It’s winter again. Fatigue, decreased energy and concentration problems are signs of a winter depression. On average about 600,000 people in the Netherlands suffer from winter depression. To give more relief, Bagels and Beans offers fifteen minutes of ‘sun’. Bagels & Beans has decided to introduce the phototherapy glasses again in collaboration with phototherapy specialist Goodlite. Guests can use the glasses for fifteen minutes and it will give them a better mood and more energy.
McDonald’s Italy has introduced its new local burger ‘Gran Piemontese’. The burger comes from the Piedmont region and is made of 100% meat of the famous Italian Piedmonts cow breed. The ‘Gran Piemontese’ will be available in nearly 500 locations of McDonalds in Italy. Earlier we spotted the app ‘TrackMyMacca‘ in Australia, where the guest can see where the ingredients originate from and what happens before they are served.
Company ‘Eat Healthy’ has introduced a healthy variation of the pizza. This frozen pizza is now available in England and Wales. This pizza is low in fat and sodium with a lot of vitamin and mineral rich ingredients. The pizza has toppings like mozzarella, cheddar cheese, cherry tomatoes, red pepper and garlic powder. To make the pizza healthier the company added a secret ingredient: seaweed. The seaweed is the healthy alternative to salt. According to the company you don’t taste the seaweed because the flavors of the other toppings will dominate. An average frozen pizza contains 300 calories and 13 grams of fat, the pizza of ‘Eat Healthy’ contains 172 calories and 5.3 grams of fat.
Culinary creations made by Monique van der Meijden of ArtBazaar. In her atelier she creates rocks and trays out of oysters and scallops shells. Restaurant “de Compagnon” in Amsterdam displays her largest rock. Need more inspiration for Christmas? Download our booklet ‘Christmas gestures‘ with more easily usable Christmas gestures.
Years ago Ferran Adrià was one of the first chefs who released a cookbook with background stories about cooking at elBulli with pictures of the dishes. The recipes were included on a CD. These types of cookbooks we have seen more often in recent years. Nowadays we see more and more chefs releasing an app with dishes and background stories instead of a cookbook. Recently Richard van Oostbrugge, chef cook of the two Michelin starred restaurant Bord’Eau launched an app. Through the app you can see 14 digitally recorded preparations of his favorite creations. Besides the ingredients and the preparation, the lay-out of the plates is filmed from above which gives an inspiring look into the kitchen of the restaurant. The app is available for iPads with an iOS6 or higher.
Paulaner International has opened its first micro brewery ‘Paulaner Brauhaus & Restaurant’ in New York City. This is the first Paulaner Brauwhaus that opened in America, perhaps more will follow in the future. At the ‘Paulaner Brauhaus & Restaurant’ six of their special beers are brewed according to the original German ‘Beer Putiry Law’ established in 1516. On tap they will have the beers München Lager and München Dars, Hefeweizen (wheat beer) and two seasonal beers. The Brauhaus & Restaurant have got some bites like the famous German pretzels, sauerkrauts and different types of sausages.
‘A luxury travel blog’ compiled a top 10 Spa hotels all over the world at exotic locations. We visited the wonderful Spa hotel ‘Pankor Laut Resort‘. The ‘Pankor Laut Resort’ is a privately owned island located three miles off the West Coast of Malaysia in natural surroundings. The combination of luxury, the beautiful nature and the ancient wilderness create an environment where peace and magically memorable moments come together. Watch other beautiful examples of the top 10 Spa hotels at ‘A luxury travel blog.’
The Grotta Palazzese in Polignano a Mare in the Italian region of Puglia is a unique cave hotel with a restaurant. The hotel has 25 rooms and is partly carved out of the limestone rocks. From some rooms you have a brilliant view of the Adriatic sea and the restaurant has a half open cave ceiling. The restaurant opens from May to October.
