Christmas afternoon party Hengelo’s peak of the year!

15-12-2015

Bram Kosterink blogs about a tradition of his native region Twente, in the east of the Netherlands. An inspiration for cities all over the world.

Most Dutch trends are made and tested in the western cities of the Netherlands, like Amsterdam. Something which was mentioned during one of my trend presentations last Tuesday. This remark set me thinking, which cool successful initiative is conceived in my native region Twente? The first thing crossing my mind was ‘kerstmiddag’, our Christmas afternoon party! No it isn’t Christmas eve or a Christmas diner but ‘kerstmiddag’. For several years a successful tradition in my hometown Hengelo. The initiative was conceived by an entrepreneur with a restaurant in the city centre of Hengelo. After he initiated this event, many hospitality companies followed his idea. Nowadays almost all hospitality companies within the city centre are joining this event.

The Christmas afternoon party is an event which all citizens of Hengelo are looking forward to. Students who left their parents homes, citizens who emigrated to other parts of the country, all come back for this special event! Weeks in advance tickets are sold by several hospitality companies. Prices are ranging from € 15,=, some included entrance fee, other companies include drink vouchers.

Christmas afternoon party

What is the meaning of ‘kerstmiddag’? From eleven in the morning the real diehards are gathering together, others will join during the day. Meetings are set with family, friends and relatives to gather over drinks in several cafés and restaurants, just to meet. At four/five o’clock, after a full day of singing, dancing and talking, people are heading home (mostly a little tipsy). They quickly refresh, take a powernap or start drinking again, all to prepare for Christmas eve.

Annually 20.000 till 25.000 partygoers meet in the city centre of Hengelo, a huge success! The commonly support is the major strength of this event, almost every citizen and hospitality entrepreneur joins the festivities. Curious about the event? Join me at the 24th of December. If you are looking for a ‘good’ conversation, you can find me at café ‘t Uurwerk.

I am very interested in your Christmas tradition. If you have one, please share at tip@spronsen.com and I hope to inspire other hospitality entrepreneurs with your story! ^Bram Kosterink

A small hospitable gesture: Children’s buffet

14-12-2015

The 5-star Brown’s Hotel in London, is not only entertaining for parents but for the children as well. Brown’s Hotel offers, besides the normal buffet, a full equipped children’s station on the buffet during breakfast.

Children’s buffet

The children’s buffet at the Brown’s hotel can only be used by children, ‘no parents allowed’! Equipped with a selection of cereal favourites, fresh fruit, pastries and even reading material for when they are waiting for mum and dad to finish their breakfast and newspaper.

The Italian Baglioni Hotel Regina offers a small buffet especially designed for children as well. One of our followers sent us the pictures, as can be seen above, of the hotel situated in Rome. The Brown’s Hotel and the Baglioni Hotel Regina are both member of The Leading Hotels of the World.

If you spot nice hospitable gestures, please let us now and send an email to tip@spronsen.com.

A guide for child-friendly hospitality industry

The children’s buffet could have been mentioned in the guide for a child-friendly hospitality industry named ‘Kinderen aan tafel’, published in Belgium. The booklet provides a self-test for restaurant owners, practical checklists, tips & tricks for child-friendly service, menu suggestions, tips for plate decoration and additional services. Unfortunately it’s only available in Dutch.

Prêt-à-Portea delicacies with a fashionista twist

11-12-2015

The Berkeley London has been serving a designer afternoon tea, Prêt-à-Portea, for almost 10 years. It’s inspired by the themes and colours of the fashion world. The menu follows the seasons in fashion, changing every six months. Hence, a tea with a perfectly worked out theme.

Although we already spotted the Prêt-à-Portea in 2007 and wrote about it back then, we never got to experience it first-hand. This tea is an inspiration for other hoteliers, merely because of the perfection of the theme which is amazing. Every detail is right: a shoe at the table as a ‘reserved’ sign, colourful and specially designed chinaware, a colourful menu with fashionable quotes, champagne of course, miniature savoury canapés, skewers and tea sandwiches followed by the specially designed sweets. Oh, and don’t forget the fashionable doggy bags!

