Food, food culture, food as culture and the cultures that grow our food

Category archive for: Food Trend

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Elderflower Kefir recipe
Fizzy Bubblig Kinder Champagne

My packaging shows a slightly more explosive recipe than the one listed below. Last year at this time I got into a bit of a kerfuffle with the local Pole Circle Police regarding the legality of foraging elderflower in the park. Turns out these ill-informed armed guards were under the impressio... Read more

Posted on June 13, 2012 15:37

Elder flower syrup recipe
… basic stuff

Elder Flower Syrup Recipe / Basic Stuff (makes 3,5 - 4 liters of syrup) You will need: 5 liter jar 3 kilos sugar plus 1 kilo for later 3 liters water Elderflowers a'plenty, plucked, unwashed, bugs and all The flowers: Fill a 5 liter jar ½ - 2/3 -full with elder flowers. Flowe... Read more

Posted on June 6, 2012 18:36

The Spore Report

A spore print, probably of an agaricus arvensis. What an exuberant spore print, probably of an agaricus arvensis, or maybe an agaricus campestris, possibly an agaricus bitorquis, or if I'm lucky, an agaricus silvicola. They're all edible. Still, most likely it's a horse mushroom, agaricus arven... Read more

Posted on November 7, 2011 10:16

A fridge’s eye view of urban agriculture

The author's fridge, filled with home-ferments, foraged, syruped, home grown greens, raw milk and vodka! At the moment my fridge is filled with the bubbling product of home-fermented foods, lots of home grown and a visit to milk lady at the farmer's market. A few days earlier Mark Menjivar's ph... Read more

Posted on September 25, 2011 19:10

DIY Mmmmuseum of
Oven Typologies

Our first tamped earth oven lacks some structural-integrity Hey there lovers... of food-system infrastructure, this weekend (June 26 & 27) from 13.00h we will pilot the DIY-Mmmmuseum of Oven Typologies (Dutch acronym is DHZMOT) at Art at the Pool during the Sloterplas Festival in Amsterdam. (Li... Read more

Posted on June 25, 2010 15:35

Late blooming

Pots made with paper from junk mail. Now that all the folks are gone I can start using my window sills again to get the kitchen garden started. Filled with potting compost and seeds. That crazy climate delivered us a bitter and lengthy winter, such that seasonally, we're 6 weeks behind ... Read more

Posted on March 28, 2010 17:49

Myco-blitz, fruiting bodies

Upended and neglected by one animal forager, arranged and shot for identification by another. In order to secure from landslide the steep incline that cups our house, my father planted it full of trees whose main job in life is to become really large. Something like 30 years ago, he introduced ... Read more

Posted on January 19, 2010 0:44

Not piss poor,
fertilized with pee

Didn't go to the farmers' market this Saturday One of the reasons I gave my Amsterdam kitchen garden the name Slim Pickins was to show that even a postage stamp-sized garden with a relatively little crop could serve up a surprising amount of food. But the real reason was that it had piss poor s... Read more

Posted on September 13, 2009 21:16

Foodscape Schilderswijk,
Den Haag’s CPUF

A scenario for planting espallier-style fruit trees in the Schilderswijk. Illustration by Jacques Abelman. As part of STROOM Den Haag’s (Centre for Art and Architecture) multi-year programme FOODPRINT, I have been commissioned to design a foodscape. Actually I am designing a Continuous Producti... Read more

Posted on September 8, 2009 20:21

Amsterdam Osdorp,
land of milk and honey

Farmer and city slickers assemble in Osdorp On the very westernmost edge of Amsterdam is a living example of rural fantasy, a stone's throw from densely built, urban Osdorp and Geuzenveld/Slotermeer. In preparation for a series of events and future projects in the area, Young Designers & Indust... Read more

Posted on August 20, 2009 21:42

Luxuriating in August’s shaggy garden

I have become that lady who rides around town with bouquets of flowers in her panniers. There's nothing as fine as a soft landing, leaving one garden and falling into the bounty of the other one. Thanks to the generous watering skills of Gabrielle and the plucking skills of Han, the Slim Picki... Read more

Posted on August 13, 2009 16:29

Harvesting lavender

It's been made clear to me that I'm doing this lavender harvesting-thing entirely too late in the season, and that if I had harvested it 2-3 weeks ago it would have been much, much more potent. But it is only now that I have the time and inclination to collect the stuff. Upon my return to the ... Read more

Posted on July 19, 2009 18:32

Speaking of the Future…
how ’bout that market?

Market of the Future poster-child Juli Mata You're probably wondering how the future turned out. Last weekend's was a culmination of the test-phase with FREEHOUSE's de Markt van Morgen / the Market of the Future, in Rotterdam Zuid's Afrikaanderwijk. Lucky Mi Fortune Cooking has been experimenti... Read more

Posted on June 15, 2009 17:45

Rethinking the
Market of the Future

Market folk, people from Rotterdam's Afrikaanderbuurt and artists renew one of the Netherlands' largest open-air markets, the Afrikaandermarkt. My involvement in this mega project is one of the reasons I've written so little in this blog the past year. So much to write about, but no time to writ... Read more

Posted on June 5, 2009 23:35

Gardens and girth,
the real French Paradox

Pardonnez-moi, Monsieur le Voisin My own observational research about kitchen gardens leaves me puzzled as to how folks that grow kilos upon kilos of fresh produce become so perfectly round. No, I haven't 'had the opportunity' yet to ask, so I'll have to guess. Are these gentlemen taking the... Read more

Posted on June 1, 2009 14:13

Slim Pickins
restaurant review

Ground-elder ravioli & goutweed pesto with locally foraged kale flower, spinach and mint Within hours of the posting Slim Pickins was already fully booked. Plagued at its very inception with limited seating, the urban kitchen garden restaurant located on the edge of a raised bed was forced to d... Read more

Posted on May 5, 2009 14:03

Slim Pickins,
the occasional garden restaurant

Slim Pickins garden staff help with the weeding Studio Culiblog is proud to announce the opening this Sunday of it's new minimalist concept restaurant in Amsterdam Noord. Slim Pickins is an outdoor micro-eatery situated on the edge of a raised bed, in an urban kitchen garden, serving up the occ... Read more

Posted on April 21, 2009 23:49

And what will fuel the landscape of the future?

