Written in the stars
A revolution in Christmas-cards. Write it in the stars with an iOS device via stars.akqa.com.
A revolution in Christmas-cards. Write it in the stars with an iOS device via stars.akqa.com.
At the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles the largest pop-up book in the world introduced the premiere of ‘The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug’. For five days the book promoted New Zealand as holiday destination. See the book here.
Are you in a winter dip? With the Positivo cocktails of Happy Drinks, your body and soul will get a heartwarming energy boost en brings the summer back into your glass. 0% alcohol, 100% positive. The ‘Positivo’ cocktails is made with balsamic vinegar, strawberries and pepper and this combination makes every pessimist positive. The ‘Positivo Classico’ is more powerful and intense than the ‘Positivo’ and gives you a thrill. The recipes are only available in Dutch.
2014 will be another special ‘orange’ year. With the Winter Olympics, the World Cup and Kings day coming, brewery Heineken is seeking a Chief Orange Officer by February 1, 2014. The new Chief Orange Officer will bring the orange feeling at home and abroad and the first coaches the legion of supporters. With an orange car and an orange suite, the Chief Orange Officer will visit all the orange events and if the Netherlands are world champion in Brazil, the annual salary will be doubled.
The Polish artist Pawel Althamer will show his latest collection on the second, third and fourth floor of the ‘New Museum’ in New York from February 12 to April 13, 2014. Part of his collection is ‘The Neighbors’ where the artist involves the visitors to make an ambitious artwork. On the fourth floor of the museum, a white wall will be covered by paintings and drawings made by the visitors. Visitors can show their arts and will be part of the exhibition. At various times during the exhibition musicians will provide live music.
The Hanjie Wanda Square is a new shopping center in Wuhan, China. In 2011 a contest was held with various national and international architects. The design of UNStudio’s was chosen as winner. The building has luxury design and combines modern and traditional elements with simple materials. The focus of the design is on the visitor flows, from the three main entrances visitors are guided to two central spaces. The facade consists of 42,333 spheres with 3.1 million LED lights that can be combined to create a beautiful lighting effect.
It remains difficult to make a perfect cocktail, you often pour too much or too little of an ingredient in the cocktail. With the ‘Perfect Drink’ you can now easily make the perfect cocktail with the right amount. The digital kitchen scale is connected with an app and tells you what ingredient you need to add, considering the weight during the preparation and indicates when to stop adding an ingredient. You will get the perfect cocktail. The app has a large database of cocktail recipes but you can also add a recipe yourself.
With the new search engine ‘Accor Meeting Hotel Finder’ of Accor Hotels, MICE- and meeting planners can search easily for a suitable location for their conference or event. They can search for a location based on the geographical location, type of event, accommodation and hotel segment. When the meeting planner has selected a location they can directly request for an offer or book the location. The search engine has more than 1,000 locations and 10,000 rooms in 90 different countries of which 65% in Europe and 23% in Asia Pacific.
No mayonnaise, ketchup or curry with the fries but a chocolate dipping sauce?! Japanese fast food chain Lotteria will serve its fries with a Lotte Ghana chocolate dip called ‘Dipping Fries’ in the months January and February. The salt of the fries and the sweetness of the chocolate makes a unique combination. We have tried the fries with chocolate at the office and… A few colleagues thought it was pretty good but most prefer mayonnaise!
A driving tram through the city of The Hague and during the trip a high-quality four-course dinner while passing the highlights of the city. Around February 2014 this will be possible in tram restaurant Hoftramm. The driving tram will be transformed into a modern and elegant restaurant and has all amenities including a kitchen, bar and toilets. Tram restaurant Hoftrammm will be a route through the center of The Hague six days a week and the guests will get served a four-course dinner with a matching beverage package. To achieve the tram restaurant there is currently a crowdfunding campaign.
Network club INCH (international network connecting hotelschool graduates) has decorated a hotel suite at the Hotelschool The Hague campus Amsterdam in collaboration with Balsan DUO carpet. The design studio of Balsan DUO has designed the room together with architect Frank ter Horst. The hotel suite is themed unruliness, spontaneity and to act unconventional. Balsan has placed a striking carpet with 4 designs on the floor and they also decorated the wall and the window frame with the same carpet. There is a bed of 2m by 2m in the middle of the room, a maxibar and enough space to move freely.
Start 2014 without a hangover. The organizers of the ‘Chocolate Club’ celebrate New Year Eve with a conscious clubbing night. Drink alcohol-free super-drinks and elixirs with natural ingredients and watch the fireworks over Amsterdam from a hot tub or dance the night away in the ‘Amsterdam Dansmakers’–studios. Recently we mentioned the rise of superfoods, this is the first healthy clubbing concept that we came across. See the video of the previous edition in July.
Take an adventurous book, combine it with a shoestring travel guide and bake it with delicious recipes to a practical cookbook. That must have been the recipe for ‘Gastrovan – Met je neus in de boter'(proverb: hit the jackpot). This recipe was created by Sjaak Borsboom, Jeroen Simons and Olivier van der Ree after a summertour with their campervan through the Netherlands, France and Spain where they cooked for more than 200 people. The combination of funny stories, describtion of exclusive destinations and local recipes will be mouthwatering for every foodie.