A fashionista twist

The Autumn/Winter 2015-2016 Prêt-à-Portea collection takes inspiration from a lot of distinguished fashion designers. Taking centre stage is Dolce & Gabbana’s popular pink rose dress from their ground breaking ‘Viva La Mama’ collection, as seen on recent covers of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. This dress is translated in a yummy lychee and almond mousse, set upon pink pâte sablée topped with light pink chocolate and delicate rose detailing. The striped shoulder bag by Valentino tasted delicious as well, sponge cake with cranberry compote amidst multi-colour striped chocolate, finished with a golden handle.

Check out the website of The Berkeley for more details and if you’re in London, I would recommend to indulge yourself with a cozy, delicious tea here. ^Marjolein

Dutch Oven made of 100% recycled rails

10-12-2015

Combekk Rails Edition, pans made of 100% recycled rails from Dutch Railway tracks, for tough cooks! The pans are also called a ‘Dutch Oven’.

Sustainable: made of 100% recycled rails

The very first Combekk pans tell the story of Dutch railways. The bottom of each Combekk Rails Edition pan bears a stamp that refers to its origin. The fully enamelled cast iron products are made entirely from recycled materials with a tough and functional design. With a proper furnace and a balanced mix of materials Combekk indicates that they succeed to deliver the best quality possible, without even having to dig for iron.

Dutch Oven

‘Dutch Ovens’ are known all over the world. The name refers to a production technique, which is invented in The Netherlands whereby molten iron is poured into a sand mold. Combekk is proud that they are the only brand producing all their Dutch Ovens in The Netherlands, like it should be! Some of the models have an integrated temperature gauge.

Ping-pongbar Daily Social will open in Amsterdam

8-12-2015

Amsterdam will get the first ping-pongbar in the Netherlands. The ping-pongbar Daily Social will open this December and is a venue where the traditional table tennis has a leading role. Socializing while playing ping-pong!

Ping-pongbar Amsterdam

Daily Social combines sports and entertainment. The café offers nine different tennis tables, each accommodating up to 20 guests. The tables are suitable for large groups. Besides the sport a game of ping-pong is also entertainment and is good for team building! The Daily Social will soon open for all ages. As from 18:00, the bar is only accessible for people aged 21 and older. You can order a wide variety of drinks at the bar and there is also a small bar menu, including lots of snacks and salads.

International ping-pongbar

We have seen more ping-pongbars worldwide, so they are not new. We spotted for example the Spin, ping-pongbars  in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Toronto. An alternative for our snooker & poolcafés. We wonder if hip Amsterdam will play ping-pong here and if we will see more ping-pongbars in the Netherlands. After all there are also many snooker & poolcafés in the Netherlands! We wish the team of Daily Social lots of fun and succes at the opening!

Virtual Reality Cinema will be shown all over Europe

7-12-2015

An update regarding the Virtual Reality Cinema we wrote about back in October. The tour throughout The Netherlands sold out really quickly. &Samhoud media will now organise futuristic cinemas in Berlin, Munich, Zürich, London and Copenhagen in January and February.

Business model for the Virtual Reality Cinema

Initiator Jip Samhoud: ‘We can see that our cinema sells out time after time and we sense that there really is a market for Virtual Reality. We noticed that a real business model can be made for VR cinemas. We’ve received more than 2500 visitors, the first few days that we’ve been open.’

The success of the Virtual Reality Cinema will also be continued in The Netherlands. During the Christmas Season, the cinema in Amsterdam will open again! In this special Christmas edition the Virtual Reality cinema can be found at the Passeerdersgracht 19a in Amsterdam from the 18th of December till the 23th. Opening hours and tickets can be found at vrcinema.samhoud.com.

In October we wrote about the first Virtual Reality Cinema.

