Inspiration from the Xiringuito Escribà: an ‘Airbag’ with Iberian ham
12-8-2015
At the xiringuito (beach restaurant) Escribà in Barcelona they serve an ‘Airbag’ with Iberian Ham, a great alternative way to serve one of the most delicious hams of the world. Because of the fact that the ‘Airbag’ is served hot the ham will melt a bit, creating a delicious combination.
Xiringuito Escribà
If we do visit a town we always check the Michelin guide and the internet for great places to eat. Recently we bought a great book (also available as app): Where Chefs Eat, a guide to chefs’ favorite restaurants, in which this beach restaurant is recommended by Albert Raurich, Ferran Adria’s right-hand man at el Bulli for seven years who left in 2007 to open the Asian tapas bar Dos Palillos. At this xiringuito you will have dinner or lunch in a relaxed atmosphere with simple but great dishes. If you want to have lunch at weekend days, you really need to make a reservation. Besides their ‘Airbag’ we loved their Escribà special paella or fidueà (Catalan noodles) and their choice of desserts.
A small hospitable gesture from the Xiringuito
The staff brings the bill in a hat with a small surprise. Old-fashioned but we saw a lot of adults play with it, a great place to enjoy a summer lunch or dinner if you’re visiting Barcelona! ^Marjolein van Spronsen
Happyhappyjoyjoy – An impression with photos
5-8-2015
Julius Jaspers has brought the colourful streets of Asia to Amsterdam with Happyhappyjoyjoy. Aren’t you able to visit this restaurant? We’ve got a wonderful impression by photographer Wouter van der Sar via architecture and design company ‘concrete Amsterdam’.
Happyhappyjoyjoy – inspiration
Julius Jaspers leads people from Amsterdam directly to the bustling streets of Bangkok, Saigon and Hong Kong with the opening of Happyhappyjoyjoy in July. During his travels through Asia, the chef was inspired by the colourful culture and cuisine. His inspiration is now translated to the new Asian street food restaurant at the Bilderdijkstraat 158 in Amsterdam. Happyhappyjoyjoy brings together the contradictory tangle of influences from the Far East, where sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami are completely balanced on the menu.
The feel-good menu
Traditional starters and main courses on the menu are replaced with small feel good small plates like typical Asian steamed dumpling, buns with Peking duck or pork belly, hot & spicy shrimps’, clamps in XO sauce and Pad Thai. For the dessert menu Julius created dishes like Banana Fritters and Rice Pudding.
Asian drinks
The spicy dishes can be chilled down with roasted coconut juice or one of the other Eastern sodas. The extensive beer list is packed with Asian brands like Saigon Lager and the Chinese Tsingtao. Cocktails get a thrill with spices like ginger, pepper and Thai basil and Happyhappyjoyjoy serves Yumchatea tea from the Dutch computer science geeks Koh Ngai and Kenneth Touw.
A good-humored chaos
Happyhappyjoyjoy provides an upbeat, eclectic chaos. The vibrant décor is Asian with a wink and fully provided by concrete – which was the Gold Key Designer 2014. The combination of neon lights and authentic materials, patterns and colours leads you to one of the many night markets that line the streets of Asia. With a jumble of Oriental posters and ceiling of Chinese umbrellas you find yourself just in a true Asian setting.
Swipe your favourite dishes with Tender recipe finder
31-7-2015
With the Tender app you can swipe through tasty recipes.
Tender – Food and Recipes
Inspired by the dating app Tinder, Tender replaced the pictures of potential boy- and girlfriends with food. Three alumni of the College of Charleston have figured out that it is also a pleasurable experience to swipe through recipes and they have developed the app Tender where you can do this.
Swipe
By swiping to the left, a dish is thrown into the trashcan. Swipe to the right and the recipe is stored in your own cookbook. This makes the search through food pictures very easy. The app is aimed at the youth of 18-30 years old who want to cook at home more often but look for easy and attractive recipes. By a number of filtering options they can filter for categories like vegan, drinks, desserts etcetera. The start-up is looking to improve filters in different cuisines, prices and other options.
Development
The functionalities are somewhat limited and the app can be more intuitive, but this app shows how consumers will determine whether something (or someone) is visually appealing for them within a tenth of a second. Do you already have attractive pictures of your catering business online, considering this visual future? Find the app in the iTunes store or the Google Play Store.
Workshop Gertjan Kiers at Julius bar & grill
30-7-2015
Julius bar & grill in Amsterdam opens its doors on Sunday afternoon 6 September for a workshop with the famous butcher Gertjan Kiers of butchery ‘Fontijn Vlees en Vleeswaren BV’. This edition Gertjan Kiers debones a pork and teaches how to get the best out of it. The learnings can be tasted right back during a four-course lunch.
Pork deboned by Gertjan Kiers at Julius bar & grill
The previous workshops on beef and lamb were sold out, this edition Gertjan Kiers will elaborate about pork. In the afternoon of 6 September, Kiers debones a complete pig and provides chapter and verse. He shows how quality meat is cut, shares how a butcher knife is handled and teaches how all parts of the pig are best cooked on the barbecue.
