menus

The Last Song

Yesterday I cooked for the last time as chef in the Tankstation kitchen. I had difficulty sleeping last night because of the thoughts and memories running through my mind. I hope to sleep better tonight.

… and I sang this song at the karaoke

’twas an end.

revolutionary

I was happy to realize that the date I chose to cook again was the day before that revolutionary failure from 1605. I decided to work with this as the theme.

I played around with the idea of gunpowder. Gunpowder is explosive so I thought of making a menu that would be explosive in flavour, effect and appearance. Since it was a self-service night I also had to make it fit a plate – it turned out to be a bowl and a plate eventually.

I served a Sólet inspired stew as a time bomb bean stew. The beans were ticking away in the night. The inital plan was to make it out of kidney beans but the huge influx of canned mixed beans meant there were perhaps 8 different beans in the stew! This turned out pretty filling. I heard some comments about it being spicy some while not at all from others.

I served a stuffed green pepper as a grenade. My original plan was to char them on the grill to give the outside the visual appearance of a grenade. However, I was put off by the comment of a volunteer that it would be too much work. I also decided to skip on the layering with a potato lid to minimize the effort. This turned out very well, perhaps taken with a grain of salt.

I am really happy with the pungent salad. There was a comment about kale being unpopular. I know this and I knew that I would still be able to make the salad taste good. Toast it in oil a bit and mix it in with a lot of other flavourful ingredients with a firy dressing and you’ve got yourself a winner.

There were a couple of snack items on the plate – carrot bullets and mushroom landmines. I got several questions for the tahini-molasses paste I used with the carrots. The mushrooms turned out pretty good and I really like the popping of the coriander seeds. However, this was not my intention since I didn’t really pickle them as was my original intention. They were more an Asian stir fry than a pickle.

And for the dessert we had Mangalore buns in Malabi forming a sweet booby trap. The dough for the buns need to ferment really well in order to create that characteristic air pocket. Perhaps I need to try this again when the weather is appropriate for fermentation. However, it was pretty popular. The Malabi was also good and together they formed a good duo.

And before I forget, I also made the revolutionary chili oil! This was such a hit and had some people coming back for more. There is a lot of it left over and will be used generously by all those that like a tingle in their mouth. Shout out to Joshua Weissman for this.

I planned for 70 portions since lately they were having more reservations. Sadly, there were not so many and neither were there enough volunteers. I was left with about 20 of the paprikas and a lot the salad and snacks. However, many of the volunteers were happy to get some free meals to take away. I hope they are eaten.

reduplication

Disclosure: I didn’t name the menu ‘reduplication’. Someone put it on the Tankstation website and perhaps ChatGPT was involved. Out came that the concept I was after is called reduplication in linguistics. Perhaps I should consider the menu I wanted to make long ago under the same concept – ಉದ್ರು ಉದ್ರು ಮುದ್ದೆ ಮುದ್ದೆ.

This was a very relaxed day in the kitchen. We even had a whole hour of rest while everything was brewing away on the stove top.

The bigger issue was however the lack of volunteers this day. Many of those present ended up either in a double shift or essay multiple roles. I burnt 3 slices of gluten free bread because of all the tasks I was handling alone. Samir did an amazing job with the eggs. I was conservative with the Shakshouka sauce and I wish I could’ve stuck with the bigger ladle so as not to have quite so much left over.

It is pretty annoying to cook for 60 people (or fewer than 100). It is much easier to deal with more portions than to estimate for fewer people. But I suppose this is just a sign of the times or that we were fighting for attention from Gogbot and Popronde.

But anyways, you can see the the reduplication visualized on the menu!

balls

It is June and has been a while since this menu happend. I’ll try to remember something of the experience.

The honeycomb cracker was a disaster. A lot of sugar was lost in the process. But I’m thankful to Abhishek’s determination to try to use some of it. He crushed some of the honeycomb into a powder and I dusted it on top of the ice cream. The ice cream was another disaster since it was a hot day. By the time you get to dessert you are pretty much having a creamy milkshake.

The arancini and the salad were a solid hit. Both Marta and Alice, the resident Italians, approved of the arancini

Could’ve served more spinach sauce with the polenta I suppose.

It was not a happy day for the wrists considering how many balls we had to shape and the ice cream scoops had a tough day too!

STUFFED

…and once again after a long break I was back in the kitchen. It is very much true that it takes a village to do just about anything. I am truly indebted to everyone that helped in the kitchen yesterday.

Eve suggested the idea of stuffed. I went with it and figured it would actually be an interesting excercise. Sabich was an easy start since we had been talking about it. It turned out really good.

I still needed something subtantial at the side. I realised it had been a while since I had eaten dolmas. Grape leaf would be interesting, but it is just too small. It had to be an easy-to-handle-yet-large-enough-vegetable and so I decided to go with the green peppers.

