Souvlaki

When I was seventeen my first journey without my parents took me to Greece with my friend Roger Overall. We didn’t drink a drop of alcohol nor did we party. I remember eating souvlaki, which was relatively cheap and ubiquitous. Ever since, I thought souvlaki was made of lamb. Only now I learned that souvlaki is mostly made of pork, the cut between the rib eye and the belly (the loin), which contains about 30% fat. This cut is hard to find in The Netherlands. I had to settle for a piece of pork neck.

If you google the recipe for souvlaki in English you will find a lot oil based marinades claiming to be “authentic”. I dug deeper and found a recipe on the YouTube-channel Grill philosophy which reminded me of what I had tasted that summer of 1986.

The below quantity is for 2 kilo of meat. I had to divide everything by four to adjust for my 400 gram of pork neck.

24 gram sea salt
2 gram black peppercorns
1 tsp summer savory
3 gram powdered sugar (not any other type of sugar)
150 ml water

Pound the peppercorns and coarse sea salt with a mortar and pestle and dissolve everything in the water. Massage the solution into the meat.

From there on you just have to grill the skewers. Before the first turn sprinkle some smoked paprika powder on the souvlaki. Serve old style with just some bread. The version with pita and tzatziki is a recent addition.

No oregano in this souvlaki but summer savory.

Green papaya salad (som tam)

Papaya originates from Mesoamerica and was introduced in Asia in the 17th-Century. This papaya salad was possibly invented in Laos. For this papaya salad you will need a green unripe papaya. Start by frying some peanuts in oil. This version is Thai. Many other versions are possible.

Start by pounding garlic and fresh chiles, adding soaked dried shrimp and 1 tablespoon of the fried peanuts. Pound but keep the ingredients coarse.

Add some palm sugar, long beans (3 cm pieces) and cherry tomatoes. Add lime juice and fish sauce. Finally add finely shredded papaya. Add the remaining table spoon of peanuts. Lightly pound the peanuts.

Ingredients

• 2 small garlic cloves

• 2 to 3 fresh Thai chiles

• 1 tablespoon (8g) dried shrimp

• 2 tablespoons (30g) roasted unsalted peanuts

• palm sugar to taste

• 4 cherry tomatoes, halved

• 2 long beans (about 30g), 3 cm pieces

• fresh lime juice from 2 limes

• 2 tablespoons (30ml) fish sauce

• 170g shredded green papaya, from 1 green papaya

• Cooked sticky rice, for serving

Laos pot Thai steamed sticky rice

This is a traditional northern Thailand and Laotian method of making sticky rice. After washing the rice you have to soak the rice for six hours or overnight. Before steaming soak the bamboo basket in water to prevent the rice from sticking to the basket.

The steaming method takes 15 minutes, flipping the rice over and then steaming for another 5 to 10 minutes. You can put a small (bamboo) lid in the bamboo steamer to capture the steam inside.

Minced pork and sticky rice.

Larb Muang Moo

I liked this version of chopped pork salad the best. You make a spice mixture by toasting the following ingredients:

2 small dried hot chillis, 1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds, 1/4 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns, 1/4 teaspoon cloves, a star anis pod, 1/2 cinnamon stick, 1 piece of mace, inner seeds of 4 Thai black cardamon, or 1 green cardamon, 1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns and 1 whole long pepper, which I didn’t have.

Toast about two minutes and grind everything into a fine powder.

Heat oil in a wok and throw in about 6 gloves or garlic, skins on but slightly mashed. Take out the garlic with a slotted spoon, and reserve. Add chopped pork, for convenience get minced pork, mixed pork offal like kidney, liver or tripe, which I sadly didn’t have. Add the spice mixture and a bunch of cut cilantro and cook for a short time. Add 1/4 cup of pork blood, which I also didn't have, and cook until thickened.

Season with salt and fish sauce and sprinkle with the fried garlic.

The photo above shows an earlier version I made with mint, cilantro and powdered rice.

Indonesian table

An Indonesian table typically consists of lauk (fish, meat, egg, or other source of protein), sayur (vegetable), sambal, krupuk, and rice. Below is a mix of recipes from Java and Bali. Prep time was well over four hours, mainly because every dish needed a fairly complicated bumbu spice mixture, which had to be ground to a fine paste in a cobek. For rice we made lontong, which needs to boil for a pretty long time, at least one hour! To cool hang the plastic bag somewhere so any remaining moist can drip out. This was a collaboration with somebody who knows the Indonesian kitchen better than I.

