Annie the Owl Bar – pops up in London
4-3-2015
In London ‘Annie the Owl Bar’, a pop-up bar will open for a week in March. In this pop-up bar you can stroke owls while drinking cocktails. Like all animal themed bars, where you can stroke cats or for example bunnies, the owl themed pop-up bar also originates from Japan.
Annie the Owl Bar
‘Annie the Owl Bar’ is inspired by a bar in Tokyo (the video above is from that bar) and is already very popular. Tickets are only available by lottery. Entrance is 20 pounds and includes two cocktails. The entrance money is going to the charity ‘The Barn Owl Centre’. The bar will pop-up from 19 till 25 March from 8:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. The opening hours are adjusted to the sleeping habits of the owls. The exact location will be revealed to the winners of the lottery on 16 March.
A visit to ‘Annie the Owl Bar’ must be a dream come true for the diehard Harry Potter fan! 😉
About soup – Urban Soup by Marc Veyrat
3-3-2015
Soup and broth are popular especially in those cities and regions where it is very cold. Urban Soup by Marc Veyrat in Montpellier (France) is one of those new soup places.
Earlier we wrote an article about Urban Fruit, a concept of Marc Veyrat. In the summer months you can go to the centre of Montpellier to compose your own smoothie, milkshake or frozen yoghurt with fruit at Urban Fruit. Very yummy frozen yoghurt and Montpellier is great as well and worth a detour if you’re in the vicinity! Now you can also go there in the winter months for a warm soup-to-go. Urban Soup is also a concept by Marc Veyrat.
Urban Soup – create your own soup
The concept is the same as in Urban Fruit, you grab a bag and start to fill it with vegetables that you like. You can choose between 20 different vegetables. Within minutes they make a healthy and delicious soup-to-go, to warm you during the cold winter days.
Speaking of soup
Broth is very popular, especially in the eastern part of America where they are currently (2014/2015) experiencing a very cold winter. Several Dutch journalists wrote articles about the trend broth-to-go instead of coffee-to-go. Unfortunately only available in Dutch. Although we also hear enthusiastic stories about soup-to-go instead of coffee-to-go especially from the Boston and New York City areas, we think that the key factor for success is a cold winter. And unfortunately we didn’t have one in the Netherlands.
Cooking at solar power with the GoSun
27-2-2015
GoSun is the portable solar cooker for your nature outings and picnics.
About the GoSun
The Gosun crowdsourced through Kickstarter is available now. The GoSun manages to integrate its sun-powered technology in a highly-portable form factor, making it convenient to bring along. Designed for environmentally-friendly cooking, the stove uses nothing but sunlight as fuel, allowing you to cook a variety of food items, provided the sun is peeking from the sky. But you can use it next to your barbecue to make bread or prepare vegetables.
The GoSun is 2 feet long with a 2.25-inch diameter, it’s clad in the shape of a tube. To use, you place the food inside the cylinder-shaped cooking chamber, open the lid wide, and face it towards the sun. The mirrors retain the heat from the sunlight it catches. The only obstacle for the use of the GoSun is no sun, which might make it a problem in The Netherlands. Up to three pounds of food can be cooked at a time. The GoSun can be used for steaming, baking, frying, roasting and boiling.
The GoSun is trying to break the cycle of poverty
The GoSun is trying to save lives, protect the environment and empower communities around the World. Today nearly 3 Billion people cook with dirty fuel sources, such as wood, dung or charcoal. As a result, the second leading cause of death on earth is smoke inhalation related illness. With every 5 device sold, the people behind the GoSun donate 1 device to change the way they cook at poorer parts of the world. Check this video about the stove and their plans.
Creating great meals in the GoSun stove
As you can see in the video above they asked well known chefs to help them with creating new dishes with the stove. In the video above, the famous chef José Andrés is working with the GoSun.
Tosti van Josti
26-2-2015
Tosti van Josti, a new breakfast & lunch restaurant, will open her doors at the centre of The Hague at the end of February. A concept that is different from all the other lunchrooms. The ‘Tosti’s’ (sandwiches) will be served and made by people with a mental or psychological work limitation.
Tosti van Josti
‘Tosti van Josti’ works with organic and healthy products as much as possible. The assortment will exist out of sandwiches, yoghurts, soups, salads, juices, homemade lemonades and organic soft drinks.
In the Netherlands we have a band with boys and girls who suffer from down’s syndrome they are called: ‘The Josti band’. To give the word ‘Josti’ a positive vibe and to show that people with a work limitation can function well in a lunchroom, the founders came up with the name ‘Tosti van Josti’. Check out their website, there is a countdown until the big opening at 28 February. We wish all the staff a lot of fun with working at Tosti van Josti.
