CHAPTER V

HOLLAND Restaurants at the Hague--Amsterdam--Scheveningen--Rotterdam--The food of the people. The Hague At the Hague, the capital, the best restaurant is Van der Pyl's, in the centre of the town, situated on the Plaats, where the cuisine is French and excellent, and where there are admirable wines in the cellar. A good set luncheon is served at this restaurant for the very moderate price of one florin (1s. 8d.); but it is wise to order dinner _à la carte_, and to give them some hours' notice. The manager is M. Anjema. It is advisable to secure a table near the window, especially in summer. Some of the best wines are not put on the wine-list. In former years the proprietor of Van der Pyl's was possessed of a puritanical conscience, and would not allow any two people to dine alone in his private salons. So strictly did he adhere to his rule on this subject, that when a well-known man-about-town insisted on his right to dine in the _petit salon_ alone with his wife, the inexorable proprietor turned him out of the restaurant. There was, however, another well-known member of Hague society who succeeded where the gentleman who thought that matrimony overrode all rules had failed. The hero of the little story had made a bet that, in spite of the puritanical proprietor, he would dine _à deux_ with a lady in the _petit salon_. He won his bet by subtlety. He ordered a dinner for three, and when he and the lady arrived they waited a quarter of an hour for the other imaginary guest. Then, remarking that he was sure Mr. X. would not mind the dinner being begun without him, the host ordered the soup to be brought up; and so, with constant allusions to the man that never came, the dinner was served, course by course, and the bet won before the proprietor had the least idea that a trick had been played upon him. A somewhat similar story, it will be remembered, is told of Delmonico's and its proprietor in the early history of that great New York restaurant. In the American story, the youth who had dined in a _cabinet particulier_ with a lady, in contravention of the rules of the house, had not the sense to hold his tongue until after he had paid his bill. When that document did make its appearance, some of the items were astonishing. "You don't expect me to pay this bill?" said the astonished diner to the proprietor, who had made his appearance. "No, I do not," said Mr. Delmonico, "but until you do you will not come into my restaurant again." The following are some of the dishes Van der Pyl's makes a speciality of:--_Poule au pot Henri IV._, _Sole Normande_, _Côte de Boeuf à la Russe_, _Homards à l'Américaine_, _Poularde à la Parisienne_, _Perdreaux au choux_, _Omelette Sibérienne_, _Soufflé Palmyre_, _Poires Alaska_, most of them standard dishes of the usual _cuisine Française_, though the _Omelette Sibérienne_ was invented to please a British diplomat who preferred a _soupçon_ of absinthe to either rum or Kümmel with his omelette. And this is a typical menu drawn up by M. Anjema, a menu which reads as though it were for a French banquet:-- Huîtres de Zélande. Caviar. Consommé Diplomate. Truite Saumonée à la Nantua. Poularde à l'Impériale. Noisettes de Chevreuil à la St-Hubert. Délice de foie gras au Champagne. Bécassines rôties. Salade St-Clair. Tartelettes aux Haricots Verts. Mousse Antoinette. Sandwiches au Parmesan. Dessert. The Café Royal, in the Vijberberg, with an American luncheon bar on the ground floor and a restaurant upstairs, is fairly good. Of the hotels to which restaurants are attached, the Hôtel des Indes and Hôtel Vieux Doelen have a reputation for good cookery. The former was in olden times the town house of the Barons van Brienen, and in winter many people of Dutch society, coming to the capital from the country for the season, take apartments there, and during that period of the year the restaurant is often filled by very brilliant gatherings. The manager, Mr. Haller, has been made a director of Claridge's Hotel in London, and divides his attention between the two hotels. The following menu is a typical one of a dinner of ceremony at the Hôtel des Indes; it was composed for a banquet given by Count Henri Stürgkh:-- Huîtres. Consommé Bagration. Filets de Soles Joinville. Carré de Mouton Nesselrode. Parfait de foie gras de Strasbourg. Fonds d'Artichauts à la Barigoule. Grouse rôtis sur Croûtons. Compote de Montreuil. Coeurs de Laitues. Crème au Chocolat et Vanille. Paillettes au Fromage. The Vieux Doelen has a beautiful old dining-room, and it is here that every year the smartest balls in the capital take place, given by the Société du Casino, and generally attended by Their Majesties and the Court. Hock's fish shop in the market has a room where excellent oyster suppers are served, but this is not a place to which ladies should be taken at night, for it is then patronised by damsels who take the courtesy title of actresses, and the students from Leiden. Amsterdam The Restaurant Riche is managed by a Frenchman, and the cuisine is French. It is necessary to order dinner in advance, and it is well to be particular. Under these circumstances an excellent dinner is obtainable. There is a cellar of good wine, the Burgundies being especially to be recommended. The Restaurant van Laar, in the Kalverstraat, has a celebrity for its fish dinners, and excellent oyster suppers are to be had there. Scheveningen Curiously enough, this important seaside resort has no restaurant with any claim to celebrity. The dinners to be obtained in the hotels have to suffice for the wants of the visitors to the place. Rotterdam The Stroomberg here deserves a word of commendation, the food to be obtained there being excellent. The Food of the People The cuisine of the country, the food the people of the country eat, is not recommended to the experimenting gourmet; for the favourite dish is a sort of Kedjeree, in which dried stock-fish, rice, potatoes, butter, and anchovies all play their part. Sauerkraut and sausages, soused herrings and milk puddings also have claims to be considered the national dishes.