Archives for category: Restaurants

Adventures in Amsterdam

March 16, 2014 //

I have just returned from a long weekend in Amsterdam. This was my first time there and it was great to share it with my Dutch friend who showed me a insiders guide to the city.

It really is a beautiful place with lots of streets over the bridges to browse and little places to discover plus loads more that I am sure I missed. You feel a real sense of history here with the old Dutch buildings lining the canals and the sandy ground giving way underneath resulting in some precarious abodes.

We went on a bit of a research trip and it was fascinating to see just how far the international brands predominate. It is difficult to discover anything new when the streets are lined with the same places you see internationally across all ends of the retail spectrum from Hugo Boss to MacDonalds. I also wanted to see how the design was influenced locally and once again was disappointed to see so many cafes and eateries conforming to the same pseudo industrial look that pervades so many cities nowadays. We pondered what the new look should be, as I am a little bored of chalkboards, upcycled lights with Edison bulbs and recycled wooden crates.

The 2012 showcase Starbucks

Mind you, it was refreshing to see for myself the showcase Starbucks that was designed in 2012 as the precursor to more individual and less branded coffee shop chains. The attention to design was refreshing picking up on local Dutch cues and even two years later, it is cosy and inviting.

SLA’s salad bar is encapsulated in a glass free conservatory feel frame

Decor is pared back and natural and the kitchen is open to peak into keeping that natural honest tone

Decor is pared back & natural and the rear kitchen is open to peak into keeping that natural honest tone

There were two outlets that particularly inspired us. Firstly SLA. It means salad and is indeed a salad bar. I am told that the Dutch approach healthy food in a more holistic way. They better understand grains, superfoods and often link spirituality with healthy eating. SLA encapsulated these principles without falling foul of being too worthy. They just kept everything clean and simple in design. The menu is small: soup, salads, juices & sweets made in their kitchen and there is a good make-your-own section allowing you to pick and choose what you want, from the leaf & veg, to the grain, the dressing and the toppings. The choice of grain include things like black quinoa and amaranth. The choice of home-made dressings include superfood ingredients such as spirulina, pomegranate vinegar and spelt syrup. They are all tasty and healthy at the same time, which can sometimes challenge even the best cooks. We came away believing this concept would go down well in yummy mummy land.

Each counter merchandises a different recipe and recipes are changed weekly

The other place that was new to me was Bilder & de Clercq. They tell me that this concept was inspired by a place that the owners saw in Berlin but whatever the driver was, it is interesting to see this retail outlet made up of bespoke counters that pull together ingredients for different dishes. Recipes are printed on easy to follow leaflets and ingredients are weighed out, assuming an element of store cupboard ingredients will be at home. Everything you could possibly need to make the dish is merchandised on each counter including kitchen utensils, recommended wine matches and of course the product itself, both chilled and ambient.

Simple signage and clean VM make it easy to shop including the wine recommendations and any store cupboard ingredients you may need to top up with

I think it was the care and attention to the visual merchandising that really clinched it for me. Whether I would spend that sort of money on a meal that I still have to make at home is another thing, but clearly enough people are buying into the concept as it recently expanded to two outlets. I am sure as convenience continues to be a key driver that more cities will develop this idea.

La Place is still worth a look and see

Other retail offerings that were worth a nose are La Place which looks a little tired so many years on but still shows the potential for a fresh food offering with open production, simple counters and made-to-order service. There are also a couple of PapaBubble shops in town. And you really have to go and see the hammock shop at the flower market. Sadly, I couldn’t squeeze one into my hand luggage!

Lovely jars of pesto, mustard etc. are refilled by regular locals

The weekend markets remind me just how good organic produce can be presented. And the green footprint is enhanced with fill your own stalls of condiments, milk and yogurt. Lovely old pottery pickling jars of home-made pesto make the best of the herbs and it is common practice to bring your own jars to be filled. All very lovely.

Harking back to the pancake houses of old…

Restaurant wise: we didn’t get to De Kas so I will have to go back for that one. We really wanted to eat the local specialities, by visiting Brown Cafes, partaking in Dutch apple pie, croquettes and also pancakes. I went to the oldest pancake house in town: “Upstairs Pannekoekenhuis“. The vertiginous stairs take you up to a tiny little room that has been serving pancakes made on two gas rings since 1962 in this typical Amsterdam house dating back to 1539. They say this is the smallest restaurant in Europe with only 4 tables so it is advisable to book, although I managed to get a seat at the counter giving me prime viewing of the kitchen and the cook.

Amsterdam is highly recommended and a place I know I will return to so that I can discover even more.

