September 10, 2007

First-ever grape harvest in Amstelveen

Filed under: Dutch first,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 9:07 am
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There is only one vineyard in Amstelveen, the town next to Amsterdam and that is De Amsteltuin. “Hopefully next year,” says owner Jan Schake, “the first real Amsteltuin wine will be served. We’re really looking forward to it”. The vineyard offers tons of wine-related activities and a chance to learn about grapes and wine in general. This year’s harvest will be experimented with to see what kind of wine can be made from it.

Dutch wine is made in many parts of the country and is not very well known. The only one that comes to mind is Apostelhoeve from Maastricht, available in major wine shops, which is still very expensive and according to a wine-tasting test earlier this year, not special enough.

Let us remember that there are tons of Dutch people making wine in France.

(Photo: De Amsteltuin, link: De Pers)

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July 27, 2007

Tour de France bad business for Dutch bakers

Filed under: Food & Drink,General,Sports by Orangemaster @ 11:32 am
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The firing of Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen has caused cake problems. As sponsor, the Rabobank had promised every employee in the country ‘yellow jersey’ cake after they would win the Tour, which seemed pretty likely at the time. Since the party is so not going to happen, neither is the big order for the Dutch pastry company in Haarlem overseeing the order. Lucky for them, all those Dutch bakeries were planning on starting their cakes this weekend, so it’s not a complete disaster.

(Link: zibb)

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July 16, 2007

Self-defense for poultry farmers

Filed under: Animals,Food & Drink,General by Orangemaster @ 9:44 am
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The Dutch union of poultry farmers (the NVP) wants to offer self-defense courses to its members as a response to the animal rights activitists’ training camp in Appelscha, Friesland. These animal rights activitists hold workhops in things such as how to arm themselves against police and the authorities. The NVP does not understand why these people are allowed to practice this activity in the Netherlands at all.

(Link: vleesmagazine.nl)

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June 28, 2007

Beer ice cream is fine for kids

Filed under: Food & Drink,Weird by Orangemaster @ 2:53 pm
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How could you serve beer ice cream only to adults? Children should also be able to enjoy beer ice cream, according to master chef Leon Ribbens responding to the introduction of beer ice cream by top ice cream parlour Clevers in Arcen, Limburg, better known as ‘beer country’.

The Hertog Jan brewery together with Clevers brought a beer ice cream out on the market, specially for summer, called ‘IJs met Karakter’ (ice cream with Karakter beer). Co-creator Theo Clevers said that because it had beer, he will only serve it to adults.

Beer ice cream is also made by other companies and surely kids eat it as well. And what about bonbons with liquour and wine sauce on meat? And then there’s all the sugar in the ice cream killing the beer…

(Link: zibb)

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June 2, 2007

Harvested meat for mortals and astronauts

Filed under: Food & Drink,Science,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 5:13 pm
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Dutch researchers in the city of Utrecht are trying to grow pork meat in a laboratory with the goal of feeding millions without the need to raise and slaughter animals. According to Bernard Roelen, veterinary science professor at Utrecht University, the goal is make meat without killing animals. Although it is in its early stages, the idea is to replace harvesting meat from livestock with a process that eliminates the need for animal feed, transport, land use and the methane expelled by animals, which all hurt the environment, he said.

Research is also under way in the US, including one experiment funded by Nasa to see whether meat can be grown for astronauts.

(Link: Times of India, via Netherlands Post)

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May 29, 2007

Mobile junkfood as art in Almere

Filed under: Food & Drink,Weird by Orangemaster @ 5:22 pm
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Artist Tilmann Meyer-Faje of Almere, Flevoland has started a ‘kroket’ art project and has been riding through the Stedenwijk Noord neighbourhood in a mobile kroket car he made himself. Once the artist found out that krokets had a rich past, he started collecting kroket recipes from neighbourhood residents. Besides collecting recipes and selling krokets, Tilmann also collected kroket stories. The kroket project will end on 7 July.

Some people keep arguing that krokets are not as junky as they used to be, but that does not mean they are healthy. And if anyone wants to catch the kroket car and taste sutff, here is the schedule.

(Link: vleesmagazine.nl)

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New, detour-worthy ice cream place in Amsterdam

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 10:58 am
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A new little hole in the wall that serves ice cream has just opened on the Albert Cuyp Market in Amsterdam, called Yscuypje (‘little ice cream cup’ in old Dutch, with a reference to the Albert ‘Cuyp’ Market). The sherbets are full of fruit, the ice cream is actually made with chocolate and cream, and the pistachio ice cream is pistachio green and not chock full of E412 (aka guar gum) and tastes like pistachio. Their ice cream machine is a top-of-the-line 30-year-old Italian device that costs as much as a big German car. The flavours are very ‘Amsterdam’, developed by the owners themselves, and the prices are very reasonable. You can also buy litres of it for home enjoyment.

(Link and photo: Kreukreuscopie)

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May 10, 2007

Man caught with 126 live lobsters

Filed under: Animals,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 12:02 pm
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Last weekend in the province of Zeeland, synonymous with sea food, a man got caught by inspectors with 126 live lobsters. The man’s diving gear was still in his car. The inspectors assumed he was planning to sell the lobsters to restaurants. Many of the lobsters were still too small to be caught. Luckily, the poor little lobsters were released into the sea.

Last time I checked, lobster cost 22 euro a kilo on the Albert Cuyp market in Amsterdam. This lobster is from Canada, where a medium-sized lobster at the supermarket can cost, oh, 7 or 8 euro.

(Link: NieuwNieuws)

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May 5, 2007

Find it yourself

Filed under: Food & Drink,General by Orangemaster @ 11:15 am
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The employees of Dutch supermarket C-1000 have compiled a list of the items that are the most difficult to find in their supermarkets and placed it on their hyve, according to personnel magazine, Club1000. Interestingly enough, in most stores, the same products are difficult to find.

Top 5:
1. Cocktail toothpicks
2. Toasts
3. Salt
4. Corn Starch
5. Eggs

A note to foreigners:
1. There are no signs in Dutch stores to give you a general idea of where products can be found.
2. If you ask the staff, they point, but won’t bring you to the product (In North America, they are taught to bring you to the product – it increases the chance of a sale).
3. Every store of the same chain has a different layout, as buildings differ greatly.
4. And stores stock up during opening hours (!), especially on Saturday when it’s busy, and cannot be bothered to help you then.

In a C1000 in Delft, I found sardines with the Indonesian products. Why? Because the sardines were from outside the EU. The ‘normal’ sardines were from Britain with the tuna and salmon, but the ones I found were from Canada. Very logical.

(Link: zibb.nl)

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May 4, 2007

DJ Tiësto opens his own restaurant

Filed under: Food & Drink,Music by Orangemaster @ 5:57 pm
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In June, world-famous DJ Tiësto will be opening his own restaurant on the Reguliersbreestraat in Amsterdam. DJ Tiësto (we’ll call him Thijs) loves cooking as well as spinning records. The restaurant will name the dishes according to his greatest hits, so you can order a ‘Flight 643’ and a ‘Traffic’. The chef is not yet known, but apparently he is very creative.

(Link: Blik op nieuws)

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