Tiger of many stripes - International Film Festival Rotterdam

mieke’s tips
Haven’t left De Doelen in ten days? All filmed out? Here’s local celebrity Mieke van der
Linden’s tips on what to do this weekend in Rotterdam. For addresses and Mieke’s best
restaurant guide, please see Mieke’s tips on the English section of the IFFR webite at:
www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com
Witte de Withstraat
Rumour has it that the new IFFR offices
will open next festival on Witte
de Withstraat, in the building of the
National Photo Museum, which will
move to the South Bank, to the Las
Palmas building.
Witte de Withstraat used to be a street
full of bad discos, sleazy bars and cafés.
Not any more! Take a stroll starting
from the Museum Park and you will be
surprised by the number of interesting
shops, galleries and restaurants. It may
sound like total gentrification has taken
place in this one-time dodgy street. Not
so! You can still eat and hang out till the
early morning in Café De Witte Aap (no.
78), for instance; old journalists haunt
De Schouw (no. 80); head to Bar P (no.
96) for cocktails and hit the De Nacht
Chinees for late-night noodles and fun.
Some great shops have also opened here
in the last few years. For great Dutch
designer shoes try Dorine Christ (no. 77a)
and Betsy Palmer (no. 9a). Breek-Baar
deals in glass and porcelain (no. 68a). An
old favourite with both housewives and
gay interior decorators is Dirkx for overthe-top
decor. You can find the ultimate
Food, glorious food!
Tired of all that healthy veggie
grub on offer at various IFFR locations?
Why not do a little bit of
slumming in the land of junk food?
Holland is famous for its very
weird snacks and great variety.
Stroll to the king of snacks and
fries, Bram Ladage, opposite IFFR’s
HQ De Doelen and order as the
people from Rotterdam do.
Take the berenklauw(bear claw),
for instance, which consists of
More food
deep-fried sliced meatball, onion
rings, and (sometimes) pineapple
on a stick, liberally drenched in
peanut sauce, of course.
Leave it to the Dutch to create
their own gigantic version of the
Asian spring roll, the loempia. Ask
for the kip loempia and add lots of
sambal (hot pepper sauce).
Or how about the bamihap? This
basically consists of a lump of
deep-fried bami goreng, an In-
What if you want to eat real food, made by real chefs?
Rotterdam is blessed with some really good restaurants.
Here are some of my favourites:
Best pizza
Angelo Betti, Schiekade 6A
Famous for its interior and the lovely Betti family; but
most of all because of the pizzas. The pizzeria was recently
taken over by Bruno Guntolli, film school graduate
in production design and regular guest in IFFR’s Wilfried
de Jong’s Late Show.
Best Chinese
Asian Glories, Leeuwenstraat 15
Here the lovely Jenny Fan Loh takes care of the front of
the house and husband Shun Po Fan is the boss in the
kitchen.
Try the duck wrapped in pancakes with cucumber, spring
onions and plum sauce. Best dim sum in town. Something
that Hong Kong star Jacky Chan discovered when he was
making a film in Rotterdam! He became a regular.
Best French brasserie food
Louis, Nieuwe Binnenweg 151
Proprietress Geertje has recently opened this classic
brasserie. She has put evergreens such as oeuf mayonnaise,
onion soup and pepper steak on the menu. Within
weeks it’s become a great favourite with people who
want to go back to basics, food-wise. No reservations
possible. Just turn up around 18:30 and you’re in!
Best lunch
Nostra, Van Oldenbarneveldtstraat 127a
Run by a few handsome gay guys, this place is always
busy at lunch time. Not surprising once you’ve sampled
their wild spinach salad or club sandwich. They also serve
special teas at your request with cakes, scones, jam and
clotted cream. Mmm!
And if you really want to splash out
- Zeezout for great fish, Westerkade 11B
- Zwetheul for starry Michelin heaven, Rotterdamseweg
480
- De Engel for tv chef Herman den Blijker’s famous truffle
soup, Eendrachtsweg 19
- La Vilette for trying, West Blaak 160
in power lingerie at Marlies Dekkers’
flagship store (no. 2). Sometimes you can
catch the designer having coffee at The
Bazar (no. 16), the hotel/restaurant all
Rotterdammers love.
More good food and great ambiance can
be found at Restaurant Oliva (no. 15a),
they serve great, imaginative Italian
nosh, and if you’re worried about the
Middle East why not try the Bagel Bakery
(Schilderstraat 57a) where Jewish and
Arab dishes are served in harmony.
