markemorse

Chufi, I was just looking through that book not minutes ago...I cooked through quite a bit of it this summer...the hot weeks were perfect for it. ohev'ochel, how do the simmered kibbeh hold their shape? I would think that little pieces of bulgur would defect during the simmering process. Roden's recipe doesn't really shed any light.

Hi Tepee, Thanks for the links, they look good! I think that reverse intimidation is probably in effect as well....that Malaysian cooking can be intimidating for non-Malaysians because there are so many unfamiliar ingredients and they're translated so inconsistently. In Amsterdam we have an interesting problem (at least I do), because not only do the ingredients and dishes frequently bear an Indonesian name, they might also be called by a slightly differently spelled Dutch version of that name (peterselie, santen, boemboe, koenjit), as well as the English version. None of which is even usually the accurate Malay term for it! But anyway it might be nice to see if we could increase the presence of this "super-delicious" food out here somehow. I'll get to work on a plan. Right after I make some Ayam Masak Lemak Cili Padi with my store-bought chicken boobs and chilis that I think are Cili Padi (I don't have a camera at the moment or I'd post pictures)! mark

Wondering if there are any Europeans reading this...with their different ideas of "in/out times" and protocol in asking for the check, etc (for starters). I'd be interested to hear their perspective on what good service is and how much it matters. mark

A friend of mine once made a late-night dish whose presentation/consumption style has come to be known as "a la O'Neill": 1) Take one pork chop with red-eye gravy from the Majestic Diner in Atlanta. 2) Accidentally fling the chop onto the floor while cutting it. 3) Look around. 4) Pick it up off the floor with your fork. 5) Look around guiltily. 6) Shrug and resume eating. If this is too insouciant a preparation for you (you might have to have seen the floor of the Majestic to really understand), my wife makes a PMS Sandwich that also doubles as 3am food: 1 onion 1/2 lemon 1 tbsp butter 1 good poppyseed kaiser roll 1-2 slices Emmenthaler, Gruyere, or Gouda 2 tbsp mayonnaise freshly ground pepper Slice onion, melt butter, saute onion briefly (typically as long as it takes you to forget you're in the middle of cooking something...1-2 minutes. Or a couple hours, depending, but it's really a different sandwich by then), squeeze the half lemon into the pan, arrange onions into something that might fit on the bottom half of a Kaiser roll, place the cheese on top of that pile until it melts. Put the mayo on the top half of the roll, put the onion-cheese pile on the bottom half, grind pepper, close, eat, sleep, regret. I also like this sandwich with raw Vidalia and/or prosciutto. I myself have become an 3am okonomiyaki devotee, Osaka-style plus young Gouda...but this requires some commitment, cooking time being in the 15-20 minute range. the more desperate 3am me will always turn to the trusty quesadilla first when I need quick melty goodness: either young Gouda or this great thinly sliced hard goat cheese plus Herdez ranchero sauce (sent by my mom, shhh) gives us the capsaicin/dopamine reaction necessary to soldier forward...or downward...somewhere. mark

Hi everyone, I feel like this post is mostly going to consist of disclaimers, so let me just get them out of the way: I'm a (seriously hooked) newbie. While I've seen plenty of trip reports and kew/Tepee's excellent Foodblog... I haven't found much here on the cooking of this/these cuisines (Indonesian, Malaysian, with the attendant regional/religious variations) So if anyone in the know can highlight whatever eGulletry I've probably missed that focuses on the cooking of said grub, that would be el supremo. Or...is it because there are too many translation/exotic ingredient issues? Or, have we just "not gotten to it yet"? I really think it's possible to make these amazingly rich and artful cuisines accessible to those people who can't just walk down the street and purchase a good homemade sambal. I think. Or...should we just let Babe in the City take care of it for us? OK, thanks! mark

wow chufi you continue to amaze me....really great and inspiring work. now could you find someone who makes a great bstilla and invite yourself over to their house (of course getting photos, recipes, etc.)? (;-> mem