No meal is complete without krupuk. Freshly fried krupuk is fragrant.

Sambal Matah Kecicang Khas Bali

This raw sambal is simply made by slicing the ingredients very finely and then pouring hot oil on top of it. I used pure coconut oil, about 5 tablespoons.

The ingredients:
Shallot or Indonesian onion (they are tiny)
Red chili pepper, for color green chilli pepper should be used as well.
Red lombok
Lemon grass
Daun jeruk purut (kaffir lime leaf)
Kecicang
Half a teaspoon of trassi
Lime juice
Salt
Black pepper

Sambal Matah Kecicang

Pindang Base Lalah Khas Bali

This recipe is quite simple. Make a bumbu spice paste of the following ingredients:

Shallot
Garlic
Red chili pepper (rawit)
Kemeri nut
Piece of kencur
Piece of turmeric
1 tomato
1 lombok

For this recipe two small pindang mackerel were used. Remove the head and fish bones. This is fish preserved in pindang style. Fry the pieces in oil until golden brown.

Next fry the spice mixture in oil, using the oil you just fried the fish in enhances the flavour. Add the fried fish and some water. The recipe said: add a salam leaf, I accidentally added a kaffir lime leaf. Fry until the sauce is reduced and the fish is ‘dry’.

Pindang Base Lalah Khas Bali

Asinan Sayur Betawi Bumbu Kacang

Asinan are pickled vegetables, as the word ‘asin’ implies, in salty brine. We made a version popular in Jakarta. The brine was made by boiling water (about 500 ml) and adding palm sugar and tamarind (sweet and sour) and a spice mixture made of:

3 lombok
6 small spicy chilli peppers
60 gram fried peanuts
3 cloves of garlic
5 gram dried shrimp soaked in hot water

For vegetables we used cabbage, bean sprouts, carrot and cucumber. Tofu is also a great option. Shred the vegetables finely and pour the liquid over the vegetables. Add some whole peanuts before serving.

For this bumbu you need peeled peanuts.

Satay ayam

I have made satay ayam and the dark sweet peanut sauce quite often. You can read the recipe here: Homemade sateh sauce from Java

Yam khai dao ยำไข่ดาว

This Thai fried egg salad was surprisingly easy to make. Even though there is ‘khai’ in the name, there is no chicken meat, just the eggs. Start by making a dressing of:

• 4 limes

• 1 tablespoon of palm sugar

• 2 tablespoons of fish sauce

• 2 – 3 chilies, sliced

• 1 lemongrass, sliced

Mix together 3 small tomatoes, roughly chopped, sliced shallot, a handful of cilantro, chopped, a handful of scallions, chopped. You can also add roasted peanuts.

Now fry 3 to 4 eggs in plenty of oil in a wok. You should be able to splash oil on top of the eggs. Don’t disturb the eggs until the bottom is crispy, then flip the eggs over. When done cut the eggs in about the same size as the tomatoes. Mix the dressing into the salad, but not necessarily all of it.

Teri kacang

An Indonesian side dish. The word literally means anchovy (teri) peanuts (kacang). There are three components: fried small anchovy, fried peanuts and a bumbu spice mixture.

Grind below ingredients together to a fine paste (bumbu):
25 cloves of small shallot
5 cloves of garlic
100 grams of lombok
2 handfuls of red chili

Prepare below ingredients:
3 cm galangal (smashed)
8 kaffir lime leaves
50 grams of palm sugar
1 tablespoon tamarind with a little water

Fry 200 gram peanuts with skin.
Fry 200 gram salted anchovy (they should be about 3 cm long) until crispy.

Fry the bumbu in oil, add (in this order): galangal, kaffir leaves, palm sugar, add tamarind with the water. Fry until the oil separates.
Add the anchovy and peanuts, mix and cool. This will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

Teri asin

Work lunch.

Adana kebabı

In 2021 I bought some serious kebab skewers. After one year I finally used them for an Adana kebabı. Not exactly a proper authentic Adana kebabı because I used sumac, cumin and urfa biber in the kebabs. I understand my version is referred to as urfa kebab. If you really dig into the taxonomical classification of kebab things get more complicated. For the original Adana kebabı you should only use salt and sweet red peppers. Also the lamb should be mixed with 30% tail fat. The Turkish butcher didn’t have tail fat so I asked him to mix the lamb meat with 20% fat. He put everything through the meat grinder and I walked out with minced 20% fatty lamb meat.

