Did you know that this is the most delicious time in Rotterdam’s history to be alive? From dumplings to spicy pastechi, the famous Dynamite sandwich, and Fernandes ice cream, Rotterdam has it all.
The city has never tasted so indulgent and diverse. At the Mooncake Lunch Pop-up at Plein, we celebrate just that. Every eight weeks, a different food culture from the city takes centre stage. Sometimes it’s a cuisine you simply can’t overlook in Rotterdam, like Chinese or Caribbean, and other times it’s rare flavours, such as Kazakh. Each chef brings a story, memories, and pride to your plate.
Slavic, Tatar and Ashkenazi comfort food from the post-Soviet kitchen table by chef Sabina
This winter, chef Sabina brings the comforting flavours of her Slavic, Tatar, and Ashkenazi roots to Plein. A Slavic-based menu is complemented by daily and weekly specials drawn from all her cultural backgrounds.
On the menu are homemade dumplings such as pelmeni with tangy cream and dill and vareniki filled with potato and melted butter. You’ll also find fresh salads, nourishing soups, and indulgent desserts like kartoshka: chocolate biscuits shaped like potatoes.
Rotterdam: a home for hundreds of cultures
Rotterdam is a city of hundreds of cultures and backgrounds. Some are visible and almost inseparable from the city: for Caribbean, Cape Verdean, Chinese, or Portuguese food, the Netherlands leads you to Rotterdam. At the same time, many cultures remain largely invisible in the streets. Not in restaurants, not in shops, but behind the city’s doors, where kitchens cook for family and friends and rarely find a public stage.
That’s what makes tasting Sabina’s food at Fenix so special. Her cuisine is rooted in Slavic, Tatar, and Ashkenazi traditions: a combination that shows how personal and layered food culture can be. In a city where few people fit neatly into one box, this edition of the Mooncake Lunch Pop-up feels distinctly Rotterdam.
Sabina. photo: Renée de Laat
The roots of Chef Sabina
Sabina comes from a family with Tatar, Jewish-Ashkenazi, and Ukrainian roots and was born in Moscow herself. Tatars are an ethnic group from Russia and other former Soviet countries, such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine. The cuisine is dough-heavy, with pastries, plenty of meat and fat (and therefore flavour!), fermented foods (for strong immunity), and honey-sweet desserts.
In Sabina’s family, the Ashkenazi kitchen serves as a lighter counterpart: Eastern and Central European dishes with more vegetables, as well as hearty soups and stews. A well-balanced marriage of flavours.
Grandma’s pelmeni and a suitcase full of kartoshka
As a child, after a cold day at school, Sabina would return home to a table full of homemade dishes from her grandmother. A favourite was pelmeni: dumplings filled with meat and tangy cream. In her homeland, meals are warm three times a day, taken slowly, with time to reset and enjoy good food. Long winters mean plenty of fermentation: cabbage, tomatoes, garlic, and cucumbers.
After her studies, Sabina moved to Rotterdam for love. She met her Rotterdam-based husband in Turkey. What she appreciates most about food in Rotterdam is the mix of nationalities. When you go for Chinese or Japanese cuisine, it’s often cooked by people with roots in those kitchens, making the city perfect for experiencing a variety of food cultures.
She often stocks up on her culinary favourites at Eastern European supermarkets in the city, but not everything is available. So now and then, Sabina brings a large suitcase of kartoshka, compact cocoa and biscuit cakes back to Rotterdam.
kartoshka. Photo: Renée de Laat
About Mooncake
Mooncake.nl is the platform of food journalist and writer Jonneke de Zeeuw. She celebrates the flavours of the street, the city and the world – and shines a light on food cultures and the stories behind them through videos, TV segments, books, essays and articles. Her work reveals just how rich, surprising and super-diverse the culinary landscape of the Netherlands has become.
Mooncake's Jonneke de Zeeuw © Mitchell van Voorbergen
