This is not your typical café where you come to choose between a latte, a cappuccino, koffie verkeerd, espresso and a million other options. Adem Inn is a concept café at Hoogstraat, Rotterdam, which looks more like a big cozy living room rather than anything else. The idea behind the café is that people come here to take a break from the hustle of the city and the infinite amounts of information that they encounter every day. There is no Wi-Fi and there are plenty of lockers where you can actually lock your devices if you want to take rest from the stream of emails.
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The place is great for reading a book or writing your diary. There is a silent area if you need to concentrate or you just want to spend some time alone. If you don’t like stillness that much you can always find a place in the common area where you can chat with the “hosts of the living room”. They are mostly volunteers, and all of them are happy to make you a cup of coffee as well as listen to your stories and share their own experiences. Because Adem Inn is more of a social project the menu is simple and small. Tea and air press coffee, soup, two types of toasties and a cake for desert. The bread and cake are freshly made in the neighboring Memory Lane.
Adem Inn also hosts events. Every Monday morning there is a mindfulness and meditation session, which starts at 7:50. Once a month there is a “ShutUp & Write” session, where different people gather and write, drawing motivation from each other. For one hour Adem Inn becomes a temple of concentration. You can find more events on their website.
Whether you are looking for inspiration, you want to get unplugged, or you simply want a place to enjoy good coffee and a chat with your friend, Adem Inn is worth dropping by.
Every year in the beginning of March a festival called Maslenitsa takes place in Russia. It is a Slavic holiday that is celebrated during the week before the Great Lent. It also marks the end of winter and the coming of spring. Usually different festive activities are organized throughout the week to celebrate the holiday. The other main attribute of the festival is a straw dummy which symbolizes winter. On Sunday the dummy is burnt to signify its end. Considering that winter can last from mid-October till late March it’s not surprising that people would try everything possible to make the spring come faster. The traditional food that people eat during this time is blini (pancakes), lots of them.
This year I was home in Moscow for the whole Maslenitsa week. Surprisingly enough, the weather really was spring-like for most of the time I was there. I was totally not prepared for such turn of events. I had to improvise and wear my old summer sneakers. Now the weather in Moscow is back to normal and the forecast says it’s going to be -10 over the weekend. Anyway, during Maslenitsa we got together with my grandparents and my aunt cooked amazing pancakes. You could definitively say she mastered the art of making blini. I guess after you’ve made 300 of them using three frying pans simultaneously it comes as no surprise.
We had all the toppings you could wish for. Sour cream is big in Russian cuisine in general, and I can’t imagine pancakes without it. I prefer it with combination of something sweet, like jam or condensed milk. If I had to choose just one topping for pancakes this would be the combination of condensed milk and sour cream.
Blini with sour cream and condensed milk
Blini with sour cream and jam
Blini with red caviar
Apart from the sweet stuff we also had savory toppings. Another thing that comes together with blini is caviar. The supply of caviar is far superior in Moscow to what we have in Rotterdam. I think even Rotterdam cinema club members would really enjoy this one. We also had white and red smoked fish. This was new to me and turned out to be incredibly tasty. It is really difficult to go wrong with pancakes though.
But blini are dangerous. We were all very hungry when we finally gathered around the table, so the food was gone in no time. Considering the consumed amount of pancakes though, I think I can go another year without them. However, knowing myself I cannot make this promise.
My study program is highly international and I have friends from all over the world. It is fun to learn about different cultures and of course to try different cuisines. My friends organized a cinema club where we watch movies from different countries and eat some food which is traditional of that country. Last time it was my turn to organize a Russian movie night.
There are many great Russian dishes I could have gone for but I wanted something super quick and simple to make. I decided to introduce my friends to Russian “sandwiches”. It is called бутерброд in Russian (from German “butterbrot”- buttered bread). The main difference compared to a regular sandwich is that to make butterbrot you need just one piece of bread. There are numerous toppings you could go for but I settled on two very different common types of butterbrot. The first one is very basic with traditional bologna and cheese. This is the sandwich you would eat every day. The second is a traditional appetizer with caviar that is usually served at family gatherings and festive dinner tables. As you can guess from the name the true butterbrot should be made with butter.
Butterbrot with Doktorskaya bolgna (“kolbasa”) and cheese
One of the traditional types of bread in Russia is Borodinsky bread which is rye sourdough bread spiced with coriander and molasses. The bread is dark in color and has a very rich taste. This is the bread I used to make the “everyday” butterbrot with cheese and Doktorskaya bologna (“kolbasa”). It is a traditional sausage which was first introduced in USSR. This one is super simple – butter the bread, put the cheese and then top with bologna. This is the taste of childhood for many Russians.