Power to the Pieper
25-2-2015
The potato is already hundreds of years super nutritious and contributes in combination with vegetables, meat or fish to your daily amount of vitamins and minerals. Earlier we wrote an article about the ‘opperdoezer’ potato . The potato is often put in a negative light. To change this view aardappel.nl launched a campaign: ‘Power to the Pieper.’
Superfoods
Lots of people are fans of the superfoods but after quinoa, goji berries or wheat grass they now want to introduce the potato. The potato contains many essential nutrients. And a portion of cooked potatoes (200 grams) contains 150 calories, almost 100 calories less than the same portion of cooked rice. Besides that the potatoes are also quite cheap and easy to prepare.
Power to the Pieper
The next few weeks the #PowertothePieper potatoes will be placed in the spotlights throughout the Netherlands. All the potato farmers and traders participate in this campaign and have renamed their potatoes into ‘Power to the Piepers’. Take a picture of the packaging with #powertothepieper and share your pieper at the social media.
The Holland Food Valley house
24-2-2015
Thursday 26 February, the ‘Night of the Gelderland economy‘ will take place. Gelderland is located in the Netherlands. During this event, visitors can get acquainted with innovative products and ingredients. In the Holland Food Valley house guests can learn more about sport’s bread, European quinoa, Beeter and “Low-Cal” ice cream.
The house
This house is organized by Food Valley NL in collaboration with InnoSportLab Papendal , the top restaurant of Sports Center Papendal and some companies in Gelderland. In the Holland Food Valley house Erik te Velthuis, chef of the Topsport restaurant at Papendal shows sporty dishes based on innovative products and ingredients. Visitors can discover food innovations from Gelderland and start a conversation with the entrepreneurs behind these innovations.
Inspiration from the Holland Food Valley house
Energy efficient terrace
Holland Food Valley house is in the Innovation Garden, centrally located on the property. There is a heated, low-energy terrace in front of the house. Only when visitors sit on their cushions from Sit & Heat they will become warm, this to avoid unnecessary energy consumption.
Live e-Cooking
E-Cooking by IXL Netherlands, is a new, energy-efficient method to prepare tasteful dishes quickly. This method uses electrical pulses.
European quinoa
This whole wheat, saponin free quinoa was developed through conventional breeding by the University of Wageningen and has no bitter taste. These quinoa is cultivated by farmers in Northwest Europe. GreenFood50
Beeter®
The meat substitute Beeter is one hundred percent vegetable and has the “bite” of high-quality chicken meat. Like chicken Beeter can be used in all kinds of dishes, including salads and snacks. We wrote about Beeter in 2011.
Sports Bread
This bread from Sportgrain is the first bread product with sport-specific characteristics. The combination of farina and fruit provides an optimal mix of fast and slow carbohydrates. The bread is rich in fibers and sugars from fruits.
Creamy “Low-Cal ‘ice
The ice cream from NIZO tastes creamy, contains virtually no fat and 25% less sugar than just ice cream. We wrote about ‘Low-Cal’ ice-cream before.
Instock Toko & Truck on the barricades against food waste
19-2-2015
Instock comes up with a new take away shop (Instock Toko) and a mobile food truck (Instock Truck) to reduce food waste. The first initiative of Instock, a pop-up restaurant in Amsterdam, opened in June 2014. Like in this pop-up restaurant, the food served at the Instock Toko & Truck are made from products that otherwise would be wasted.
Instock Toko & Tuck
At the new take away shop, Instock Toko, they will offer warm meals, salads, soups and juices every day. They don’t work with a standard menu as the meals are made from the harvest of the day. Customers help to reduce food waste by buying a meal at the Instock Toko. The take away shop will open the doors tomorrow (20 February 2015) in Amsterdam.
The Instock Truck is an old Mercedes Benz fire truck that has been turned into a green food truck. With this truck, the Instock team is able to make people aware of the food that is being wasted throughout the Netherlands. The food truck will be participating in several festivals this summer.
Food waste
Research shows that about 30 till 50 percent of our food is wasted. Throw away food does not only costs money, but also the energy consumed in the production, packaging, transportation and food preparation gets lost. Selma Seddik, Bart Roetert, Merel Laarman and Freke van Nimwegen, four employees of the Dutch supermarket chain ‘Albert Heijn’, came up with a plan to reduce food waste. While under employment at ‘Albert Heijn’ they got the opportunity to realise their plan. Now cars are driving along a number of AH supermarkets every morning. At those supermarkets they collect all the products that cannot be sold anymore, for example bread that’s one day old or fruit, vegetables and potatoes in a packages with damages. We wrote earlier about the pop-up restaurant, so if you want to know more about their pop-up restaurant, read this.
