Ever since my Deep South Road Trip last autumn, I’ve been searching for soul food in Amsterdam. Or rather, since I haven’t really found any, I’ve been cooking a fair bit of it at home. But on a cold and rainy Monday night I found myself in need of a bit of a heart-to-heart with a friend on the Haarlemmerstraat, and opted for soul food to match.
Harlem’s menu features everything from jerk chicken to jambalaya to nachos. (The nachos are great, btw – I’d had them before and they rivaled the nachos I used to eat at university in Edinburgh for sheer generosity of toppings.) I chose blackened redfish (which tasted like a paler version of salmon) with a mango dressing and jambalaya. The fish-mango combo was excellent, but I think I make a better jambalaya myself. Then again, I thought the same when I was sampling the real deal in New Orleans, so maybe I just don’t know an authentic jambalaya when it smacks me in the mouth.
My friend had the jerk chicken (“jerked chicken” on the menu – I wondered what they’d done to it?!) which tasted much like it had been marinated in barbecue sauce. However, the bits and bobs that accompanied it were far superior: black-eyed beans with pancetta, mashed pumpkin, fried plantain, grilled corn-on-the-cob, greens… it was a veritable smogasboard of soulful flavours.