The croquettes in the leading role

4-12-2015

Kroketten (or croquettes) and Bitterballen (small croquettes) are a real Dutch treat. The last two years we spotted a couple of tasty varieties appearing in the market. We have made a list of them.

For years I used to make this Dutch treat at home, using recipes from the book ‘The great culinary croquettes cookbook’ by Edwin Kats, and of course I always got compliments! Truly amazing are the game croquets from this season but the croquettes with smoked eel are very special as well. We even wrote about croquettes with snails and goose meat on Horecatrends, both of whom are no longer for sale, but it truly indicates that the possibilities are endless! ^ Marjolein

Our list; croquettes in the leading role

1. CROQUÉTJE! a pulled pork-croquette

Sausage-maker Paul van den Hooven from Wild Vleesch in Rotterdam, has developed his own croquette under the name of CROQUÉTJE! The first CROQUÉTJE is a croquette with pulled pork which contains meat that is smoked low & slow on a barbecue.

2. Croquette made of Shiitake mushrooms

A croquette with Shiitake mushrooms. Shiitake mushrooms are healthy, delicious and a good substitute for meat. FungiFuturi grows delicious and super nutritious mushrooms in the cellar of an abandoned office building in Eindhoven. They are crowdfunding an innovative snack line of mushrooms. The first product of the line is the shiitake croquette, they presented these croquettes during the Dutch Design Week last October.

3. Bieterballen, croquettes with beetroot

The vegetarian Bieterbal, from Jonathan Karpathios of restaurant Vork & Mes. It’s content? Beet, beet and even more beet! The Bieterbal is available in wholesale at: Deli XL, De Kweker, HANOS and VHC de Jongens. The Bieterbal has also been nominated for the Dutch Horecava Innovation Award 2016 in the category Food & Beverage.

4. Bitter Balzz, a bitterbal with insects

At BUGZZ they make food with insects. Their goal is to bring the durable snack, the ‘Bitter Balzz’ in production. They reached their target amount by 117% on their crowdfunding page. We recently ran into them on the Foodfestival in Amsterdam, where they were already completely sold out halfway Saturday evening.

5. Croquette made from 100% organic spelt

The first croquette and bitterbal worldwide made from 100% organic spelt. Prepared with fresh spices, vegetables and the best organic beef, made by Royal Spelt.

6. Restaurant Valuas’s gluten free croquette

Star restaurant Valuas (*) in Venlo has developed a gluten free croquette. The gluten free croquette is made from ragout of corn, rice and 36% pure beef and contains a crust made of rice.

7. Croquette made from the queen of vegetables

Kwekkeboom introduced a croquette made of the queen of vegetables, the asparagus, in 2013. Since I regularly make a variety of the bitterbal with asparagus in the leading roll, this croquette proves that you can make endless variations with the salpicon of the croquettes and bitterballen.

8. Arancini, the Italian bitterbal

Lightly fried balls made from risotto with a core of mozzarella and smoked ham. Simple and a delicious appetizer! Italian restaurants would have their own variation of ‘our’ bitterbal.

9. Sichuan Bitterballen

For her Sichuan bitterballen Robin Kok used ‘Sichuan style red boiled beef’ that includes ingredients like ginger, chilli bean sauce, rice wine and Chinese dark soy sauce. The Asian bitterballen.

10. Chef Thor

Chef Thor makes bitterballen with different flavours and flavours you won’t expect, such as spinach with Dutch blue cheese, coconut curry with peas or scrambled eggs with porcini mushrooms and truffle. The traditional Dutch concept of a kroket, but just something different and delicious without meat. Chef Thor has been around for six years and have seven different flavours, all vegetarian.

11. Fingerfoodballs

Scelta Mushrooms is the founder of a healthy alternative for the snack range: the Fingerfoodballs. The Fingerfoodballs are vegetable snacks that doesn’t contain artificial colors or flavors.