The answers are: the Edible City & Permaculture This week I attended a dinner at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi), smack dab in the exhibition called MAAK ONS LAND, which literally translated means, MAKE OUR LAND but which was translated by the NAi as the hopeful, SHAPE OUR COUNT... Read more

Posted on March 6, 2009 19:42

A happy new year
for the fruit trees

Woodcut for the Jewish arbor day Tu b'Shvat, from the Minhogimbukh Amsterdam 1722, recently adapted by Scott-Martin Kosofsky, image used entirely without permission. There's nothing like a religious calendar sporting multiple 'new years' to remind us that we were once deeply connected to our fo... Read more

Posted on February 10, 2009 15:58

Cheerfully sipping from the
petri dish of life

A symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast (aka SCOBY) fermenting a jar of sweetened tea into a healthy drink called kombucha. Recently my possee and I attended a party at the opening of an Amsterdam design event. Free drinks were flowing because the party was heavily sponsored by a distilled bev... Read more

Posted on February 4, 2009 19:10

Water kefir is like
Fresca for hippies

Water kefir brewing in the weak, mid-winter sun. Maybe it started because all this New Austerity had me peaked to produce bubbles outta thin air. Maybe it's because I just kick on growing stuff, even if that stuff is only a colony of yeast and bacteria. As a whole foods enthusiast and professio... Read more

Posted on January 27, 2009 15:58

Michel Blazy’s microbial art

A pond of fermenting tea with fungal lily pads The lacto-fermentation of cabbage wasn't the only kind of microbial art and design going down in St. Etienne at last month's biennial. Michel Blazy created a most beautiful live installation of Givernyesque pools of living kombucha colonies. For th... Read more

Posted on December 18, 2008 12:44

Utopia is near

Back in the saddle after a fun and hugely productive work period at the Saint-Étienne Internationale Biënale du Design where I was invited to show the Lucky Mi Fortune Cooking project in the City Eco Lab. John Thackara brought together a burgeoning toolshed of projects that demonstrate how commu... Read more

Posted on December 9, 2008 17:52

Lacto-fermentation, and you?

Fermentation is a correlative of life and of the production of globules, rather than of their death or putrefaction. Also sprach Pasteur... Instead of using ceramic sauerkraut pots, I used my Grams' old Bauerware, covering the shredded/salted cabbage with plates and whatever weighty ma... Read more

Posted on November 10, 2008 1:14

Bumper sticker

My dear friend Carolyn Strauss from Slowlab gifted me up a family heirloom! Now I don't actually own a bumper, nor do I remember how to drive one, but I sure am going to hop on my bike and find a frame for this artifactual finger wag from the Old Country, a quote from American agrarian Wendell B... Read more

Posted on November 7, 2008 1:57

Survival through dehydration

Looks like rat tails and bones. Guess I'm just getting visually prepared for the future! Well if the whole world goes to pot (and not in the good way) at least I will have dehydrated exactly 2 days worth of essential parsley root. And if I keep at it, soon I'll have saved enough celeriac chips ... Read more

Posted on November 4, 2008 20:39

Communauté Choucroute, Community Pickle,
a proposal

Jangdok are onggi or earthen jars storing jang (condiments) such as gochujang (chili pepper condiment), doenjang (soybean paste), ganjang (Korean soy sauce) or kimchi. Image from Save the Dinosaur's photostream and used entirely without permission. The following is a statement about food storag... Read more

Posted on October 30, 2008 16:48

A Kimchi Sunday

Turnip and turnip leaf kimchi in a pool of sauce shaped like the silhouette of a kimchi-lover Community/Communauté Choucroute is one of my proposals at the City Eco Lab in Saint-Étienne for the Design Biennial this November. Designing resilience into urban food systems is essential, and one way... Read more

Posted on October 27, 2008 11:49

A Light Year

In the past year, interesting projects that would yield so much content for Culiblog occupied me such that it was difficult to find time to write about them at all. Thankfully it's the very first days into the New Year, a time for a resolution or two, one about more frequent and lighter blog pos... Read more

Posted on October 6, 2008 14:33

Ayn Hawd bread story

At the beginning of my first week in Ayn Hawd, if Noga and I opened our windows just right, we could create a lazy crosswind that would exhale her curtains, just as it inhaled mine. Exhale mine, inhale hers. Slow puffs of curtain with the power to close eyelids. Exhale hers, inhale mine. But ... Read more

Posted on September 2, 2008 23:02

SALSA SALSA!