Well, that was a totally unresearched assumption of mine...I'd heard from a couple of people that Beddington's was kind of "stuffy", and because I'd had my fill of that during my expense account years (just a personal preference, and probably the reason La Rive and Vermeer aren't on my wishlist), I'd not thought about Beddington's much. And then someone mentioned it the other day so I became curious again and added it to the wishlist...and since I posted my wishlist, I've done a little more reading about it and the atmosphere and look of the room aren't at all what I imagined. so...now i'm just plain old interested.

hi grace, i think i'm an even bigger fan of the Molenpad cafe...i have some great half-memories there from summers past. food's not bad either. and that area is totally safe...not a thing to worry about (he says without jinxing her at all ). biggest danger will be running into a tourist who's standing in the middle of the sidewalk looking at their map. and i'll also extend the PM offer...my superpowers are limited mostly to questions about local music scene, squat life, immigration from the US, cheap street food, and how to cook Mexican grub in Europe. as Klary said, let us know when your plans are definite, i'll hook you up with some good Amsterdam blog fodder... mark AND: i really enjoyed your squid video....as much as I love to eat them, i've never de-beaked anything and i'd like to be able to keep saying that.

In the interest of dividing and conquering, here's my wishlist of sit-down dinner places to try or hear about: 1) Greetje 2) Marius 3) Klein Jansen 4) Blue Pepper 5) En Route 6) Lof 7) Beddington's (more curiosity than anything) This is pretty sad, actually. No wonder my normal dining is done standing up. Will Amsterdam ever have a Gramercy Tavern? Somewhere low-key, with great affordable wine and exciting but not overfussy food that you can eat at the bar if you like (say yes)? mem

Hi Paul, Wish I could help with the * and ** categories, but I really haven't been eating at those kinds of places since I've been here... As for Nam Kee...maybe it's because there were so many excellent Chinese restaurants where I used to live in the US, but...while I find Nam Kee to be "good Chinese food" (in that the menu offers many dishes that have their own distinct taste, style of preparation, spice level, regional affinities, etc.), and definitely one of the better Chinese places in Amsterdam, I wouldn't make a special trip to eat there. It might just be me. If I was going to go to the Zeedijk, I'd rather eat at Bird (the Thai restaurant not the Thai snackbar) or New King (Chinese). mem

I for one would be interested to see this "wishlist"....maybe we can divide and conquer. Blue Pepper's not on there, is it? This is certainly not a new restaurant anymore, but I haven't been to De Kas, either, I decided to wait until after their initial marketing blitz, and then....I forgot about them. I guess that's why restaurants do marketing blitzes! Anyway, has anyone been recently? mem

Ha, Klary...I was just going to ask you if you had any hot Indo tips.... Maybe this deserves its own thread (or maybe the Amsterdam Restaurants thread), but I'm wondering if anyone has been to Blue Pepper or Terang Boelan (worlds apart from each other philosophically, I know)... I've been wary of Blue Pepper b/c of the prices and some wildly mixed reviews, but it looks like they may have ironed things out.... 1st edit: "...'a breath of fresh air from the shadow puppet attack' of other Indonesian restaurants..."? WTF? I seem not to have noticed these shadow puppet attacks, unfortunately. 2nd edit: I just realized that Terang Boelan is right around the corner from me, and I happened to be hungry, so I went...it was not your average toko. Exceptionally nice-looking food. Interesting selection: in addition to the rather usual daging bali, I had ayam paniki (chicken with candlenuts and coconut milk) and poki poki (broiled eggplant stuffed with minced pork I believe). It was all very good, but not mind-blowing. Worth a stop if you're in the neighborhood, but not worth traveling across town for (unless you're curious about non-standard Indonesian dishes maybe). 3rd edit: I'm going to post further non-recommendation comments about Amsterdam restaurants in the Amsterdam Restaurants thread, so that this thread remains devoted to "keepers".

I'd have to second that...I do think of it (and that whole area around the bottom of the Spuistraat and N.Z.) as pretty touristy. The only time I've eaten there (maybe 3 years ago) the food was fine, but pretty tame...my lasting impression is of a certain "same-iness" across the dishes...could've been the result of prepackaged sauces/sambals/boemboe, I don't know. Anyway, it's been a long time, maybe it's different now....I do know that they've undergone a makeover lately and added a takeaway counter next door, maybe it's time to stop by for some takeout and see what's what.