I mixed 500 gram of minced lamb meat with 5 grams salt (about 1 teaspoon), 1 teaspoon cumin, 2 teaspoons sumac, and 1 tablespoon urfa biber. Urfa biber is also called Isot biber. Urfa biber is a red chili pepper, ripening to a dark maroon on the plant. After harvest the pepper is sun dried and tightly wrapped afterwards. This pepper is only 7,500 SHU on the Scoville scale. 500 gram is about 6 skewers and 1 skewer is really enough for one person.

If you don’t mix the cumin, sumac and urfa biber with the meat you can sprinkle those spices on top of the meat on your plate. Next time I will probably just use urfu pepper and salt. Careful with salt. Once it’s in, you cannot adjust for less salt.

The salt has the function to dissolve the muscle protein, which helps the meat stay on the skewer. During the mixing of the meat you add water and knead this into the mass. The result should be an almost clay like meat-mixture. Chill in the fridge. If you follow these steps you can mould the meat around the skewers like clay and it will not fall off during the grilling.

Cooking time should be around 12 minutes. You serve the kebabs with Turkish flat bread, a tahini-garlic sauce and a salad made of red onions and sumac. Grill some green pepper on the charcoal for extra vegetables. An easy addition is buying a jar of Türlü Turşu (mixed vegetables pickles), which goes great with the fatty meat.

The tahini sauce is easily made by mixing tahini with garlic, salt, lemon juice and enough water to make a nice sauce-like consistency. Use an electric mixer for the best result.

Sumaklı soğan salatası

The red onion salad is quite simpel as well. The ingredients are: red onion, sumac, salt, lemon juice and parsley. Add the parsley only just before serving!

Urfa biber (Isot biber).

Pindang

Pindang is a cooking method which consists of boiling (or steaming) in brine. It is a ‘wet’ preservation method. If a recipe calls for pindang fish, this fish is boiled/steamed in brine with tannin containing spices. A pindang fish can be fried when used in a recipe.

Fishery Industrial Research, Volume 5, Nummer 1

Pindang cabe ijo (pindang green peppers)

Take 8 small pindang fish. Fry the fish in hot oil. To prevent the oil from splattering sprinkle some flower in the hot oil. Set aside.

Chop 8 small sjalot, 2 gloves of garlic, 100 gram green chili (slice diagonally in 2 cm pieces, 4 cm galangal (smash), 3 salam leaves, 2 small tomatoes (unripe is fine), a handful of peteh beans.

Fry the onion and garlic first. Add the green chili, galangal, salam leaves and add a little water. Add salt and a little ketjap manis. Add the fish, tomatoes and peteh beans.

Serve with rice.

Pindang base lalah kas Bali

Use pindang fish, remove the head and fish bones. Fry in oil.

Make a paste using the following ingredients:

6 small red onion
5 cloves of garlic
8 small chili peppers
3 hazelnuts
1 piece kencur
1 piece turmeric
1 tomato
1 lombok

Fry the paste in oil. Add a daun leaf. Add the fried fish. Add some water and simmer. Add salt and black pepper. Simmer until the sauce is reduced.

Pepes Ikan Pindang Khas Bali

A variation on the recipe above is to make the spice paste first, without the fish. Once the spice paste is finished, take a banana leaf and wrap the pindang fish with some tablespoons spice mixture. Steam the banana leaves and finish by grilling the banana leaves over a fire.

Make a paste using the following ingredients:

18 small onions
8 cloves of garlic
2 turmeric chambers
2 segments of ginger
2 segments of kencur
5 candlenuts (toasted)
12 small chili peppers (rawit)
1 tbsp coriander
1/2 tbsp salt
4 lombok
shrimp paste
enough water

Grind to a paste, add water and simmer with a little oil. Add daun leaf and 2 sliced tomatoes. Simmer until the tomatoes are dissolved. Add black pepper powder to taste and sugar.

Sichuan Mapo Tofu

This is taken from Chef Wang Gang’s YouTube-channel.

• Prepare 400 gram firm tofu. Cut in 1,2 cm cubes.

• Chop 50 gram beef into a fine grind .

• Chop 15 gram pickled ginger and 20 gram pickled Sichuan chili.

• Chop one garlic sprout, or thin spring onion (for garnish).

• Take 10 gram dried chili and 5 gram dried green Sichuan pepper.