4-course lunch
With a four-course lunch at Julius bar & grill the guests can taste back the lessons about the pork directly. There is a special wine pairing menu for the grilled meat dishes available.
About Gertjan Kiers
Gertjan Kiers is a born butcher with a clear opinion about meat and the meat industry; “Many consumers prefer convenience over taste and some butchers and chefs attach more importance to marketing rather than the product. By broadening the general knowledge about meat, the consumer gets a better piece of meat on the plate and the butcher profession gains the respect that it deserves. ”
This unique workshop will be in Dutch and can be reserved online via www.juliusbargrill.nl/reserveren stating ‘workshop Gertjan Kiers’.
When: 6 September, 2015
Time: 13:00 to 16:00 pm
Do you have a secret menu?
23-7-2015
Hot in the USA: secret menu’s at fast food chains. From fast food chain In-N-Out, to Shake Shack to McDonald’s. Why not create your own ‘secret menu’ as a cafeteria or small fast food chain?
Last year I did visit the fast food chain In-N-Out in California, my daughter who worked and lived in New York already heard about their (not-so) secret menu. Recently I saw a video of Anthony Bourdain discussing his appetite for burgers of In-N-Out. This chain has been offering customer-created riffs on the menu which have been passed down through word of mouth since the 1960’s. At their official menu it has just three burgers (a hamburger, cheeseburger, and the ‘double-double’), it’s ‘not-so-secret’ menu adds six more. I tasted the iconic ‘animal style’ burger with a lot of grilled onions and mustard. Did I like it? Well it certainly was the most tasty fast food burger I have eaten on the West Coast. But I didn’t eat many!
How to create a secret menu
The appeal of the secret menu is a delicate matter for restaurants. You can’t promote them because of the fact that it will instantly lose its secrecy factor. It’s a matter of involving your fans and let them spread their favorite ‘secret menu’ through social media and locally through word of mouth. For more information read the article ‘Secret Burger Menus, Explained’ on Eater.
You can even check the secret menu’s at fast food restaurants in your vicinity at the website Secret Menus. At this website I even read that one of the secret menus at In-N-Out is called the ‘Flying Dutchman’. Just two patties and cheese, very trendy without gluten! ^Marjolein
Inspiration from Grand Resort Bad Ragaz
20-7-2015
Restaurant Bel-Air in the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz offers a few dishes with local plants and herbs along with a small card with a picture, an explanation and a recipe.
Jelly from plants from the nature around Bad Ragaz
Renato Wüst, executive chef serves jellies of buckthorn, blackthorn and primrose in his dish ‘Terrine de foie gras maison, gelée d’argousier, primevère et prunier épineux’. Every jelly is described on a small card with a photo of the plant and the recipe! See the photos for inspiration.
Inspiration for other chefs
How often do you use local herbs or plants in a dish or special, distinctive ingredients? Is such a small card not a nice little welcoming gesture to your guests to provide more information about this dish? Furthermore, it is certainly a nice gesture to add a recipe for guests from the area. Name and phone number on it and you catch two birds with one stone: extra promotion of your dishes and you do not need to give more information to the table on that ingredient! Recently I also told my companions during dinner all I know about cresses, how you can use them and how healthy they are. You can also co-create a small card with a producer, like for example in this case with Koppert Cress.
Chizza by KFC in the Philippines
17-7-2015
KFC Chizza (#KFChizza) is KFC Philippines’ newest product. It consists out of chicken fillet topped like a pizza!
Chizza
A combination of two of the most well-loved food in the Philippines chicken and pizza, KFC Chizza features KFC chicken fillet topped with pizza sauce, pepperoni, bell peppers, pineapple tidbits, and melted cheese. A chicken fillet (pizza) crust in style of KFC and the taste and ingredients of pizza all in one.
#KFChizza; Inspiration for your country?
Sometimes you do spot food combinations that make you wonder whether the Dutch would love that! And then we came across this video, an ad for Kentucky Fried Chicken. We prefer a piece of chicken and a slice of old fashioned pizza on the side. KFC in the Netherlands, what do you think?
FoPo Food Powder creates powder of almost expiring fruits and vegetables
17-7-2015
Kent Ngo created FoPo Food Powder which saves almost expiring fruits and vegetables by drying & powdering them.
FoPo Food Powder is a nutritious powder
FoPo food powder is a nutritious powder made from unattractive market fruit that has been freeze-dried just before it expires, in order to help reduce food waste.
Worldwide more than 40 percent of fruits are thrown away, unattractive items which are classified as unsellable are quickly disposed of by supermarkets. All over the world we see initiatives to reduce this food waste. Like our Dutch initiative the Kromkommer and Inglorious foods in France. FoPo food powder is another ingenious solution created by students at Lund University in Sweden, who plan to freeze-dry fruit immediately before it expires. Food that otherwise would have been wasted can be used up to two weeks to two years later.