The ‘Schroefkurk’, the innovative wine cork

4-12-2015

‘The luxury of the cork, with the ease of a screwcap’ that is the slogan of the newest invention in the world of wines. The ‘schroefkurk’ (a screwcap made of cork) can easily be opened and the wine bottle can, contrary to the traditional wine cork, easily be closed thanks to the subtle designed screw technique in the cork.

The ‘Schroefkurk’

Many wines come with a screwcap nowadays. Which hurts in the hearts of wine and innovation lovers, Sharan Visser and Arjan Bomkamp. “Of course it’s nice to be able to close a bottle of wine that is half empty without any effort, but the pop sound that is associated with uncorking a bottle is also part of drinking wine.” Says Visser. When he wondered if there wasn’t another possibility to open a wine bottle, he discovered the ‘schroefkurk’. ‘The luxury of the cork, with the ease of a screwcap’, says the slogan of the newcomer in the world of wine. ‘Besides it is user friendly, the ‘schroefkurk’ is also more durable compared to the screwcap’, says Bomkamp, because of the fact that cork is very recyclable and it helps to decrease the Co2 emissions.

Schroefkurk.nl

Right after the discovery of the ‘schroefkurk’, the idea for schroefkurk.nl was created. Schroefkurk.nl is the first wine shop that focuses on quality wines that all come with a ‘schroefkurk’. At this moment, the red and white wines are exclusively bought from the wine house ‘5 Estates’. Sharan and Arjan are hoping to expand their assortment into a big selection of quality wines soon.

CROQUÉTJE! a pulled pork-croquette

3-12-2015

Sausage-maker Paul van den Hooven from Wild Vleesch in Rotterdam, has developed his own croquette under the name of CROQUÉTJE! The first CROQUÉTJE is a croquette with pulled pork containing meat low & slow smoked on a barbecue. The artisanal products Paul sells are based on his obsession of the American Style barbecue.

CROQUÉTJE!

Pulled pork which Paul prefers to call ‘rafelvarken’, as they say it in his hometown Rotterdam, is one of the most well-known dishes in the American world of barbecue. Paul makes his handmade croquette with real pulled pork, smoked slow & low on the barbecue. This really brings out the taste of the smoked pulled pork. For the croquette he developed a rub for the meat and a mix of spices for the salpicon. The meat originates from Dutch bred pigs. The pulled pork croquette is the first in the series of CROQUÉTJE!

Availability

CROQUÉTJE! is for sale on the website of Wild Vleesch for the hospitality industry, commerce and consumers. Wild Vleesch can also be found at the ‘Oogstmarkt’ in Rotterdam, the croquettes are part of the assortment. In Brasserie STROOM in Rotterdam guests can already enjoy a pulled pork-croquette. We look forward to taste them and we will let you know once we did!

Croquette made of Shiitake mushrooms

3-12-2015

A croquette with Shiitake mushrooms. Shiitake mushrooms are healthy, delicious and a good substitute for meat. FungiFuturi grows delicious and super nutritious mushrooms in the cellar of an abandoned office building in Eindhoven. They are crowdfunding an innovative snack line of mushrooms. The first product of the line is the shiitake croquette, they presented these croquettes during the Dutch Design Week last October. The video above is about the shiitake croquette, with still 12 days to go, the project has already been funded for 144%.

Shiitake mushrooms fresh from the city farm for mushrooms

The founder of the city farm for mushrooms is Doreen Westphal. She is a designer and founder of ‘Mensch Made’. Doreen has a mission: to produce nutritious food without further exhausting of the earth. Mushrooms are tasty, healthy and contribute to the ‘circular economy’ involving the maximum reuse of raw materials without impairment loss. Doreen: “Mushrooms are my great passion. That is why I founded the city farm for mushrooms in Eindhoven in May 2015 and called it: FungiFuturi.”

DWDD pop-up restaurant

3-12-2015

Yesterday was the official opening of the DWDD pop-up restaurant and the presentation of the accompanying cookbook ‘DWDD cooks with Kranenborg’. Horecatrends attended the presentation and took the following pictures of the presentation, food and restaurant.

