$80,000 Herring

On Tuesday, Barbara also took me to the Rotterdam Fish Market. The owner, Alice, is a good friend of Barbara's, and she and her sons run the beautiful little market. There, I got to experience a HUGE DEAL day in Holland: the first day of fresh Dutch herring. Basically, you can eat herring all year round, but this batch (which is highly anticipated and comes in during late May/June) is the best because the fish are at a perfect fat level. When the first batch comes in, the fisherman put it on auction, with the money raised going for charity. This year's first batch was auctioned off for 55,000 Euros (that's $85,286.93!)! Insane!

Jan Hendrik and Barbara (along with everyone else) love to eat the herring, so Barbara and I braved a gathering crowd... and that's when she put the question to me: "You must have one." (Notice that it wasn't really a question.) So, I got my herring (it's raw, mind you), covered it with onions (per Barbara) and went for it, Holland-style.... tilting of my head backwards and dropping the lovely herring into my mouth. It wasn't bad! In fact, I think the taste could grow on me!

The Fish Market

The First Batch!

Cleaning away.

My herring...

...with onions.

Here I go!

It's not a taste I immediately loved, but I didn't hate it, either.


So, I'm starting to like it... really, Barbara, I am! :)


Inside the very cute market.

I even ate the herring later on, for lunch! (FYI - you always have bread here for lunch, with some sort of meat/spread or hagelslag on top.)

For more on this Dutch food and tradition:

www.dutchamsterdam.nl/310-new-herring-has-arrived-best-quality-in-years

www.dutchamsterdam.nl/295-amsterdam-delicacy-herring