The Yeatman is a luxe hotel in the heart of the wine cellar district of Porto with view on the city and the Douro river. The 5-star hotel is specialized in wine and gastronomy. All rooms have a Portugese ‘wine partner’ that hosts the room decorations, from pictures of the vineyard to branded artifacts. The wine partners hold weekly wine dinners at the hotel with meals that are cooked by Michelin star chef Ricardo Costa*.
Taylor’s Port sponsors the Master Suite 008, one of the most luxurious suites in the hotel. The bed in this suite is placed in a gigantic 28.000 liter wine barrel. According to the legend, the barrel is over a hundred years old. Check here the photos of this phenomenal hotel.
Through the Nightswap website people can lend out their house or room and get a night in someone else’s house in return without any financial transaction taken place. It’s possible to collect nights and spend them all in once, home swap at the same moment or to buy extra nights. The website offers insurances as well and is an alternative for peer-to-peer websites like Couchsurfing.org and Airbnb.com with a slightly different business model.
A crowdfunding game café initiative in Manhattan was funded by 188 people this October. For $8.700,- the game café ‘The Uncommons’ was created in the Big Apple. In the café-toy shop- coffee house guests can play a wide range of board games for $5,- a day. The shop sells a range of (warm) alcohol free drinks, pastries and sandwiches. A six months membership ($150,-) will provide you with privileges like a 10% discount for all in-store items, possibility to reserve a table and includes the rental fee.
It’s hardly avoidable to prevent company outfits in the hospitality industry from being stained, burned or teared. Although it isn’t representative to keep wearing them, it’s a waste to throw them away. Next to that, the clothing sizes of personnel often differ and clothing that’s to wide of tight isn’t representative either. Horecahemden.nl thinks it has the solution for company clothing with a deposit for the shirts. For used items the entrepreneur gets € 10,- off, even if the blouses are stained or teared.
Recently the Dutch paper ‘NRC Handelsblad’ published an article about what makes people happy. The writer, psychologist Sonja Lyumbomirsky gives as point number 1 that money can make happy sometimes, but focus on buying experiences (vacations, food and courses) rather than things. Things will get old quicker and are easier to compare to things of others or newer versions that come out later, this leads to more disappointments. This gives precisely the importance of hospitality, a good experience in a restaurant, bar or hotel contributes to the happiness of guests. As restaurant owner, you and your team contribute to creating a memory, especially with the holidays! The season makes it simples to create lasting experiences because your guests will already be in a merry mood and this can only be strengthened by dishes, decorations and hospitable gestures. This booklet will contain more photos than you are used to, but the images speak for themselves. Beautiful, simple examples of easily usable Christmas gestures. Download ‘Christmas gestures’ here.
The Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel in Vancouver offers their members of the Fairmont Presindent’s Bluc an exclusive Bike Butler service. With this service, hotel guests can explore the environment in an ecofriendly way. The hotel rents out 20 bikes, for free, and the bike concierge Marc Henley prepares the bikes and fixes accessories such as helmets, locks, water bottles and maps. Marc Henley has 20 years experience of cycling in Canada and can provide the best cycling routes and tips.
We’re already in the third week of October, and more and more festive inspiration is popping up online. Pinterest remains a wonderful source of ideas, read more
We’ve been enjoying glorious summer weather for a few weeks now, and the popular seasonal drinks are already known. Mocktails, cocktails, spritz variations, rosé, and read more
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You’ve always been told not to play with your food. But not in this case! With this cake, the populair game Angry Birds comes to life!
This wine shop is made from 1.500 wine boxes. The classy Albert Reichmuth store in Zurich Switzerland, is perhaps the greenest wine shop in the world with all its recycled ‘waste’. Created by design agency OOS.
A 113 year old wedding cake will be on display at the Willis Museum in Basingstoke, UK. This cake is surprisingly well preserved. There’s only a crack in the bottom due to WWII bombings.
This wine disc will help someone who doesn’t know anything about wine to be able to join the converstation. This wine disc only features wines French wines and the ratings are based on the “Guide Hachette des Vins”.
