Written in the stars
A revolution in Christmas-cards. Write it in the stars with an iOS device via stars.akqa.com.
A revolution in Christmas-cards. Write it in the stars with an iOS device via stars.akqa.com.
At the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles the largest pop-up book in the world introduced the premiere of ‘The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug’. For five days the book promoted New Zealand as holiday destination. See the book here.
Are you in a winter dip? With the Positivo cocktails of Happy Drinks, your body and soul will get a heartwarming energy boost en brings the summer back into your glass. 0% alcohol, 100% positive. The ‘Positivo’ cocktails is made with balsamic vinegar, strawberries and pepper and this combination makes every pessimist positive. The ‘Positivo Classico’ is more powerful and intense than the ‘Positivo’ and gives you a thrill. The recipes are only available in Dutch.
2014 will be another special ‘orange’ year. With the Winter Olympics, the World Cup and Kings day coming, brewery Heineken is seeking a Chief Orange Officer by February 1, 2014. The new Chief Orange Officer will bring the orange feeling at home and abroad and the first coaches the legion of supporters. With an orange car and an orange suite, the Chief Orange Officer will visit all the orange events and if the Netherlands are world champion in Brazil, the annual salary will be doubled.
The Polish artist Pawel Althamer will show his latest collection on the second, third and fourth floor of the ‘New Museum’ in New York from February 12 to April 13, 2014. Part of his collection is ‘The Neighbors’ where the artist involves the visitors to make an ambitious artwork. On the fourth floor of the museum, a white wall will be covered by paintings and drawings made by the visitors. Visitors can show their arts and will be part of the exhibition. At various times during the exhibition musicians will provide live music.
The Hanjie Wanda Square is a new shopping center in Wuhan, China. In 2011 a contest was held with various national and international architects. The design of UNStudio’s was chosen as winner. The building has luxury design and combines modern and traditional elements with simple materials. The focus of the design is on the visitor flows, from the three main entrances visitors are guided to two central spaces. The facade consists of 42,333 spheres with 3.1 million LED lights that can be combined to create a beautiful lighting effect.
It remains difficult to make a perfect cocktail, you often pour too much or too little of an ingredient in the cocktail. With the ‘Perfect Drink’ you can now easily make the perfect cocktail with the right amount. The digital kitchen scale is connected with an app and tells you what ingredient you need to add, considering the weight during the preparation and indicates when to stop adding an ingredient. You will get the perfect cocktail. The app has a large database of cocktail recipes but you can also add a recipe yourself.
With the new search engine ‘Accor Meeting Hotel Finder’ of Accor Hotels, MICE- and meeting planners can search easily for a suitable location for their conference or event. They can search for a location based on the geographical location, type of event, accommodation and hotel segment. When the meeting planner has selected a location they can directly request for an offer or book the location. The search engine has more than 1,000 locations and 10,000 rooms in 90 different countries of which 65% in Europe and 23% in Asia Pacific.
No mayonnaise, ketchup or curry with the fries but a chocolate dipping sauce?! Japanese fast food chain Lotteria will serve its fries with a Lotte Ghana chocolate dip called ‘Dipping Fries’ in the months January and February. The salt of the fries and the sweetness of the chocolate makes a unique combination. We have tried the fries with chocolate at the office and… A few colleagues thought it was pretty good but most prefer mayonnaise!
A driving tram through the city of The Hague and during the trip a high-quality four-course dinner while passing the highlights of the city. Around February 2014 this will be possible in tram restaurant Hoftramm. The driving tram will be transformed into a modern and elegant restaurant and has all amenities including a kitchen, bar and toilets. Tram restaurant Hoftrammm will be a route through the center of The Hague six days a week and the guests will get served a four-course dinner with a matching beverage package. To achieve the tram restaurant there is currently a crowdfunding campaign.
Network club INCH (international network connecting hotelschool graduates) has decorated a hotel suite at the Hotelschool The Hague campus Amsterdam in collaboration with Balsan DUO carpet. The design studio of Balsan DUO has designed the room together with architect Frank ter Horst. The hotel suite is themed unruliness, spontaneity and to act unconventional. Balsan has placed a striking carpet with 4 designs on the floor and they also decorated the wall and the window frame with the same carpet. There is a bed of 2m by 2m in the middle of the room, a maxibar and enough space to move freely.