Thanks Klary....I feel completely the same way about your posts. Now if I could just get my act together enough to take some pictures of these places, I'd be all set. Feel free to snap a couple if you go to Hollandaluz. mark

Hi all, here are #8-10 of my eating in amsterdam recs: +++ 8) Bocadillos at Hollandaluz, Haarlemmerstraat 71. (link) This shop can do no wrong in my tiny little mind, or at least not much (they could maybe carry some better canned tuna...Ortiz for example). Before Mara took off for Scotland this summer, our Sunny Day Routine went like this: Her: "OK, see you at the park. Get the one with the membrillo, and something else." Me: "The artichokes with aioli?" Her: "Hmm. We just had that one." Me: "But it was fantastic." Her: "Right. Get one. And something else." Me: "That's two humongous sandwiches already. How many days are we going to be at the park?" Her: (frown, with extended lower lip). Me: "OK, what else?" The items in question are bocadillos (sandwiches) from Hollandaluz. We've had all 10 of them (or at least I have), and my favorites in order are....well, it's just easier to list the ones I wasn't bowled over by: both of the roasted red pepper bocadillos might actually be fine (choice of either manchego or anchovies), but compared to everything else they were a bit boring. If I were going right now, I'd get a manchego/membrillo and an artichoke/aioli/anchovy (ed. note: I changed my mind...tuna is now in third place). Their aioli is the best I've ever had, I think, and any sandwich that they put it on is one you're going to want to seriously and repeatedly bite (you can also just buy the aioli itself). But...their albondigas are also the best I've had in years, and the warm chorizo with onions is the bee's knees as well. They also have a morcilla (blood sausage) option that's a bit hard to see on the menu, but it's there, and it's good if you're up for it. Make sure to ask for a little extra olive oil on any of these sandwiches, because the olive oil they use here is out. of. sight. I haven't even mentioned any of their other homemade stuff: great non-fishy marinated fresh anchovies (should mention that these are not the ones you get on your bocadillos, you get preserved anchovies on the sandwiches); paellla; gazpacho, croquetas, empanadas, pollo en pepitoria. And unflaggingly friendly service, even in the deepest throes of our Summer Deathwave of Heat, even when their oven busted and they couldn't bake bread, etc. While you're there, pick up some olive oil: I'm currently really enjoying the Grupo Serrano Lopez...ask them for a taste. 9) Gambas and Homemade Ginger-Pear Tart at Van Kerkwijk, Nes 41. This is my fail-safe "dining out with guests" option in Amsterdam. I've eaten here at least ten times and been thoroughly pleased every time. It's not really "fancy" cooking, but you won't find any hutspot or kroketten here. It's a quietly cool (but not quiet) and classy neighborhood restaurant run by an ever-changing number of Van Kerkwijk sisters that prepares fresh, creative food with a pronounced Spanish influence, but more than that (to me) seems very Dutch in its appropriation of "whatever sounds good". My most memorable meal there was a beautiful, perfectly cooked filet of beef in a strawberry/balsamic/olive oil sauce, simply plated and delicious (unfortunately I only saw it only on the menu that one time). In fact, the steaks here have always been very very good (for Americans reading this, it's worth mentioning that you will not see a charcoal-grilled steak in Amsterdam very often, they're more often pan-fried in butter). Some nights we'd just go for starters, interesting cheeses and gently modernized pan-European tapas/antipasti. The menu changes often, and there are usually interesting seafood and salad options. We almost always order the gambas, whole shrimp (this means heads too) baked in a clay pot with lots of garlic, good olive oil, and red chile pepper. And for dessert, we order the homemade perentaart (pear tart) when there's still some left (mom makes it for them every day the restaurant is open). Excellent, friendly service and an overall good vibe. OK, the music is occasionally a little...mmm, lounge-y for my tastes, but with cool music Van Kerkwijk would probably be too devastatingly attractive for its own good anyway. 10) Bara at Toko Hangalampoe, Tweede Nassaustraat 7. I just had one of these this morning, as this is my downstairs Surinaamse toko, and the baras are only 1 euro...how can you not get one when you walk by? A bara is a deep-fried black lentil doughnut (bet you never thought you'd see all those words in the same sentence) of Indian/Nepalese origin. The Indian influence on Surinam cuisine seems surprising for a South American country, until you find out that 37% of the Surinam population is East Indian/Hindustani (the largest ethnic group in the country). I know this is true because Wikipedia told me so. Anyway, Toko Hangalampoe's bara participates in the noble tradition of Indian lentil fritters, but takes it in a totally different direction by adding to it a ridiculously spicy Madame Jeanette (habanero relative) salsa smeared liberally on top (less liberally if you don't speak Dutch, I've heard). This is the spiciest food I've had in Amsterdam, in fact it can be too hot (depending on who is behind the counter), and I'm a man who likes to have smoke coming out of his ears. If you're not a chile-lover, you might want to ask for the peper separate (it comes in a little plastic bag this way) so you can regulate your dosage.

