for an unusual and sweetly aromatic touch. In a simpler, homier service, diners form their own paste from the garnishes, the asparagus stalks to be dipped into it before each bite, a practice that also has made its way to England.

For more elaborate tastes, asparagus in Holland are mantled with a rich, sunny Hollandaise sauce based primarily on egg yolks, lemon juice, and butter, not to forget nutmeg. Although the sauce’s name implies it was created in Holland, its origin is open to dispute, one theory being that it was created in northern France to honor a visiting Dutch nobleman.

Where:
In Amsterdam
, Die Port Van Cleve, tel 31/02-714-2000,
dieportvancleve.com
;
in Brussels
, Aux Armes de Bruxelles, tel 32/2-511-5598,
auxarmesdebruxelles.com/en
;
in Berlin
, Lutter & Wegner, tel 49/30-2029-5415,
l-w-berlin.de
.;
in New York
, Wallse, tel 212-352-2300,
kg-ny.com
; Da Silvano, tel 212-982-2343,
dasilvano.com
; Markt, tel 212-727-3314,
marktrestaurant.com
;
in Kansas City, MO
, Grünauer, tel 816-283-3234,
grunauerkc.com
;
in Santa Monica, Venice, and Culver City/Mar Vista, CA
, Röckenwagner,
rockenwagner.com
.
Mail order:
Melissa’s Produce, tel 800-588-0151,
melissas.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini
by Elizabeth Schneider (2001); for white asparagus soup,
Neue Cuisine
by Kurt Gutenbrunner (2011);
recipegoldmine.com
(search asparagus a la flamande);
saveur.com
(search white asparagus with olive oil sabayon; white asparagus with sorrel hollandaise).
Special events:
For asparagus festivals in various locations,
asparagus-lover.com
(click Fun Facts and Health, then Festivals).