DWDD pop-up restaurant

Right in front of the studio of the successful Dutch TV-show ‘De Wereld Draait Door’ (The World Keeps Turning), on the Westergasterrein in Amsterdam, the DWDD pop-up-restaurant is now officially open. The pop-up restaurant is in cooperation with famous Dutch chef Robert Kranenborg. During the next three weeks a five course dinner will be served here for € 79,95. The profit of this project will be donated to the ‘Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Foundation’. On the menu is a selection of forgotten classics that were discussed at the TV-show DWDD in the last four years. Chef Robert Kranenborg is a regular guest who presented, almost forgotten, classical dishes in cooperation with famous chefs from The Netherlands, Belgium and France. Guests can choose between three main courses during their lunch or dinner.

I already tasted a few dishes during the opening and really enjoyed the bastilla with pigeon and the cervelas de fruits de mer (sausage made of fish and seafood).

DWDD cooks with Kranenborg

Do you prefer to cook at home? The cookbook ‘DWDD cooks with Kranenborg’ will be available (€ 24,99) starting today, unfortunately only in Dutch. The cookbook contains all the recipes that Robert Kranenborg presented in the ‘De Wereld Draait Door’. Like Matthijs van Nieuwkerk said, ‘a history book and a cookbook’. The book, in honour of DWDD’s 10 year anniversary, contains exclusive ‘forgotten’ dishes like grilled woodcock, haggis and timpano. Including an easier recipe to prepare at home. ^Bram Kosterink

HomeBiogas – turn your waste into energy

2-12-2015

Turn your kitchen leftovers into 3 hours of cooking per day. HomeBiogas is a family-sized affordable biogas system. It converts any organic waste into clean cooking gas and a high quality liquid fertilizer for the garden.

How to use the system

On average, one kilogram of food waste produces about 200 litres of gas, which generates around one hour of cooking over a high flame. Therefore, one can generate 1 up to 3 hours of cooking gas each day with six kilogram of food waste – the perfect amount for three meals.

HomeBiogas is easy to use, doesn’t need any electricity and can be connected to your stove. You will need to place the system outdoors or in a barn, it works optimally in places with an average day/night temperature above 17 °C.

Successful crowdfunding

HomeBiogas is a crowdfunding project on the website Indiegogo. Their target was to fund at least $ 100,000.=. They already reached 130% of their target within 7 days and still have 24 days left. If you would like to support this project you can choose between several perks. One of the perks contributes to the HomeBioGas-Arava Institute to support peace-building, social justice, and environmental leadership and research in the Middle East. It is also possible to support the project and at the same time order the HomeBiogas system.

HomeBiogas within the hospitality?

For now the HomeBiogas is perfect for families. It’s not meant for industrial use such as hotels or big restaurants. The big amount waste they produce, can’t be handled at this stage, by the system. It can convert a maximum of six kilogram of food waste. For smaller restaurants and cafés the system could be an option to become more sustainable.

Global warming and carbon footprints are from major importance to the world’s future. Using HomeBiogas will certainly contribute to your sustainable image.

The system also fertilizes your herbs and vegetables. A lot of people already make their own compost at home and with this innovation we think that many more people will follow.

Process wine into…

1-12-2015

Bram Kosterink likes to drink or serve a fine wine! In this article he will give a few examples of how wine is used in an entirely different manner. He writes about Pinot Noir Sea Salt and Wine Ice Tea.

The fact that wine and the hospitality industry are friends is well known! Processing wine and using or selling it as an entirely different product is not well-known. In what ways can you use wine other than to support a dish or to use it in sauces? For inspiration he collected some examples:

Process wine into Pinot Noir Sea Salt

Prepare your own sea salt with the taste and colour of Pinot Noir. Creating your own Pinot Noir sea salt is easier than baking an egg. Use 5 till 10 ml Pinot Noir for every 50 grams of coarse sea salt. Let the Pinot Noir reduce to a syrup (will take about 15 to 20 minutes). Add the salt to the wine once it’s reduced, blend it well with a spatula and let it dry on a plate for at least 12 hours. The result: Your own Pinot Noir Salt! The salt tastes great on a sirloin or tenderloin! Read Brain Sullivan’s article in The Huffington Post for more details.

