Going Dutch With Time Out For Coffee

The Age

Tuesday November 2, 1993

Jill Dupleix

A barn on the Burwood Highway is a celebration of all things Dutch from windmills to Wilhelmina peppermints.

THINK of the Netherlands and you think of tulips, windmills, clogs and dykes. What you don't think about, is food. When Jane Grigson wrote her ground-breaking `Book of European Cookery' (Michael Joseph), poor old Holland didn't even get a guernsey. When it does sneak into the cookbooks, it's usually lumped in together with a couple of other lesser lights under some vague euphemism like Benelux or the low countries, lightly dismissed with an uninspiring recipe for pea soup or beef croquettes.

But anyone who has been to Amsterdam and eaten a whole herring, head first from a herring stall, sipped thick, super-smooth hot cocoa in quaint little cafes by the canal, snacked on gouda and Heineken, or feasted on the mighty Indonesian-inspired rijsttafel, knows better.

There are 60,000 Dutch Australians in Victoria alone who know how addictive these flavors are. And where do they shop when they need just one more bite of the sour cherry? At The Dutch Shop, officially known as De Hollandse Winkel, in Vermont South.

Albert Kerkvliet and his Taiwanese-born wife Amy stock anything and everything Dutch in an enormous barn on the Burwood Highway. There is an entire aisle of Dutch licorice, another aisle of Deft Blue china, and gondola ends of sweet, spiced biscuits and wooden clogs. ``We have 6700 items," says Amy proudly. She met Albert in Taiwan when he set up a factory producing Dutch souvenirs. These souvenirs have now settled at one end of the barn, where they are often snapped up as gifts by Dutch Australians on their return from holidays in the Netherlands, ``because they are much cheaper here", laughs Amy.

This place has to be seen to be believed. One end of the warehouse- like space has been converted into a cosy clock-lined cafe, serving Douwe Egberts coffee. ``People come 200-300 kilometres to shop here", explains Albert. ``It's nice for them to be able to sit down and have some coffee and cake".

If you crave Dutch toilet paper, Dutch light globes, Dutch oatmeal and Dutch crossword puzzle books, this is the shop for you. A freezer is stocked with typical Dutch smoked sausages called rookwurst, from Hollandia Smallgoods in Geelong and Boronia Continental Butchers, herring fillets (2 for $3.95), and homemade Dutch croquettes ($6.20 a kilogram). A nearby refrigerator holds portions of smooth, buttery gouda (pronounced `howda') cheese, at $7.20 a kilogram, while whole rounds of gouda are reduced for sale at $24.95.

One of the biggest cravings of homesick Dutch appear to be speculaas, delicious little sweetly spiced biscuits. There are enough speculaas here to actually build a sweet biscuit dyke against an incoming tide of coffee. As well, there are spiced fruit cakes ($2.05 for 350 grams), Wilhelmina peppermints ($6.95 for 500 grams), and Holland rusks ($1.65 for 100 grams), and a huge range of spices and sambals for the more Indonesian-inspired Dutch dishes.

All this, under spinning windmill wheels and big `welkom' signs, as you walk past brighly-painted Dutch mailboxes and hand-painted milk kettles. Amy's sister will even paint your own milk kettle, old frypan or old kettle to order _ your design, or hers.

But you don't have to be Dutch to shop well here. I found some terrific wooden-handled dish brushes that are perfect for washing precious wine glasses, for just $2.50 each. And some beautiful Dutch cocoa powder ($1.75 for 125 grams) from the 180-year-old Blooker company which has a deeper, more bitter flavor than local brands.

In fact, there is so much to choose from, I suggest you go with a friend, and halve the bill. After all, if you're going to go Dutch, you may as well go all the way.

GDe Hollandse Winkel (The Dutch Shop). 641 Burwood Highway, Vermonth South. Telephone: 8013545. Open seven days, 9am to 5pm. Also at 33 Spring Street, Geelong West. (052)291611.