Restaurant Rijsel in Amsterdam is always packed, not just because of their excellent service, heavenly wine selection, and famous baked potatoes, but most of all because of their delicious Russian potato salad, which you can order as a starter. This lowly salad is everyone’s guilty pleasure. When buying it at a gas station many of us tend to obscure our container of Russian potato salad with a newspaper and a bottle of mineral water. But in this restaurant you can be up front about it.

Now, I’m going to flat-out profess my love for the Russian salad. Of course it traditionally contains cold meat stew or ham, but since we want to keep everyone at the table happy, I will omit the meat here. Just as delicious. In the end it’s all about the generous dollop of home made mayo.

Thanks to Chef Iwan, who decided to place this salad on the menu, and told me that it quite simply is a top dish that should be a staple on every holiday dinner table.