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You are here: Home Life in Blogs & photos Dutch ice-cream
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17/04/2007Dutch ice-cream

Dutch ice-cream On Sunday I decided that, since half of Holland would be heading for the beach, we'd make another plan. My children persuaded me otherwise, so I called a couple of friends with four wheels to see if they'd join us in seeking out a secluded seaside spot. No joy.

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Without a car, the best place we could head to was the beach at Wijk-aan-Zee.  It's around half an hour by train from Amsterdam to Beverwijk.  From there you catch a bus (no 78), and within ten minutes you're at the beach.

We arrived around 15:30 just as many people, mostly families, were heading home.

I nursed any tension built up over the week from the comfort of a sun-bed. The lady renting out sun-shades, beds and windbreaks gave to me for half-price, horrified that I was prepared to pay the full five euros for the remaining two hours of rental time.

Both children complained about the sand getting everywhere. I explained that this was because we were on a sandy beach.  They ran down towards the sea and were back within three minutes having cut their feet on the sharp little bits of razor and clam shell lying on a ribbon of wet sand preceding the sea.

After examining the cuts and reassuring them that sea-water is a natural antiseptic, they recovered rapidly and joined up with some kids collecting crabs and jelly-fish eggs from shallow pools of warm, murky water.

By 17:17 the beach was nearly empty and the view from my beach-bed to the sea was unbroken.   A soft breeze had struck up and I finally smelt the sea – that tangy 'seaweedy' smell that moves down from the nostrils and leaves a taste of salt in your mouth.

I thought about ice-cream and wondered, considering that the Dutch produce such a profusion of quality dairy products, why they hadn't developed the production of ice-cream into an art-form like the Italians.

I remember reading that ice-cream was probably first introduced into Europe through Sicily and Venice by Marco Polo, who had brought it back from China (the recipe I imagine, as the substance would surely have melted).

I tried to find out some facts about the history of ice-cream in the Netherlands and found practically nothing. Only that in the Netherlands, king Willem V first ate ice-cream on a visit to Zwolle in the late 18th century.  Like most new things at that time, only the rich and noble could enjoy such luxuries – ice-cream was scarce particularly because machines hadn't been invented to keep the ice cool.

Seemingly, the most popular ice-cream in the Netherlands nowadays is the water ice, namely "the rocket" manufactured by Ola, a national brand of Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever, which is the world's biggest ice-cream manufacturer. Hertog Ola is another Unilever brand.

I asked some Dutch friends of mine about their views on Dutch ice-cream to share with Expatica readers and I am afraid I have failed you miserably.

I came up with: "There is no view on Dutch ice-cream because there is no Dutch ice-cream," and "There is no such thing as Dutch ice-cream, we have bitterballen."

 

Editor's note: I didn't expect such an enthusiastic response from readers on the subject of Dutch ice-cream. It seems that you can buy good Dutch ice-cream, you just need to know where.

Re Dutch ice-cream shops:

I have already started compiling a list based on readers' feedback, so please continue sending in your suggestions.

15 April 2007

Some deeper thoughts on going back.

Natasha Gunn
Editor
Expatica Netherlands

Want to reply? Send your email to feedback@expatica.com

[Copyright Expatica 2007] 

 Natasha Gunn
Editor Ex

 



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