Stokvis

Stokvis used to be a staple food in the Royal Netherlands Navy and I cherish a copy of the official instructions which governed its preparation, until the Second World War, for naval crews. They stipulate 300 grams of stokvis for each man and inform the purser that ‘in order to enhance the meal things like mustard and chutney may be bought with the money allocated for spices’. However, the naval tradition has been lifted on to a higher gastronomic plane by the club of former naval officers