Start 2014 without a hangover. The organizers of the ‘Chocolate Club’ celebrate New Year Eve with a conscious clubbing night. Drink alcohol-free super-drinks and elixirs with natural ingredients and watch the fireworks over Amsterdam from a hot tub or dance the night away in the ‘Amsterdam Dansmakers’–studios. Recently we mentioned the rise of superfoods, this is the first healthy clubbing concept that we came across. See the video of the previous edition in July.
Take an adventurous book, combine it with a shoestring travel guide and bake it with delicious recipes to a practical cookbook. That must have been the recipe for ‘Gastrovan – Met je neus in de boter'(proverb: hit the jackpot). This recipe was created by Sjaak Borsboom, Jeroen Simons and Olivier van der Ree after a summertour with their campervan through the Netherlands, France and Spain where they cooked for more than 200 people. The combination of funny stories, describtion of exclusive destinations and local recipes will be mouthwatering for every foodie.
Saturday 11 January the chubby Gasconne pig ‘Pumba’ will be honored. The pig entered the Lindenhoff farm as a 20 kg piglet and is now, at the age of five, ready to be roasted next to open fire for 50 hours (!). Organizers Baaf Vonk and Roel van Vliet from Varkensroosteren.nl work together with restaurant Old-School in Amsterdam. The cooks are already working on mouthwatering recipes like ‘schwein with sauerkraut and Schwarzbier’, pig belly with Korean kimchi or American pulled pork with chutney.
Floske Kusse and Tine Sommeijer want to stimulate city-inhabitants to get more acquainted with local shops. Therefore they’ve started City Food Route. The website provides a map of the neighbourhood with shopping tips for the menu and recipes and relaxed places to get a cup of coffee and relax. The first tour through the old East of Amsterdam is online and soon a tour through the less-known parts of ‘De Pijp’ and ‘Rivierenbuurt’ will follow.
We couldn’t find an immersive Christmas Light Maze in Europe yet, howevere correct us if we are wrong. But we love the idea, another fun read more
We have been sharing inspiration on our website since 2007, inspiration that we find in the hospitality industry or by online spotting of what our read more
We have been sharing inspiration on our website since 2007, inspiration that we find in the hospitality industry or by online spotting of what our read more
This device can make a beer in 7 days that comparable is with the quality of commercial beers. Twelve of the most common problems with brewing beer are solved at ones with this device. The most important is the carbonation process, temperature control and clarification that are self controlled by the device.
Restaurant L’Ilôt 13 in Genève uses a piano to create cocktails, every cocktail an other melody. It’s pretty labour-intensive that way!
A new, free iPhone application shows people the way on the Amsterdam canals. The application is called ‘Vaarwater’ (free translated as waterway) and is an initiative of Waternet. Besides eight channel routes, the app includes information about the opening of bridges and locks, water taps, places to spend the night, gas stations, bars, marinas and in the near future also hotels.
Every child can play with food, but with this set, the dinner becomes a total playground. The toy castle is designed for kids and can be broken up into separate pieces like a plate, cup, bowl and utensils.
Coca-Cola has approached Belgian top chocolate maker Dominique Persoone to celebrate the start of Coca-Cola on the 8th of May 1886. A special box is created with 3 chocolates that provide a real Coca-Cola experience. The set contains a birthday praline (with sparkling sugar), an ice cube praline (that resembles the taste of cola at 4 degrees Celsius) and a cacao praline (the ideal taste combination with cola).
The new ‘Liefde voor Limburg’ iPhone app has all asparagus routes in Northern Limburg and shows you the way to the right places for the best asparagus dishes. Besides this information the free app for iPhone users provides a complete overview of the touristic and recreational offers in the region.
With a Royal Wedding in England today and Queensday in the Netherlands tomorrow, it’s not weird that royal mechandise is thriving. This time, the Aristocakes cupcake mold caught our attention. Designed by Liz Goulet Dubois and withstanding 450 °F / 230 °C, they guarantee a royal treat.
The ordinairy pen as a writing instrument is slowly losing its battle to computers. But Dine Ink offers a new reason to keep the pen at your work desk. Dine Ink comes with three plastic caps to use your pen as a spoon, fork and a knife, so you don’t have to leave your desk for lunch.
