Handcrafted Caorunn Gin from Scotland
26-6-2015
Caorunn Gin from Scotland is a ‘wildly sophisticated Scottish Gin’ by Gin Master Simon Buley who prefers using wild, natural ingredients.
Coarunn Gin
Caorunn Gin (pronounced “ka-roon”) is from the Scottish Highlands and is made at Balmenach Distillery, which main activity is distilling whisky. The distillery was founded in 1824, it has a rich history and has been active for almost three centuries.
What is gin made of?
Caorunn Gin is handcrafted by Simon Buley, using traditional gin botanicals such as juniper, coriander, orange peel, lemon peel, angelica and (Chinese) cassia bark(yes, there are more types of cinnamon!). Caorunn is the Gaelic word for Rowan Berry, one of the five locally foraged botanicals. On top of the Rowans, the gin is infused with Coul Blush Apples, Bog Myrtle, Heather and Dandelion.
Wild foraging
The peculiarity of this gin is the combination of the five ingredients that are locally gathered by the Gin Master and the small batch, handcrafted process in the world’s only working copper berry chamber that was used to make perfume in the 1920’s. Because the people at Caorunn are great lovers of wild ingredients, they also encourage bartenders to go foraging and to collect delicacies in the wild that can be used for handmade cocktail ingredients.
Caorunn & Tonic
Caorunn Gin is perfectly served with Fever Tree tonic water and a slice of red apple to further invigorate Caorunn’ s dry and crisp taste. In Scotland they like it strong, one part Caorunn and one part premium tonic water.
Aspire healthy fat burner at the terrace
24-6-2015
The Aspire soda is a fat burner for everyone that wants a healthy alternative at the terrace.
In general the number of refreshing healthy drinks at a terrace can be counted on one hand. Most soft drinks are loaded with sugar and plain water will soon bore you after a few glasses.
Aspire is a healthy alternative
Recently, there are several terraces that serve a soft drink that is sugar free, contains no calories and even promises to burn body fat. It’s ‘Aspire’, a lightly carbonated canned refreshing drink. The drink contains caffeine and is available in the flavors ‘Cranberry’ and ‘Apple with Acai’. The ingredients increase the metabolism, suppress appetite and the drink claims to accelerate weight loss. For the desired effect the producer recommends drinking two cans per day for two weeks, and to combine the drink with a healthy lifestyle (of course).
Ingredients
With ingredients like guarana (energy), caffeine (energy), green tea extract (increase the immune system), L-carnitine (to stimulate body fat burning) and taurine you will buy yourself a booster and body fat burner that does not cause a sugar dip afterwards. It certainly complements the range of beverages at most of the terraces nowadays, not the least because it tastes nice! The drink is already sold at Hampshire Hotels, SportCity, Mövenpick, Healthcity and Corpus. Have you spotted it somewhere else?
Allergens Legislation: you can make it easier on yourself
19-6-2015
Look for vendors who sell allergen free products! It can make your life a lot easier.
Do you already have an allergy information menu? Is it part of your food safety plan? Late last year we were busy with the new legislation but it’s no news anymore. A lot of restaurants have an indication on the menu that an allergy information menu is available, but there are also restaurants without any information. And of course you also have restaurants who think they can get away with mentioning the possible allergies you could have.
VA Foods, allergen free products
Meanwhile, there are several producers entering the market who have taken the allergens as a guideline for their products. Like for example the Valuas croquette developed by Master Chef Eric Swaghoven from restaurant Valuas (*). Recently we came across the products of VA Foods (in the Netherlands) they sell a line of snacks for those with allergies. They use high-quality fresh and pure ingredients as much as possible and try to avoid flavor enhancers, preservatives and colorants.
The couldn’t make the law easier but you can make it easier on yourself
If you find it difficult to make meals without the allergens, start looking for producers who have already done a lot of work for you. For example, VA Foods sells products such as croquettes, hot dog, puff pastry, ragout and bread. Their products all meet the internationally recognized VITAL-2 standard. So the products are gluten free, lactose free, peanut free, nut free and free from other common allergens. By finding this kind of suppliers, you can make it easier on yourself …
Asian Baba Rafi format starts in Alkmaar
18-6-2015
The initial establishment of an innovative European kebab franchise will soon start in Alkmaar.
Baba Rafi adapted to European standards
Entrepreneurs Sinan Gul, Hans Verloop and Baris Kürkcü took the very popular Baba Rafi format from Asia to Europe and adjusted them fully to European standards and trends. With a strong focus on healthy and sustainable dishes, Baba Rafi also wants to reach out to women and children and that distinguishes the formula from all existing kebab, döner or shawarma formats.
Confidence in the format of Baba Rafi
In order to finance the initial establishment of Baba Rafi Europe, the entrepreneurs made a successful appeal to the public: 176 private investors invested € 250.000,= in the company via Collin CrowdFund.
