What’s Eating Amsterdam?
An expedition and convivial dinner developed by Wietske Maas and Matteo Pasquinelli in cooperation with Sher Doruff, Rick Dolphijn, chef Sander Overeinder and diverse others interested in urban gastronomy. What’s Eating Amsterdam? took place at restaurant As, Amsterdam, as part of the Society of Molecules project.
What’s eating Amsterdam? is an experimental convivium that devours the ‘invasive’ yet mostly hidden meat and vegetation of Amsterdam. The hunting and cooking processes bring to light the sporadic lifeworlds of the city’s migratory flora and fauna raising a new politics of consumption.
Throughout April and early May 2009, we went crayfishing and crabbing along Amsterdam’s canals (see Crustacean Canalibilsm). The crustacean catch was then be prepared with the help of cook Sander Overeinder of restaurant As.
The whole process explored and reaped together the (in)visible crustacean and plant-life which can be found in Amsterdam’s dispersed yet intense ecological life-worlds — from the ever ‘invasive species’ of crayfish to anomalous shoots that thrive ‘out of control’ in the interstices of regulated urban space. Both the crustaceans and the plants were sourced from along the canalbelt banks or maritime transport routes such as the Rijnkanaal (Rijn canal) or the Noordzeekanaal (North Sea canal). A fisherman, a fresh water ecologist, an acquatic toxicologist and an urban phytosociologist who studies the relations between different urban-occurring species helped suss-out the safety and edibility of the respective animal and plant species.
This all came together on May 11 2009, when a meal — from swamp bouillabaisse to hawthorn blossom brulée — was prepared and shared between everyone who was partaken in the crab and plant hunt and cook process. Yet aside from the sweetwater flesh and unusual greens, it’s also the social, geographic and survival facts and anecdotes that are the vital ingredients shared in this city foraged meal.
This urban convivium ingests some of the aliments found along Amsterdam’s waterways and in doing so positively disturbs the regulation and urban stratifications of city life in Amsterdam.
Appetite Forever a video by participants Rick Dolphijn and Veridiana Zurita and Digestive Derivatives by Sher Doriff are two documents inspired by the event, published online in Inflexions, Issue 3 – Micropolitics: Exploring Ethico Aesthetics
Hunters, collectors, contributors & cooks:
Piet Ruyter (independent eel fisherman), Hans Visser (gardener, VU Hortus), Sander Overeinder (owner restaurant As & cook), Sher Doruff (artist-researcher-lecturer), Rick Dolphijn (philosopher), Veridiana Zurita (artist), Claud Biemans (botanist), Henriette Waal (public space researcher), Michiel ter Heide (wine merchant), Jeroen Fabius (coordinator MA, choreography Hogeschool voor kunsten, Amsterdam), Rypke Zeilmaker (freelance journalist specialised in biology), Theun Karelse (artist and illustrator, co-founder FoAM lab Amsterdam), Ronald Hoeben (videographer, Foodtube), Iris (host, Restaurant As), Matteo Pasquinelli (Researcher and sous-chef), Wietske Maas (inspirator, amphitryon).