Tags Amsterdam, Bilder & de Clercq, De Kas, Dutch design, Dutch pancakes, La Place, organic markets, Pannekoekhuis, Papabubble, SLA, Starbucks, superfoods

Categories Recipes, Restaurants, Retail

Escape to Cape Town

March 2, 2014 //

Clifton Beach, Cape Town

I made my annual pilgrimage to Cape Town as a last minute trip this year. It is always great to escape the UK weather and given the recent rain, it was fantastic to find an opportunity to get away between my other commitments and forget the real world for a short while.

It’s not just the weather that gets me on that 12 hour flight. The first reason to go is that it feels like home from home to me and that’s all down to having the most fabulous friends there who welcome me into their place with open arms. And I realised more than ever this year that they share my outlook, my way of life and my interests. We may not see each other for a year and may not even make much contact over that year but as soon as I step over the doorstep, it is as if that year in between was yesterday. That’s the best sign of friendship I can think of.

Every year I am interested to see what is new. And this year, Cape Town is the World Design Capital following in the footsteps of cities such as Turin, Helsinki and Seoul. So my expectations of this great city were high … and it didn’t disappoint. With design front of mind, I discovered Weylandts this year. I can’t figure out why I have never been there before and was pleased to find some fabulous lights for my new home. You really can’t beat the prices with the exchange rate more than ever in my favour, and the South African designs were spot on. This multi storey warehouse of beautiful stuff is well worth visiting.

It got me thinking about just why this city is so inspiring. I think it is embedded in the fact that South Africans are just so straight up and honest. Some people find that difficult to relate to but in the retail and food world, it means that you get a very true experience that is what it needs to be without having to try too hard. And because the country is so vast and isolated from others (unlike Europe, for example) businesses just get on with doing what they want to do with creativity and purpose. Finally, there is more of a culture of support than I see in other places. When a new young someone wants to put an idea into practice, they get encouragement and help rather than a queue of people hurling cynicism or trying to knock them back. It all adds up to lots of innovation and passion that translates directly to the consumer.

The big explosion over the past two years has been in coffee which I will talk about next time. So what else is there to report back on?

Firstly – Karen Dudley. She has been fronting her Kitchen for a few years now which was the restaurant of choice for Michelle Obama when she visited Cape Town. Given Karen’s philosophy and food, you can understand why. It certainly isn’t on the usual tourist path of restaurants but it is in the trendy Woodstock area so not too far off the beaten track. In the past year, Karen has published her second cookbook “Another Week in the Kitchen” and opened The Dining Room in the adjacent building.

Trolley service!

We visited for dinner and had a lovely meal hosted by the chef herself. As with her first place, it is as if you are in Karen’s home eating whatever she has prepared that day. The decor is eclectic with mismatched cutlery, plates and funky decorations. The menu is short with starters served from a trolley, a choice of two mains and desserts. The team are incredibly attentive and Karen herself just oozes interest and joy in the food that she offers.

Cosy cafe at Schoon de Companje

Coffee roasting

Lovely produce section

Another of my favourites from last year has had a makeover. Set in Stellenbosch, Schoon de Companje is the next iteration of a great bakery and cafe that I saw last year. Now the space has expanded to include butchery, coffee roasting, wines, ice cream making and produce in addition to the bakery and cafe. The whole atmosphere is cosy and relaxed with natural wood, lovely displays and a simple menu. It’s definitely worth a trip on the way to exploring the vineyards in the area.

The other discovery was a new market at the city farm in Oranjezicht. It may be small but I can see this one growing, if you pardon the pun. The stall holders focus on local produce along with some home made delicacies. It seems there is a lot of focus on gluten free, carb free and raw foods in Cape Town at the mo and here you will find people doing a good job of making yummy healthy treats as well as a central braai for tasty lunchtime eats.

Craft brewing, hand bottled and all at the back of a spacious bar and restaurant

The final place to report back on in this post is the Taproom. Once again, this new place is to be found in the Woodstock area which is most definitely the area to discover when you are out there. Here they are hand bottling home made craft beer and serving a short menu to accompany the Devils Peak liquid. It was just a very good example of the beer fashion with production there on site and open to be seen by all who visit, not as a theme park but as a real brewers. Once again it is straight forward, simple and yummy.

Tags Cape Town, Devils Peak, Karen Dudley, Schoon de Companje, Taproom, Weylandts, World Design Capital

Categories Design, Food, Restaurants, Retail, South Africa

Marvellous Meatballs

February 10, 2014 //

Meatballs exist in many cuisines in one guise or another. In the UK, we have the faggot which can bring fear and dread to the unknowing. And yet our meatball fetish was rekindled by Ikea introducing us to the Swedish version. Then there’s the kofta – an old stalwart of most Middle Eastern and Indian menus. But probably most well known is the Italian polpette which are easily recognisable as a comforting and traditional favourite of every household.

The Italians always know how to bring a smile through food. It didn’t matter if it was added to a bowl of pasta or stuffed in a roll of sorts, the meatball was certainly a core staple for all Mediterranean families. I guess that’s also why it became such a recognised dish in the US as the Italians spread the love through neighbourhoods and everyone realised what a wonderful dish it was.