If you're in or near Los Angeles this Sunday, may I suggest that you spend your entire allotted carbon footprint for the weekend on visiting the Fallen Fruit art collective's summer harvest event SALSA SALSA. There you can make and taste tomato salsas while listening and dancing to salsa music. ... Read more

Posted on August 13, 2008 11:07

The French Paradox,
Occitanian kids and food

Small child napping on the dinner garden path A few weeks ago at a dinner where a meat-rich hors d'oeuvre was enjoyed during the conversation course, two little girls, probably 9 or 10 yrs old, were standing before an elaborate platter laden with rillettes on toast, discussing this informal sna... Read more

Posted on August 11, 2008 7:56

An urban vegetarian in the land of meat

Mauve and merveilleuse, the house terrine "In the city she's a vegetarian, but here in the country, she puts entire pigs in her body!" And sheep. And geese. And this is how my dear friends describe me, as an urban vegetarian. Each day on my way down to the kitchen garden, I ride past a... Read more

Posted on August 10, 2008 11:26

It’s not a cheese, it’s a drug

Yes, you can totally get high off of cheese! We scored this slab of dairy perfection off some savvy lady cheese dealers on the market. Brung it on home, but where to put it, save the obvious eating off the wrapper with spoons? Fridge too cool, kitchen table too hot. And I'm not lying or a... Read more

Posted on August 3, 2008 8:42

Butternut Brutalism

Upon returning to the new kitchen garden the next day, I felt that the parcel along the fence just wasn't speaking to me and I traded her in for the plot next door. Giddy with the even newer digs, I noticed what I had failed to see the day before, namely, useful in-situ building materials, in th... Read more

Posted on July 1, 2008 13:19

New digs in the polder circle

As of yesterday I became a multinational allotment holder. These are my new digs at Amsterdam Noord, a 7 minute bike ride from my flat, a 3 minute ferry ride from the mainland, and 4 steps off the ferry. Although the parcel seems to have some extreme shade, soil compaction and charm issues, th... Read more

Posted on June 26, 2008 14:44

Lucky Mi Fortune Cooking

Local sk8r boi enjoys the coconut cassava bonbon with newly aromatic herring. In the past year I've been working with community food entrepreneurs; cooking studios, restaurants, small food stores, and local vegetable growers strengthening networks to innovate snacks that could be sold locally. ... Read more

Posted on June 19, 2008 22:33

A F.A.S.T. food market

Gifted organic olive oil and za'atar from Ein Hud, an unrecognised village in Israel Sustainability issues aren't only about green, sometimes they're even more fundamental than that. Food and food systems are an integral part of that story because food and agricultural policy is commonly used f... Read more

Posted on May 27, 2008 0:23

On acting-out at dinner

All together now. Purple tablecloth, purple flowering chives and irises. Entirely too much purple at the dining table and an amuse comprised of an overly precious presentation of tofu, inspired my friends to spontaneously bust out a tongue-in-cheeky, anthroposophical pre-dinner recitation of gr... Read more

Posted on May 20, 2008 14:27

Rampsterdamned

Culiblog author caught plucking and nibbling in an abundant field of ramps in Amsterdam I'm a bad to the bone, flower plucking, fruit stealing, mushroom picking, herb snatcher that simply cannot walk by food growing in the public space without tucking in and filling my basket. And I wish that m... Read more

Posted on May 12, 2008 13:42

Butterflies in my stomach

The date and milk-based cocktail 'representing' the Afrikaanderwijk is not pictured here because although scrumptious, it was not photogenic. That's always a problem with dates. Kruiskade Blossom Cocktail - chrystanthemum tea drinks in tetrapak - organic chysanthemum flowers - sour cher... Read more

Posted on May 8, 2008 6:10

Fredie Beckmans’ interior life

Dear Fredie, On Queen's Day, we had a party in your house. We overruled Katja, to whom you have been so kind, letting a relative stranger stay in your home while you're away in Berlin. She just wanted a traditional Queen's Day, one in which you simply get drunk and slut it up on the streets. I... Read more

Posted on May 7, 2008 19:16

One little kid
Chad Gadya

Happy Pesach! Are you 6 kilos? Although we had sworn to recreate Pesach Ultra-Lite, Superior Powers and my own stubborn determination to not sit on the floor like my ancestors in the desert, dictated that we drop everything and become a trans-regional trucking company. We had a truck all right,... Read more

Posted on April 19, 2008 11:12

Turnip green & pumpkin
ohitashi style sushi

Rescued from the bin: forgotten vegetables transformed into a memorable vegan sushi 40% of all produce is wasted on the route from field to fork. The number is actually more like 60% and it's easy to understand how the waste becomes heavier if we buy industrially produced food from far away pla... Read more

Posted on April 17, 2008 11:35

Imagining Kate

="Come Back Kate film still by Quirine Racké and Helena Muskens used entirely with permission The Kate Bush Party at Mediamatic this Friday evening promises give-us-a-twirl dress-up, lighters-in-the-air sing-a-long and a generous format screening of Quirine Racké and Helena Musken's poignant art... Read more

Posted on April 9, 2008 23:36

In situ
Seitan innovation

Dutch Seitan Designers at workshop Last Sunday was the final day of Platform 21's Cooking and Constructing exhibition, and amidst the fiery debate and seitan design workshop, no one expected that any true innovation would take place. But due to the emphasis on show and do, I had to rush through... Read more

Posted on April 3, 2008 20:53

Glutinous Maximus II,
Seitanic Lab Meat recipe

Loaves of Seitan during steaming process Like the soybean, like bread, like fish, like wine, like salt, seitan is part of the utopian food group, foods laden with morality, infused with ritual, oozing with culture, drowning in history. Seitan is desperately in need of appropriation from its ass... Read more

Posted on March 28, 2008 17:59

Haute cuisine
bitterbal snack innovation

From golden-brown to white, spinach-gorgonzola, mango-mirin and thai coconut bitterballs From the original creator of Amsterdam's Supperclub (the real one, not the other one), Chef Thor is now ready to debut his latest collection of bitterballs. The bitterbal is a 'traditional' Dutch drinking s... Read more

Posted on March 23, 2008 12:50

Homegrown

Sprouted sunflower seeds in the dead of winter Read more

Posted on February 15, 2008 20:43

Cooking and constructing,
food as a real design platform

Vegetable ink production and 'pantonization' by Daniera ter Haar and Christoph Brach Platform 21's Cooking and Constructing is food as a real design platform, in a real design platform. There is reason to applaud this very real design laboratory which will be open for the coming 8 weeks. The wo... Read more