I love Chef Wang’s mise en place.

Cooking

1. Heat oil in a wok and add the dried chili and green Sichuan pepper for 15 seconds. Knife chop these ingredients in a fine powder (traditional ‘knifed’ chili).

2. Add some water in the wok, a little salt and boil the tofu for 1 minute. Drain.
   

3. Add oil to (rapeseed oil) the wok and stir fry the beef until dry. Add some chili bean sauce (doubanjiang), the 15 gram ginger, 20 gram chopped chili and some fermented black beans. Fry until the oil comes out. Add 5 gram ‘knifed’ chili. Mix and add some water. Add salt and MSG. Add the tofu and boil for 3 minutes.

4. Add starch water to thicken the sauce in several stages. Add a splash of scallion oil before plating.

5. Garnish with traditional ‘knifed’ chili and garlic sprout.

Panch phoron

When cooking ‘Indian’ you need to narrow it down to a specific region for it to make sense. Panch phoron means “five spices” and is typical for the kitchen of Northeastern India, Eastern India and Bangladesh. You can easily make panch phoron at home by mixing the following five whole spices in equal parts:

Fenugreek seed, nigella seed, cumin seed, black mustard seed and fennel seed.

Sometimes the black mustard seeds are replaced by radhuni.

When cooking with panch phoron you’d typically add a tea spoon of the mixture to hot oil before adding the other ingredients. This is called tadka. Below some sample recipes.

Aloo ki Sabji

Boil 500 gram somewhat floury potatoes (“iets kruimig”) in the skin. Cool down and peal the potatoes. Roughly mash the potatoes coarsely with your fingers.

Heat 3 tablespoons mustard oil. Lower the heat and add a pinch of hing and 1 - 2 teaspoons panch phoron, a few fresh green chilis, half a teaspoon of turmeric, 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder. Tomatoes at this stage are optional. Mix and add the mashed potatoes.
Mix and fry on low heat for 1 minute. Add 300 ml water. Add salt to taste and kasuri methi. Simmer for a couple of minutes.

Add 1 teaspoon chaat masala (or just amchoor powder) and half a teaspoon garam masala. Finish with chopped koriander leaves.

Panch phoran masoor dal

To make this red lentil dal the first step of aloo ki sabji is almost identical. Heat 4 tbsp mustard oil in the pan. When hot add 1 tsp panch phoron, bay leaf and dried chili. Add some hing (asafoetida) and shallot. When the onion is translucent add 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric.

Add precooked masoor dal (100 gram with 500 gram water would be a good amount, cook in pressure cooker until the first whistle). Mix well, add salt and cook for 6 minutes on medium heat.

Sambal

There are literally hundreds of different sambal in Indonesia, some are raw, some are fried. Below a modest collection of sambal I want to have in my repertoire.

Sambal bajak pedes seger banget

Badjak means ‘ pirate’ but in a sambal it means the sambal is fried. Pedes is ‘spicy’ and seger banget means ‘very fresh’.

50 gr green small chili’s
10 pieces of red small chili’s
3 pieces of garlic
1 jeruk limau (a type of small lime)
tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
Chicken stock powder
A little micin =MSG (optional)

Clean the chili’s and make a small cut to expose the inside. Fry the chilies and garlic in hot oil for a short while. Just before they start to brown. Take out the chilis and garlic. Mash the chilis and garlic together with salt, sugar, chicken stock powder and MSG in a cobek. Add a little of the hot oil and mix. Finish with squeezing some jeruk limau over the sambal. Serve in de cobek.

Jeruk limau

From the YouTube channel CR Cook.

Sambal Matah

A raw sambal from Bali. Simply mix the below ingredients.

3 shallots, peeled and sliced in half length-way, then finely crosswise sliced.
7 rawit (bird’s eye chilies), sliced.
3 stalks lemon grass, only take the white and tender part, bruised and finely sliced.
1 tsp salt.
black pepper.
5 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil.

Add for a more luxurious version:

Kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced.
1 tsp roasted trassi, finely grated.
Freshly squeezed kaffir lime juice.
Grated kaffir lime skin.
Kecicang. If you add the flower buds it is called "Sambal Matah Kecicang"

Etlingera elatior or kecicang.

Sambal Matah Kecicang

Bún Thịt Nướng

Thịt Nướng simply means ‘barbecued meat’ and bún is noodles. The meat is usually pork shoulder. I used pork neck.

