Q&A with Boele de Vries
Boele de Vries is one of the owners of HotMamaHot and Dum Dum Palace on Amsterdam’s Zeedijk.
Which food trend should we stop immediately?
Copying trends. Stop doing everything exactly the same. If you think something is a good idea, use it as inspiration, but don’t copy it literally. It’s really not fair to the people who came up with the idea. Besides, I believe that at some point it simply stops working. The hundredth burger chain selling exactly the same burger with exactly the same sauce adds no value whatsoever.
Most memorable food experience?
The first time I walked into a food court in Singapore. Everything is prepared with great care, without an elaborate concept. Just very, very good fresh food, without pretension or frills. Food culture in Singapore is enormous; everyone there seems to be involved with food. As a result, the quality is astonishing.
Another food experience I will never forget is the first time I ate char siu at New King in Amsterdam. I was 6 or 7 and went there to eat with my father. I can’t explain how delicious it was. I had never tasted anything like it and it blew me away. By now I order other things there too, but for years I never ordered anything other than char siu.
Favorite drink?
Tank 7 beer. We’ve just put it on tap at Dum Dum. It’s brewed by Boulevard Brewing Company. A Belgian-style beer, made in America. I’d describe the flavor as somewhere between pale ale and IPA. It’s dangerous beer: it contains 8.5% alcohol. After three of these, you really have to go home.
Essential kitchen gadget?
A thermoblender, a sort of Magimix with a heating element. It blends four times faster than a Magimix, so you can make a velvety smooth cream out of almost anything. Hummus, for example, is guaranteed to turn out great.
What do you never want to eat again?
Anything whose flavor is determined by companies. So spice mixes, prepackaged sauces and other ready-made crap.
Which country is your favorite when it comes to food?
Can Asia please count as a country just this once? No? Okay, then Singapore. Because there you can eat everything from Asia really well. Taiwanese, Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, Indonesian—it’s all fantastic.
Eating there sounds like a fucking amazing experience. It’s the holy grail among dumpling restaurants.
What should everyone have eaten at least once?
Soup dumplings, also known as xiao long bao. This is a dumpling filled with ground pork and/or shrimp and/or chicken and broth.
To make this dumpling, you use set broth. So you make rich meat broth (for example from pork or chicken bones), reduce it and let it cool until it sets. You finely chop the set broth and mix it into the dumpling filling. When you then steam the dumplings, you have a sort of soup inside a silky smooth dumpling. When you take a bite, heaven opens up. They’re almost impossible to find in Amsterdam. We’re working on them at Dum Dum..
What is the best product from the supermarket?
Beer.
What’s still on your food wish list?
Din Tai Fung, specifically the one in Taipei. Din Tai Fung is a chain with locations throughout Asia, for example in Hong Kong and Bangkok. One of the best ones is in Taipei. This location has a Michelin star. Their specialty is xiao long bao. When you walk in, you see an army of cooks behind a glass wall. They make the most beautiful dumplings. Eating there sounds like a fucking amazing experience. It’s the holy grail among dumpling restaurants.
I usually eat three. Four if I’m unlucky, haha
Which cookbook should everyone have on their shelf?
The Silver Spoon, the Casa Moro series and Dikke van Dam are all excellent. When I cook Asian food, I usually use YouTube. I think the Korean Maangchi is fantastic for basic recipes. I also really enjoy watching good Chinese cooks make things like char siu; I think that’s absolutely brilliant. I learn a lot from it.
What do you like to make at home when you want to eat quickly and well?
When I need to get something on the table very quickly, I often make something with bread. For example, lentils with sausage or bacon, with bread and lettuce. I use fresh sausage from the butcher on the Albert Cuyp and du Puy lentils. Although these days you can actually buy pretty good canned lentils. Manufacturers often cook lentils (and other beans) for a much shorter time. A good trick to check whether you’ve got good lentils is to shake the can; if you can hear individual lentils, it’s great. If all you hear is sloshing, it’s crap.
Which dish makes you lose all self-control?
Good meatballs. I make them myself, following a recipe by Johannes van Dam. I usually eat three. Four if I’m unlucky, haha.