Tip: Prepare the sea salt with the same bottle of Pinot Noir you’ll serve during dinner.

Process wine into Wine Iced Tea

An iced tea made of wine grapes. The tealeaves are completely replaced by freshly harvested grape skins which gives the tea the sophisticated taste of wine. The Wine Iced Tea is available in the flavours Chardonnay, Cabernet or Pinot Noir. Each iced tea has its own ideal ‘wine’–food combination. For example, the Chardonnay goes great with salads and white meat. The Cabernet does taste great with hard cheeses, pâtés and stews and the Pinot Noir is perfect with baked salmon, lobster and paella’s. The iced tea doesn’t contain any alcohol, which makes it child friendly.

Tip: It would be nice to serve parents a real glass of wine, and their kids a Wine Iced Tea!

Other examples of products that relate to wine are The Real Wine Gum and Writing with wine.

Zorri Cress

30-11-2015

Koppert Cress introduces a new cress, the Zorri Cress. Healthy, tasteful and beautiful in compositions on the plate.

The Zorri Cress

On a regular basis Koppert Cress introduces a new cress, this time the Zorri Cress. Zorri Cress is the sprout of the Nasturtium. This is a spicy decorative plant which has been growing in our gardens for centuries. The plant originates from the Andes and arrived in Europe in the sixteenth century via Peru. The leaf is shaped like a shield, and the spicy taste of the product combines well with refreshing dishes both warm and cold. Zorri Cress is available year round. The optimum temperature at which the quality is the best maintained, is between 2 and 4 ° C.

Besides the cresses Koppert Cress regularly introduces flowers that can be used in the kitchen, such as the BlinQ Blossom® in 2013. With the introduction of the BlinQ Blossem® the focus was still on storytelling around the product. Nowadays the cresses of Koppert Cress are so popular with chefs that a single introduction of the cress is sufficient.

Meals That Get You Laid

27-11-2015

A cookbook as inspiration for restaurants. Not only because of the recipes, but due to the idea behind it. Meals That Get You Laid, in the Netherlands awarded with the title ‘best gift for men in 2015’. Unfortunately so far only available in Dutch.

Meals That Get You Laid

Writing about a cookbook isn’t something we often do, but the idea behind this cookbook could well inspire a number of hospitality entrepreneurs to offer dishes with a sexual, humorous touch. Meals That Get You Laid, a manual in the style of a cookbook, describing all the tricks to make a woman completely defenceless. Explaining the combination of the right ingredients, atmosphere, music, and beverage choices. One of the writers is working in the hospitality business, it is therefore most likely that this theme will get attention in the hospitality industry as well.

What can a man learn from it?

According to the writers, the man will learn how to seduce a woman with the use of astrology presented over 12 different chapters. They indicate that astrology is total nonsense, but they are convinced that women believe in astrology. Who are these writers/friends? The compilers of the book are a photographer, a graphic designer, an architect, an advertising executive and an hospitality entrepreneur who regularly come together to go through things in life. Of course also to eat and drink. The cookbook with beautiful pictures made by Jaap Vliegenthart, contains 12 chapters. One for each zodiac sign. Each chapter has a starter, main course and dessert and a wine suggestion for every dish, focusing on the characteristics of the star in question. The dishes are easy to make, but look amazing. The book is full of tips and tricks to make good use of the characteristics of the particular lady. Such as a playlist at the end of each chapter, for maximum impact. Of course there are shopping lists, anything to make it as easy as possible.

The first edition was funded by crowdfunding. The book is published by the friends themselves. Their website has been transformed to the webshop, to order the book. A book with a sexy trailer.