So simple, and so tasty. The beauty is the fact that it can be made from cheaper meat cuts with minced meat of all kinds being filled out with other ingredients to provide a hearty meal for even the largest of families. Then came The Meatball Shop in NYC and suddenly this family fave became a trend to look out for. It was a simple and winning formula with a choice of balls, a choice of sauces and a choice of sides. You even have a basic, wipeable tick list menu, plus a vege option as well as a sweet alternative with balls of ice cream packed between sweet American cookies for a classic US dessert. Now in five outlets across New York, along with a very successful cookbook, this Meatball Shop concept is much watched and copied.

And why not? The fashion for good quality reasonable comfort food is going from strength to strength. The burger trend doesn’t seem to be abating. The roast chicken continues to be rotisseried to an inch of it’s life and the pulled pork is progressing nicely. We love the fact that this food is tasty, relateable and very good value. Clearly the mighty meatball has to be made with expertly sourced quality meat, the sauces should be home-made recipes which can be bottled and sold in the shops and it seems there is an obligatory tongue in cheek sense of humour to be thrown in as well with lots of childish takes on the product name at the core of the marketing. Given all of that as read, the meatball seems to be the obvious choice for future foodie success.

New York is sorted. Australia have followed suit with The Meatball & Wine Bar in Melbourne which is unapologetic in it’s nod to the NYC original. And now there is a new 40 seater outlet in Paris called… Balls. They are sticking to the Meatball Shop formula too with their menu and their marketing, adding t-shirts with innuendo to buy from the outlet. I am sure the recipe book will follow.

Sadly the creatively named Meatballs in Farringdon in London didn’t make it and I wonder why London hasn’t been able to hold onto the fashion in the same way. Perhaps Farringdon wasn’t the best area to open. They sell over 25,000 polpette a year in Russell Norman’s Polpo empire so maybe Soho would have been a better choice of venue. Or perhaps we just need the boys from The Bowler to spread the word in their astroturfed van for a little bit longer, a la Pitt Cue before they progress from street food to the high street permanent location of their choice. They’ve published the cookbook so surely it’s just a matter of time.

Whatever happens, there is no denying that the meatball is here to stay on the best menus in town. Whether chicken, pork, beef, lamb or vegetarian these globes of tastiness are simple, homely and perfect for these frugal times.

Tags Meatballs, Polpette, Polpo, The Bowler, The Meatball Shop

Categories Marketing, Restaurants

Crazy for ketchup

January 21, 2014 //

You know the joke… from Pulp Fiction…

“Three tomatoes are walking down the street- a poppa tomato, a momma tomato, and a little baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind. Poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, squishes him… and says, catch up!” – Mia Wallace [Uma Thurman]

Ember Yard smoked Basque beef burger with idiazabal and chorizo ketchup

I was reminded of it this week because there is clearly a ketchup revolution going on. It started with the Ben Tish’s chorizo ketchup before Christmas which literally transformed a rather basic burger into something oh so much better. That then got me thinking about where else I had an alternative ketchup moment. It has certainly featured strongly on Masterchef the Professionals menus with broccoli ketchup created for the UK show this season and shrimp tomato ketchup on the Australian version. Both were made at the mystery box stage when the contents were from the waste bin. It just goes to show how cost effective such a relish can be. Then I went back to our meal at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal and realised that ketchup features strongly on his menu, with both cockle ketchup on the fish main and also mushroom ketchup accompanying all his steaks.

Tomato ketchup started life neither as ketchup nor from tomatoes. In fact it was a Chinese pickled fish sauce called ketsiap which then evolved through Malaysia into ketchap before landing some 200 years or so later into the Heinz version we know of today. The meaty mushroom ketchup is probably more true to the original concept and I guess that’s why Heston chose to focus on that at Dinner which harks back to an historic 18th century recipe. It reminds me of a somewhat senior colleague I used to work with who always had a bottle to accompany every single meal he ate, but I guess under Heston it can be brought back into the 21st century.

As if to prove the point, the latest version I tasted was this weekend when we tried the somewhat underwhelming Foxlow restaurant. It is fascinating to wonder why we didn’t get excited about this place. The menu is interesting, the drinks creative, the staff friendly enough and the decor was OK, but somehow the whole experience didn’t connect.

But what did wow was the kimchi ketchup. This little pot of perfection certainly had a kick and was the ideal accompaniment to cut through the fatty meat-centric mains. Talk about finding a ketchup that hits the spot of today’s trends.

Tags Ben Tish, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Ember Yard, Foxlow, kimchi ketchup, mushroom ketchup, tomato ketchup

Categories Food, Restaurants

Adventures in Amsterdam

Escape to Cape Town

Marvellous Meatballs

Crazy for ketchup

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