Harry van den Bergh

Autumn has begun

Chilli oil is great with everything. Vegetables, meat, rice. And although you can find good chilli oil in shops and on markets, it's fun to make it yourself. You can play with ingredients, so this is more or less an idea. Feel free to add or leave out ingredients.

I start with 3 shallots and 5 cloves of garlic. Slice them and cook them in olive oil for about 30 minutes. They need to get a nice, golden brown colour, not too dark. Remove them from the oil, and let them dry on kitchen paper. Keep the oil, you will need it later.

Grind a table spoon of Szechuan pepper, tear 10 dried Szechuan chilli's into pieces, mix them with some grated ginger and a tablespoon of Maldon salt (make it half table spoon if you use another type of salt) Add two tablespoons of Gochugaru (Korean chilli powder) Put these all in a large glass or steel bowl. You need to have some room as you will be adding hot oil. Heat around 400ml of peanut oil to 180 degrees. Add it to the bowl with the spices. When the bubbling stops, add the oil you used for the shallots, a bit of sesame oil and a bit of soy sauce. Let it cool down, and add the shallots and garlic to the mix.

I think we all agree the power of TikTok is the algorithm. One way or the other it dishes up the right content without the need for following a lot of people or other ways of letting it know what you want to see. The question is what will change when TikTok is going to be split into a US version and a "rest of the world" version.

The US government decided to ban TikTok. An initiative of Trump during his first presidency, which was executed by Biden, and should have come into effect in early 2025. For a few weeks the TikTok app was not available in the app stores, but then Trump decided to delay the execution, and buy time to get a deal on making TikTok in the US becoming less dependent on China, as Bytedance, the mother company of TikTok is a Chinese company.

It seems US government is worried about all the data a Chinese company, and thereby the Chinese government can gather about the behaviour of US citizens. As there might be more efficient ways to gather information than using a social media app, it is basically what Meta has been doing for years with their Facebook and Instagram apps. Which seems less worrying to a lot of people. But when the buyers of the US TikTok will be the friends of Trump (like Larry Ellison, Rupert Murdoch and Marc Andreessen) it is creating a similar situation, however with the US government involved instead of the Chinese government.

But the question is, will a split off work? The details of the deal are not yet known, so there are many questions. Will US TikTok be able to use the original algorithm and will it be maintained? Or will it just get the brand and the subscribers? Will TikTok videos from the rest of the world be visible in the US? Or will it just be US videos? And how will it be moderated? Will people need to download a new TikTok app and register again? All these things can be a disruption and make TikTok US into becoming the next MySpace. In the meantime Meta is fully invested into making Reels the new TikTok. And professional content creators in the US might prefer the global audience of Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts to the uncertainty of a US only TikTok.

And while the deal is not done and the details are not known, this is a good time to do some predictions. Or you might call it speculations. My prediction is that the split of TikTok will be a failure. I think the Chinese government will approve the split-off. Probably in exchange for some trade deals that brings them more than losing a US audience for TikTok. TikTok US will not really get off the ground, and lose both subscribers and content creators. And will maybe become a far-right promotion machine, just like X. In the meantime TikTok will remain to be the most popular social media app in the rest of the world. And in the US Meta will benefit from the downfall.

Let's see what happens in the next few months, I am very curious to see how the TikTok story develops.

This summer, right before going on vacation, I was looking into what to read while travelling. I came across an article in a newspaper about the growing popularity of cosy-fiction. Books from Korea and Japan with a slow pace and not a lot of action.

The way it was described made me think of lo-fi music. I like to listen to the the lo-fi girl & chillhop playlists. Music that slowly progresses, great as a background while working. Enjoyable, but not requiring too much attention. That was kind of what I had in mind for vacation reading. I ended up reading four books from that category, and it was definitely very relaxing. Even though there might not be happening a lot in these books, the conversations and personages are pulling you into reading. It's rare I read so many books in a short timespan. These are the books I have been reading:

Welcome to Hyunam-Dong bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. This seems to be the classic in the genre. A book about someone starting a bookshop in Seoul after a burn-out in a corporate job. All people visiting the bookshop (or ending up working in the bookshop) seem to come from a difficult position and are gradually finding their spot. In the end all characters have developed, and have grown to be in a better place. And that's why reading this felt really good. Like listening to lo-fi music.

Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. This is the story of a small coffee shop and the people visiting it or working there. The main theme is around the possibility to travel back to the past. In order to do so, you need to sit on a specific chair (which is occupied by a ghost most of the time) and drink a special coffee. And you must return before that coffee gets cold. Sounds bizarre? The strength of the book is that these things are treated as completely normal. Which makes it fun to read.

Days at Morisaka bookshop by Satoshi Yagasawa. This story about a girl who's life completely changed when her boyfriend decided to marry another girl. She quits her job, and found a room in the second hand bookshop of her uncle. After a while she finds fascination for literature, and picks up her life again. I have seen people describe the book as 'feels like a hug' and I can completely understand. Definitely a great feel-good vacation read.

What you are looking for is in the library by Michiko Aoyama. This book has five stories about people struggling with their lives. One way or another they all end up visiting a library in a community house in their neighbourhood. In addition to the books they are looking for, the librarian adds an advice for a book that doesn't seem to relate to what they were looking for, but end up being life-changing for them.

Books and coffee seem to be the repeating theme in these books. So my suggestion would be to grab one of these titles, get your favourite coffee and start reading. And maybe listen to a nice lo-fi playlist in the background.

castro.fm/episode/N1wWm1

Listened to this podcast, and it made me look into Medium again.

Most interesting was the focus on subject matter experts. If you write only 2 articles in 5 years that's fine with Medium. With platforms like Substack you need to write a lot to make sure your subscribers keep paying.