I was just going to say that I've never seen a caponata, in Sicily or anywhere else, that I'd eat after more than three weeks...there's just not been enough oil or vinegar to provide a pickling or preservative buffer. Maybe it's a storage thing, adding oil on top when you put it away, but in Sicily the caponate that I had were not especially oil- or vinegar-soaked.... and what does one do with leftover pickles, anyway.... joking, mark

Klary, did you ever post about Marius? I feel like I read it somewhere, but can't figure out where, or if I even did....

the chickpea salad's a good one. you could toss a squirt of pomegranate syrup in there too depending on the sweet/sour profile of your caponata. i also just remembered that it makes a nice frittata too (and sounds good too: frittata caponata)...I'd probably add some crushed red pepper and parmesan or pecorino in that case. Hope that helps...hate to see good caponata hit the trash! mark

Uses for leftover caponata: Mix with chickpeas, raw sweet onions, mint, and balsamic for a cold or room-temperature salad. Add a fresh clove of crushed garlic (or two) and fresh basil and use as bruschetta/crostini topping. Mix with rice and parsley and use to stuff baked zucchini, peppers or tomatoes. There's also a Timballi di Tonno recipe in the Bugiali book that uses eggplant, olives, basil, capers, tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, vinegar, and Parmesan (and tuna...he uses fresh, but i'm sure a nice canned Spanish tuna would work too)...so it seems like you could do something in this direction even if you didn't have it in you to do the whole timbale thing. Add a little goat cheese and use as a stuffing for baked chicken breasts? I probably shouldn't be doing this while I'm hungry: I just imagined some kind of fried caponata/mozzarella/rice ball abomination....I'll stop here.

after the almond roca can you maybe reverse engineer the coconut raffaellos?

ja, they get shipments of nopales, poblanos, tomatillos, chiles en such every week. they're nice enough to sell it to customers too if you ask for it. and wow, bonvivant, just checked out your vietnam pictures. holy ned, that food looks amazing.

