Douwe Egberts gives coffee advice
9-4-2013
The (cold) weather in the Netherlands is currently a ‘hot’ topic. The Douwe Egberts coffee café responds to that in a great way. Every week they give coffee advice based on the weather. For example with cold weather they advise a choc-au-lait or when the sun shines an Ice-Cappuccino. The drinks are bit easy chosen but a nice idea.
Authentic from head to tail pig roasting
9-4-2013
The company ‘Varkensroosteren’ (pig roasting) was founded by two Dutch entrepreneurs Roel van Vliet and Baaf Spark. ‘Varkensroosteren’ uses pigs that are sustainable bred by the retail/farm the Lindenhoff, the black ‘Baambrugse pigs’. They roasts their pigs from head to tail over a burning wood fire for hours. ‘Slow food’, at this authentic way the meat remains juicy. The company serves the meat in sandwiches with home made sauce. Nice to serve at festivals….
Mobile Sauna Festival
9-4-2013
Last 6 and 7 April, the ‘Saunakaravaan’ organized the first Mobile Sauna Festival at the Sloterplas in the Netherlands. The festival consisted of three mobile saunas, a massage wagon, hottub and showers. And cooling down in the Sloterplas! Beside the sauna’s and healings the festival offered storytellers, performances and poets. A great event for adventurous sauna enthusiasts. We think that the previously spotted ‘bike sauna‘ would have fitted in…
Robot entertaining in a restaurant
9-4-2013
‘Robot Restaurant’ in Tokyo gives you a real entertaining during a dinner. The restaurant has four, 11.8-foot tall robots who are ‘fighting’ with each other. The robots are controlled by scantily clad women dancers and accompanied by loud electronic music. Building the robots and the interior of the restaurant did cost 125.8 million dollar. The entrance of the restaurant is $ 51 and even though there is nobody eating in this video, it does include dinner and drinks. The restaurant opened in august 2012.
Incredible coffee art
8-4-2013
Barista Mike Breach turns a simple cup of coffee into a wonderful creation. The draws detailed images into his lattes and make real coffee art. Earlier we saw a cup of coffee elevated to true art with the 3d latte art. But we think that Mike Breach is the Rembrandt in latte art…… He should be able to show his art at our recently opened Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam ;-).
Exclusive cocktails at Bluespoon bar
8-4-2013
BlueSpoon is located in the recently opened Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht hotel, a lifestyle and boutique hotel in Amsterdam. The Bluespoon Bar is inspired by the American Prohibition and gives you the atmosphere of a traditional pub in an international and dynamic environment. The cocktail bar serves hand-crafted cocktails made with traditional ingredients and focuses on the three different periods of the American Prohibition: pre-Prohibition, Prohibition and post-Prohibition’. The freshly picked herbs, fresh juices and carefully distilled liquors are processed in cocktails with funny names like ‘One Minute Delft Blue’ or ‘Lucky Librarian’.
Gastronomic experience between wine appetizers and jazz
5-4-2013
The first edition of ‘Sunday Jazz & Wine’ in the MC Theater Amsterdam takes place on Sunday April 7th. An event with a special wine arrangement, culinary tastings and live jazz music from jazz artist Aruan Oritz from Cuba. Sunday Jazz & Wine is initiated by the MC Theater, Aubergine Cuisine and ‘De Wijnengel’ a supplier of classic European wines. Chef cook Aldwin Veenstra (Aubergine Cuisine) prepares the appetizers and accompanied by performances of jazz artists. Each new season starts with a tasting of wine and appetizers.
Artwork of sleep patterns
5-4-2013
Watch how you’ve spent the night with a piece of art. That is possible at hotel chain Ibis Hotels. The chain offers guests a ‘sleep art app’ that makes an artwork of your sleep pattern. As the guest sleeps, the app runs throughout the night recording sounds, movements and vibrations through the iPhone’s built-in sensors. Your unconscious activity during your sleep has been interpreted as a colorful work of art. Natural green shades in the sleep masterpieces signal a relaxed night of sleep, whilst red and amber tones suggest that you had a restless night. The ‘sleep artwork’ can be shared by email or via Twitter and Facebook.
