How taste Umami?
19-9-2013
The Danish professor Ole Mouritsen will give a presentation about Umami in the Future Food House, part of the World Food Festival on Sunday 22 September. Ole Mouritsen is specialist in the field of Umami, the fifth taste after sweet, sour, salty and bitter. He will show the audience what Umami is by explaining the theory, giving examples from the Japanese kitchen and from fast food. Three Dutch chefs, Remco van Erp and Pepijn Schmeink (Restaurant Eendracht) and Hiroaki Yamamoto (restaurant Huson), will cook small dishes during the presentation to show the taste of the mysterious flavor Umami.
Have a steak breakfast at McDonald’s
18-9-2013
McDonald’s added steak to the breakfast menu in the USA. Besides the regular breakfast menu, customers can now for example choose a bagel with steak, egg and cheese. At this moment the steak as breakfast is available at approximately 9,600 locations in the USA. Besides this heavy breakfast item, McDonald’s is also testing the bundled ‘Blitz Box’ in Kansas City. Customers can order the Blitz Box for $ 14,99, it contains two Quarter Pouders with cheese, two medium orders of French fries and 10 Chicken McNuggets with dipping sauces. The Blitz Box is tied into a promotion with the Kansas City Chiefs and will be available during the football season. If the Blitz Box is successful, McDonald’s might introduce this bundled menu at multiple locations.
Cycling for an ice cream
17-9-2013
At the ice cream parlor Peddlers Creamery in Los Angeles, customers can make their own ice cream by cycling. The ice cream parlor sells both dairy and non-dairy organic ice cream, made of local sustainable products. Instead of using electricity to make an ice cream, the motor is connected to the bicycle device that uses the energy to churn the ice cream. Customers can contribute to the production of their own ice cream. The focus at Peddlers Creamery is on sustainability, environmental friendly and local products.
Redesign meeting rooms Kapellerput
13-9-2013
The Kapellerput conference hotel has redesigned its six meeting rooms. The rooms have massive brainstorm walls, interactive projectors combined with glass whiteboards and the curtains have a print of abstracted tree trunk pattern. The carpet of the lobby is replaced by a specially developed design inspired by art and nature. The carpet looks like a cross section of a tree trunk with a length of 75 meters.
Battle of the Bees
12-9-2013
The ‘Waldorf Astoria New York’ and the ‘Grand Wailea’ in Maui, both members of the Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts brand, held a ‘Battle of the Bees’ to celebrate the National Honey Month. Both hotels have a set of beehives and use the produced honey in culinary dishes, cocktails and spa treatments. During the ‘Battle of the Bees’, at September 4, a panel of judges elected the honey of both hotels, processed in dishes. The Waldorf Astoria New York won the judges’ approval by a vote of 3-2, the Grand Wailea got the popular vote as the media attendees awarded its honey as the best. Actually a bit of a tie. Guests are able to taste the honey-exchanged dishes throughout the month of September.
Crooked cucumbers
11-9-2013
Crooked cucumbers, tomatoes in weird shapes or roots with two legs… Research shows that about 5 to 10% of the vegetables in the Netherlands are wasted, because of their shape, color or size. The wholesale Zegro and ‘Kromkommer’ launched a pilot project where they sell four types of imperfect vegetables this month. The vegetables tastes as good as normal, despite of the weird shapes. During the pilot the current assortment of Zegro will be complemented with imperfect cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and red peppers.
The horseshoe hotel or the Donut
11-9-2013
Next month the Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort in Zhejiang (at China’s eastern coast) will open. The building already has a number of nicknames, ‘The horseshoe hotel’ and ‘The Donut’. Besides the great design of the building, the interior must be spectacular as well. With a lobby, full of Swarovski crystal, panorama restaurants and lounges, a spa, indoor and outdoor pools. So if you’re going to Zhejiang, we know a nice hotel for you! Many more photos of Sheraton on the link below.
Pommes Frites Warsauce in New York
10-9-2013
Pommes Frites, a small restaurant where they serve only authentic Belgian Fries, topped with a variety of extraordinary sauces. We thought that ‘a fries warsauce’ is a typical Dutch/Belgian combination was but it’s being served in NYC as well! Leonie van Spronsen, who spotted Pommes Frites, did enjoy her fries!
Opening Hampshire Hotel Fitland
10-9-2013
The Hampshire Hotel Fitland will open its doors on Monday 16 September. The hotel is located on the tenth and eleventh floor of the Level building, next to Leiden train station. The hotel has 120 luxurious rooms and two restaurants with view of the city. There is also a sport center and a complete wellness resort in the building. There are six multi-functional meeting rooms for eight to a thousand people and because of its central location near to the train station it is a great meeting venue.
Smart Lid
9-9-2013
The ‘Smart Lid’ is a special disposable lid that indicates when a drink is too hot to drink. The Smart Lid slowly changes from a red color into a dark red color when the drink cools, so it is the right temperature to drink (under 48 Celsius degrees). The lid prevents people from burning their mouth and hands to the drink. Very useful for restaurants and cafés that sell take-away beverages.
