Every Friday, from tomorrow, I’ll be serving delicious baguettes with pom, spicy bacalhau, sweet and spicy chicken with satay sauce and tempeh for you until 17.00hrs.
In a few weeks I’ll also start serving warm take way meals and your favorite home made ginger beer.
I’m very excited about it and I hope to see all of of you on Friday.
Do come and say hi!
It’s been nearly a year since we moved from Zaandam, a small town near Amsterdam, to London, my favourite city in the world.
It’s been awesome and I’ve grown even more fond of London since living here.
Therefore I thought I wouldn’t be impressed by Amsterdam, when I went back last week. But I was wrong, so wrong, because now I see Amsterdam in a different light. It’s the place where I’ve lived 11 years of my life, the place where I met my husband, where I learned to cook and went to uni, but above all Amsterdam is the place where my friends and family live. The people I love and miss so dearly sometimes.
Amsterdam is my first love (citywise then 
) and will always be.
Amsterdam is also the place where I can find all the ingredients to make my favourite Surinamese dishes and off course I brought loads back to London.
Like my favourite hot kecap manis from Helen which I use to marinade chicken and meat, as a dip sauce or as a basic ingredient when I’m making stir fry dishes.
I ate fresh herring with onions and pickles at the herring stall on Albert Cuyp Market.
On Friday night I had dinner at Indonesian restaurant ‘Kantjil en de Tijger’ in Amsterdam and I’m still dreaming of the bami Kantjil.
And of course I had a Surinamese roti with vegetable and chicken curry, one of my absolute favourite dishes in the world! The best roti is obviously the roti made in Suriname, but Rooprams in Amsterdam is the best roti shop in the Netherlands! I even brought P some roti cause if I didn’t he wouldn’t let me in the house. That’s how crazy he is about this roti.
I bought ginger cheese, my absolute favourite, at famous cheese shop Reypenaers in Amsterdam.
On Saturday I had a food stall on the Dutch Underground Farmers Market in Amsterdam which was absolutely lovely! I met some wonderful new people and I saw all my Twitter friends again.
A lot of them were selling their home made xmas cakes, cookies, raw food truffles, vanilla sea salt, pulled pork wraps, emapanadas, pork and fennel bangers and loads and loads more absolutely delicious stuff!
I was really impressed by famous Dutch foodwriter Gert Jan Groothedde’s margarita ice cream with a salted shortbread cookie and his Xmas eggnog ice cream. It was too good
Off course I took pictures of everyone’s stall but mine, but I had a great evening, wonderful response to my baguettes filled with Pom, pickles and hot sauce, which was sold out by 10.30pm.
I had a great, but very short, 5 days in Amsterdam and I cannot wait to go back. I cried my eyes out when my plane departed.
But I’ll be back in 6 weeks time for an insect dinner party where the main ingredients will be cockroaches, worms and larvae. Yum!
This weekend I was part of the magical and infamous Underground Farmers Market at Ms. Marmitelover’s fabulous Kilburn home.
I had been looking forward to this event for so long and finally the moment arrived for me to introduce London foodies to Suriname’s cuisine.
The UFM was a wonderful foodfest with probably some of the best streetfood London has to offer, delicious cakes and cupcakes, an oysterbar, Paul.A.Young selling his delicious chocolate, booze, music, bonfires and even fireworks! And best of all: I was a part of it!
The response from customers about my food was overwhelming. It’s really the best thing ever to hear from people that they like your food! Hearing from Ms. Marmitelover, Kerstin Rodgers, that she LOVED my vegetable curry almost made me cry! For a girl who lived on takeout whilst studying until she was 22, that is a huge compliment!
I adore Kerstin, she is such an inspiration and I loved her book. And for her to tell me that she thought my food was gorgeous was simply breathtaking. I almost died!
Afterwards it’s funny to hear that so and so blogger or journalist bought my food. Ladies coming up to me on the market asking: ‘Where’s the gingerbeer lady?’, or someone asking me if I would open a restaurant, or if my gingerbeer was available at Tesco. Hilarious no?
You know the thing is, I enjoy cooking. I cook for my husband, family and friends and I’m happy when they enjoy it. But after the UFM I know for sure that I’m going to pursue this dream of a food market stall and have everyone enjoy a taste of what I make. Last weekend’s compliments were a huge boost for me.
On Friday I sold out, on Saturday I didn’t. But that gave me the chance to do food swaps with other stall holders which is one of the exciting pluspoints of being a stall holder.
I drank an unusual tasting Marmite cocktail and Elderflower Champagne, ate delicious roti and other snacks from my UFM neighbours Mauritian Streetfood, pumpkin and toffee apple ice cream from Peck Peck Peck and the most delicious vanilla cheesecake from The Art of Puddings.
There is still a stash of deliciousness in my fridge and cupboard: toffee apple ice cream, cannoli from The Hungry Wolf, Damson ketchup, summer piccalilli, a pumpkin chocolate truffle from Paul.A.Young and Jerk Marinade from Foodstories.
Words fail me to describe the fabulousness of the market I’m afraid, but imagine this:
A two bedroom flat filled with stalls selling cakes/marinades/jewellery/, a kitchen where food demo’s were held, a Dragon’s Den on the balcony, a bar in the bath tub, a shed filled with chocolate and jewellery, a garden smelling of the most delicious food ever, and people chatting, drinking cocktails and eating food everywhere!
After experiencing the UFM there’s two things I know for sure: The English can cook! And they sure know how to party!
And last but not least: A big thank you to Kerstin and everyone who came down to the UFM. You really made my weekend!
Do come by my Surinamese food stall on Ms. Marmitelover’s Underground Farmers Market.
I’ll be selling Pom, Rendang and Soto Ayam, a delicious and heart warming chicken soup. Perfect comfort food for the cold weather outside!
For more info and tickets, click here.
See you there!
I spend my Sunday morning selling bread and dishes from my home country Suriname, in London.
I’m a huge fan of London’s food markets and I’ve always wanted to take part in one, and sell my own home made food.
So that’s just what I did yesterday and although it wasn’t a big market with loads of visitors, it was nice getting out there and worth hearing people telling me how they loved my exotic cooking.
It was a very small market with a group of enthusiasts who enjoy baking, cooking and gardening and wanted to share and sell their home made and home grown goods with others.
I’d love to be on more markets and this was a good place to start!
Yesterday I kept it low key and made some ginger beer and baguettes with sweet kecap manis chicken, spicy cod and pom.
Pomtayer is a root grown in Suriname, similar to cassava. And as far as I know it’s only eaten in Suriname and the Netherlands. A party isn’t a party until there is pom in my home country. I regularly make this delicious oven dish with pomtayer, tomatoes, chicken and spices and the result is pom! Delicious with vegetables and rice, or on a baguette.
The Londoners who tasted pom yesterday found it absolutely lovely, so that’s a good thing cause I’d love for everyone in the UK to eat pom!
Next stop for me market wise is Mrs.Marmitelover’s underground farmers market on the 4th and 5th of November! Do come too, it’s going to be loads of fun. As it is bonfire weekend there will be bonfires, fireworks, food, booze and music. And I’ll be cooking delicious Surinamese dishes, including pom!
And this Wednesday I have an important meeting with a market organiser. Fingers crossed that he likes my food!
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