November 2008 - dutchgrub

Where to Find Emile Henry in Amsterdam

I love using Emile Henry dishes and have written about them before. They are great for cooking in the oven. They never stick, are easy to clean and get along well with ovens, microwaves, freezers and dishwashers. And they look great with their classic clean design.

The other day I needed a wedding gift for a couple that likes cooking and decided to give them a few Emile Henry dishes – I was thinking a few different sizes of oven dishes and also some more specific earthenware for quiche, lasagna or pie. So I was looking for a store in Amsterdam with a large selection of Emile Henry dishes in stock and knowledgeable service.

Through Emile Henry I got in touch with their Dutch distributor Interhal who were nice enough to send me a list of all shops in Amsterdam that carry Emile Henry.

Outside of the Bijenkorf – a large and touristy department store on the Dam – there are two great kitchen stores with a large selection: Deksels in the Jordaan on Haarlemmerdijk 129 and Duikelman in de Pijp on Ferdinand Bolstraat 68.

Duikelman is some sort of bare bones kitchen supply heaven. It looks more like a warehouse with simple shelves stocked to the max. It’s always packed and you will need to squeeze through lots of people in the narrow aisles. Their selection is just amazing – you will find everything from the sharpest knives to the shiniest espressos makers and from massive gas stoves to little jars for herbs and spices.

Deksels is smaller and caters more to people looking for quality kitchen gifts. It blends perfectly with the other boutique stores on Haarlemmerstraat and besides Emile Henry focuses on brands like Le Creuset and Cuisinart. I went with Deksels this time and they made a beautifully wrapped gift for the wedding.

Thanksgiving – Best Turkey in Amsterdam

Thanksgiving is less than a week away!

Thanksgiving is not the most popular holiday in Amsterdam. Actually everybody is talking about Sinterklaas’ arrival instead. Still you can find everything your heart desires for a great Thanksgiving dinner with friends.

There are more Thanksgiving turkey recipes online than bitterballen served in Amsterdam on Friday evening. So instead of adding yet another recipe, I will provide you with a list of ingredients, some hints on where to find them and a schedule for mastering the Thanksgiving cooking.

Let’s start with the turkey, which will make or break your dinner. A good bird should be tender, full of flavor and sweat little fat while roasting.

I don’t know very much about turkeys. To find a good turkey I rely on the expertise of a good butcher. Slagerij Zikking on Marathonweg 51 in Amsterdam is a great choice. It’s a small shop, off the beaten path and they don’t have a web site. But believe me. Owners Rob and Linda Zikking run a great butcher shop. They love their produce and can talk about it for hours. And they provide great advice on which meat is best for what dish and how to prepare it. When you go there, you will be amazed by how flavorful the meat is. It also looks distinctly different from supermarket meat – the colors are much darker and the texture much more noticeable. On numerous occasions, I have met people from Haarlem or Alkmaar in the store that had driven all the way to Marathonweg to stock up on high quality meats.

Make sure you stop by or call in a few days in advance to order your turkey. Let Rob know for how many people you are cooking and he will have the perfect turkey ready for you to pick up on Thanksgiving day.

Next to finding the perfect turkey, the timing of a Thanksgiving meal can be challenging. We had invited friends for 19:00 and wanted to have dinner for six on the table at 19:30. So we made the following little schedule to help us stay on time:

15:00 Make stuffing.
15:45 Turn on the oven and prepare the turkey.
16:00 Place the bird in the oven, prepare the potatoes and make salad and dressing.
18:30 Take the bird out of the oven and put the potatoes in oven.
18:45 Make cranberry sauce.
19:00 Make gravy.
19:15 Carve the turkey.
19:30 Dinner’s ready!

The rest is actually quite easy.

For the stuffing, start by partially sautéing 125ml of finely chopped onions and 800g of mushrooms. Then add 700ml of breadcrumbs, 1 beaten egg, 2 tablespoons of melted butter, parsley, sage and thyme. Finally, mix it all together, adding white wine to moisten and pepper and salt to taste.

Next, stuff the turkey and wrap it with bacon. Place it on two carrots on the pan and cover with a tin foil tent. Place in the oven and roast at 220 degrees Celsius for 1 hour. Then remove the bacon and foil (but keep it for later) and continue roasting for 1 to 1,5 hours at 190 degrees. When the turkey is done, remove it from the oven, cover it with the foil and let it sit for 30 minutes.