Posted on February 12, 2008 23:24

Bone marrow

Roasted cow bone right out of the oven. Maybe it's because I was sick with flu for the past 2 months and had no appetite. Maybe because bone marrow used to be considered a restorative food for ill people. Maybe because yesterday, going to and from yoga practice, I just wore 2 pairs of sweats un... Read more

Posted on January 30, 2008 4:14

Subjective Atlas of Palestine
and also of food

Just another beautiful picture of Palestine by Majdi Hadid, used entirely without permission Say 'Palestine' and the first thing that pops into your head probably isn't an image of undulating hills speckled with date palm oases and creased with a babbling brook, or an image of lush olive orchar... Read more

Posted on January 13, 2008 20:37

Harvesting rhubarb by candlelight

Of the BBC's 100 unexpected facts that we didn't know last year I've edited the list to include only the 13 food-related facts. Apparently harvesting rhubarb by candlelight is a way to preserve even more rhubarb flavour. Because 2008 is a year for pumping up the volume, I have decided to make... Read more

Posted on January 4, 2008 12:05

Chanukkah, the fesitval of
using oil responsibly

This Dutch snackbar certification sign says, 'Heq yes, we fry responsibly. We use liquid fryer fat and we follow the rules of responsible frying.' This year I decided to celebrate Chanukkah. Probably it's because the past 4 months during the renovation of my home I've been so homesick that the ... Read more

Posted on December 8, 2007 2:00

I wanna French my USB wine

Heq yeah, USB wine is real. Read more

Posted on December 6, 2007 2:38

Photographs of consumerism

Chicago, IL 2003, photograph by Brian Ulrich, used entirely without permission (winner of the Photolucida, Critical Mass Top 50, in 2005) Granger, IN 2003, photograph by Brian Ulrich, used entirely without permission (winner of the Photolucida, Critical Mass Top 50, in 2005) Brian Ulrich... Read more

Posted on December 1, 2007 20:39

Yo, Slip of the Tongue

Adapted from the poem Slip of the Tongue by Adriel Luis, directed by Karen Lum, produced by Youth Sounds Factory Read more

Posted on November 25, 2007 14:16

Food-related film at the IDFA 2007
My IDFA

This is my viewing schedule for this year's IDFA (Int'l Documentary Festival Amsterdam). If you're here in Amsterdam, let's meet up and chew the fat about all the good stuff we've been watching. Friday, Nov 23 14.15 Tuschinski 2 Dutch Cocaine Factory Dutch Cocaine Factory sweeps us into... Read more

Posted on November 23, 2007 14:17

Consumer trends 2008

Taped to the door of Rotterdam’s most charming North African bakery Fes, there is an update of the global commodities price for cereals and sugar. Bakery Fes situated in the Afrikaanderbuurt, a neighbourhood on the lift and the owners of Fes find it important to offer their clientele an explan... Read more

Posted on November 12, 2007 15:33

How stuff is made, even the food kind of stuff

Techno artist and design engineer Natalie Jeremijenko, in Amsterdam last Friday presenting at the STIFO/Sandberg workshop showed us a wiki site where her NYU students were sharing information about how common products are made. Among the foodstuffs, shrimp, fortune cookies and eau de vie. For e... Read more

Posted on November 5, 2007 1:52

Kouba Libre
Supermarket Babylon

Homemade ice kouba in a sponsored freezer In the grain section there are more than 20 sorts of rice and then there's a formidable bulgur department. How often does one get to write that, formidable bulgur department, but there is one. Never mind the lack of competition, Babylon is hands down th... Read more

Posted on October 26, 2007 0:59

Urban landscape architecture as a source of new recipes

Saint-Étienne public landscape architecture featuring curly and red kales, fennel and bananas. Based upon this planter I can imagine a dessert Stephanoise: a bed of flash fried caramelised kales with banana fritters and sprinkled finally with powdered sugar and pulverised fennel seeds. I... Read more

Posted on October 12, 2007 16:22

Foraging with Fred

He'd warned me already we were five days too early, and the mushrooms we kept smelling were underground and still spores. So we changed our tack and switched focus to chestnuts, foraging two half-loaded baskets between us, out of the mouths of boars. (Who are real pigs by the way.) Read more

Posted on October 9, 2007 1:17

Whose bread I eat,
his song I sing

Euroforum's Foodservice Congress 2007 was held in conjunction with the FRESH food trade fair in Rotterdam. A lavish display of fruits. With increasing frequency I've been attending expert meetings, symposia and congresses relating to the food industry. More and more these points of contact with... Read more

Posted on September 19, 2007 14:19

Carbohydrates and conviviality

Pasta shapes developed by Valentina de Lorenzis What is it about carboydrate-rich food that just screams conviviality? Valentina de Lorenzis, a recent graduate of the Man and Humanity Masters at the Design Academy Eindhoven, chose pasta to investigate this very subject. The result was an array ... Read more

Posted on September 10, 2007 12:39

Robo Cocktail

Erik Hobijn poses with the Mothuh of all mojito makers At last weekend's party for the youth of today, artist Erik Hobijn demonstrated the explosive power of his handheld cocktail launcher and created some unexpectedly delicious chunky style mojitos. Officially speaking, this cockbot is more of... Read more

Posted on September 3, 2007 21:31

The Knödelist

Son of a bakerman, keeping up the family tradition I am blessed with a goodly many friends who, feeling my temporary loss of Heim, have been inviting me over to dinner nearly every night of the week. Dear Friends, please pace yourselves but keep up the good work and continue to rock the kitchen... Read more

