Mr. Monday and other tales of Jewish Amsterdam

34 Adr. Monday and Other Tales of Jewish Amsterdam

is famous for another speciality called The Zuidema Roll , a misalliance between salt meat and coarse sausage.

In this way, every shop has its gastronomic speciality. Cohen's in Damstreet possesses a secret recipe for baked haddock roe. All year Mr.Cohen sells rolls with meat in all forms and concoctions, but when autumn comes, the neat little shop starts to reek of baked haddock roe. The secret of his recipe lies mainly in the smallness of his roes. Says Mr.Cohen proudly "The smaller the roe, the finer the fish."

First he cooks the small morsels until they are just done. He lets them cool down and then fries them in butter. They are eaten piping hot right out of the frying pan between a roll of bread.

One day a man sits in Cohen's shop and orders "Give me another roe sandwich."

He eats five sandwiches, one after another, or maybe ten or a hundred—one can't keep count without a double bookkeeping. The man is in an abyss of roe, with no bottom in sight. He loosens his waistcoat.

"Give me another roe sandwich."

He opens the top buttons of his trousers.

"Give me another roe sandwich."

He has now reached euphoria and starts to belch.

Says Mr.Cohen indignantly, "Mister, you wouldn't do a thing like that in the American Hotel restaurant, would you?" (The American Hotel restaurant is a chic luxury place on Leyden Square).

The man answers between two belches, "To tell you the truth, I did do it in the American Hotel restaurant, and do you know what they told me? "For such bad eating behaviour you should go to Cohen's in Damstreet!"