See Mieke’s tips online for more details.
donisian noodle classic. The hotter
the better.
Holland being the land of cheese,
the kaassoufflé definitely deserve
a place on this list of faves. A
piece of Gouda cheese wrapped
in dough gets thrown into hot oil
until the cheese has melted. Most
Dutchies add mustard or peanut
sauce.
Recently a new multi-culti snack
has come onto the scene through
One of the best street
markets in Holland is
right here in Rotterdam.
Every Tuesday and
Saturday, people flock to
the Centrummarkt in the
heart of Rotterdam. You
can easily spend a day
there without getting
bored.
A good start is the flea
market at De Meent.
This is where you find a
mix of antiques, books
and stuff that has fallen
off a truck. Don’t miss
Cynthia’s dead cheap
vintage clothing stall or
the guy with beautiful
Every festival it’s the
same old song. Halfway
through, visitors become
tired of all those films,
people and alcohol-filled
late nights.
One of the best ways to
get things into perspective
again is to spend
some time at the remarkable
Rotterdam Zoo
Blijdorp.
Designed by architect
Sybold van Ravensteyn
after the old zoo was hit
by German bombs in May
1940, Blijdorp is a great
favourite with the people
of Rotterdam.
The beauty of the architecture
of Diergaarde
Blijdorp has not gone unnoticed
by IFFR regulars:
Peter Greenaway’s film A
ZED AND TWO NOUGHTS
antique silverware.
Now move on to the
regular market, toward
Station Blaak, and you
will get caught up in a
mix of Chinese, Polish,
Suriname, Pakistani,
Turkish, Moroccan and
Dutch voices and products:
clothes, fruit & vegetables,
handbags, fresh
fish, bed linen, flowers,
haberdashery, etc.
After shopping, head to
Mariniersweg 259 for
one of my favourite lunch
places: Proef! This lovely
place is run by food-designer
Marije Vogelzang.
was set there, and the
old Riviera Hall on the
Blijdorp complex is where
the first director of the
IFFR, Hubert Bals, organised
his film parliament.
But watching the animals
Mieke van der Linden
the Moroccan and
Turkish shoarma
places: it’s called De Kapsalon (the
hairdresser). A cholesterol bomb if
I ever saw one, it’s a medium-sized
mountain of fried shoarma meat,
with a generous helping of fries,
cheese and garlic sauce piled on
top. This is where the Mediterranean
meets the North. Talk about
integration, and in a snackbar no
less!
A day at the market
The Zoo
Go for a Proefplankje
and a great cappuccino.
Best time to stroll back
to De Meent is when the
stall-keepers begin to
pack up. This is the time
they all start playing
their own music, from
Moroccan Rai to Punjabi
pop. Take the vegetable
market next to the flea
market. Towards the end
you will find the pineapple
man, Mr Koedam.
Within 30 seconds he
will cut you a fresh pineapple.
Eat it there and
then.
Mmmmmmmmm!
should be your main
goal if you really want to
unwind. Old favourites of
ours are the wolves, the
very weird looking green
morays at the spectacular
newly built Oceanium,
A bit of retail
therapy...
How about a little shopping after a
morning taking in films? Rotterdam
is a city full of surprises; not the most
glamorous town you can imagine, but
paradise for people who are bored with
Tommy H., Ralph L. and all those other
big brand boys.
Right near the Lantaren/Venster in
the Gouvernestraat, for instance, you
can find Mar’s delightful secondhand
bookstore, De Boekenbuuv. A corner
shop crammed with secondhand books,
comic strips, posters, rock ‘n’ roll Tshirts
and 7” singles by the latest British
bands.
De Boekenbuuv is a real ‘hot spot’ in
the neighbourhood. You will always
find interesting books, talkative customers
and coffee there, and you can
browse for as long as you like. We recently
found Chairman Mao’s Little Red
Book on its shelves for one euro! It also
has great children’s classics, an extensive
foreign section and antique sports
books: and it’s all cheeeeeeaaaaap!!
For opening times,
call 0031 6 24564991.
See Rotterdam’s other Tiger in Blijdorp Zoo Photo: md7
and the cheeky meerkats.
Make sure to use the old
Riviera Hall entrance to
take in Van Ravensteyn’s
style in full. The best
times to go are very early
or late at night. To get
36 th International Film Festival Rotterdam
there, take bus 44 or 49
from Central Station, or
alternatively, walk from
Central Station, Blijdorp
side – it takes about 10
minutes.
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