Posted on September 1, 2007 13:28

The arabised ‘H’ of EL HEMA

Joann digs EL HEMA packaging, image of the chocolate letter 'H' by Mediamatic used entirely with permission EL HEMA, an Arabised version of the Dutch five and dime, will be selling chocolate letters for the disputably secular Dutch winter holiday Sinter Klaas. The Arabic letters are in one of t... Read more

Posted on August 25, 2007 10:49

Birthday Cake ultra-lite

When you've inhaled enough buttercream for one life... So would your life be any less fab if you never ate birthday cake again? What is worth more, satisfying 1000 desires or learning to control just one? Birthday boy John B. & buddy Betty D. & basking cake In lieu of the same 'ol same... Read more

Posted on August 9, 2007 15:15

Made in Transit,
growing food
in a waste of time

Mushrooms of the future are grown in situ in transit When it comes to the food supply, there's a lot of waste to go around. Agata Jaworska, a recent masters graduate from the Design Academy Eindhoven, has designed a way to use the time and space associated with transportation to grow fresh prod... Read more

Posted on July 10, 2007 16:43

Controversial snacks and mild-mannered symposium

Wandering Banquet's wheat meat piéce montée was not just another secret ingredient. You hear me talkin'? Dutch fire marshalls the world over will be unhappy to read that last Friday's Food, Art and Science symposium at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht was filled way beyond capacity. Lab meat is a... Read more

Posted on July 7, 2007 12:58

Gimme some sugar, Sugar

Things about to get sticky at the van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven (Jan 2007) Sugar Storm by Zoro Feigl At Amsterdam's Rietveld Academy exam show this weekend visitors could tuck into this beautiful candy floss installation by Zoro Feigl. Aside from the tip of the cap to Fischli & Weiss, Roman Sign... Read more

Posted on July 3, 2007 11:02

Lab meating Friday
food, art & science
snacks & symposium

Listen up, why am I pink? Tissue Culture and Art's Extra Ear 1/4 Scale, used entirely without permission As part of the exhibition Genesis, The Art & Genomics Centre at the University of Leiden, in sweet collaboration with the Centraal Museum in Utrecht have organised a symposium on the subject... Read more

Posted on June 28, 2007 12:03

Exhibition the Edible City
at the NAi-M closes

The Edible City exhibition at the NAi-M (the Netherlands Architecture Institute) has finally come to a close. Showing more than 40 architectural, design and urban planning projects, the exhibition was about food systems and the urban environment. There was a time when city-dwellers could more or... Read more

Posted on June 27, 2007 15:09

Tomato marmalade
à la Tal who is
back in the Old Country

Tal taught me how to make this most delicious tomato marmalade. Actually, when Tal makes it, it's tomato jam. When I make it, it's tomato marmalade. He uses bay laurel, I was about to and then decided on rosemary. Tal's jam is wetter, better to serve with a chopped liver paté that will blow your... Read more

Posted on June 19, 2007 20:56

Butternut Update
week 24

What, you don't like my hand job? Some might call it karmic justice, but I think that I have homosexual butternut squash growing in my living room. Not that there's anything wrong with that and maybe we can chalk it up to to the fact that I can't tell the difference between the male and female ... Read more

Posted on June 18, 2007 13:04

Where Nina Planck and I agree to disagree about vegans

Image barely related to entry: Tarama and full-fat kwark on wholewheat bread strewn with chive flowers The following is the correspondence between Nina Planck and I on whether or not veganism is natural for humans. I wrote Nina in regard to her newsletter and Nina's article in the NYTimes Li... Read more

Posted on June 17, 2007 9:35

Nasturtium shots

A toast, "To a nasturtium leaf holding a pearl of vodka" What a pretty shot. The nasturtium leaf tastes like horseradish and is a perfect pallet cleanser after the wodka di buffalo. And because it's just a drop, you can keep on drinkin'. Read more

Posted on June 14, 2007 8:58

Capture the yeast within

That's a chopstick for stirring, not a straw for slurping. My girlbud and twisted lifecoach K'tje has been baking bread for hoards of guests and is in desperate need of yeast. Fresh yeast. Down in Occitania it seems that many a masterbaker is in fact a boulanger truqué. Dang faker bakers don'... Read more

Posted on June 5, 2007 21:21

Glutinous Maximus,
Grow yer own dang protein!

It may be beige, but it sure is some good eatin'... There are days when in one go, we can be inspired enough to shrug off one hella lotta ballast of preconceived notion. Last night was one of those days, when in an ad hoc workshop at the cooking studio of Marlein and Inez, Tomoko taught us to e... Read more

Posted on June 2, 2007 13:12

Edible Estates breaking ground in London

Butternut squash and nasturtiums about to go vertical Looking to get your hands dirty in London this weekend? Edible estate agent Fritz Haeg will be breaking ground on his 4th edible estate, this time in collaboration with the Bankside Open Spaces Trust (BOST) and commissioned by the Tate Moder... Read more

Posted on May 26, 2007 12:43

A yogic diet is not for me

My Aunties preparing an oddly sattvic picnic for our family in Paris' Jardin de Luxembourg It's slightly troubling to learn that my ancestral diet and a yogic or sattvic diet have little in common. I'm a lover of leafy greens, an initator of a sprout restaurant and I've been known to be inordin... Read more

Posted on May 18, 2007 19:17

Life ain’t no picnic

The annual Queen's Day cleaning uncovered this old art skool photograph. It's 1993 and the lady-colleagues and I are in a picnic performance sporting a red and white checked gingham ground cloth with built-in shorts. Read more