The Anti-Griddle, by PolyScience is a box about a size of a small microwave, the device freezes sauces, purees and any liquid quickly with great results. The cooktop maintains a standard 30°F (- 34.44°C). The developers of the antigriddle won the Food Network’s Award for Tasty Technology with this revolutionairy way of cooking.
The Donut Project. A guerilla campaign for Superette in New Zealand. By putting indented plates across the city at bus stops an park benches, those who sat down wearing short shorts or skirts walked away with the ad campaign ‘ Short Shorts on Sale’ imprinted on the back of their legs.
With the new outdoor kitchens and showers, created by interior designer Piet-Jan van den Kommer, you can create a unique outdoor eating experience. The outdoor kitchens (with shower) consist of individual units that are connectable in a various ways.
Simple and effective, a little nod to the excellent concept of sugar cubes that takes the shape of individual bricks inspired by the famous video game Tetris. Designed by the graphic designer Russian Danil Zdorov.
The Belgian concept agency C03 has made a new design for the traditional ‘frietzak’ called Frietzak 3.0. The bag has a separate box for sauces and a sausage, frikandel or skewer can be balanced easily on top of the notches.
The founders of Dutch beer websites Bier-Blog.nl and Bier-TV start an adventure with their mobile application for iPhone and Android smartphones. From the 13th of May it’s possible to navigate to places were you can buy your favorite (special)beer. The developers want to build an extensive database by using crowdsourcing techniques.
The QTVan is a new type of mini caravan which can be pulled by a mobility scooter. The retro style design of the caravan houses all the goodies, a full size 1.90 meter bed, a 19 inch LCD flatscreen TV, and a coffee and tea facility. Pulled by a mobility scooter it can reach a top speed of 8 km/h.
L’O Des Salines is a new way of packaging salt. The origin of the salt are the saltlakes around the Balearen, a group of Spanisch islands. Just before crystallizing they retrieve the seawater and put it, without any additives, in bottles with a spray-head.
The ashtray tile is a new pattented ashtray design. It can be embedded between the usual street tiles and it’s purpose is to catch cigarettes en chewing gum. It can be placed in strategic places like pubs, restaurants, but as well in trainstations, smoking areas and in front of stores.
Plans are made for the world’s first floating golf course on the Maldives. Threatened with the rising sea level caused by climate change, the island nation may be doomed to a watery grave unless it transitions to floating developments. Designed through a collaboration between Waterstudio.NL, Dutch Docklands, and golf course developer Troon Golf, the zero-footprint solar-powered golf course will be one of the first floating developments and is expected to bring in a wave of new tourists.
FohBoh is a social network, especially for restaurant owners. Through the website you can connect to collegues, suppliers, investors, employers and employees. But by using several tools you can even monitoring and increase your brand awareness and quality.
Hard to ignore this fascinating multipurpose MolenKitchen. It’s a barbecue, firebasket with spit and smoker in one. The unit has wheels, so you can cook anywhere on the go. The latest version was presented last week at the design fair in Milan.
This elegant 1limit faucet encourages water conservation by giving you less water to use. Even better, the faucet forces you to do it! The design relies on the simple principle of ‘what you see is what you get’. The faucet fills the attached glass tube with exactly one liter of water for washing hands, it needs to be turned off again before it refills. The brainchild of designers Yonggu Do, Dohyung Kim and Sewon Oh is a clever bit of stingy design.
The now infamous Chilean mines are located in the country’s northern Atacama Desert, one of the most inhospitable places on earth. The demand for energy and minerals keeps on growing, so AATA Architects was challenged to design a low-cost but effective shelter for miners to inhabit one of the driest and sunniest places on earth. Their solution was to create a large apartment complex out of shipping containers and drape the entire campus with canvas to protect it from the region’s relentless sunshine.
Giftee is an online service that lets users send small “thank you” gifts via Twitter. Gift-givers begin by registering on the Giftee site and indicate the Twitter ID of the recipient they have in mind. They then choose a gift from Giftee’s, type a message and pay by credit card. A gift tweet is then sent via Twitter to the recipient, who need to log in to receive it. The gifts are currently limited to online shops in Japan. Donations can also be made via Giftee to the Red Cross Japan.
Sensz has developed an educational game “Nose For Food Safety” for hospitality, catering and care staff. The students go through all the essential aspects in the field of food safety via a playful game in about 1.5 hours. This way they are instantly aware of the practical challenges in the field of food safety. (Tip: click on the rat).
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