Kebab for today’s conscious consumer
Baba Rafi is the largest franchise chain in the world in the field of kebab products. With more than 1.300 locations in Asia where the concept is immense popular. The Asian concept is fully adapted to the European market where respect for the food, the customers and the environment play an important role. One of the initiators, Baris Kürkcü: “Every niche in the food industry, from fries-, hamburger and chicken formats to sandwiches, has seen a trend towards more sustainable and responsible food, in the recent years. With Baba Rafi we introduce a kebab concept that is tailored entirely to the needs and desires of the modern conscious consumers. The dishes are freshly prepared with a minimum of E-numbers and maximum sustainable and organic ingredients. We have worked closely with a culinary consultant and nutritionist during the development of the dishes. The dishes are suitable to eat for lunch. For everyone, thus emphatically including women and children.”
The future: being the largest kebab chain in Europe
Along with financial expert Hans Verloop and former McDonald’s CEO, Herman de Haas, the team of Baba Rafi wants to realize the largest kebab chain in Europe. There is no comparable franchise concept in Europe but there is a 10 billion euros sales in kebab fastfood restaurants. The facility in Alkmaar will be the flagship store and serves as a model for the next Baba Rafi in comparably sized cities in the Netherlands and Europe.
Fever-Tree tonic
17-6-2015
Recently gin and tonic mixes are extremely popular. There was a Gin & Tonic festival, there are special restaurants and (pop-up) bars, there is a GINformatiecentrum and at every fancy food festivals you can get yourself a gin and tonic mix.
Quality of tonic
Usually the focus at the mix drinks is on the gin and the quality of the tonic if often neglected. This while a mix drink like a gin-tonic consists for ¾ out of a tonic and is thus crucial for the flavour. In recent decades the soft drink market is largely dominated by a few multinational companies that more focus on profit rather than quality. This changes now, more and more producers approach the market differently with more unique and qualitative products. Fever-Tree is one of them and since November 2014 the company is privately held and competing with the big boys at the London AIM stock market.
Quinine in the tonic
In 2004 Charles Rolls and Tim Warrillow decided tonic and mixers for cocktails in general could use a quality upgrade. One of the major components of tonic is quinine, that’s where the bitterness comes from. After months of research they discovered that there is a Fever Tree plantation that produces the purest quinine in the world and it’s located in Congo. They travelled to the rough Democratic Republic of Congo and visited this plantation. The ingredients for the rest of the tonic are collected in the same manner. Research, travel and conversations with ‘plant hunters’ a part of the development of new products. Fever-Tree tonic contains high-quality ingredients and natural cane sugar.
Ginger Beer and Ginger Ale
For Fever-Tree’s Ginger Beer and Ginger Ale three kinds of ginger are used, each from a different area. It’s fresh green ginger from Ivory Coast for the freshness, ginger from Nigeria for depth and intensity of the flavor and ginger from Cochin for an earthy, chocolate-like flavor.
Mediterranean tonic
The Mediterranean Tonic is our favorite. It contains citrus oil and herbs from the coastal areas around the Mediterranean. Lemon Thyme and rosemary are two of the ingredients that come from Provence and give the unique flower-like character to the tonic, which makes it an ideal mixer for vodka and lights gins.
Van der Valk Tiel glass room design winner
17-6-2015
AGC and Van der Valk have announced that architect Jasper Spigt from domainarchitecture has won the glass room design competition. The challenge was to show the versatility of glass as a material. In his design Spigt organizes the different functions of the hotel room with a single, folded glass wall.
Inspiration: co-creation around the glass hotel room
AGC Flat Glass Netherlands has taken the initiative to create an “AGC room” at the new Van der Valk hotel in Tiel. With the intention to be able to show their glass in practice, to interested customers. This idea was developed into a design contest for a glass room. A form of collaboration where everyone benefits: AGC, Van der Valk and the winning architect. They created media value for all parties and a lot of attention on social media. Inspiration for other entrepreneurs who want to put their products in the spotlights.
Van der Valk Tiel
In his design ‘Through the Looking Glass’, architect Jasper Spigt of domainarchitecture designed a glass wall from one piece for the hotel room. This wall has various functions in every section of the room, varying from transparent, matt, energizing, reflected, with lighting or art in it. In one section a wall of matt glass separates the sitting area from the bathroom, a bit further it expands like a ‘sky’ round the bed.
As the winner of the design competition Spigt receives a cash prize of € 2000,-. AGC Glass and Van der Valk hotel room strive to finish the glass room at the end of this year.
Runner-up: Colorize your stay
Runner-up is the design ‘Colorize your stay’ by Kees Marcelis Studio Arnhem (Kees Marcelis, Judith Westgeest and Frank ten Westereind) in collaboration with Alverre Techni Glass. In this design, colored and folded glass walls are placed behind each other to organize the space of the room.
A total of seventy designs were submitted. Next to the winner and the runner up there were also two honorable mentions, Arcade and Cocon.