Posted on April 30, 2007 13:07

Pomtajer is the New Cocoyam
a friend of kugel and latke

Food is synonymous with identity and culture. And in case you hadn't noticed, cultural identity is all over contemporary art these days. Amsterdam artist and culinary historian Karin Vaneker has been studying the dynamic history of the tropical tuber called the New Cocoyam, aka Pomtajer (say puh... Read more

Posted on April 19, 2007 13:00

Passover ultra-lite,
ultra-late,
ultra authentic

Our first matza ball ever. Don't believe the hype. More than half of us had to be at Schiphol Airport the next morning on planes boarding well before 7. We should've blown the whole thing off. I mean, isn't Pesach synonymous with multi-day preparation? To make matters worse, an unfortuitous div... Read more

Posted on April 14, 2007 13:06

Left leaves

Author with 36-point fresh kill Yesterday it occured to me that it's only because the garden was neglected for such a long time that we're able to enjoy these spring flower salads and everything-but-the-squeal brassica eating experiences. The romanesca shown above was at one time a compact lig... Read more

Posted on March 25, 2007 11:08

So, uh,
what are you doing?

M: mostly alcohol, occasionally a teensy bit of coke. T: weed, coffee and cigarettes, definitely no coke, recently recovered from a Tony's Chocolonely addiction but now I'm into the Euroshopper alternative. It tastes just like slave-free. P: I don't normally do chocolate, but I went throug... Read more

Posted on March 19, 2007 20:56

Doors 9 JUICE reports:
Delhi’s Sabzi Mandi

That's vegetable market to me and you. At the crack of dawn, dodging raindrops the size of wild peaches, a small delegation from the Doors9:JUICE urban agriculture workshop heads out for a reconnoitre of Delhi's Sabzi Mandi, the wholesale vegetable market off Mehrauli-Gurgaon Rd. Through a haz... Read more

Posted on March 15, 2007 12:15

Food supplements

In Ayanagar Village on the outskirts of sprawling Delhi, the urban agriculture workshoppers accidentally stumble upon a food supplement store. A result of the Green Revolution? Read more

Posted on March 12, 2007 15:07

Golgappa,
1 of the top 5
most sexy things
you can put in your mouth

Try to imagine all of the sexy things that happen in your mouth. Now try to imagine a food that embodies these sensual experiences. You are imagining the Indian street food golgappa, unquestionably one of the most exciting things you can do to your body with food in public, a molecular gastronom... Read more

Posted on March 10, 2007 13:29

Psycho-gastronomy
and the
‘Honey, I’m home from Delhi’
breakfast

The kimchi chapati breakfast What could be a more obvious combination than the ubiquitous flatbread of India flavoured with a dash of pro-biotic pickle juice from the Heimatt? Rolling out a kimchi chapati breakfast seems just the ticket to remind me that I'm home from Delhi. It's been a whirlwi... Read more

Posted on March 9, 2007 10:49

Chai styling

This is how chai wa served to the Doors 9 JUICE urban agriculture delegation at Delhi's Sabzi Mandi (wholesale vegetable market). Beautiful and neat. Read more

Posted on February 28, 2007 22:04

Dark side of the moon soup

1000 year old egg, in a puddle of kefir and onions I'm in love, in-loved and love my beloved as much as the next gal, but I couldn't give a rat's ass about Valentine's Day. (Schatje doesn't read my blog, thank gawd!) February is the month where the novelty and exoticism of winter's dreary da... Read more

Posted on February 14, 2007 0:00

Wild Fermentation

My friend Anita Lozinska made these pickles last summer in Poland, where they know a thing or two about pickle making. These are perfect pickles. A few weeks ago, a friend asked me if I believed in the theory that we should eat foods according to our blood and body types, according to our ethni... Read more

Posted on February 12, 2007 20:28

Chirashi sushi
chaotic and unbound

Chirashi sushi as served at Martin Butler's the Girlfriend Experience Chirashi sushi is ‘casually mixed’ sushi, unbound, informal, slightly chaotic. For Martin Butler's Second Life-emulating, audience driven Girlfriend Experience at Mediamatic, I'm calling it DIY sushi. Chirashizushi (ã¡ã... Read more

Posted on February 10, 2007 11:33

Foodmiles design competition winners win some JUICE

Image of judging panel used with non-tacit permission Tuesday, one week ago today was devoted to a most ironic activity. I swam back and forth to London to jury the shortlisted entries of an international competition to find design solutions to the problem of foodmiles. And by swam, I mean fle... Read more

Posted on February 6, 2007 13:18

DOTT07
(Designs of the time)
Urban Farming

Urban regeneration, edible grow zones, kitchen playgrounds and town meals In many communities fresh fruit and vegetables are hard to source and expensive. There's little awareness of local food production, the possibility of growing your own and next to no supply chain for existing producers ... Read more

Posted on January 27, 2007 9:25

Liquid chauvinism,
drinking with Muslims

Buzzkill's throwin' a wrench in my terroir-ism. From time to time a girlfriend coming over to dinner will burst in the door, plop down her big 'ol handbag and announce with a performative voice loud enough for all to hear, 'Oh, and I've stopped drinking!' Pretty much always this means that ... Read more

Posted on January 22, 2007 14:26

Industrial yet green

Sunflower roots make a stab at world take-over There's something about the Montessori School poster-child in me that loves a good self-diagnosed field trip. I can never be too busy or have too many double-booked days to find time for some on-topic hookie, leaving the warm and productive nest th... Read more

Posted on January 17, 2007 15:31

The amazing
Sprout (loves) Ikebana
contest

Choreographer Martin Butler's winning entry for the category, 'Fleugalité (bamboo leaf, sango sprouts, rock chives, pea shoots) The amazing Sprout (loves) Ikebana contest was carried out in honour of chef de cuisine Tal Amitai, who was not able to be with us this last week due to the loss of hi... Read more