With this ingenious piece of design by Joseph and Joseph you no longer need an old fashioned garlic press. The Rocker has an ergonomic design, is easy to use and easy to clean.
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This app contains over 700 famous clothingbrands and their collections. The app tells the consumer the do’s and don’t’s with regard to (non) responsible clothing brands.
According to the ad, if you are married over 20 years, you receive a 30% discount at Hooters. Ironic? Yes, especially if you know what Hooters-waitresses are famous for…
Fat Cookie is a cookieshop that litteraly fishes for customers. This bakery sells cookies from a bag from the second floor above a street and just lets its dangle there. By passers can put $ 1 in the bag and the biscuits are hoisted down in a bag.
This 215 cm long sleeping bag shows the exact anatomical lay out of your body. This sleeping bag is banned in Japan and there is little information available about it, but is is definitely an eyecatcher on any camping site!
Philips Avent presented an app to help pregnant women and mothers. ‘My baby & me’ logs the growth of your baby, its weight, sleeping pattern and findes breastfeeding locations.
A group of Dutch designers and art lovers launched an initiative to turn Times Square into Art Square. For one day, they want to replace all advertisements on billboards by the art from the world’s most famous museums. The project should be financed by crowd funding, and achieved in 2012.
This’ BTTR Gourmet Garden is an all in one package which you only have to place in a little sunlight. The only thing required is that the box is sprayed 2x a day, this spray is included in the package and costs $ 19.95.
Grubwithus is a site that organizes group meals in a restaurant aimed to meet new friends.The evenings have a fixed price (about $ 20) and time (2 hours). For now it is only offered in San Francisco and Chicago.
The Bottle is a smart arlternative for plastic bottles. Water you drink from this bottle is purified by an ingenious carbonfilter. Through this filter chlorine, lime and organic bacteria will disappear from the water. The Bobble is available at € 11.95 at the Bijenkorf and Schiphol Amsterdam Airport.
Cotton candy with foie gras was served at several Grammy pre-parties.
The Mazooka shoots marshmallows and great is great for parties or “food fights”. The Mazooka can shoot a as far as 10m and is made by the Marshmallow Fun Company.
If you are young and / or fit, it’s hard to believe that certain food or habits like smoking can harm your body. This device the size of a mouse sends a beam of light to your body and then collects the reflected ‘light. It can then be determined how many wavelengths are absorbed by the body, and thus how many antioxidants the skin contains on a scale from 1 to 10.
Taste of Art will team up with Pocketmenu, a company that builde mobile websites for restaurants. On the new plates QR-odes will be printed that, when scanned with a smartphone, will direct you to the (mobile) website of the restaurant.
A British art student, Ben Huttly, designed vetgetable packaging that is 100% biodegradable. By laser cutting the labels you avoid using polluting ink and it is also is also filled with seeds so the buyer can harvest his own vegetables.
The Spanish food brand Gallina Blanca offers followers the posibility to tweet ingredients and you will receive a response with a recipe.
It sounds too good to be true, simply fill plastic bottles with water and UV-A rays kill all viruses, bacteria and parasites, known as SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection method). Problem is that it cann’t be checked if the water is really clean. Students of the University of Washington now developed the PotaVida, an electronic sensor that can determine if the water is clean or not.
There are already numerous providers of ‘today only deals’. Bevvy offers one-day-deals exclusively for clubs and bars. Currently only in the US.
Whoopaa is a new Dutch social platform that makes a distinction between your online business and personal identity. Or: “The social platform to connect, integrate and manage your social identities”.
This Potato Clock is a set of two wires and conductors which generate power of the peel of potatoes and sends it to a digital clock. Available for $ 11.08 on Amazon.com … excluding potatoes.
The most famous spring water from Belgium, Spa, came up with a new campaign. Through www.spaloveinabottle.nl you can send a free postcard to the love of your life (or someone else who can use a bottle of water )….
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