For the cranberry sauce, heat 250 ml with 250 ml sugar, add one package of cranberries and cover the pot until all berries have popped (roughly five minutes). Take off heat and stir. For the gravy, melt two tablespoons butter in a pan and add three tablespoons flour while stirring vigorously. Add wine, stock, and turkey juices to liking. In between, you will need to prepare potatoes and a salad.

Was that a recipe after all? Oh, well. Hope you’ll have a great Thanksgiving meal!

Tempura – Best Bet for Sushi in Amsterdam

Tempura Restaurant is one of the better, maybe the best, sushi restaurants in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, good sushi places in Amsterdam are few and far between. If you do get that sushi craving, I recommend heading to Tempura near Artis. You may also want to try the expensive and Michelin decorated Yamazato in the Okura Hotel. Or make the trip to remote Amstelveen to sample also decent Tanuki.

Either way, don’t expect any extraordinary sushi. Japanese restaurants in Amsterdam tend to be very traditional, serving quality but ordinary food in an impeccable yet distinctly unstylish setting.

Tempura is no exception. The decor is very simple with bare walls, mostly white and brown colors and no adornments other then a few Japanese beckoning cats and lanterns in the window and an emergency exit sign above the door. The dining room does have a cozy feel. It is small with less than 15 tables and split into the main area in the front by the entrance, the slightly lowered back by the open kitchen and an upstairs balcony.

The somewhat quirky but always friendly service adds to the coziness. Tempura is always busy. And while small misunderstandings when ordering or making reservations can create a disorganized appearance, they always do so in a charming way. And the authentic Japanese hostess always makes me feel like a welcome regular, although I can never tell if she actually does recognize me.

The food is very good. Sushi and sashimi are prepared well from fresh fish. The meat of the yakitori is tender and their sauce just sweetish enough. I especially like the duck and scallion yakitori. And – at least for Amsterdam standards – there are a few more interesting dishes such as large shrimp in a sweetened almond crust or the spicy shrimp tempura maki. Tempura has a decent sake, but do not expect to pick your favorite bottle from a sake list.

Tempura is located on Plantage Kerklaan 26hs in the Plantage Buurt – Dutch for Plantation Neighborhood – near the Artis zoo.

Christmas Menu at De Witte Uyl

Restaurant De Witte Uyl has just announced the menu of this year’s Christmas dinner. Too bad I cannot make it. The 6 course menu with dishes like grilled scallops with forest mushrooms and yuzo or fillet of wild rabbit with raw cabbage sounds excellent. Traditional Christmas with a twist. I chance to try the fifth course would have been worth the trip: Organic Munster flambéed with cumin liqueur and sake, served with a pear stewed with Asian herbs. Wow!

7 Course Chef’s Menu at Vak Zuid – What a Treat!

Note: Vak Zuid was taken over by new management in 2013, closed down, and re-opened as stylish restaurant and cocktail bar “The Oyster Club”.

Yesterday I was treated to a real delight – a personal 7 course chef’s menu at Vak Zuid. I know Ard, one of the two chefs of Vak Zuid. And when we arrived for dinner on a relatively quiet Monday night he pulled out all the stops and prepared an unforgettable, personal 7 course menu that took us through all the great food on the menu of Vak Zuid.

Vak Zuid is somewhat hidden inside the Amsterdam Olympic stadium, in the former south spectator section (hence the name Vak Zuid, or section south). While not easy to find, Vak Zuid’s location is spectacular, embedded in the vast core of the 1920s built brick stadium. The restaurant is pleasantly large with a main dining room for 150 people, a lounge as well as private rooms upstairs. The interior is spacious and decorated in a modern design dominated by red, black and brown. The large windows towards the inside of the stadium where we could see the athletic track and the soccer pitch in the floodlights are a great feature.

The food at Vak Zuid is an interesting well balanced combination of French and Asian, mostly Thai and Vietnamese. Vak Zuid opened its doors in the late 90s at the height of the fusion hype. While many other fusion cooking restaurants have closed, Vak Zuid has thrived by continuously perfecting the blending of French ingredients and flavors with unusual southeastern Asian companions.

But back to the wonderful 7 course dinner!

We began dinner with Shrimps Emping – a starter that I would not usually order myself and that positively surprised me in many ways. Emping is the Indonesian name for bitter nut crackers that at Vak Zuid are lightly sweetened and spiced up with a slight chili kick. Formed into a waffle shape, they were filled with a combination of Dutch shrimps and crayfish in crab mayonnaise. The fresh and chewy crayfish worked really well with the soft and tasty Dutch shrimps.

