October 1, 2009

This year’s herring is fantastic

Filed under: Animals,Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 3:49 pm

Two weeks ago I had the fattest herring I have had in a long time, but thinking that it might be fluke, I did not post about it. However, yesterday I went to the same fish store, and had the same experience. Highly recommended.

If you are currently in the Netherlands, this appears to be one of the better years to try this Dutch delicacy. Just in case the quality of the herring is a function of the store I bought it at, I buy mine at the Volendammer Vishandel J.C.M. Koning on the Eerste van der Helststraat in Amsterdam, just off the Albert Cuyp market.

Traditionally the herring is sold with onion bits and gherkin, but I usually leave out the latter as it tends to neutralize the already delicate herring flavour. The best herring is greasy and soft. In lesser years, the herring tends to be ruddy and firm.

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September 26, 2009

Nespresso most expensive cup of coffee

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 1:08 pm

Consumentenbond compared the prices of making a single cup of coffee in regular households and came up with the following figures, according to Z24 (Dutch):

  • Instant: 3 euro cent.
  • Regular (using a coffee filter): 4 euro cent.
  • Aldi pods for Senseo: 5 euro cent.
  • Albert Heijn pods for Senseo: 7 euro cent.
  • Official Douwe Egberts pods for Senseo: 9 euro cent.
  • Nespresso: 33 euro cent.

Of course, the real coffee snobs own (or want to own) their personal espresso machine. Senseo pods are called pads in the Netherlands, but when Philips and Douwe Egberts decided to export their product they wisely chose to avoid any associations with women’s hygienic products. The Albert Heijn figure was added by me.

I switched to Senseo myself, because using the regular method you never end up with just a single cup, and instant coffee is just vile.

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September 17, 2009

Preserved junk food collection on display

Filed under: Food & Drink,Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:48 am
Snack

Fons Biemans, a deceased snack bar owner from Tilburg, left behind an entire collection of Dutch junk food favourites preserved in jars, which promptly reminded me of the Chamber of Curitosities Tsar Peter the Great had in Saint Petersburg, Russia, but with food instead.

Biemans used the preserved food as a menu, never having to display fresh product which could just stay in the freezer. A teacher discovered the collection in a cellar, during a move.

And there’s a website called Snack-O-Theek where you can look at the collection online. You can play ‘guess that snack’, too.

(Link: vleesmagazine.nl, Photo: Snack-O-Theek)

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August 26, 2009

Dutch tap water will be chlorinated

Filed under: Dutch first,Food & Drink,General,Nature,Science by Orangemaster @ 11:38 am
glass of water

I once had a Dutch roommate back in Québec in the 1990s who asked me why our tap water looked so afwul. I explained that it’s slightly cloudy because it’s full of chlorine, but tastes fine. Many people pour water into a jug fitted with a carbon filter and keep it in the fridge. Problem solved.

“Isn’t there chlorine in the water in the Netherlands?” “Oh, no” she said, “we have very clean water”. For years I thought the Dutch were water geniuses and that Quebeckers were water dummies.

It turns out Dutch water has a dirty little secret: it’s chock full of the bacteria that causes legionnaire’s disease. Professor Annelies van Bronswijk, Professor of Health Technology at Eindhoven University of Technology estimates that 800 people die of legionnaires’ disease every year, more than the dozens quoted in official statistics. “Since severe pneumonia is what most people with legionnaires’ disease die from, you can put two and two together and get a proper estimate of the problem.”

These days, Western countries chlorinate with monochloramine, a compound of chlorine, which doesn’t leave a taste.

(Link: rnw.nl, photo: ipeg.eu)

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August 21, 2009

Turning leftover airplane food into electricity

Filed under: Aviation,Food & Drink,Science,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 10:44 am
airplane1.JPG

Dutch airline KLM is planning to use the leftovers of 50,000 airplane meals to produce electricity. The idea is to convert waste (refuse and food) into oil and then burn in a gas turbine at a new power station on Schiphol Airport grounds. A feasability study is currently being done and a decision will be made at the end of September.

With an investment of less than EUR 10 mln, the power station could process 20 tonnes of waste a day, which is enough to handle the leftover food. The turbine would then be able of providing electricity for 4,000 homes.

(Link: vleesmagazine.nl)

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July 5, 2009

Netherlands to be on the top of the food chain

Filed under: Food & Drink,General by Eric @ 2:44 pm

It must have been about 10 years ago, that I became aware of the difference in attitude towards food between Germans and Dutch. I was having dinner with a German friend, when she joked over a slice of quadruple-stranded DNA tomato, that the Dutch were a clever people, packaging sea water into little red bags and selling these ‘water bombs’ worldwide as tomatoes. My reply that apparently the world was stupid enough to buy said water bombs was less well received…

Germans want their food to be ‘bio’: organically grown, without the use of fertilizer or pesticides. The section for ‘bio’ food products in supermarkets shows a continuous growth, on the expense of their non-bio counterparts and ‘bio’ supermarkets pop up on more and more street corners. Living in Munich for over four years, I must admit that I haven’t done any serious grocery shopping in the Netherlands as of lately. I do have the impression, though, that this awareness for the origin and nature of food stuffs is far less pronounced in the Netherlands than here in Germany.

