April 25, 2007

Dutch junk food has royal origins

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 8:56 am
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The ‘kroket’ (‘croquet’ of ‘croquette’, yes it’s a French word) actually has royal beginnings, according to top Dutch food critic Johannes van Dam in ‘Het volkomen krokettenboek’ (roughly ‘The comprehensive kroket book’), which will be published this fall. “It is nonsense to say that the kroket is made of meat leftovers,” Van Dam explains. According to his research, the recipe is from 1691 attributed to French chef Francois Massialot who made krokets out of delicacies such as truffles, mushrooms and cream cheese for King Louis XIV.

(Link: vleesmagazine.nl)

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April 24, 2007

Gumball rally hits Amsterdam

Filed under: Automobiles by Orangemaster @ 4:41 pm
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On 29 April at the stroke of midnight, Waterlooplein in Amsterdam will be the place to be to drool at very expensive supercars in the name of the Gumball 3000 2007. Rumour has it there will be three (!) Bugatti Veyrons, a limousine based on the Ferrari 360 Modena, a Mansory Rolls-Royce Phantom and a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 Edition. There will also be enough Porsches, Ferraris and Lamborghinis to go around. In seven days, participants roar out of London, go through Western Europe and the Balkans to finally end up back in London for the finish.

(autoweek.nl)

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Dutch Queen’s Day in London

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 11:46 am
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A house party will be given by the Dutch Tourism Board in London on the shore of the Thames in London for some 12,000 visitors on Saturday, 29 April. The Holland House Event will last the entire day and is suitable for young and old. Dutch drinks and finger food will be served and there will be performances by Dutch bands. For the younger visitors, there will be a meet and greet with Nijntje (known as Miffy in English).

Queen’s Day (Koninginnedag) is officially celebrated on April 30 and marks the birthday of the late Queen Juliana.

On another note, more and more tourists are getting wind of this relatively low key holiday because of the freemarkets in every city and town. This photo of Amsterdam’s Damrak was taken by Orangemaster in 1996 when (see left) the guilder was still in use.

(Link)

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April 21, 2007

Crazy new restaurant concept

Filed under: Food & Drink,General by Orangemaster @ 1:00 pm
freud restaurant

Not yet listed in the Iens or Special Bite restaurant guides, the mayor of Amsterdam Job Cohen opened and waited on tables yesterday at a new Amsterdam restaurant called Freud. Why the brouhaha? The restaurant, founded by psychologist Renske Kastelein and cooking instructor Gerda Hahn, is run by people with psychiatric problems. Their slogan translates to “Insanely delicious food”. “The staff here can’t get a job anywhere, but they function just fine, which is what they can prove here”, Hahn explains.

(Link)

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April 20, 2007

Headaches about headaches

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 5:25 pm
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Forget those recent articles about Belgians pissed off at Dutch drug cafés being moved closer the Belgian border in the Southern province of Limburg. Now there’s a whole new reason for the Belgians to cross border shop: paracetamol. To protest against the high cost of painkillers in Belgium (4 to 5 times the Dutch price), the Flemish KWB (‘Christian Workers Movement’) has organised a bus trip on 21 April to the border province of Zeeland just to buy paracetamol. Even the mayor of Hulst, who will be welcoming the buses in more ways than one, will have maps and drinks ready for his Flemish visitors.

(Link)

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Get bigger beach balls

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 1:43 pm

beach balls

The Baja Beach Club in Rotterdam is holding a contest where women can win a free boob job. Already 150 women have signed up in the hopes of scoring a new pair. All the women have to do is send in a photo of themselves with a cover letter as to why they deserve ‘a bigger rack’ to the tune of 5000 euro. “We’ve gotten entries from women between the ages of 21 and 45, mothers and non-mothers.”

(Link)

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April 19, 2007

IT nerds, get it here!

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 4:34 pm
girl

Two female ex students from Rotterdam have started an escort service that specialises in deflowering men. The ladies who work for the escort service have been specially trained for this. Clients can lose their virginity in bed, in the sauna or in a limousine, even by two women at once. And instead of cuddling, the women will answer their questions about sex in general.

According to owners Zoë and Marieke, most male virgins between 20 and 35 years of age work in the IT sector. ”Every virgin I know works with computers. They are very nice, but have a lack of social skills. They mean well, but get increasingly anxious because they don’t come into contact with women.”

(Link)

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Bike doubles as shopping cart

Filed under: Bicycles,Design,General by Orangemaster @ 8:34 am
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So many kinds of bikes exist in the Netherlands, a land with more bikes than inhabitants. Now it’s time for the multifunctional Feetz (pronounced ‘fiets’, the Dutch word for bicycle). Industrial designer Lennart Vissers and his father Herbert Vissers came up with the design. The tricycle has two wheels on the side that turn in corners and handles like a bicycle. It can easily accommodate a bag of groceries or a child seat and when it is folded up, it can be used as a shopping cart.

For the expats and foreigners out there: the child looks very unsafe with no helmet and all, but that’s the way people bike here. For the Dutchies: no, it’s not safe and yes, there are a lot of bicycle accidents, which are not taken seriously until someone dies. It’s a cultural thing.

(Link)

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April 17, 2007

Gouda from the Sahara

Filed under: Food & Drink,General by Orangemaster @ 11:37 am
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In September, the first ever cheeses from a new cheesemaker in the Moroccan town of Jerada, located in the middle of the Sahara desert, will be made and sold. Company owner Montassir Menouar completed his training in the Netherlands in Stolwijk, South Holland. The project, back by an association called Human Force, wants to help increase work perpectives in North Eastern Morocco. On April 19, Menouar will be saying good-bye to his teachers in the presence of the Ambassador of Morocco.

I think I saw bits of this on TV5 (Francophone television – Mr Menouar speaks French). Mr Menouar said he thought learning such a trade would help him provide for his family.

(Link: zibb.nl)

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April 15, 2007

Girlcotting

Filed under: Film by Orangemaster @ 10:51 am
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April 26 is the release date of the film Honeyz, the story of two teenage girls who get locked in De Bijenkorf, a major Dutch department store. The good news is, it’s the first ever Dutch film to be released simultaneously in theatres, on the Internet, DVD and mobile phone. The bad news is, some theatres have decided to boycott it for this very same reason.

According to the film’s producer, this it the first time a film has been boycotted for this reason in The Netherlands. Theatres are used to making their profit by being the first to show a film, but since they will have to compete with a simultaneous multimedia release, they are afraid of missing out on profits. But wait, if they boycott, they’ll miss out as well. Odd. Let’s wait and see if this knee-jerk reaction is justified.

(Link)

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