The Shrimps Emping were followed by a Thai Beef Salad. The beef was thinly sliced and prepared in a super hot wok. The beef was served on a mixed salad with cashew nuts, avocado, and coriander. The dressing – a soy based chili dressing – was flavorful and present without tarnishing the other ingredients. The salad was a great continuation of the shrimp starter – building on its freshness and adding spice and substance. The Thai beef salad has been a long time crowd favorite. Staff told us that attempts to take it off the menu practically led to riots from the regular clientèle.

The 3rd course was equally great but completely different. It was a thick bisque, softened and at the same time thickened with coconut milk and garnished with scallions and corn. Like the first two courses, it’s a great example of west meets east – a very traditional French bisque transformed into a much more exotic dish by the coconut milk that is the basis of many southeast Asian dishes.

The next course was a real treat and the presentation and description caused enough excitement to forget about taking a picture as for all other courses. It was a combination of roasted guinea fowl with Peking duck stuffing, served with udon noodles and hoisin sauce. The guinea fowl was very tender and juicy and worked really well with the spicy minced Peking duck meat stuffing.

By now we were feeling quite full. So what could be better than being surprised with a lemon sorbet with vodka and champagne? The sorbet was very refreshing and fun to drink with all its champagne induced ice cream bubbles. And it worked as expected, giving our stomach a chance to digest and our taste buds an opportunity to prepare for the next unexpected combination of flavors.

Then the highlight of the evening arrived – Tempura Vak Zuid, half salmon and half tuna, rolled raw in seaweed, covered in tempura batter on the outside and deep fried briefly, just enough to fry the batter and sear the tuna and salmon lightly on the outside leaving it raw but warm on the inside. The tempura was served on perfectly cooked green asparagus – tender but with a bite – and sticky rice.

The 7th and last course was dessert. Finishing in fusion style, we enjoyed a lemongrass flavored creme brulée with fried banana that happily shared a plate with a rich and slightly moist baked chocolate cheesecake.

All food was wonderful and perfectly executed. It was both traditional and innovative, like comfort food of the 21st century. And even though you might not be treated to a personal 7 course chef’s tasting, I highly recommend a trip to Vak Zuid. The interior is stylish but also comfortable. The food is interesting and well executed. And the service is attentive and knowledgeable.

The kitchen at Vak Zuid is open Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner. It is closed on the weekend when Vak Zuid opens as a club until the early morning hours. You can find Vak Zuid at Olympic Stadium 35
or online at www.vakzuid.nl.

Yam Yam Amsterdam – Incredible Truffle Pizza

Every city needs its own fervent debate about who serves the best pizza. Amsterdam is no exception with Renato’s on Karel du Jardinstraat and more recently opened Forno Communale on Rhijnvis Feithstraat mentioned frequently.

I love truffles and generally prefer restaurants that focus on the food rather than the interior design. So my vote goes to Yam Yam Trattoria and Pizzeria on Frederik Hendrikstraat, just west of the Jordaan, close enough to walk, far enough to be off the beaten path.

Yam Yam is both trattoria and pizzeria. The trattoria menu offers typical dishes such as saltimbocca, branzino, or linguine with salsicce and porcini. The pizza, however, is so good that I rarely get around to trying them. Yam Yam’s pizza has a thin crust, is baked in a wood oven and generously garnished with fresh ingredients.

My absolute favorite is their pizza Yam Yam with truffle sauce, Parmesan, rucola and ham. You may also want to try the vegetarian version, which is the same but without the ham. Or indulge in one of the other pizza specialties such as the Tartufata (more truffles) or Contadina with mozzarella, Gorgonzola and pear.

The decor is simple with a hip but casual feel to it. The restaurant is split into two rooms with an open kitchen and the wood oven prominently featured behind the counter. It has a dense feel to it as both rooms are filled with lots of small tables. And Yam Yam is always packed with a mixed crowd of locals and alternative globetrotter types.

The same friendly staff has been running the restaurant for a long time. And while I occasionally hear complaints about slow service, I generally appreciate their down to earth attitude.

The wine list is short. It does not have any special wines on it but does amply provide you with a few decent red Italian wines. The coffee is good for Amsterdam standards where unfortunately good espressos are few and far between. A lot of guests end their dinner with the popular home made limoncello.

Yam Yam’s address is Frederik Hendrikstraat 90. Make sure you make a reservation and – if you liked the alternative international flair – consider heading on to De Nieuwe Anita, a squatter house turned club, for some bottles of beer and local DJs.