We stayed with my brother in law at Nieuwerkerk aan de Ijssel for the New Year. I went out shopping in the town centre and was pleased to see that there were more independent businesses going than at home; our home town is at least as big.
I was particularly pleased to see an independent fishmonger with an excellent choice of fresh and smoked fish along with knowledgeable staff. The photo above shows the smoked fish section with smoked trout, salmon & eel (left) and mackerel (back). The silvery one on the right is "spekbokking" but I have no idea what that is in English. In my town you can mainly get vacuum-packed smoked fish. I was particularly pleased to see whole smoked mackerel which tasted very good.
There was a wide choice of fresh fish - some of which ended up in our New Year's fish soup...more of that later! - and seafood.
Nearby there was an impressive cheese shop.
This shows the whole cheeses stacked behind the counter. Being near Gouda quite a few of the cheeses were Gouda ones of varying ages, but there were many cheeses that you simply do not hear about in the UK. We found a very good goats cheese which had a texture more like a Gouda than goat cheeses from France or the UK. Like here, there were plenty of cheeses with "bits" in them; I can particularly recommend nettle cheese and carraway cheese.
At the other end of the cheese shop there was a cold meat counter. In the UK I often find that there is a relatively poor choice compared with France, Germany or the Netherlands; we tend to have some boring-looking hams and a few salamis. There was a very good choice of cold cuts.
It was very pleasing to see these independent traders doing well and offering a better choice than the big supermarkets nearby.
