Raw herring, or Hollandse Nieuwe, is a Dutch delicacy dating back to the 14th century. Since it’s a delicacy, naturally Matt and I both had to try it. It’s best in the Spring and early Summer, and is served with raw onion. Matt’s first herring experience was Koninginnedag , or Queen’s Day, back at the end of April while in Amsterdam.
Matt Eating Herring
Clearly Matt was not a fan 
I tried raw herring on the first weekend I was in town while at the beach in Scheveningen. After one of the best weather weekends so far in The Hague, Matt and I wandered along the boardwalk to a local stand selling herring.
Bucket of Herring
Looks appealing right? Well I dove right in, ordered my herring and….
Lindsey ordering Herring
Before the plunge
Eating Herring
Loved it!! It tasted pretty fishy and salty but I thought it was delicious. So much so that I decided to eat it in true dutch fashion- picked it up by the tail and chowed down.
Lindsey Loving Herring
Still Loving Herring
Needless to say, Matt didn’t get near me for the rest of the afternoon Overall, a dutch cuisine success!
Food, Netherlands, Summer
This is the second article in the series about my Chamonix Valley Ski trip. Although we were staying in the French Alps, the first two days of snowboarding were spent at the Italian Alps resort named Courmayeur. A 25 minute shuttle ride had us through the 11km long Mont-Blanc tunnel, which connects the Italian and French sides. The exciting part was entering the tunnel on a perfectly nice day on the French side, only to emerge in Italy to find yourself in a snowstorm.
Upon arrival I immediately knew we were in Italy with the multi-lingual “Welcome” signs (even though this picture is showing the English & French words). The gondolas taking you up the mountain were standing room only and wow did they pack the people into those. I think they crammed about 75-100 people into a 10 foot by 10 foot space.
Up on the mountain, avalanche homing beacon testers were placed throughout the resort, and many skiers walked passed these testers to hear the accepting “beep” that let them know their beacon was fully functioning. Unfortunately, this didn’t do anything to calm my nerves, as I had no homing beacon and the avalanche danger was a modest 3 out of 5. Fortunately there were no problems, even though the snow was great. We made it up to the top piste that was open where we had powder up to our knees.
The most exciting part about the experience was going to lunch. We made reservations at a small Italian restaurant on the mountain that served fantastic Italian food. Between the two days there I sampled three types of pasta, sausages, pizza, and lasagna – everything was fantastic. The owner was there both days, shouting loudly at the wait staff from the seated section above.
Food, Italy, Snowboarding, Travel, Winter
So made a pretty poor choice & ate raw oysters at this restaurant on Friday. Other than the oysters, the meal was pretty fantastic. In fact, the oysters themselves were also really tasty, but I think that’s what got me sick. At first I had no problems on Saturday night, but that all changed around 4AM when I began throwing up, etc which lasted for about 8 hours. I continued to feel horrible all day on Sunday while the room spun, had a headache all day Monday, and experienced mostly residual effects on Tuesday.
Someone at work made the comment that all the Americans seem to get food poisoning because their bodies aren’t used to the germs over here. I can’t help but to agree with them. Many American colleagues have mentioned that they get food poisoning about 1-2 times per year. Maybe I’m not so much looking forward to dining out over here…
Den Haag, Food