Two components which make the taste: the marinade and the dipping sauce nước mắm.

Marinade for pork:

2 shallot, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons vegetables oil
1 tablespoon superfine sugar.

Dipping sauce:

Nước mắm is a generic term for dipping sauce.

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped.
3 bird’s eyes chilies, thinly sliced.
75 ml fish sauce.
50 ml white vinegar'.
40 gram superfine sugar.

Bún
For the noodles you should use thin (1 mm) rice noodles. Pour boiling water over the noodles and soak for 10 minutes. Wash the noodles in cold water until all the starch is removed and they don’t stick together. The noodles are served cold.

Toppings:
Roasted peanuts, coarsely crushed.
Cucumber.
Pickled carrot and daikon.
Fried shallot.
Spring onion oil.
Vietnamese mint.
Thai sweet basil.

Before assembling the dish.

When eating you mix everything together, I think this is the proper way to eat.

Crispy shallot. Before frying mix the sliced shallot with salt and soak in water for 10 minutes. Dry the shallot before frying. This will draw out moisture and make the shallot more crispy. You can use the same technique when frying tofu.

Mở hành (onion oil).

Paon Bali

Paon Bali is an authentic Balinese restaurant in the Eastern Docklands in Amsterdam. There is only one option on the menu and you need to send a WhatsApp to reserve your take-away meal. The owners are great. When I lamented that I couldn’t buy kecicang for the sambal, the lady gave me some kecicang from her freezer. I always eat my Paon Bali take-away with my hands. No need for forks or spoons.

Nasi Languan
Sate lilit ikan, tambusan be pasih, pindang base tomat, gerang bawang jahe, jukut urab, cumi suna cekuh, sambal udang, sambal matah kecicang, kacang tanah goreng, nasi merah/pitih en sup ikan.

Sambal matah kecicang. Raw sambal with bongkot flowers.

Tambusan be pasih.

 

Yemini rice with meat

This dish is baked in an oven tray. You can use lamb or goat meat, or even chicken, with bones. Marinate the meat with salt, cumin, paprika, black pepper and turmeric.

Spread in the baking tray:

Onion, chopped
Carrots, sliced
Tomatoes, cubed
Bell pepper
Garlic
Hot pepper
Parsley leaf
Coriander leaf
Cinnamon stick
Bay leaves
Cardamon
Gloves
Cumin (powdered)
Coriander seeds (powdered)
Black pepper, powdered
Salt
Dried lemon

Spread out in the tray. Add 3 cups of water. Add the meat, cover with parchment paper and tin foil. Bake in preheated oven of 250 degrees for an hour.

Remove cover and take out the meat. Add 3 cups soaked basmati rice and 4,5 cups of water: mix. Put the meat on top of the rice. Cover again and cook for 30 minutes.

Rhubarb chutney

This Indian inspired rhubarb chutney can be made in a little over half an hour.

You will need:

300 gram rhubarb, cut into cork sized chunks.
2 red onions, chopped.
200 gram sugar.
250 ml white wine vinegar (I used apple vinegar).
1 tbsp mustard seeds (popped open in a hot pan).
1 tbsp coriander seeds.
2 star anise.
A couple of small chilis (dried or fresh).
1 orange for zest.
Salt.

Add the onions, sugar and vinegar to a pan and bring to the boil. Add the spices except the orange and simmer for a minute of five. Add orange zest in small strips and cook for 15 minutes until the chutney thickens a bit.

Add the rhubarb ‘corks’ and cook for another 10 minutes just until the rhubarb completely dissolves. Eat cold or warm. Goes very will with pork sausage.

Sayur lodeh

The joy of cooking in the garden. My only wish is to have a proper blazing hot wok burner for outdoor use.

The name simply means: softly boiled (lodeh) vegetables (sayur) in Indonesian. This dish is typical for Java and therefore ubiquitous in Dutch Indonesian restaurants. The dish breaks down in three elements: the spice paste, coconut milk and vegetables plus a protein.

To make the spice paste pound together:

Garlic.
Onion (preferable small Indonesian shallot).
Kentjoer.
Trassi.
Fresh chilli peper for heat. Rawit are small and hot.
Kemeri nuts.
Ketoembar (coriander seeds).
A few shavings of palm or coconut sugar (sold as a solid stick).
Salt.

Quantities according to taste. Fresh yellow root (kunyit) can be added for a different color. Below a version with some fresh jeruk (kaffir lime) leaves, salam (bay leaf) leaves and kentjoer (Kaempferia galanga).