I was happy that Semir and Madalina, both of whom are from cultures that make their own dolmas, were there to guide me. I thought it would be possible to cook them in trays in the over with them floating in liquid. They suggested that it is better done the traditional way, in a pot, stacked on top of each other. I agreed to go with they suggestion since we were running low on time and I could be certain that the rice would cook in the pot. But in the process they added just too much water that the end result was a bit different than what I had imagined serving.

The tomato salad was definitely the winner on the plate. People see something pretty and it makes them happy. But it wasn’t easy to eat a whole tomato!

elemental

Yesterday I cooked for the first time since letting go of other responsibilities at Tankstation. It was good to be back in the kitchen; just there and nowhere else. Vegan night is not my preferred moment to cook but I decided to take up the challenge. I even managed to do so without involving tofu!

Kale wasn’t available in the supermarket and had to be replaced by cabbage. Need to keep an eye on the seasonal availability of some ingredients before drawing up the menu.

Beetroot parfait turned out alright. I would still prefer to have it with airy whipped cream.

summer solstice

I finally got to do something about the sun!

I have been appreciating the sun (even more and evermore) since I moved into my house with its wonderful south facing garden. I am very thankful for the year round sunshine that I get to enjoy. When I first heard the idea from Anouk of a solistice celebration, I immediately jumped on the idea. I wrote down the basic idea right there on a post it note. It had to be a 3 course menu and the idea of breakfast – lunch – dinner representing sunrise – midday – sunset came rushing at me. Perhaps it was the yellow post it that nudged me to think about the orange – yellow – red colour family. This was a wonderful creative exercise; unfortunately I’m writing this down almost a year after the event occured and my feelings from the day itself are hard to come by.

schrikkeldag

2024 was a Leap Year. 6Sprong in Enschede organized its leap-regular Schrikkel Festival and Tankstation participated as a location.

I heard something about a tradition for things to be done upside-down or other-way-round on Leap Day. I built the menu on that idea. The menu was 4 courses from 4 different cuisines – Sachlab from Isreal, Bisi Bele Bath (BBB) from Karnataka, a Dutch pear salad and NoMeat Balls from the Swedes. (Kunges Män were playing that night so I threw in a nod to the quintessential IKEAn dish). BBB could have had 29 ingredients but I didn’t bother counting!

ugadi

Updating this in Nov 2025! No idea how this day went. Don’t seem to have photos of the day too. But it did happen. Check out the menu below! And it must’ve been a busy night with 140 portions.

Starter
Masala vada with mango chutney

Main
Rice with Bean palya, kosambri, papad & kaalu gojju

Dessert
Broken wheat pudding

poetry

For ‘Poetry Night’ I wanted to perform through my food. I’d been listening to a lot of hip-hop around the period. There is a lot of emphasis on roots – origins – in the verses. I made a menu based completely on roots. The menu was in rap verse.

Celeriac <in the> Soup
And
Parsnip <is there> Too
With
Garlic <on the> Toast

Leek <in the> Sauce
And
Onion <is a> Jam
With
Potato <as the> Roast

Beets <in the> Dressing
Where
Fennel <is the> Salad
With
Carrots <’n ‘em> Radishes
And
Ginger <for the> Boost

Pinda <as the> Kaas
With
Yam <as the> Baas
Get
People <to the> Proost

Back <to the> Roots

onam sadya

What was I thinking! It is easy to say that it will be cool to prepare ഓണസദ്യ but it is something else to actually execute it. Picking the items to put on the menu was straightforward since most of it had to just boil. Organizing the steps for each dish also worked out well. The part that I expected to be fairly easy was the hardest – the plating. Food that is traditionally served on a banana leaf, while seated, and served by a train of people doesn’t translate easily to a couple of service folks walking around with ceramic plates, and 50 times around! I should apologize to the volunteers that helped that day.

Shoutout to the YouTube channel Cookd for their thorough overview of the recipes.

cypriot

I came back from an inspirational cultural trip of Cyprus in May 2022 and wanted to share those flavours. I was cooking after a very long break and realized I stilled had a lot to learn. Thanks to Samir for a smart idea with the eggs. Salt can be added but not removed. The tahini pie failed mostly because I’m not so good at dealing with a sensitive oven; but watermelons saved the hot day!

indian

This day taught me a lot about trust and leadership. When you trust someone for their experience you do so because you know that they have things under control. However, when you are the captain of the ship you are still responsible for everything that happens aboard. Remember to always taste everything before it leaves the kitchen, even when it is made by your mentor!

dutchman

Transformations are fusions. Becoming a Dutchman was a big day that needed just as big a celebration. I did so by fusing everything I was with everything I was to become. Indian food presented with the Red White Blue of the Dutch flag and Dutch food presented with the Saffron White (Blue) Green of the Indian tricolour.

lockdown delivery

2020! Oh, 2020!
Tankstation had to close its doors following “the great lockdown” made necessary by COVID-19. The kitchen, however, couldn’t close; there were people that depended on it for sustenance or it was the best food they got to eat or they just wanted to show their support. I headed the kitchen one Tuesday to bring some homely Indian food to people’s tables.

beginnings

Video shows the first time I was head chef prepping a 3 course menu for a Tuesday dinner.