Jury
The multidisciplinary jury for the competition consisted out of Elfi van der Valk (owner and general manager from Van der Valk Hotel Tiel), Judith Kaart (marketing manager AGC Flat Glass Netherlands), Rob Seuntiëns (interior architect at Dutch Concept) and Michiel van Raay (editor Architectenweb).
Ramadan Special: Halal Fried Chicken
16-6-2015
Halal Fried Chicken in Amsterdam has announced special activities during the Ramadan.
Either this Wednesday or Thursday the Ramadan, the abstinence month for Muslims worldwide, will start. The exact date depends on the position of the moon and is determined on the final moment. In addition to the abstinence during the day is sharing meals between sunset and sunrise a key element of this religious month.
Halal Fried Chicken
One of the catering businesses announcing special activities during the Ramadan is Halal Fried Chicken (HFC). The fast food store opened in December 2014 at the Vlugtlaan in Amsterdam Nieuw-West. Soon a second restaurant will open at the Waterlandplein in the North of Amsterdam. Halal Fried Chicken claims to be the first Halal fast food restaurant in the Netherlands.
Offer
In addition to various halal burgers (chicken burger, beef burger and cheeseburger) HFC sells halal chicken pieces, tender strips, nuggets, hotwings, chicken wraps, fries and Coca-Cola. The restaurant sells combinations in different buckets and menus, as you would expect at a fast food restaurant.
Halal
In the beginning there was criticism to the halal certificates of the products at Halal Fried Chicken. This because of a discussion between various halal certifiers and Halal abattoir about what is and is not ‘halal’. The fast food restaurant preferred not to be the subject of the discussion and stated to act conscientiously, especially because it has the specific notation of ‘halal’ slaughtering method in the name. Nowadays the storm seems to have passed, or at least for HFC as a subject in this discussion.
Community
Halal Fried Chicken has a committed community that makes themselves heard with quite some criticism, especially on Facebook. The fast food restaurant sponsors MaroComedy and Mystiek Productions that do the production of the stand-up comedy show ‘Couscous & Baklava 2.0’ together.
Sample platter for Friska’s …
11-6-2015
Recently we spotted the sample platter at Friska. Their healthy, responsible roles with fresh ingredients are served at the Amsterdam Food Halls.
Sample platter created for your product
Often the small details in new concepts catch our eye. At Friska, designed by van Ommeren Architects, we think the wooden trays amplify the concept. These are specially designed platters to serve Friska’s from. You don’t often see architects design such a platter especially for one product.
About the Friska’s
Friska’s in their own words: “Part-time sushi, part-time wrap, fulltime Friska. Healthy, organic and 100% gluten free. Friska’s are healthy rolls with fresh ingredients. Easy, ready to eat and easy to eat with one hand. They have a lot of standard choices in Friska’s but you can also create your own roll. Choose your favorite wrap, create your own stuffing with different grains and fresh vegetables and your Friska is ready.
Fairytale wedding cake with projection mapping
11-6-2015
Disney is taking wedding cakes to a magical new level by creating interactive cakes with classic Disney tales. They created this great fairytale wedding cake with the help of projection mapping.
A fairytale wedding cake and they will live happily ever afer…
It’s just a simple white cake with no frills, that at the moment supreme, will light up with images projected on the cake. As you can see in the video above, the animations seem to be scrolling down the tiers adding a very Disney touch to the celebration. And who wouldn’t be living happily ever after with a wedding cake like this?
Video projections can be used to create an experience
Earlier we wrote about the artistic collective ‘Skull Mapping’ by Antoon Verbeeck and Filip Sterckx, they created a cartoon in and around your plate. By playing with movement within the projections they created optical illusions on the table. Even before that we wrote about restaurant Sublimotion in Ibiza that also uses video projection for a total experience.
Kindle stylish patio heaters
10-6-2015
The Kindle Allison is a stylish patio heater with a dual functionality.
Stylish patio heaters
During ‘Taste of Amsterdam’ the stylish patio heaters at the Visaandeschelde booth were a real eye catcher. Just like the delicious Oosterschelde lobster “en brochette” that was served by this restaurant, but that’s just a mouthwatering side note to this article.
Kindle Living
The patio heaters are from America and were rented at Héman. Kindle Living from Los Angeles is the creator of the patio heater. The company describes the design process simply as “We saw a need and set out to fill it. No more goosebumps”. There are six different models including a limited edition with a production series of only 101 pieces and a useful dolly to move the patio heaters. Moving the heaters is not necessary with the slim model that can be connected to an existing gas line. Earlier this model was awarded two Silver A ‘Design Awards.
Lighting
Ugly and purely functional gas heaters are history and using these heaters adds style to the terrace. The bottom of the heater can be illuminated in eight different colors and can be equipped with a handy shelf for glasses. Although your cocktail will get warm before you know it 😉