Right-o. Top 15 or so, continued. +++ 6) Loempia and Maiskoekjes at Toko Ikan Mas, 1e Constantijn Huygensstraat 61. (link) Toko Ikan Mas is a bit of a nostalgic favorite from when we first moved here and lived right across the street, but we still find their vegetarian loempias to be the best in town, primarily because they try harder. Terminology check: A toko is typically an Indonesian food shop that sells take-away snacks and full meals as well as produce and supplies for the home chef. A loempia (or lumpia in most other languages) is very similar to a Chinese egg roll, a Vietnamese spring roll, and a Thai popiah. They were introduced to the Dutch population in the early- to mid- 20th century, probably by Chinese and definitely by Indonesian immigrants, and they are now everywhere, at least in Amsterdam. It would be a challenge to find an Amsterdam snack bar that did not have something it referred to as a loempia. Unfortunately, these may be the some of the worst loempias in the world. Thick, soggy wrappers around fillings that don't taste like much more than salt and cheap frying oil. To be fair, 90% of Amsterdam snackbar loempia makers probably use the same 3 brands of frozen loempias, so there's really no comparison with someone who puts some effort into it. Toko Ikan Mas makes their own loempias, this is immediately obvious because they don't really look like any loempias you've seen anywhere else. They use a paper-thin wrapper that doesn't retain much oil, and fill it to bursting with the usual suspects (cabbage, carrots, tauge/bean sprouts) as well as vermicelli noodles and some good heat from a sambal. These loempias are about 6 times the size of the standard borrelhapje loempia (a tiny loempia that was invented so that loempias could participate in a borrelhapjes plate (bar snacks) without scaring off the bitterballen and osseworst).* One is a reasonable order for one person. I should stress, though, that their size has nothing to do with their goodness: they're good because they're fresh and light. The other item to pick up here is a maiskoek, or Indonesian Corn Cake (also called frikadel jagung in Indonesian maybe?). It's also fried, but wrapperless; this is basically a corn fritter with actual corn, lemongrass, leeks, and a little sambal. As always, I recommend scoring a tamarind or young coconut water drink from the fridge to wash it down. Again, as with most of these Indonesian/Surinamese snack places, the closer you can go to lunchtime, the better the food will be and the more likely they'll have what you're looking for. These aren't all-night places, they're typically open til 7 or 8 at the latest, and by then (if they've calclulated correctly), they'll be out of just about everything perishable. * The actual reason for this size issue may have something to do with the fact that Malaysian spring rolls are actually traditionally quite small. 7) Chicken Mole or Cochinita Pibil at Los Pilones, Kerkstraat 63. (link) European-Mexican food. Just seeing those first two words next to each other should be enough to put a scare in you. If you've ever been gallivanting around Yurp and thought it might be fun to try a restaurant called A Taste of Texas, Buenos Nachos, La Cantina, or anything remotely Mexican-sounding, you know what I'm talking about. It's not that the cooks in these places don't have the skillz necessary to prepare authentic Mexican dishes, they've just never actually tasted authentic Mexican food before. So everything is (at least) slightly off, like eating in a bad dream. Guacamole can be toothpaste-colored and creamy, as in, it has cream in it. "Salsas" can run the gamut from simply crushed and unseasoned canned tomatoes with jarred jalapeno slices to highly seasoned spaghetti sauce. Corn tortillas? Sadly, no. Same goes for tomatillos, poblanos, epazote, nopales, hoja santa, chipotles, anchos, pasillas, Negra Modelo, moles, pipians, etc. etc. etc. Unless, that is, the European-Mexican restaurant in question is Los Pilones, run by two brothers from Mexico City. You can tell that Hector and Pedro aren't creamy guacamole guys as soon as the chips are brought to your table. They come with not one but three excellent salsas. The non-creamy guac is simple, chunky, and otherwise perfect as well. For entrees, we usually stick with the chicken mole and the cochinita pibil because they've been great every time and nothing else on the menu has been able to distract us from them. Now...as great as it is, Los Pilones is not a Mission burrito joint, or a taco truck, nor is it many of the things that we American Eaters of Mexican Food are homesick for, authentic or not, so don't expect any of that. But, it is a lovingly-designed, artfully-managed fun spot for dinner or drinks that serves carefully-prepared, as-authentic-as-possible Yucatecan and Oaxacan food. In Amsterdam! +++ Mark

Hey, Klary.... Glad you checked it out, it's really funny how quickly news spreads here...even non-foodie friends are talking about this "new pizza place they heard about"...I still wonder if it's the same spot. My original tipster is out of town, I'll go with him when he gets back. As for these guys...are they Italian? The only place in Italy where I've had pizza that looked/sounded anything like this was in Siena, and the crust was also super-boring b/c they don't salt their bread products there...I wonder if they're Tuscan? Sounds like an cool concept, though, the self-serve (at least in the summertime)... Thanks, intrepid tester. Nice photos as always... And Rachel...thanks for the hearty welcome. Being a transplant from the Deep South as well (ATL), I know what it means to be a virtual traveller along the canals here...we'll try to keep the posts coming! mark

Ha, sadistick...I was going to say a Negroni...not clear but definitely crisp: Equal amounts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth served over ice. Garnish with a nice slice of orange. Definitely not a sweet drink, I found them to be supadupa in the summertime. that said, I also think you could do an elegant sangria with carefully tiny-diced fruit and a good spike of brandy. Also not a clear drink, though. How about a mojito? Too sweet? mark

not to be a fearmonger, but i probably wouldn't walk anywhere other than those places listed in voodoo's first post...if i were someone who was visiting the city for a very short period of time and had no reason to tempt fate.