Posted on January 10, 2007 13:02

Sprouts love ikebana

My neighbours won the 2007 Sprouts Love Ikebana competition for the categories: 6 and under, 5 and under From more than 300 images of the sprouts love ikebana competition this weekend at the Grow Yer Own Dang Food sprout restaurant, these are the first, last and middle ones. We had winners in m... Read more

Posted on January 9, 2007 1:55

Bone up on ikebana

The key to Ryusei-ha ikebana is the approach known as the 'faces of plants.' The arranger is not bound by set rules of composition but encounters the plant materials directly, approaching them with a new attitude. Image used entirely without permission. To celebrate the natural beauty of sprout... Read more

Posted on January 4, 2007 4:46

Dang Freegans, eatin’ our trash, stealin’ our women

See what I mean? Used entirely with permission Actually, Freegans don't so much steal our women as eat our trash. And, not so much our trash, but perfectly edible food and produce that shops and restaurants end up throwing away because the products have passed their sell-by dates. As of tod... Read more

Posted on January 1, 2007 2:39

Birthday picnic au plein air for proximi et intimi

Transporting the cream puffs using a porcupine Several years ago I sort of got stoned and envisioned myself making a grand birthday party entrance with a giant croque en bouche tower perched on my head. Croque en bouche is traditionally a wedding or baptism cake for French people, constructed o... Read more

Posted on December 25, 2006 3:17

Smoke yer marijuanakkah, it’s time to celebrate Chanukkah

Latkes prepared in 1969 and preserved for lifetime use The continental posse is curious about my visit back to the Heimatt and has requested some reflection on my own personal hotbed of culinary inspiration. When it comes to holiday cooking, Mom (not her real name) says, 'You only need to m... Read more

Posted on December 22, 2006 20:53

Terroir of the ‘burbs

Encountering a stand of claytonia perfoliata during the morning constitutional So it's not like my folks ever said, 'Find yer own dang food!' it's just that I've always really enjoyed foraging. In fact it's their own dang fault since identifying plants, particularly the native and poisonous was... Read more

Posted on December 19, 2006 7:22

Sprout Salon Tonight promises to be parfumistic

Culiblog covergirl Iva Supic loves her up some sprouts While in another part of the world a loved one mourns the loss of a loved one, pouring over every verse of the Quran en famille, here in the Polar Circle it rains, blows and pours and we narrowly avert a Sprout War. Now that the dust has... Read more

Posted on December 15, 2006 10:38

Compost heaps of the rich and famous

The Seyferth house sports a compost heap! Well, at least of the famous. This is a shot of a compost heap in the back of the in-process home being built by designer/architect Christoph Seyferth. Although the house isn't even finished, I was pleased to see that the happening kitchen infrastructur... Read more

Posted on December 14, 2006 14:45

Cooking with supermodels

Kitchen Princess Erga always wears herbs, Seattle Public Library carpet by Petra Blaisse Maybe it's the phermones, maybe it's the new varieites of sprouts, (fennel, coreander, sunflower and pea shoots to name a few) but it seems that everything just keeps getting more beautiful at the Grow Yer ... Read more

Posted on December 1, 2006 10:33

Illustrious guests

International art critic Paul Groot inspects the work. Photo by illustrious guest Joost Bottema used entirely with permission Turns out we lingered a bit too long on Mateusz Herczka's phermone exuding garden furniture, but man oh man did we have a good time last night at the sprout restaurant, ... Read more

Posted on November 19, 2006 12:51

A sprouting lesson:
you’ve already got
what it takes

Counter-top sprouting installation chez culiblog When I remind my guests at the Grow Yer Own Dang Food micro-green cuisine concept restaurant that eating seasonal, local food is one of the most revolutionary actions that you can take against petrol consumption, right fists usually fly straight ... Read more

Posted on November 18, 2006 23:47

Micro-green restaurant officially open

Jeanette likes sprouts because they're seed-related Roqn-ass opening btw. Merveilleuse! The dear friends showed up, the food was devoured, folks asked for seconds (and got them without a wince) we danced our tocheses off until 4ish and the whole thing ended sloppily with bottles of bubbles (cav... Read more

Posted on November 4, 2006 18:56

Grow yer own dang food

Radish and leek sprouts in the low-angled polar sun FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 3, Restaurant prototype to open Grow Yer Own Dang Food, micro-green cuisine A restaurant devoted to sprouted seeds and micro-greens could only be called a Sproutstaurant. And at a Sproutstaurant one eats,... Read more

Posted on October 29, 2006 15:47

Design in Marketing and Communication

Image of design and trend guru Li Edelkoort blurred and playfully purpled almost beyond recognition, but not entirely. Used without permission. Whereas I'm sure that any of us can come up with a sexier conference title, it's thrilling to see so much food related design and sustainability in the... Read more

Posted on October 24, 2006 0:56

Meat meeting tonight

Image of First Nations Sioux ladies drying meat used entirely without permission. That should read meat fight tonight! If you're interested in the meat industry and are currently in Amsterdam, you're not going to want to miss tonight's Cross-thinking about Sustainability - Rethinking the Global... Read more

Posted on October 5, 2006 13:37

Got confusion about the nature of natural food?

This block print from Masanobu Fukuoka's 'One Straw Revolution' is used entirely without permission. This is what I'm re-reading right now and I'd like to share it. Here is a short quote from Masanobu Fukuoka's One Straw Revolution. It should definitely be on the reading list for anyone interes... Read more

Posted on October 1, 2006 3:33

What, you don’t like my not cooking?