I will thus be very interested to see how minister for agriculture Gerda Verburg’s plans for sustainable food (report ‘Duurzaam Voedsel’) will become effective. The goal is ambitious: “the Netherlands must lead the way worldwide to a sustainable and climate neutral production of food stuffs and be at the top of this movement by 2015” (source (German)). Considering that the Netherlands are apparently the second largest exporter of agricultural products, and on a budget of 20 million euro, this goal might even be viable.

Intensive campaigning and convincing marketing must raise the interest and awareness of the Dutch consumer for sustainable food products and set the trend for choosing ‘bio’. Additionally, the minister plans to fight the enormous waste of food products. An estimated 1.6 million euro worth of food is thrown away in the Netherlands on an annual basis and another 2 billion euro is lost during production and transport.

I think that the only way to get anyone, including the Dutch, to buy ‘bio’ is to make sure that it’s at the same price level as regular food stuffs. I do hope, however, that the minister’s plans include other options than a massive subsidy on bio products, and that a large part of the cash will be invested in research and development. After all, the Netherlands can’t continue to sell water bombs to the world…

(Photo: freefoto.com)

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June 3, 2009

Australian troops in Afghanistan complain about Dutch food

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 10:19 am
kroket1.jpg

The Australian military fighting in the Afghan province of Uruzgan alongside the Dutch are complaining about the Dutch food they are being served. While Dutch sources say the Australians have called the Dutch food ‘tasteless’, English sources explain that Australians do not fancy European food in general and are used to fresher ingredients. The English source says the Dutch food is ‘generally nutritious’ and ‘has the right amount of calories’, but New Zealand sources say the lack of BBQs and typical Australian food is an issue. Australian sources say the Aussies are ‘fussy’ and ‘there was nothing wrong with the Dutch food, which had sustained Czech, Singaporean, Slovak and Dutch troops without complaint.’

So the Dutch sound offended and the Australians come off as whiners. But this bit in the Australian source trying to make their own troops sound bad is quite revealing: “Fresh yoghurt, cereals, cheese, fruit, and pickled herring is likely to be replaced by more fried eggs, bacon, sausages and “barbeques”, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said.”

So if that last bit is actually true, the healthy ‘Dutch’ food is being replaced by totally unhealthy, greasy pub food. Dutch food is by no means Europe’s favourite, but if the Aussie troops want junk food – because that’s what that is – don’t say ‘typical Australian food’. Last time I checked, fried eggs, bacon and sausages was typical food in the US, Canada, England, Ireland and surely a few more Commonwealth countries.

Any Australians in the room?

(Link: rtl.nl, alertnet.org, tvnz.co.nz, theaustralian)

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June 1, 2009

Mail-a-dinner

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 11:48 am

Bills, bills, leaflets, a postcard, mashed potatoes with endive and sausage … if it were up to Amsterdam start-up Mailfood, your mail would never look tastier. The company mails out TV dinners in packages that fit a mailbox, the big advantage being that you don’t have to be home for the delivery. Prices seem reasonable, at EUR 7,50 for the above mentioned dinner, although it doesn’t say whether that includes delivery. The big question is, what will your food look and taste like after it’s been dropped from a meter high and inspected by the cat?

(Link: Bright, Photo of an endive potato mash with meatless sausage by Jasja Dekker, some rights reserved)

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May 29, 2009

Dutch food bank founders receive international award

Filed under: Food & Drink,General by Orangemaster @ 11:00 am
bowl_and_spoon1

A Martin Luther King Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded yesterday in Amsterdam to the founders of the Dutch Food Bank, Sjaak and Clara Sies, presented to them by Isaac Newton Ferris, a nephew of the assassinated US African American civil rights activist. The award is intended as a token of appreciation for those who unselfishly spread Dr King’s message of tolerance and equality, and apparently not just in the United States: last year’s award went to Job Cohen, Mayor of Amsterdam.

The initiative of Sjaak and Clara Sies has also helped emphasised that even though many outsiders keep calling the Netherlands “a welfare state”, the couple have clearly shown that this rich country actually has poor people.

(Links radionetherlands.nl, ad.nl)

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May 27, 2009

Biggest carpaccio

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 11:44 am

Restaurant De Lakei from Kaatsheuvel, Noord Brabant, has made the biggest carpaccio in the world last Sunday.

So claim Brabants Dagblad (Dutch) and various other publications who all seem to be based on this Hart van Nederland broadcast (Dutch, about 10:45 minutes in—here‘s the stream link for those allergic to Windows Media Player). The attempt took place in the old fire station and the record claim was verified by an unnamed notary in jeans and a light brown jacket. The proceeds went to a good cause.

(Photo of a totally unrelated plate of carpaccio by Flickr user highlimitzz, some rights reserved.)

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