Eatery – a house where you eat, but here it feels like a home where you eat. A place with a soul. This little joint is widely known among many, but there are still people who have often walked past here without ever going inside to taste the culinary heritage you'll find here. A bit of a disgrace, really. Go.

Puppy run about the yard

Ricardo, the master behind the eatery, has been active in Amsterdam kitchens since ’78. He once started as an 8-year-old child in Su with poptji patu – he stoked a fire and cooked the vegetables he found in the yard in old rusk tins. And thank God, he has never stopped since. In his eatery Ricardo’s, authentic Surinamese dishes are served. It goes beyond a bara or chicken curry roll here. You will find many Creole dishes and therefore many West African influences, but on Thursdays you can also order good old roti, which in turn represents the Indian (Hindustani) influence on Surinamese cuisine. His porridges (cornmeal porridge, flour porridge and Quaker Oats) are all bestsellers.

Ricardo's popularity is also reflected in the viral video I made with Rinkie Bartels for de Volkskrant:

https://www.facebook.com/volkskrant/videos/vb.132272050127848/659454221150492/?type=2&theater

Never before had a Mooncake video had so many views. 232,000.

And even earlier still, in Sep ’17, I interviewed the king of maize porridge for my column on BNR Nieuwsradio. You can listen to that here Back.

A fusion of the heavens

I still find Surinamese cuisine a fun one, and very sociable too! Influences from all over, yet united. Javanese, Chinese, Surinamese, West African, Jewish, Dutch, everything. And together those influences form a heavenly fusion that I will neva eva turn my back on!

Ricardo serves a few regular dishes every day, such as the bami and nasi with chicken (the chickens fly out of the kitchen there because people just can't stop ordering them), maize porridge and bangbang (a fish dish), and alongside those, there are certain daily specialities on the menu. For instance, he makes various moksi alesi dishes. Moksi morion (with yardlong beans, sopropo, chicken and salted meat – people drive miles for it), masoes moksi alesi (yellow rice coloured with masoes, served with pointed cabbage and salted meat), djarpesi moksi alesi (with tasty beans and chicken), salmon moksi alesi (which is sooooo delicious), bitawirie moksi alesi, and so on and so forth. Moksi alesi is a quintessential Creole dish. It is a one-pot meal that was prepared in Suriname by enslaved people from West Africa using whatever leftovers were available.

Look at him go, the good man:

The master at work.

I'm up for it!!!! I actually want this now. What day is it?! Yardlong beans with cod and salmon collars (from Monday's menu):

Below you can see bitawirie (bitterleaf) moksi alesi (with coconut milk) in the making:

Hot desking

It smells sooo good in that kitchen. Rituals should start making diffuser sticks out of that. And it's really cosy there too, besides. Everywhere you look someone is sitting or standing doing something with food. I secretly want to set up my own workspace at Ricardo's. Close to the kitchen and then write blogs from there, send emails etc. and then eat bami, salmon, chicken, pickles, tamarind juice... Who needs an office?

This is our culinary heritage and we should be grateful for it while it lasts. Because: will the baton be passed on, or will wonderful eateries like this disappear in a few decades?

Soups and stuff

Furthermore, Ricardo makes soups that could win awards in my book. For instance, his cassava soup has managed to secure a spot on my culinary hard drive. Makes it on Fridays. Savoury soup, soft pieces of cassava here and there, and just pure love and delicious, and a comforting soup too. I still need to try the plantain soup and okra soup, looking forward to it! And his heri heri. My ’to eat’ list gets longer by the day. What a life.

Kitchen prep:

Everywhere I looked there was food:

Mountain bami and nasi

Look, pickles:

They make it there themselves and it was probably once adopted from Dutch cuisine or perhaps it comes from Indonesian acar.

Take a look at these little chickens:

They are grilled on one of those BBQ monsters.

Marinades

You want this!!!! And you know it.

This man brutally hacked them to pieces without even blinking once:

Always fun. Men and meat and fire and BBQs.

But there is so much more. You'd better start making a meal plan for what you're going to eat and when, because there's work to be done. Come on people!!! Let’s do this!!!

Sweet and sour red snapper on Saturday:

Ugh….bitter melon stuffed with minced meat:

Sopropo (or bitter melon) is a type of giant cucumber, but with a bitter taste. You have to salt and wash it well before preparing it, otherwise it stays too bitter. Or you just go to Ricardo's; it's delicious there. Well-seasoned and nicely stewed with all sorts of spices.

Bitter melon is supposed to be very good for you. You want superfood? Forget that birdseed and those overpriced berries from distant valleys and eat bitter melon. There is also bitter melon tea, by the way.

Oh, and look, these dumplings. Tomtom they're called – dumplings of cassava and green banana for the peanut soup.

You'd think it had a Javanese influence, that peanut soup? No, it's actually dead Creole.

Just a quick note on the different types of porridge. At Ricardo's you can get maize porridge, flour porridge and Quaker Oats porridge. Made in a way that takes many people back to their childhood. People come to pick up supplies or eat them there as a dessert. And you mustn't miss the biscuits and cakes (cassava and coconut bojo) either. Come on time because they sell fast and when it's gone, it's gone.