We were at the markets on Westerstraat. A man at a cafe had recommended Zeewater when I asked for a good place to find herring.
Zeewater is a clean, small shop. Inside was the shop owner and his young son, who was taking food to customers.
I asked for some herring, and as he prepares it, the owner happily asked questions and shared the history and other facts about the local dish. "Do you want the the Amsterdam way or the Rotterdam way?" (Amsterdam way is cut into four pieces, since people in Amsterdam used to be very poor and could sometimes only purchase a piece of the fish, whereas with the Rotterdam way you are served a whole fish.) He seemed very happy and eager to share information about his culture.
My herring was served on a small plate with a fork and came with the traditional diced raw onions and pickles. It was fantastic.
There are a few bar seats inside, but we chose to sit on the bench in front of the shop. The man next to us had ordered small bite sized pieces of fried fish which looked very nice.
Also worth mentioning is that we were the only tourists in the shop, which is always a good sign.
This was such a fantastic, although short, experience. I'm so glad I was able to buy the herring from a shop rather than from a random vendor's cart set up in a tourist area. (I'm sure that's fine, but this felt so much more genuine and Dutch.) read more