Gordon Street Garage, West Perth

10-9-2014

The Gordon Street Garage in West Perth is located in a former garage. The restaurant is based on the idea of simple and local produce. The coffee is for example roasted and ground on location which allows the garage to daily serve different types of coffee. The dishes on the menu are yard-to-table inspired and mostly designed to share. The restaurant has an industrial-chic interior which shows the origin of the building. A lot of furniture and fittings are even made from the wood and steel of the original garage itself. The large space of the Gordon Street Garage is divided into different zones to create a wide range of dining experiences. A part of the space is arranged for a quick cup of coffee, the large bar and high tables are created for a cocktail and a bar snack and another part of the area is used for extensive lunches or dinners. Watch the video for an impression of the Gordon Street Garage.

The potato store in Amsterdam

10-9-2014

A temporary potato store will open in Amsterdam on 26 September. The pop-up store ‘Pieperboetiek’ (pieper is a Dutch nickname for a potato) will be opened for two weeks and is dedicated to potatoes. Besides giving information, 30 kinds of potatoes are sold as well. All types of potatoes are organic and grown locally in the Netherlands. The goal of the store is to reduce the gap between the city and countryside. Visitors can ask questions to potato farmers, a fries-debate is held and a potato dinner is organized. The ‘Pieperboetiek’ is an initiative of Krispijn van den Dries, a biodynamic farmer and slightly a potato activist. Earlier Krispijn protested against the low prizes of potatoes by dumping 6.000 kilos of potatoes on the Dam in Amsterdam. Krispijn is, together with city farmer and journalist Felicia Alberding and the Youth Food Movement, committed to an honest food system and better relationships between the city and the countryside.

The Jane Antwerp

9-9-2014

The Jane in Antwerp beautifully designed by Piet Boon and is highlighted at the website of ‘The Restaurant & Bar Design Awards’. We think it might be one of the title candidates for the award in 2015. The restaurant of Sergio Herman and Nick Bril was opened in March in a chapel of the former military hospital of Antwerp. The preparations of the opening took three years: not only the dishes, but everything around it had to include the vision and feeling of both chefs. A collaboration between artists, designers and deejays was established. With the motto ‘food is our religion’, the kitchen is situated at the place of the altar. Other eye-catchers are the specially printed windows, a neon skull and the 800 kilo chandelier.

The Netherlands, Land of Whisky

9-9-2014

The documentary ‘The Netherlands, land of Whisky’ will premiere at the film festival ‘Film By The Sea’ in Vlissingen on 20 September. The initiative of film maker Gwen Jansen shows the remarkable whisky culture in the Netherlands: Over 2,5 million people drink whisky, world’s largest whisky fair is in the Netherlands and a lot of whisky media and whisky writers are Dutch. The first whisky camping is even founded in the Netherlands. The documentary is produced by JansenJager, Beeldmakers and is mostly established by crowdfunding and without use of subsidies. It will appear on DVD and Blu-Ray at the end of this year in Dutch and English and can be ordered via the website ‘NederlandWhiskyland’.

Accor opens Suite Novotel in the Netherlands

8-9-2014

Suite Novotel opens its doors in the Haagsche Passage in The Hague on 1 Oktober. The long stay concept of Suite Novotel Den Haag City Centre will exist out of 118 suites and will be located in the city center of The Hague nearby the Parliament, numerous embassies, government offices, museums and shops. The suites are suitable as bedroom, living room and as reception area and are equipped with numerous modern facilities.

Baidu smart chopsticks

8-9-2014

It all started as a April fools’ prank last spring: chopsticks that are able to analyze the quality of food. This summer Chinese web giant Baidu launched a prototype of smart chopsticks that focuses on health and hygiene. The smart chopsticks will tell you whether the oil that has been used is fresh: sensors of the chopsticks discover the oil’s temperature and judges its fitness for consumption. Poor food safety is a big problem in China, one of the concerns is ‘gutter oil’. ‘Gutter oil’ is illegal cooking oil what is made by reprocessing waste oil or by dredging up leftovers from restaurants.

Veuve Clicquot ages champagne in Baltic Sea

5-9-2014

Champagne house Veuve Clicquot dropped hundreds of bottles of champagne in the Baltic sea on 18 June. The Baltic sea offers unique aging conditions for the bottles of champagne with its low level of salinity and a constant temperature of 4 degrees. This was discovered four years ago when divers found a cache of more than 165 bottles of champagne near the Äland island near Finland. The bottles were dating back to 1839, but were preserved perfectly. The bottles champagne of Veuve Clicquot currently lie 40 meters below the surface where they will be monitored by a ‘cellar master’. The bottles will be brought back to the surface in 2054.

Dinner at Grant Achatz; a feast for all senses

4-9-2014

Chef Grant Achatz of restaurant Alinea is only 30 years old and no. 9 on ‘The World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ by San Pellegrino. As all his European colleagues particularly create a feast on the plate, this chef creates a complete show with the whole experience but in an understated, un-American way. Marjolein van Spronsen experienced it and concludes in her blog; “This is in the restaurant world, “Think different, Act different’, a rollercoaster ride from three hours that gives you a ‘dazzling experience’ of tastes and experiences”.