Perrier invites you to a Secret Place
5-4-2013
Perrier is the sexiest sparkling water you’ll ever taste, says Perrier. So sexy that you will find yourself transported to a secret online party. Perrier and Ogilvy have invited you with Perrier Secret Place, an online underground nightclub where you will bounce around the different viewpoints of attendees at the ‘party’. If you find the ‘golden woman’ and ‘secret bottle’ you will make a chance to win a trip to a ‘real’ party somewhere like St. Tropez, Rio during Carnival, Miami Art Basel or at Ibiza. Check more clips at the website of ADweek.
Citrus spray
5-4-2013
A very useful gadget! With the ‘Stem’ juice spray, you can directly spray juice from a citrus fruit on your salad or dish. Use the serrated teeth to chomp a hole in the fruit and you can spray lightly and evenly.
More fun and relaxation in a gastropub
4-4-2013
At this place we want to congratulate Ron Blauw (former owner of Ron Blaauw (2 Michelinstars) in Amsterdam) with the opening of ‘Ron Gastropub’ today. In his new restaurant, he returns to affordable quality, 25 dishes at high gastronomic level for € 15, = per dish and a fixed margin on the wine. We will have to wait a couple of months to see if his new company is appreciated by Michelin. More and more we see that chefs are talking about a different reorientation. In November last year Flemisch Foodie Jason Blanckaert from Gent indicated he wanted to follow his own course and didn’t want to be mentioned in the culinary guides Gault & Millau and Michelin anymore. He opened his own bistro JEF in Gent last year.
Of course there are chefs who have started a gastropub alongside their existing business. In Stockbrigde Tom Kitchin and Dominic Jack (both good for a Michelin star) opened last week their pub ‘The Scran and Scallie’. The dishes are simplified and at this place it’s all about enjoying great food, drinks and fun at affordable levels.
Frantzen / Lindeberg opened in Stockholm in addition to their 2-star Michelin restaurant, a gastropub ‘The Flying Elk‘ where they serve the British ‘ fish and chips’. Their motto, “Haute cuisine meets the British Pubcultur”.
These are just some recent examples of star chefs who alter their direction or opened a gastropub next to their existing business. Makes you wonder who will follow?
Restaurant Alinea
4-4-2013
Another great video of Restaurant Alinea, created by Christian Seel. Check also the video of the lamb course or the edible helium balloon.
Cooking with weet
4-4-2013
For the new campaign, fashion brand Stussy worked together with FreshCotton. FreshCotton has monopoly on the sale of Stussy t-shirts and as a result of this collaboration they launched a cookbook that uses a typical ingredient of Amsterdam, weed. For this project FreshCotton asked the highly rated chef Misha Sukyas to create recipes with every street-legal drugs available in Amsterdam. The project shows what we like about Amsterdam: fashion, good food and having fun. Check out the website of FreshCotton for recipes.
Gin and Tonic pop up bar
4-4-2013
Early February Bastian Heuser (Barworkz), Mario Grünenfelder (Rocco & Sanny, AMANO Bar) and Sebastian Brack (soda brand Thomas Henry) opened in cooperation with Tanqueray No. TEN a pop-up Gin and Tonic Bar in Berlin. The bar features classic cocktails with gin and tonic in numerous variants and they differ every season. In addition to the various cocktails, they also serve gin and tonic tea variants. The G&T bar organizes workshops and lectures and will be open for one year. Last 27 and 28 March there was a pop-up Gin and Tonic bar in Covent Garden London as well. Pop-up bars are regularly used to promote drinks.
Tea Fusion by Lipton
3-4-2013
With the ‘Tea Fusion’ Lipton offers a new tea concept. The quality and experience of making a cup of tea will increase. During making a cup of tea, the tea will experience a ‘Tea Fusion’ that is visible through the transparent cylinder. As a result it releases an enhanced smell, color and taste. Lipton has a special assortment of teas from Kenya available for the Tea Fusion concept.