Reserve a piece of galangal to simmer in the stew. Smash the galangal to open up the fibres.

The choice of vegetables is really up to what you can get. I like to use as many typical Asians vegetables. This time I used:

One chayote (imported to Asia from Middle America) cut in chunks.
A carrot cut in rough matchsticks.
Green beans (yardlong bean would be perfect but can be expensive).
Half a oxheart cabbage (spitskool).
Collard greens. I used po choy also known as Chinese spinach.
Tempeh as in: fermented soy bean cake.

Once everything is prepared the cooking is simple: fry the spice paste in hot oil for about 4 minutes until fragrant. Add the can of coconut milk and bring to a boil. Add vegetables and extra water so the vegetables are covered. Add the smashed galangal.

Simmer until the vegetables are cooked. Add the collard greens in the last 5 minutes. Turn the heat off and let it stand for a couple of hours before reheating and serving.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Vegan yangnyeom-chikin

I tasted this in Amsterdam in the Veganees, a shared dining restaurant based on Asian classics (1e Constantijn Huygenstraat 45, Amsterdam). The fried cauliflower in gochujang is basically the Korean restaurant classic yangnyeom-chikin.

You can substitute the chicken for cauliflower, I’m sure this will work. The recipe below is Maangchi's.

Ingredients:

One cauliflower, taken apart in florets.

For the batter:

½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ cup potato starch
¼ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs (skip for a truly vegan version)
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

For the sauce:

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
⅓ cup ketchup
⅓ cup rice syrup (skip for a less sweet version)
¼ cup gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
corn (or vegetable) oil for frying

For a side dish, pickled radish (chicken-mu), optional

Fry the cauliflower florets coated in the batter in hot oil. Cool down. Mix the ingredients for the sauce on a medium heat. Fry the cauliflower florets for a second time until slightly crunchy. Coat the cauliflower in the sauce, mix well and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Preserved vegetable soup 四川菜汤

I found this recipe on the My taste, his taste blog. Many months ago I bought some Chinese preserved vegetables but didn't find the time to use the vegetables. This soup seemed pretty straightforward. Before you can use the vegetables soak them in water for half an hour and rinse. Cut into 1 cm pieces and set aside. The vegetables are Chinese mustard greens, or jiè cài (芥菜) in Mandarin and gai choy in Cantonese. Pickled they are called haam choy. 四川菜汤 means: Sichuan (四川) vegetable (菜) soup (汤).

The other vegetables you need are a couple of tomatoes, 2 to 3 carrots and a red or green chili. For meat pork spare ribs are perfect. First cook the spare ribs for a minute in boiling water, drain and rinse. Cut the spare ribs in separate pieces. See below.

Add 2 liters water to a pot, add the preserved vegetable, carrots and tomatoes and boil. Add the ribs and simmer for half an hour. Add the chili and crushed white pepper (black will do as well) and simmer for another half hour. Since the preserved vegetables are salty wait until the last moment to adjust for salt.

You can keep this soup in the fridge for many days.

Bodenseefelchen Mandel

This was the third time I visited Friedrichshafen for work. On Saturday evening I treated myself to a Felchenfilet from the Bodensee in Fischerstūble, seemingly owned by the local fishing club: Angelsportverein Friedrichshafen.

Felchen is just the local name for a fish from the genus Coregonus. Species: Coregonus wartmanni.

The recipe is easy: basically Müllerinart, so rinsed in milk and then dusted with flower. The fish is fried in butter, 3-4 minutes each side. As a final step sliced almonds are browned in added butter.

I choose a local Weisburgunder (Pinot Blanc in France) from Hagnauer Wein vom Bodensee.

Because of my work at the Friedrichshafen Messe I have never seen the Bodensee by daylight.

Bodenseefelchen Mandel.

Friedrichshafen is known for Luftschiffbau Zeppelin and the construction of the famous zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg.

Fladder, vlees- en bloedworst

This is one of my favorite Surinamese street foods and it’s so rare it’s been years since I tasted fladder. Fladder is tripe. The tripe is boiled in stock with spices and herbs in a huge stockpot. Chicken stock can be used as a base with onion, garlic, celery and madame jeanette pepers. Before serving the tripe is sliced and served with blood sausage and white sausage. A spoon of stock will be added and hot pepper sauce.

I bought the fladder below on Dappermarkt Amsterdam in 2017.