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Restaurant ‘t Klooster was opened in Wijk bij Duurstede

4-9-2014

Jonnie and Thérèse Boer of ‘De Librije’*** and ‘Librije’s zusje’** opened restaurant ‘t Klooster at Wijk bij Duurstede on 1 September. This restaurant is taken over by former employee Jeroen van Hensbergen and his wife Natasja van Hensbergen. Jeroen and Natasja transformed brasserie ‘t Klooster into a restaurant where high-quality, creative and affordable dishes are served. A special aspect is that the restaurant serves a menu especially for people who had a gastric bypass or gastric sleeve. Natasja herself had gastric bypass surgery and realized that it was very difficult to join others in dining for a full evening. “Jeroen cooks in ‘t Klooster a special menu where the portioning is adapted to the wishes of the guests and where the intolerances and the use of sugar are taking into account.”

Delirium Café opens in Amsterdam

3-9-2014

The famous Delirium Café opens its doors in Amsterdam on 18 September. The Delirium Café is worldwide known to beer lovers. The café originated in Brussel and is known for its amount of different beers. In 2014 the café made it to the Guiness Book of Records with a variety of 3200 beers. The establishment in Amsterdam starts ‘modest’ with 500 different kinds of national and international beers. It will be located in a characteristic property at the Piet Heinkade. Guests can eat there as well, the kitchen serves simple but qualitative dishes. Soon a Delirium boat will float through the canals of Amsterdam. The boat transports guests from and to the Delirium café.

The Bacon Bullets

3-9-2014

NEXTDELI is a new player in the field of food concepts and introduced new products: The Bacon Bullets and The Bacon Balls. The products are inspired on the Dutch well-known ‘Kroket’ and ‘Bitterbal’ and have a bacon flavour. The Bacon Balls and Bullets distinguish themselves from the ‘Kroket’ and ‘Bitterbal’ in three ways: ‘The Crunch’, ‘The Bacon’ and ‘The Taste’. The products have a special crunch because of the use of American breadcrumb. The Bacon can be tasted in the creamy filling and the Taste refers to the spicy aftertaste. The products are made of organic bacon and no additives and preservatives are added. A special sauce is developed to replace the mustard that is usually used with ‘kroketten’ and ‘bitterballen’. The Gunshot sauce looks a lot like a mustard-sauce, but has a sweet touch from honey and a touch of BBQ.

Cooking at the beat of dance music

2-9-2014

Dance festival Tomorrowland was held on the 19^th, 20^th, 26^nd and 27^th of July. The festival isn’t just well known for its music, but for the culinary experience as well. For the third time in history a small amount of people could experience the cooking skills of Sergio Herman in the secret restaurant, hidden in the main stage. For the amount of € 15.000,- Sergio Herman, Quique Dacosta (three Michelin stars) from restaurant Quique Dacosta and Kobe Desramaults (one Michelin star) from restaurant In De Wulf prepared several dishes while the music was playing loud.

The rest of the publication is only available in Dutch

Arancini: Italian ‘bitterballen’

2-9-2014

This summer we’ve eaten the Italian dish Arancini in the bar of restaurant Filini at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel in Chicago. We ate this dish several times in Italian restaurants in America and Australia, but the few times I was in Italy, I haven’t seen it on the menu. Although the dish is probably served there as well. I have not seen this dish in the Netherlands before, although it is a simple dish to make. The dish consist out of deep fried balls of risotto with mozzarella cheese and smoked ham in the middle. A simple and delicious starter and because of the Dutch association with the ‘bitterballen’ it could become very popular in the Netherlands as well ^Marjolein van Spronsen

The Crab Shack Wellington

1-9-2014

In the Netherlands we have a lot of beautiful local products, but if we see the crabs and lobsters that are served at The Crab Shack in Wellington we are a bit jealous. The Crab Shack is a casual restaurant with a coastal/Cape Cod theme. With their location at the waterfront the restaurant serves mostly seafood and especially crabs as ‘Nelson Paddle crab’, ‘Jonah crab’ and the red ‘King crab’. They also serve meat dishes as ‘the Shack Steak’ and the ‘Kiwi pepper lamb rump’. Besides that the dishes on the menu are very affordable, the restaurant has daily specials too such as ‘Mussel Madness Monday’, ‘Winging into the Weekend’ and ‘Sangria Saturdays’.

Deep Dish Pizza at Giordano’s

1-9-2014

We already wrote about it before, but finally we’ve tasted them ourselves: the Chicago-style Pizza, Deep Dish Pizza. We tried this ‘stuffed pizza pie’ at restaurant Giordano’s and at a Wednesday evening we still had to wait half an hour for a table! Looking at the amount of tables where people were sharing this pizza, we can only conclude that the dish is very popular here. We respectfully watched other families eating a large size pizza without problems and with pleasure but we had difficulties finishing a middle sized pizza! A slice of pizza feels like a complete pizza, which is definitely due to on the amount of cheese. ^Marjolein van Spronsen