The Netherlands' most distinctive food experience: hold a raw cured herring by the tail, tilt your head back and lower it into your mouth. Alternatively, eat it on bread with onion.
About Haring
The Netherlands' most singular food experience — a lightly cured ('maatjes') young herring, peeled and filleted, held by the tail and lowered into the mouth whole; alternatively eaten on white bread with raw onion and pickles from one of Amsterdam's haringhandel stalls; the maatjes herring season opens in June with the first catch; Dutch people queue.
The Netherlands' most singular food experience: a maatjes herring — lightly salt-cured ('raw', in that it's never cooked with heat) young herring fillet, peeled and cleaned, held by the tail and lowered into the mouth whole. Alternatively eaten on white bread with raw onion and pickles. The maatjes season opens in late May or June with the first catch (Hollandse Nieuwe).
“Alternatively eaten on white bread with raw onion and pickles.”
The first Hollandse Nieuwe of the season is sold at a ceremony each year at Scheveningen harbour. The Dutch queue for it with the seriousness of a cultural obligation.
What to Expect
At an Amsterdam haringhandel stall you're handed the herring on a small board. You hold it by the tail. The head is removed. You tilt your head back and lower it in. The texture is silky and clean. The flavour is mild, slightly briny, not fishy.
Why Try It
Haring tells you about Dutch food culture's directness — a fish, barely prepared, eaten in the most efficient way possible. It is excellent.
Insider Tips
- The Hollandse Nieuwe (first catch, May–June) is the best herring of the year — seek it out specifically.
- Stubbe's Haring at the Singel flower market in Amsterdam is the most reliable city stall.
- Don't be put off by the eating method — the tail is just the handle, not part of what you're eating.