For the second type of butterbrot I chose white baguette. Red caviar has a very strong taste and is enjoyed best in small quantities. The high price is probably another reason why caviar is something you would usually find at a festive table and rarely eat every day. The classic combination for this appetizer is small piece of buttered white bread topped with a teaspoon of caviar.
Butterbrot with red caviar
To make the Russian night complete we had a traditional beverage called kvas. It is made by fermenting bread (usually black or rye) which is what gives the drink its dark color. Due to the fermentation process kvas has a low (0.5%) alcohol content.
Kvas
It was very interesting to see the reaction of my friends. Butterbrot with bologna seemed to be the favorite among everything they tried. It is super simple and less exotic. The caviar had very mixed reactions but everyone agreed that the taste is very strong.
As for the movie, we watched the soviet classic “The Cranes are Flying” from 1957 which won Palme d’Or. All in all, the Russian movie night was a success!
Burgers have been a trend in the food industry for what seems like a couple of years now. In Rotterdam, restaurants where you can enjoy this messy treat are to be found on every corner. I know for sure that the same is happening in Moscow. What about other cities? You have to tell me, maybe it’s a burger epidemic.
There has been a lot of talk about this one. In 2014 Ter Marsch & Co. had won the title “Best burger Rotterdam” for their “Ter Marsch Grande” and in 2015 another burger from the menu, “De Burgeresse”, was titled best in the Netherlands. With all the hype around it, I was curious whether it was as good as people said.
The Food
Funny enough, I first heard of this place from a university professor who was rather impressed with the “best burger Nederland”. The professor is an American and a self-proclaimed foodie so he seemed like a person whose opinion you could trust. First time I went to Ter Marsch, I had to go for the burger that was making all the hype. I am not a burger expert but I have to say this is a good one. The tastes of the ingredients blend together and create a perfect balance between sweet and sour. The bread is fresh, soft enough of the inside and slightly crunchy on the outside. To have the full “burger experience” we ordered fries on the side which came with amazing truffle mayo. The only downside is that once a burger gets such a title. its price starts biting (especially for the student budget). A side note: the smaller portion of “De Burgeresse” is called “Lady Burger”. Was there really a need to call it that instead of just naming the portion sizes normal and big, for example?
“De Burgeresse” – “Best burger Nederalnd 2015”
Second time I opted for the other”titled” dish and tried best burger Rotterdam. This was quite a disappointment. The bread was different and it was too crumbly. The texture resembled that of croutons which you would eat with a bowl of soup. The onion was not cooked enough. In my opinion, the onion in a burger should be very soft and tender so that its taste blends with other ingredients. In “Ter Marsch Grande” the onion was too “fresh” so it stood out from the overall ensemble of tastes. The meat was well done and delicious though. And the already mentioned mayo was incredible – in this case it was also inside the burger itself. Overall, there was nothing special about “Ter Marsch Grande”. Home-made burgers beat this one easily.
“Ter Marsch Grande” – ” Best burger Rotterdam 2014″
Atmosphere and service
The place is incredibly tiny and always full of people. If you are lucky enough to get a table on the “second floor” (not an actual floor, more like a balcony, but let’s call it that anyway), you have to keep your elbows to your sides. The most difficult thing, however, is trying not to sneak up on a conversation at the next table. The problem is that it is so close to yours that you might (without even wanting to) find out some random couple’s summer vacation plans. As for the service, the waiters both times were nice and friendly but we had to wait for the food for quite some time before we were finally able to make a total mess with all the crumbling bread. But this is typical for most of restaurants and cafes in the Netherlands.
Here people in general do not rush to take your order or even provide you with a menu. They take their time and give you all the time you might need to choose what you want to spend your money on. For someone who is used to the fast-paced service which is a norm in Moscow, this can be quite frustrating. On the other hand, maybe this is one of the reasons people in the Netherlands are among the happiest in the world. They do not rush and take their time to enjoy the process.
For Christmas holidays last year I went to a ski resort in Austria called Flachau, not far from Salzburg. This was my second time in Austria, however, during my first trip I did not explore the national cuisine that much for some reason. So when I was preparing to leave for Austria last December I decided to be more prepared and did some research on what I would like to try. Of course, there is the Wiener Schnitzel, but I think this dish is overrated – the meat is so thin that you can barely taste it. The main thing you are eating is the breaded coating. I am a sucker for baked goods and apple strudel is probably one of my favourite pastries. So I was looking forward to trying it in the “place of origin”. Interestingly enough, the best apple strudel I have tried so far was in de Bijenkorf (Dutch department store chain). The Dutch are known for their love of apple pies so generally you can trust them when it comes to apples and deserts. In this post I will share my opinion about the two dishes that I had never heard of before this holiday: the main dish called Tiroler Gröstl and a desert called Germknödl.
