Monthly Archives: April 2015

One Night With Madame Jeanette

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The Czaar Peterstraat is a playground for treasure hunters. Small specialized shops in abundance, new ones popping up frequently. One of the latest being Dreamboat, a stylish yet groovy fashion spot for cosmopolitan city dwellers. Worscht is another treasure trove, one that is filled with sausages and ‘accessories’: Czaar Peter beer, bread, mustard and pickles. The sausages in stock are organic and made in a traditional way. Dried sausages, smoked sausages, sandwich sausages, aperitif sausages. Sausages with red wine or walnut, mortadella, boudin noir. It’s easily to get lost in this mighty meat jungle. So why don’t you focus on the sausage I traced recently?  A dried pork sausage based on the recipe of fa chong, a classic Chinese sausage! Fa chong is often used for noodle and rice dishes, but the version of quality butcher Spijkerman (Akkrum, Friesland) is made to pair with your pre-dinner drinks. It’s a rather spicy devil; the meat is blended with Madame Jeanette pepper. To soothe your senses you may want to eat it with gherkins or Amsterdam onions.

Worscht
Dried pork sausage with Madame Jeanette pepper, one, €3.75
Czaar Peterstraat 153, East
+31 (0) 6 54 71 43 90
Opening hours: Tuesday 12.30pm-6.30pm, Wednesday-Friday 11am-6.30pm, Saturday 10.30am-6pm

Babi Cool

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Cheerful Charley, a former bank employee, is the mastermind behind a super duper mobile food spot on the multicultural Dappermarkt: Saté Bar Charley. Don’t you love the perfume of barbecued pork, chicken, lamb and goat that comes from this little white truck? Inside Charley and his mother are grilling succulent pieces of deliciously seasoned meat. Upon request served with cubes of sticky rice, prawn crackers, sweet-sour vegetables and a suicide hot paste of green chilies. It’s a true ‘family affair’: everything is home-made and based on the recipes of Charley’s (grand)mother from Makassar, Indonesia. In the evening Charley cuts the meat for the next day, his mother seasons it and his sister puts the marinated pieces on skewers. Other family members help to grill the satay from time to time. Especially the saté babi reminds me of the pork satay my Dutch-Indonesian mother used to make: medium small pieces of meat with a mildly spiced syrupy soy sauce. Have a portion on the wooden bench or taken some portions back home, together with some corn patties and pangsit, crispy dumplings with meat balls. Mark Charley’s words: ‘Don’t worry, be snacky.’

Saté Bar Charley
Saté babi, one portion, €4.50
Dappermarkt (East) on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday (Amstelveen and other spots: check FB)
+31 (0) 6 53 99 57 70

Her Royal Sweetness

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When Gaby was a kid she set her heart on her own cake shop. Since March 2015 she’s living her dream. At Majesteit Taart she exhibits her pieces of sugar art in a setting where the funk and colours of Miami’s Art Deco District blend with a heavy dose of femininity. Have a cup of coffee, absorb the view and make up your mind. The salted caramel-pecan-apple pie, the red velvet cake and the chocolate ganache pie are pretty amazing: great looks, great taste. The lemon-rose-coconut cake is almost too beautiful to be true. Just as stunning is the beetroot-almond pie. The colour of that frosting! The texture of that cake! Have a bite and indulge in something sweet, ‘nutty’ and perfectly moist. This beauty queen has all it takes to make your heart sing. And so has the passionate owner of this new hot spot in the bustling Javastraat. Gaby, mi gudu, don’t you ever stop baking.

Majesteit Taart
Beetroot-almond pie, one piece, €3.60
Javastraat 5, East (Indische Buurt)
+31 (0) 6 14 02 22 69
Opening hours: Tuesday-Friday 10am-7pm, Saturday-Sunday 10am-6pm

Miss Piggy Rolls

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If you like Vietnamese food, you’ll definitely LOVE Viêt View. This happening place in De Foodhallen  pleases with Vietnamese street food deluxe. Yes, Viêt View sells bánh mì (Vietnamese-style baguettes) with pork belly and chicken, but also with stir-fried tofu and grilled rib-eye. Of course the enthusiastic Vietnamese crew knows how to prepare goi cuon. Viêt View’s fresh rice paper rolls are filled with little gem, rice vermicelli, cucumber, carrot, chives, coriander, mint and your choice of meat (chicken, pork, rib-eye), tofu or shrimps. To be eaten on the spot or at home with hoisin sauce or a sweet-sour dressing. These little flavour ‘bombs’ are all excellent, but I would die for the ones with pork. I mean, what’s not to like about slices of juicy braised pork seasoned with crushed black peppercorn and drizzled with caramel? Be patient if you want to get ‘piggy’ too. Since local newspaper Het Parool voted Viêt View the best stall of De Foodhallen the place is even more en vogue. But this pig is definitely worth the wait.

Viêt View
Goi cuon with caramelized pork, one portion, €6.50
Bellamyplein 51, De Foodhallen (West)
Opening hours: Monday-Wednesday 11am-8pm, Thursday-Saturday 11am-9pm, Sunday 11am-6pm

Jamón, Jamón

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Olé! Let’s go outside to grab the best Spanish ham in town: the jamón Ibérico of Ibericus. Ask one of the trained meat cutters for some slices or do as I often do and buy mini baguettes with ham. I just love it that the bread is rubbed with tomato and drizzled with olive oil. It makes you long for a Spanish summer even more. In Barcelona and surroundings Ibericus has 18 shops. Thanks to entrepreneur Paul Gonzalez the products of the Ibérico pig are here within reach too. Enter Ibericus and meet dozens of cured hams with black hoofs (pata negra). Their prices vary depending on the level of quality, the bellota ones being the most exclusive. Sausages of the Ibérico pig (chorizo, sobrasada) and paté de jamón are in stock also. In the back you can have a drink and get plates of charcuterie and cheese. Let’s hope that the brand new ham croquettes made by Holtkamp and Ibericus will soon be on the menu too. Untill then you have to go the renowned patissier for your Spanish croquette kick.

Ibericus
Mini baguette with jamón Ibérico, one, €3.00
Haarlemmerstraat 93, City Centre (Haarlemmerbuurt)
+31 (0) 20 223 65 73
Opening hours: Monday-Thursday 10pm-6pm, Friday-Saturday 10am-7pm, Sunday 11am-5pm