The business model is more around readers willing to pay for content (which can come from a large group of writers) than for a single contributor.

Last holiday we went cycling in Germany. We have spent most time in the Berlin area with our camper at the campsite "Am Mahlower See" about 18km from the city centre.

We noticed Berlin is a great city for cycling. First of all we could take our bikes on the train from the campsite area to the city centre. This means we did not have to bike the same route every time. Berlin has a large number of cycle roads, and although traffic is busy in Berlin, cars in general give a lot of room to the bikes. We ended up cycling more that 250km in and around Berlin, and we were never in a situation where we didn't feel safe.

The fun thing about biking in a large city like Berlin is you can easily go from one area to the other much faster than when walking around. A restaurant 7km away? A great coffee spot 8km from where you are? You will be there in no time on the bike.

Home made naan breads being baked in the pizza oven

Made this bread with the ‘5 minute Naan’ recipe from Indian Kitchen by Maunika Gowardhan

Interesting backgrounds on the rising coffee prices and the rise of other beans than Arabica or Robusta

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002cf3c

Rotterdam is absolutely my favorite city in The Netherlands. With its modern architecture and special events. These days they have the rooftop days, where you can visit a number of roofs. From one of the roofs they created this 100 meter slide, and we went down the slide today

The season for white asparagus is short. A good reason to pickle them to eat later in the year.

I brought a liter of white wine and a liter of vinegar together with half a liter water and 200 grams to a boil. Added some turmeric and black peppercorns. Peeled the asparagus, and poured the liquid over the asparagus. Now let’s see how they taste in autumn.

Yesterday at a restaurant we had a dish of duck with jellyfish. I liked the dish, and even though the jelly fish does not have a lot of taste, it definitely adds to the mouthfeel of the dish. So today I picked up a bag of jellyfish in the Asian food shop to try and create a dish with it at home. #jellyfish #cooking

A bit rainy, but still a great walk from IJsselstein to Utrecht.

When we moved to our new house last year we were very happy with a small workspace (actually an old silversmith atelier) in the back of our garden. Looking at the old wall (the house is built in 1894) we were thinking this is the perfect place for a real pizza oven.

Initial thoughts were on a clay oven. But these weight over a 1000kg, and were too large to get into our garden. So we decided for a metal oven. Which according to a lot of people is way more practical, has better isolation and can be fired much faster.

We choose the Clementi Mondo, and this is definitely a great oven. In about 20 minutes I can get the oven to almost 400 degrees Celsius and can start baking pizza. At the same time the oven is also great for baking bread, grilling meat or vegetables. So it is also a replacement for a BBQ. 

With summer starting, can’t wait to try out a lot of recipes and make some great (sourdough) pizza.

Lugma is the book from Noor Murad, who worked at the test kitchen of Ottolenghi, and was co-writer if some of his books. In Lugma she shared recipes from her heritage country Bahrain. A wonderful collection of recipes, one of those books where you want immediately start cooking all of the recipes.

First dishes I made from the book where herb fritters and mango pickles with yoghurt. Especially the mango pickle dish was really surprising, a dish I will definitely cook more often.

A mix made with DJ Studio and LumaFusion

Kubaneh is a bread from the middle-east. You basically make it with a base bread dough. You role out the dough, and sprinkle it with a good amount of melted butter. Then you cut stripes of dough and wind them around your finger, in a form that's almost like a rose.

Put all these roses in a mould, and bake it in the oven. I got my recipe from the book of the Paris restaurant called Yalla that serves this bread.

One of the best books I have bought recently is SIFT by Nicola Lamb. It's a fantastic combination of explaining the what and how of baking and some great recipes. If you want to know more about why things rise, what the effect of sugar is or cream, then this is a great read. It will help you understand a lot about the complex processes that take place when baking a bread or a cake.

There are some great recipes in the book. Some easy, some more elaborate. Below a few pictures of dishes I made. The tomato and fennel tarte tatin is so delicious. And everybody loves the brie brioches with grapes. Both were finished before I could make a picture. And I really enjoyed making the canelés. But most proud I was of my "Tarte aux Fruites"

Falafal is one of my favourite vegetarian dishes. I live in The Netherlands, and the best falafal in our country can be found at Falafval They can be found at the farmers market in Rotterdam (Rotterdamse Oogstmarkt) and on events in the area.

They make falafal from the cutting-waste of vegetables from a number of restaurants. Their falafal is served with Amba (a sauce based on mango) together with preserved mini-aubergines (see picture of can below) My home-made falafal is not as good as theirs, but still a great thing to make at home.

The secret of falafal is dried chickpeas (or dried broadbeans) soaked in water overnight, but not cooked. So do not use canned chickpeas. The falafal on the picture above is made from a mix of dried chickpeas and broad beans soaked overnight.

I grind them coarsely in the kitchen-machine and mix them with some onions, persil and other herbs or vegetables. A little salt, some chickpea flour as well as ground coriander and cumin can be added. Or even some green chili. I do add a spoon of baking powder.

From this mix I make little balls or actually more like dishes, as I do have a very handy falafal-maker. I put them on a sheet of baking paper into the freezer fro a few hours. That makes them easier to handle, and they do not fall apart when deep-frying.

Preparing is simple, just deep-fry for a few minutes until golden-brown.

Served with Amba sauce (or tahini sauce) and some canned aubergine makes it a delicious dish or apetizer.

This is a beautiful book about the history of the Chinese community in Rotterdam, it's only available in Dutch Even if you do not read Dutch, the pictures are worthwhile.

The story is built around a Chinese family in Rotterdam with so many interesting background stories. I can absolutely recommend Rotterdam Chinatown if you are interested in the Chinese community and the city of Rotterdam.