Tiroler Gröstl
This dish is definitely one of the best things I had tried during the whole trip. This is an example of a typical dish skiers get for lunch in Austrian Alps. It is filling and gives you energy to keep riding the slopes until the last lift. The dish is made with simplest possible ingredients which is probably what makes it so great. Essentially, it is fried potatoes with pieces of bacon and onion cooked in a pan. Traditionally it is served with a fried egg on top. As you can see from the picture, mine was served directly in the frying pan.
It was an amazing day, my friend and I had been exploring the slopes on the other side of the mountain. We found this café which had an amazing view over the valley beneath. This is the kind of experience that gives skiing trips their special charm. You are tired and hungry, sitting on a bench surrounded by similarly tired and hungry people from all over the world (mostly Austrians and Germans though and quite a few Dutch people as well). The sun reflects from the snow on the slopes and makes it feel so warm it might as well be spring. The view from the terrace highlights both the peacefulness of the Austrian valleys and the majesty of the Alps visible in the horizon.
When our food is served, the potatoes are still sizzling in the pan as it has been taken off the stove a minute ago. The simplicity of the ingredients and the rustic pan bring associations of home-cooked dinners at my grandma’s house. The potatoes are crispy on the outside and firm on the inside – this might be the best thing ever. The bacon and fried onion add to the incredible smell of the dish which makes us even hungrier. There is not much left to add. This was truly one of the best meals of the vacation.
Germknödl
“Knödl” is traditional for Austrian cuisine. In English menus it is typically translated as “dumpling”, which in my opinion is not the best description. I did not expect much of this desert and wanted to try it only because of the way it looks. Germknödl is a steamed yeast dumpling with jam inside, served with vanilla sauce and poppy seeds on top. Mine was with raspberry jam in the middle. As I got to that part, it became way too sweet to eat it. The dough itself did not have a very strong taste, although in combination with the vanilla sauce and poppy seeds it was quite nice. Overall I was not too impressed, but I am happy I tried it. It is probably the funkiest-looking desert I have seen so far. I think if you cook germknödl at home and use a homemade marmalade instead of the store-bought jam, this would make it 100% better.
I love food. I love to eat food, I love to cook food and I love to talk about food. And apparently talking about food is something I do rather well. Some of my friends get really annoyed from time to time when I start describing a new dish I have tried or when I find a new way of cooking something. At the end of the story all of us are salivating and craving food. Although they enjoy my stories, I understand why they would rather have me talk about something non-food related for a change. Unfortunately for them though, I’ve created this place so that I can share my thoughts and experiences in another format but still on the same topic.
I love trying new food and exploring new interesting places. Initially, I thought I would just write the reviews of cafes and restaurants that I visit in the city I live in (more on that in a bit). Then I thought that in order to keep posting reviews I would end up spending way too much money on eating out. Maybe one day I will reach a point when I will get food in restaurants free but I am getting way ahead of myself here. Back to the point – I decided that next to the restaurant reviews, I could also review the recipes that I use to cook at home. I am not the person who creates her own recipes from scratch (not yet at least). What I tend to do a lot is getting lost in the tons of blogs and sources when I am looking for interesting dish I want to try. My cooking bookmarks folder is a total nightmare – I should really clean it up at some point. Even when I try to follow a certain recipe, I tend to change the little things here and there. In the end, the result can differ from original recipe quite a bit. So I will try to reflect on what I actually end up cooking and whether I like it or not.
Currently I live in Rotterdam, the Netherlands as I am studying at university here. Rotterdam is the second biggest city after Amsterdam. I have to admit, it is an awesome city to live in. There are plenty of cozy café’s to explore and new ones are constantly opening up. I have been here for 4 years now and I am constantly finding new things I like about the city. The only thing that sucks is the weather. The Dutch weather in general is not something you’d get excited about. But I feel like Rotterdam can get very depressing. On the bright side though, I think I have learned to appreciate the sunny days more since I have moved here. You learn to find joy in little things.
Anyway, now that I am done with explaining what this is all about, it is time to get things cooking!
P.S. Oh, and yes, my profile picture is an Akita dog wearing a cap. Can you get cooler than that?
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