Swipe your favourite dishes with Tender recipe finder
31-7-2015
With the Tender app you can swipe through tasty recipes.
Tender – Food and Recipes
Inspired by the dating app Tinder, Tender replaced the pictures of potential boy- and girlfriends with food. Three alumni of the College of Charleston have figured out that it is also a pleasurable experience to swipe through recipes and they have developed the app Tender where you can do this.
Swipe
By swiping to the left, a dish is thrown into the trashcan. Swipe to the right and the recipe is stored in your own cookbook. This makes the search through food pictures very easy. The app is aimed at the youth of 18-30 years old who want to cook at home more often but look for easy and attractive recipes. By a number of filtering options they can filter for categories like vegan, drinks, desserts etcetera. The start-up is looking to improve filters in different cuisines, prices and other options.
Development
The functionalities are somewhat limited and the app can be more intuitive, but this app shows how consumers will determine whether something (or someone) is visually appealing for them within a tenth of a second. Do you already have attractive pictures of your catering business online, considering this visual future? Find the app in the iTunes store or the Google Play Store.
FoPo Food Powder creates powder of almost expiring fruits and vegetables
17-7-2015
Kent Ngo created FoPo Food Powder which saves almost expiring fruits and vegetables by drying & powdering them.
FoPo Food Powder is a nutritious powder
FoPo food powder is a nutritious powder made from unattractive market fruit that has been freeze-dried just before it expires, in order to help reduce food waste.
Worldwide more than 40 percent of fruits are thrown away, unattractive items which are classified as unsellable are quickly disposed of by supermarkets. All over the world we see initiatives to reduce this food waste. Like our Dutch initiative the Kromkommer and Inglorious foods in France. FoPo food powder is another ingenious solution created by students at Lund University in Sweden, who plan to freeze-dry fruit immediately before it expires. Food that otherwise would have been wasted can be used up to two weeks to two years later.
Freeze-dried almost expired fruit and vegetable waste
Freeze-drying isn’t a new technology, even in restaurant kitchens it’s used frequently to create powder. New is that FoPo aims to freeze solely products that would otherwise be discarded. The powder will be sold to consumers to be used in smoothies, soups etc. Besides that they hope that the food powders will contribute to help feed the hungry, especially in the Philippines, where the operation will be based. FoPo is crowdfunded through Kickstarter with, amongst others, a contribution by Ben & Jerry’s.
Inspiration: Chefs who are working with freeze-drying could try to use their almost spoiled fruits or vegetables and come up with ways to use this food powder, all in order to reduce food waste.
Beer pong cleaner with The Slip Cup™
8-7-2015
The Slip Cup creates ‘clean’ beer pong without changing a single aspect to the game. Mighty popular in the USA: beer pong. And often played in bars, whereas the ball touches the ground, the beer doesn’t get any healthier!
The Slip Cup™, is a cup insert for beer pong that fits into 16 and 18 ounce disposable cups.
Catch the ball and it doesn’t land in your beer anymore. The patent-pending protective barriers fit right onto your typical party cups and even feature a ‘catch element’ that keeps the ball from bouncing out and falling on dirty floors. The brothers behind the invention have raised over $40.000 (at Tuesday 7 July) toward their $70,000 Kickstarter campaign goal. The backers will score a 20-pack of Slip Cups when they’re ready later this summer for all kinds of ‘clean’ beer pong gaming. They added numbers at the bottom of the Slip Cups and created 15 Brand-New Drinking Games with the Slip Cup!
Groups app The Happening popular among young people
3-7-2015
The Happening is an app for creating useful grids and sharing locations or photos all in one.
The Happening
After setting up a dating app, Frank van Viegen and Jelmer Feenstra came up with the idea to create an easier group communication tool than Whatsapp together with colleague Emiel Mols. They developed the Happening app which has been downloaded more than 100.000 times already. Group discussions in Whatsapp can become lengthy scroll sessions, the Happening is easier to use and navigate.
Photo Hunt and Game Ranking
The app provides practical solutions to problems, combining a pick-a-date app, shopping lists, a photo sharing app and a latitude app. Its popularity is partly due to a Photo Hunt feature where users get assignments, for example to create a selfie while you hug a tree. One of the other viral features is a Ranking Game to rank friends in a top three with questions like “Who is the funniest when he’s drunk?”, the feature is quite similar to the television program ‘Ranking The Stars’.
On all devices and web interface
The Happening is available for both Android devices and Apple’s and downloadable in the Apple Store and Play Store. The app is available for Windows computers and Mac computers as well.
Listen to the sounds of Paris in Amsterdam
2-7-2015
A billboard with inspiring sounds from other cities. Pedestrians in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam are invited to listen to each other’s original sounds through their headphones at interactive billboards.
Listen to the sound of
The railroad company Thalys uses these 3 billboards to inspire passers-by with a sneak pre-hearing of a new travel experience. They of course want to encourage you to use the train to go and explore nearby cities. The billboards are made in collaboration with French advertising agency Rosapark.
Each billboard represents a city, the billboard of Amsterdam has 1352 sounds to tell the passers-by, Paris 1460 sounds and Brussels 1889. Pedestrians are invited to plug in with their personal headphones and start exploring. Enjoy a sound from Paris while strolling your hometown Amsterdam.
Like Pop-Up City describes, the billboards explore a new way of urban advertising. The focus on hearing is added to the visual impact of billboards. And with most of the people carrying earplugs nowadays, this technique might be used more…..
Mobile charging stations are becoming increasingly essential ….
29-6-2015
Implug also provides mobile charging points for smaller hospitality companies. A great ‘innovative’ hospitable gesture and certainly an added value for your venue with mobile payments in mind! And besides that, it’s another reason to have a drink at your venue!
I am glad that I will soon get a new phone, the current battery is low within no time! And I am not even a fanatic user of a lot of apps on my phone. The rapidly dying battery has become a well-known social problem that especially affects the younger users up to 35 years. Thankfully more and more mobile charging stations are placed at public places like the library, at airports and railway stations but also in the hospitality industry. And the welcoming gesture remains hospitable even if you let them pay, your guests are already happy that they can stay online!
Mobile charging stations are rapidly evolving
At the end of 2012 we’ve spotted the first charging station for cell phones in the Netherlands at Stravinsky eten & drinken in Hengelo (The Netherlands). Nowadays there are several parties that offer these charging stations like the pillars by Charge to go. These pillars are also equipped with a display to present advertisements to your guests. ^Marjolein van Spronsen
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.
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).
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.