Noma is selling the cutlery and tableware from their pop-up restaurant
18-2-2015
A new development in the restaurant pop-up scene. The Danish restaurant Noma that was relocated from Copenhagen to Tokyo (at the Mandarin Oriental hotel) from early January until 14 February now sells all the chopsticks, forks, bowls and plates online.
About the cutlery and tableware from the pop-up restaurant
René Redzepi had 14 local Japanese artists and potters asked to create tableware and cutlery for his pop-up restaurant that is locally sourced. The result is a collection of artisanal and beautiful but expensive earthenware plates and bowls and organic lacquer forks, spoons and chopstick. The collection was co-curated by the designer and Arts&Science creative director, Sonya Park.
And now the collection is sold through the website.
The Burger Club – Brings burgers to life through thoughtful ingredients.
17-2-2015
At the Burger Club at the Nieuwe Binnenweg in Rotterdam you can choose between three types of meat for all the burger they serve; MRIJ (Dutch) beef, USA Wagyu beef and Iberico pork. Difficult to choose.
Burger brought to life through thoughtful ingredients
Burgers like a Classic, BBQ, Greek, De Luxe or a juicy burger (the latter with gorgonzola in the meat) can be served with all the above types of meat. The MRIJ (Dutch) beef comes from butcher Piet van den Berg and is made from cattle grazing on the banks of the Meuse, Rhine and Ijssel rivers. For those who can’t choose, you can taste all three varieties if you order the sliders.
Owner Luis originates from Spain and you can trace back some Spanish influences in the menu. He serves a burger with chorizo and jalapeno peppers or one with Iberico ham and aioli. The fries are fried in olive oil, which clearly reflects on the taste. But they also serve a ‘Dutch Weed’-Burger, a vegetarian burger with seaweed as main ingredient. And a burger from grilled farm chicken combined with mango chutney.
Gin + Tonic at the Burger Club
Besides wine and beer the Burger Club also serves gin & tonics. Guests can choose from four types of tonics and eight varieties of gin, including Bobby’s, Hendricks and the German gin, Monkey 47.
Burger bars/restaurants are popular in the Netherlands
Hamburgers from fine quality beef remain trendy. The last couple of years we saw a rise in the number of burger bars or restaurants. If you as a restaurant owner would like to offer your guests more choice in the type of meat, check out the choice from The Frozen Butcher .
Matcha latte – a healthy Japanese coffee alternative
16-2-2015
Leonie van Spronsen had a Matcha latte in Paris at Maison Kitsuné and writes about it. Matcha is known to be full of antioxidants, fiber & chlorophyll. When you drink it as a Matcha latte, the combination with the milk gives a sweet like flavor without any sugar.
A few years ago ordering a cup of coffee was simple, there was the American, the espresso and the cappuccino or if you were feeling crazy a latte would be the beverage of choice. Boy, things have changed in that department.
Nowadays everybody has their own special preference, white chocolate mocha with non-fat milk, a ristretto or an almond milk caramel macchiato, the options are infinite. But to say this made the coffee game healthier? Certainly not.
Matcha – a tradition in Japan
Meanwhile the Japanese were steadily persisting in their traditional practice of drinking Matcha everything. Matcha is a tea plant only grown in Japan, near the Yahagi River, and is a tea type used so often in Japan that sources say only 1% is used for export.
The health benefits are comparable to other green teas but with a much larger impact because the tea (and all other hot beverages made with it) is made from a powder that contains the entire leaf. This means you are ingesting the full scale of nutrients the leaf has to offer in comparison too just the brewed water you usually get with green tea.
Matcha latte
Matcha is known to be full of antioxidants, fiber & chlorophyll, next to this when you drink it as a Matcha latte, the combination with the milk gives a sweet like flavor without any sugar. In these times of increasing obesity, diabetics and highly processed foods – this might be the new flagship of the pro-health movement.
Matcha latte popular in NYC – is Europe to follow?
After already taking NYC by storm, the concept is now also slowly but steadily making its way to Europe. And why not? If you are into milky coffee drinks and have cravings for Starbucks drinks on a daily basis, you might as well switch to Matcha latte. It certainly contains less fats & sugars, it actually has additional health benefits and (not unimportant) it looks really cool. The question is.. how long before we consider a Matcha latte to be as normal as a cappuccino?