A burger wrapped in a pizza
3-4-2013
The Canadian pizza chain ‘Boston Pizza’ has launched a new bun-less menu on April first. The Pizza salad, Choco pizza and the Pizza Bread Pudding of the menu were a joke, but the Pizzaburger is apparently, not a joke! The Pizzaburger is not just a burger with a pizza topping, but it is an actual bacon hamburger wrapped in a pepperoni pizza with a hand-pressed crust smothered in pizza sauce and mozzarella. There is also a five-cheese Pizzaburger available
Baby shower for men
3-4-2013
Beer and Bubs is a one-night session for expectant dads to learn how to support their partner through the birth of their baby. The session is held in pubs in Australia. The program is perfect for first time fathers who don’t know what they’re in for and it helps men gain the practical knowledge they need to be involved in the births of their children. During the session the man will meet dads who recently became father and other expectant dads. The Beer and Bubs is run in local pubs in all major cities of Australia. Seems to us a hilarious subject for a good night out for bachelor parties or baby showers for men.
Less apps, more apples
2-4-2013
‘Somersby’ is the new cider brand from Carlsberg – Real Refreshment. It is a naturally-balanced, medium cider, made with no artificial flavorings or sweeteners. Since every third ad has to be an Apple parody now, Carlsberg makes fun of Apple Store product launches in this TV spot for Somersby Cider from agency Fold7. Great advertisement….
An ice cream on hold…
2-4-2013
A cup of coffee or an ice cream on hold.. At ice cream parlor Mezzo in Amsterdam it is possible to order a cup of coffee or ice cream and put it on hold for someone who can’t pay it. It does not necessarily have to be a cup of coffee, it may also be a (hot) drink, or in this case an ice cream. A simple way to do something for others, without knowing who it is. This tradition began in Naples (Italy) but starts to spread across the world rapidly. Earlier we saw that consumers could put a cup of coffee on hold for someone at Coffee Company (The Netherlands).
World record ‘Farthest Beer Bottle Slide’
2-4-2013
During the Guinness Draught bottle launch, a new world record ‘Farthest Beer Bottle Slide’ was set! New sport for in the pub?
Donut chicken
2-4-2013
This is only possible in America, a donut in the shape of a chicken for Easter… Shall we see a ‘bolus’ (Dutch treat) into the shape of a chicken next year in the Netherlands?
Top 10 quirky hotels
29-3-2013
Another list with special hotels this time by Tripadvisor. Tripadvisor gives an overview of ten quirky hotels all over the world. Like spending a night in a train station or on a oil rig. The photos are of the Costa Verde Hotel in Costa Rica. The hotel has renovated a vintage Boeing 727 from 1965 and transformed it into a hotel room with two bedrooms and a bathroom. The room offers a beautiful view over the jungle and will make you feel like you are flying. Watch the website Tripadvisor for more quirky hotels.
Viva Las Vegas Food Festival
29-3-2013
The Viva Las Vega’s foundation organizes the Viva Las Vega’s Food Festival at June 1st in Amsterdam for the third year in a row. The festival is a sympathetic and accessible introduction to the vegetarian cuisine. There will be culinary workshops, interesting lectures, a Food and Lifestyle Market and food films. The festival is also the ending of the VeggieChallenge, a 30-day challenge for meat reducers.
Easter: egg in a bed
29-3-2013
Get in bed an egg on a bed served with Easter…
Gastronomixs and Koppert Cress
29-3-2013
Koppert Cress and Gastronomixc have been working together and designed a component schedule. Gastronomixs is a worldwide culinary database and an idea generator for chefs and food professionals. The schedule shows that you can do more with the Aclla Cress (fresh citrus flavor) than just food garnish. Be inspired by the many possibilities that this schedule, like a mild curry of Aclla Cress and almonds or an aromatic broth with citrus and Aclla Cress.