H1. Duyvis Mayonaise. Amersfoort, Netherlands, 1981. Hfl.
2.15 for 500 ml
It is only fair to start our review of bottled brands of Mayonnaise, with what was probably one of the very best varieties of the Golden Sauce ever to be put onto the market. We do this not only because praise should be given where it is due; but also as a reminder how crude and cruel our mercantile system occasionally is.
Duyvis Mayonaise was a splendid product. It had an
exquisite taste, which ordinary words can barely describe. Its texture was
stable and beautiful, like a homemade Mayo whipped up by an expert saucier. Its warm, ochre colour came straight
from the palette of Cezanne. Yes, that modest little crown dotting the ‘i’ in the
brand name was certainly deserved! This bottled blend was absolutely majestic!
And yet… And yet… It was not to be…
After a desperate ten-year struggle in the mid 70s
and early 80s, this beautiful sauce was withdrawn from the supermarket shelves,
because customers – those hare-brained fools! – deemed it overpriced and –
swine sniffing at pearls! – failed to recognize its veritable qualities. Sic transit gloria mundi!
Let this serve as a lesson to us all, dear reader!
Good taste and the marketplace are almost per definition at odds with one
another. They are incompatibles, opposites, water and oil... The common man
wants his Mayonnaise sweet, cheap and greasy. The suppliers feel no scruples to
provide such aberrations to hoi polloi.
And the legislator does not seem to mind that traditional craftsmanship,
national gastronomy and general health are gradually eroded and undermined, to
the benefit of insatiable balance sheets. A most lamentable situation, which
condemns many a most worthy Mayonnaise to tragic extinction!
We often look at this label with that saddest and
most melancholy of feelings which Johann Goethe captured in the term Weltschmerz. And then our lips mumble ever so softly, that undying line from
François Villon:
‘Où
sont les mayonneiges d’antan?’
My neighbor Joke Duyvis is 85 years old now, she is the daughter of the Duyvis director who started the duyvis factory before the second world war. Yesterday she came to our house to ask for some mayonnaise that’s she uses for a delicious shrimp recipe. Luckily my wife, who is Italian and therefor an excellent cook, can prepare a delicious mayonnaise in a minute only. In that way her diner became a success anyway.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately indeed that Joke Duyvis could not go to to the shop anymore to buy her undoubtedly superior Duyvis Mayonnaise!