Saturday 11 January the chubby Gasconne pig ‘Pumba’ will be honored. The pig entered the Lindenhoff farm as a 20 kg piglet and is now, at the age of five, ready to be roasted next to open fire for 50 hours (!). Organizers Baaf Vonk and Roel van Vliet from Varkensroosteren.nl work together with restaurant Old-School in Amsterdam. The cooks are already working on mouthwatering recipes like ‘schwein with sauerkraut and Schwarzbier’, pig belly with Korean kimchi or American pulled pork with chutney.
Floske Kusse and Tine Sommeijer want to stimulate city-inhabitants to get more acquainted with local shops. Therefore they’ve started City Food Route. The website provides a map of the neighbourhood with shopping tips for the menu and recipes and relaxed places to get a cup of coffee and relax. The first tour through the old East of Amsterdam is online and soon a tour through the less-known parts of ‘De Pijp’ and ‘Rivierenbuurt’ will follow.
The Japanese company Oriental has developed the White Goat, a machine that directly recycles office paper into toiletpaper.
A great treehouse made of fruit and vegetable crates. Commisioned by the ‘Stedelijk Museum’ in Amsterdam for the ‘Mark’ -project.
The agave plant (from which tequila is made) has proven to be a great source of bio-fuel. The agave plant can grow in Africa, Australia and Mexico at low cost and is therefore a great possibility.
Israel-based IMguest provides guests a virtual tool to find fellow travelers, based on interests and purpose of visit.
The British aiport London Luton introduces the first holographic employees, Holly and Graham. For a test period of four to six weeks they are helping passengers at the baggage check area. The goal is accelerate the security check.
Harvard professor David Edwards has developed a machine that makes any food inhalable vapors, Le Whaf. Ten minutes of inhaling food equals 200 calories. Edwards previously created a smaller version, Le Whif.
People can now view the collection of the Rijksmuseum on Google. Through the website, people can view artwork and background information of over 1,000 works of 17 major museums in the world. Next to the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, other museums, like The Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the palace of Versailles joined.
Kraft created a machine, in collaboration with Intel, that answers the everyday question “what shall I eat today?”. This machine is equipped with face recognition to make analyses and then makes suggestions of products and recipes.
Audree Lapierre’s re-designed a milk carton to make it more informative. The new package does not indicate just what the milk is made of but also the percentage of proteins and carbohydrates etc …
Nowadays it is becoming easier for your friends and family to keep track via social networks. This shoe automatically reports your current location to Facebook or Twitter, so you don’t need to login via foursquare anymore.
Designed by Rare, a wooden shower with a steel core. The water runs through silicone tubes.
Pennies is an organization that allows online buyers to round up their purchase by credit card or debit card and donate the difference to charity. Dominos Pizza, Zizzi Pizza and TravelLodge have already joined.
Max Stoller discovered that 1,660 restaurants in New York received really bad scores from the Health Department, but are still open. Stoller invented an application that allows a user to be warned when he checks in at Foursquare at one of these restaurants.
A missed novelty, glow golf. Already five spots in the Netherlands and popular for children’s parties.
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The PlantLab in Den Bosch, the Netherlands, succeeded in cultivating the first fruit and vegetables without daylight use. PlantLab did cultivate cucumbers, strawberries, corn, beans and tomatoes by making use of only red and blue LED lights. This opens options to grow these products at your restaurant and always have super fresh cucumbers, strawberries etc. available.
Hotels with a macabre past, Vacation spots for the morbidly, for curious travelers! Ghosts and spirits guaranteed!
Frushi is a combination of rice and fruit shaped like sushi. They only use fresh fruit. All kinds of fruit are used to make frushi’s. You can eat Frushi for breakfast, but is also delicious as a dessert or snack.
Weber had to promote the new serie of grills. The traditional fences all over the city were turned into genuine grills, simply by adding magnetic real size flyers in the shape of steaks, burgers and shish kebabs. On the back: the website! See the pictures here.
Worldwide objects, trees, statues are wrapped with fabric. No longer a “trend”, it has been going on for quite a while! And we missed it completely! But as the press gives attention to these projects regularly, it’s maybe an idea to have an object around your hotel or restaurant packed with knitted fabric by people who love to knit (the wild knitters?).
Especially for Valentine’s Day Cooling offers a wine climate cabinet decorated with a red fabric. The Valentine Champagne Cabinet comes with two champagne glasses and a bottle of rosé champagne by Lamoureux.
Opening oysters is always tricky. With this oyster opener it is easier and safer for your fingers.
The Champagne bar has turned a luxurious Rolls Royce into a real champagnebar. The back of the car has been re-modeled in Riva style and is equipped with 21 champagne coolers, 2 fridges with room for 50 bottles of champagne each and 40 speakers.
By checking in at Foursquare in a bar where Heineken beer is tapped, consumers save extra ‘e-points ‘, Heineken’s current loyalty program.
Restaurant ‘t Schulten Hues, the Netherlands, now has a shop called Gast-Deli, the shop full of goodies. Peter Gast & Jacqueline van Liere offer a variety Schulten Hues-related products. From the now classic Schulten Hues croquette to wines and ingenious kitchen gadgets.
Whisky producer Scottish Spirit launched whisky cans on the Sout-American market.They think that people who drink whisky outdoors prefer cans over walking around with a bottle.