De Dagvisser

Our Mondays are getting a regular shape. We wake up, Rihanna Gaga watches some videos in the living room while I take a shower we have breakfast and we go to the petting farm. Unfortunately, the petting farm is closed on Mondays, but there are still cows, goats, sheep and chickens to watch and there is the small playground next to it. Rihanna Gaga plays for a while - the sling is her current favourite and she can spend quite some time on it - and then we go to a restaurant for lunch.

Today, it's quite a hike to the restaurant, as we have to walk - well, I'm walking, Rihanna Gaga is on her kick scooter again - all the way from the petting farm to the Scheveningen harbour. The main source of income in the village of Scheveningen (which, by the way, never was an independent village but was always considered to be an integral part of neighbouring The Hague) used to be fishing, but those days are long gone. However, there is still a clear divide between the two parts of Scheveningen. To the right side of the old village (right if one stands with one's back to the city, facing the sea), there is an area that was developed as a seaside resort since the mid-nineteenth century. The Kurhaus where we went last Thursday is the heart of this part, together with the pier. And to the left of the village there is the old fishermen's quarter, with next to it the harbour. Nowadays, only part of the harbour is occupied by fishing ships. Another large part has mostly yachts and other leisure ships. Around the latter part, several posh restaurants can be found, alongside hip offices and expensive penthouse blocks - the whole thing looks like a typical case of gentrification, with bits of the older, more run down version of the harbour area still visible here and there. The reason we're going here today is that afterwards, I want to buy some shoes in a shop just around the corner from this part of the harbour.


After initially finding the move from Tunisia to the Netherlands a bit tough, Rihanna Gaga is now mostly her old, good humoured self again. She's very disappointed to find out that this restaurant - De Dagvisser - doesn't have a nice play corner, like the one we went to last time, but this doesn't spoil her mood, especially not after the waitress brings her a colour plate. Unfortunately, it comes without crayons, but luckily I brought a few myself.

De Dagvisser is decorated - fittingly - in a fisherman theme, but not in a kitsch way. The interior is designed with taste, which is a remarkable feat considering that it considers of boat ropes, fishing nets and large black and white pictures of ye olde fishermen in traditional clothes. Rihanna Gaga declared already this morning she was going to take a chocolate milk and she orders one herself when the waitress asks us what we want to drink. I take a white wine myself. When the drinks are brought, I show Rihanna Gaga how to toast. She likes it so much that she wants to toast everytime she takes a sip from her chocolate milk, making my fancy wineglass give a resounding noise every minute or so.

When we arrive, the place is mostly empty, but it starts filling up pretty soon. Mostly pensioners enjoy the splendid view of the harbour drenched in sunlight together with us. We order a salmon and crab salad club sandwich (€11,50) and a Scheveningen fish soup (€6). Although service was a bit slow at the beginning, it is now up to speed and it doesn't take long for our order to arrive. Rihanna Gaga and I share the fish soup and the sandwich, although she tires of sitting at the table after a while. She gets up and announces she will ride around on her kick scooter for a bit. I tell her this is not possible in a restaurant, which disappoints her so much she has to lie down for a bit, announcing she is 'tired' (often an excuse to get her dummy, which she is only allowed to get when she goes to sleep, although I suspect she is quite tired as well). Then she gets up again, because she needs to go to the toilet - the third time since we've arrived.

When we get back, she walks around the table while I spoonfeed her some of the fish soup and some pieces of bread with salmon. She loves it, she says, but she doesn't eat a lot, instead lying down again after a while. The food, however, does taste good: very fresh, very tasty. The wine, which was recommended to me by the waitress, is excellent as well. Soft r 'n b plays in the background and the atmosphere is really quite good. When I've finished my lunch, I tell Rihanna Gaga I will pay and then we can go and buy shoes. She gets up and nods. I pay and when I return, she's already busy putting on her sweater and coat. Before we go, she says, she'll need to go to the toilet again.