“No, it's not for me, this" - Gian van Veen brutally rates local food while competing in World Series of Darts Finals

Gian van Veen is one of the many darters competing at the World Series of Darts Finals as he looks to add a second major to his title catalogue. Over the course of the year, he has enjoyed travelling and documenting his ventures around the world on the World Series, with it all having culminated in his home country of Amsterdam.

After competing in the Dutch Darts Masters in 2024 and 2025 as a local representative, he has stepped up to being one of the PDC challengers and has featured in every event this year. From the Middle East to Scandinavia to North America to Oceania back home, it has been quite the journey for ‘The Giant.’

“Hi everyone,” he began in an Instagram video. “Welcome back to the Local Treat Tour. It's the finale. We've been to Copenhagen, we've been to New York, we've been to Auckland and we've been to Sydney. But right now we're here in IJmuiden in the Netherlands, and we're going to do it the Dutch way.”

Van Veen quickly noted his comfortable first round win. “So yesterday I played in the first round of the World Series Finals against Chris Dobey.,” he recalled. “Solid 6-2 win, quite happy with the performance. Bit up and down, but in the end, a comfortable win. I think that's what matters.”

Averaging 95.47, van Veen got a highest checkout of 101 while his opponent was far off his best, missing 11 darts on the outer ring as van Veen cruised to a first ever win in this event.

However, he had bigger priorities than darts. “But right now we've got more important things on our mind. I'm driving to IJmuiden right now, to the harbour, for some fresh fish straight out of the North Sea. Let's go fishing.”

He went to go and get the grub. “So here we are in the harbour of IJmuiden. It doesn't get much more local than this, right? And because we are here in the Netherlands, here in IJmuiden, there's only one real option that I'm going to be tasting today. It's the fresh herring. It's not really my cup of tea, but it's worth a go for you guys. So this must be the place. Looks quite nice. Let's see what they have in store for us.”

The herring was secured, and van Veen was ready to taste it. “I've never tried this before, but it doesn't look good. But you know, here goes nothing.”

It is fair to say that it was not for van Veen. “No, it's not for me, this. Well, it's what a fish would taste like, but you see, it's very slippery. The onion next to it kills a bit of the fish taste, which is good for me. But, oh no, this is not my cup of tea, this.”

Second bite? Van Veen gave a firm answer. “No, I'm not doing that, sorry.” His final rating was brutal. “So then, for the final verdict, I know I should be biased because it's my own country, but I'm not going to be.

“The herring doesn't do it for me. Actually, I'm going to put it at the bottom of the list. A 3.5. You saw it there. I only took one bite and afterwards I couldn't do much more. So, no, at the bottom of the list.”

In all the places van Veen went on the World Series, he has ranked the local delicacies that he has tried. Despite being on home soil, the herring was by far the worst.

First with an 8.2 is the New York bagel, closely followed by Kanelsnegle with an 8. The Oceanic foods came next, with the Kiwi Pie on 6.5 comfortably above the Vegemite, ranked 4.5. Bringing up the hear is the herring.

It has been a mixed bag on van Veen's first full year competing on the World Series. He began with a bang in Bahrain, reaching the final before losing to Michael van Gerwen. He would then lose in consecutive quarter-finals in Saudi Arabia and Denmark.

New York proved to be slightly better as he departed at the semi-finals before another brace of quarter-final losses ended a slightly underwhelming trip Down Under. He will take on Dirk van Duijvenbode in the quarter-finals after his fellow countryman stunned Luke Humphries. Van Veen produced an impressive performance against Karel Sedlacek and will be ready for the showdown.