In 2008, we posted about Mailing food, an Amsterdam start-up that served stamppot and other food, and now Utrecht is following suit with a new chain of stamppot restaurants, with dreams of conquering New York City in the future. Stamppot to go opened ‘quietly’ on 17 December 2009, but should have a proper grand opening soon. Although stamppot is winter food, they will be open in the summer with summer variants.
For one, I’m thrilled someone is pushing food domestically that many of us here eat, counterbalancing the madness at pushing cheese on Asians in general who are quite lactose-intolerant or pushing the cheese slicer (‘kaasschaaf’) (a Norwegian invention) on Americans as the next best thing since sliced bread (pardon the pun). Although potaotes are South American in origin, smoked sausage is a Dutch invention and that’s what makes the stamppot a great dish.
(Link: zibb.nl, Photo of an endive potato mash with meatless sausage by Jasja Dekker, some rights reserved)