Freeze-dried almost expired fruit and vegetable waste
Freeze-drying isn’t a new technology, even in restaurant kitchens it’s used frequently to create powder. New is that FoPo aims to freeze solely products that would otherwise be discarded. The powder will be sold to consumers to be used in smoothies, soups etc. Besides that they hope that the food powders will contribute to help feed the hungry, especially in the Philippines, where the operation will be based. FoPo is crowdfunded through Kickstarter with, amongst others, a contribution by Ben & Jerry’s.
Inspiration: Chefs who are working with freeze-drying could try to use their almost spoiled fruits or vegetables and come up with ways to use this food powder, all in order to reduce food waste.
Pop-up power food restaurant with popular writer Rens Kroes
16-7-2015
For lovers of healthy and delicious food the popular writer Rens Kroes is a true hero. She is no longer ‘the little sister’, the Friesian has built her own health empire.
The second book of Rens Kroes ‘Power Food – From Friesland to New York’, was launched mid-June. In a sold out pop-up restaurant, guests could enjoy a very healthy dinner with dishes from her new book.
First pop up
Rens personally welcomed herthe guests, and had a culinary contribution to the diner as well, supported by a team of chefs. It was the first time that Rens presented her dishes to the public this way and all guests received a copy of the new book to take home. With two dinners and one lunch, a total of 135 guests could enjoying the food. That’s only a fraction of the 72.000 Facebook fans, 17.600 followers on Twitter and 223.000 followers (!) on Instagram and thus screaming for more events like these!
Friesland to New York
Rens was inspired by what she has seen, tasted and learned in Friesland and New York. She uses fresh, pure ingredients, and makes tasty dishes with nice combinations of spices. For every moment of the day Rens offers delicious and original, easy recipes. In daily life Rens is a nutrition coach and advises people in adapting a healthy lifestyle and diet.
Participants
Rens’ pop-up restaurant is made possible by Sien Concepts and sponsored by Amsterdam Flavours, Vedett, Bountiful, Arisz et al, Lemonaid – Charitea, V2Cgin, Bowls and Dishes, Catchii and Bloomon.
Inspiration: food blogger evening
For restaurants, it is interesting to consider a special evening with a popular food blogger or writer, it will amaze you how many loyal fans are waiting for events like these!
Restaurant in Leiden with homely atmosphere
15-7-2015
The historic building ‘The Volharding’ at the harbour in Leiden in The Netherlands is the home base of homely restaurant ‘Lot & de Walvis’ since a few weeks now.
Homely atmosphere at restaurant in Leiden
The fictional tour of Lot and her van that was named ‘De Walvis’ (translated as The Whale) went through Southern Europe and South Africa and recently ended at the port of Leiden. At ‘Lot & de Walvis’ American Barn wood and authentic weathered materials are used, mostly gleaned together by co-owner Rob van Wijnen himself. In the opening week, neighbours were personally invited for a drink and 80 people attended the neighbourhood drink. Friends and residents got a 25% discount to have a taste of the food in the first week.
Nightmare
The walls are plastered and transformed from sleek and straight into coarse and wavy. It was a nightmare for the plasterer who was used to deliver plain walls, but the result feels very natural. The various areas are named after the various rooms as you would expect in someone’s house. By using the same tables and style both inside and outside, the various areas of ‘Lot & de Walvis’ feel as one. On the toilet hangs a sign “The toilet design is Lot’s next project”, indicating why this space is less connected to the rest of the restaurant and still needs a make-over.
Food and drink
The extensive menu provides the opportunity to have breakfast all day. In addition, there is a cacophony of categories with headings like ‘bites’, ‘sandwiches’, ‘soups’, ‘small dishes’, ‘homemade burgers’, ‘Lot’s favourite dishes’, ‘desserts’ etc. The fans of refreshing fruit water can eat their hearts out with complimentary glasses of water from three jars with for example fresh melon water, citrus water or lemongrass water. There are beers available from the local brewery Pronck Leiden, wine lovers can definitely enjoy themselves and trendy Gin and Tonic lovers are served as well.
The Hospitality Group Leiden
Just as you would expect when visiting someone’s home, new guests are given a tour of the property, which, with its many nooks and spaces is well suited for a discovery tour. The waiters are already experienced in welcoming guests because a part of the crew worked at the party centre La France in Oegstgeest. Lot & de Walvis is part of the Hospitality Group Leiden together with Van der Werff, La France and City Hall. The board consists of the brothers Richard and Wouter van Leeuwen and Rob van Wijnen. Wouter van Leeuwen and Rob van Wijnen are responsible for the hospitality companies in Leiden. Richard van Leeuwen focuses on four Harbour Clubs based in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Scheveningen and Ibiza.
It was a warm welcome at the harbour of Leiden. Although we would have loved to get acquainted with the real Lot!