The only thing that bothers me about this Soil Association press release is that the 'mums' are getting the lion's share of the blame. Surely in 2006 both parents are responsible for feeding the cubs? 18 September 2006 - for immediate release Soil Association Dinner Lady, Jeanette Orrey an... Read more

Posted on September 19, 2006 14:55

Got a cutting-edge food-related project?

A Delhi street kitchen doing booming business The deadline for the DOORS OF PERCEPTION 9 conference on “JUICE†(FOOD, FUEL, DESIGN) has been extended until September 30, 2006. If you think your project should be included in this event, please put your nose to the grindstone forthwith. Any q... Read more

Posted on September 18, 2006 15:23

The issue of financial gain with regard to an allotment

My neighbour Sidi ElGouche is smokin' again. Yesterday my dear colleague (from the Dott07 CityFarming project) posed the very good question of how much one could earn from one's kitchen garden. Apparently he had read two disparate studies and the numbers varied ten-fold as to what a garden allo... Read more

Posted on September 5, 2006 15:41

Perfume food, Comme des Bonbonieres

Image of Comme des Garçons parfums from Reluct design blog and used entirely without permission. Pardon. I don't want to be, but I am. I'm a big fat fan of Comme des Garçons parfums. The smell of smoke and incense makes Kyoto my favourite, followed by the girlier Carnation, and Shiso. And to ... Read more

Posted on August 24, 2006 13:15

Inside the secret gardens of our culinary elite

Photograph of photographs of Terrance Conran and his cabbages by Peter Dench at Telegraph Magazine Last Saturday's Telegraph Magazine reported on the kitchen gardens of twenty-three of England's most 'reknowned' 'cooks'. From several versions of elaborate kitchen gardens, to modest collectio... Read more

Posted on August 19, 2006 12:22

Wasteware, it’s everything but the squeal in food recycling

Rhubarb and carrot waste formed into little bowls for cherries and berries. Man and Humanity masters graduate Matthijs Vogels has developed a beautiful but extreme way to eliminate food waste by turning it into plates and bowls. At last week's Design Academy Eindhoven MFA show, Vogels exhibited... Read more

Posted on July 4, 2006 12:30

A recipe for Terrine Geologique

Although June is internationally recognised as the month of striation and I've been determined to pay hommage, I'm starting to feel like a 1980's Romanian dictator, force-feeding nut-cheese recipes to her people. Maybe it's because I'm feeling guilty about taking so long to write that entry abou... Read more

Posted on June 27, 2006 23:17

A nut cheese nut case

On the left, homemade pine nut paté with borage flowers. One the right, walnut paté with raw cocoa nibs. Normally this sort of food preparation is reserved for vegans, hippies and raw foodists. I am none of the above, a red-blooded porkatarian, I am. One of my readers disclosed that ... Read more

Posted on June 25, 2006 12:06

Catchy, but not contagious

It was recently revealed in an offical report out of the Kimchi Nation that there are exactlly one zillion sorts of kimchi. Kimchi is a falsely generic term for the Korean national pickle and katchi is the mustard green variety pictured here. Catchy Tofu recipe described vertically, from bottom ... Read more

Posted on June 23, 2006 3:12

Master cleanser, for juice fasters and thirsty people

If you just think of this as lemonade, you might actually drink it. Master cleanser is the unfortunate name for a cayenne-spiked ginger lemonade, sweetened with maple syrup and sprinkled with sea salt. When you fast or do sports or simply exist in warm weather, it's wise to drink liquids that don'... Read more

Posted on June 14, 2006 16:49

Juice fasting recipes, start with forgotten vegetables and then forget them again

I'm the kind of gal that likes to pad her New Year's resolutions with seemingly achievable ambitions like, 'Improve handwriting' and 'Find ways to enjoy ancient root vegetables', but 5 months into the year, I haven't exactly achieved success in integrating parsnips and burdock into my winter diet ... Read more

Posted on June 13, 2006 11:08

CPULs when bad acronyms happen to good people

It's pronounced 'SEE, PULSE' and stands for Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes. Architects Viljoen, Bohn and Howe's positively radical notion of combining productive urban landscapes with continuous landscapes, proposes a new urban design strategy that would change the appearance of contempo... Read more

Posted on June 9, 2006 13:51

If you like fresh leafy greens and pork, you’re going to love kruudmoes

First impression: I may have taken an overly Californian approach to making kruudmoes this time, but although I should probably increase the gooeyness to make it just the way the natives do, kruudmoes is just crazy delicious. If you're like me and: - love to chomp away on all sorts of lea... Read more

Posted on May 14, 2006 22:31

Street food waste = street food packaging

Fish and chips: image of street food packaging concept 'IHO', © Païvi Kovanen, Eva Arts and Caroline van Teeffelen 2006, used courtesy of the designers. Please respect student work, contact culiblog for updates. (This is the second in a series of entries about the Street Food Workshop develop... Read more

Posted on April 29, 2006 11:06

Street food collaborations: Streetberry!

Streetberry design by Michou-Nanon de Bruyn, Milou Melis and Monica Ruiter. Please respect student work, contact culiblog for updates. Nothing says wing-flapping like a subversive strawberry. Students Michou-Nanon de Bruyn, Milou Melis and Monica Ruiter have developed Streetberry as their final... Read more

Posted on April 24, 2006 9:27

Love difference,as in we love difference

Of course the artistic movement for an intermediterranean politic is into food. And it sports a big fat Citta del Arte logo right on it's homepage. Which led me to click on the Ministry of Nourishment link because I always wonder what folks mean by the word nourishment. I'm none the wiser, but th... Read more

Posted on 8:00

Urban gardening lessons for Dutch children

On an island in Amsterdam's Westerpark, a horizontal grid of 1m2 garden plots are being prepared for the children. The sign says that around 500 children will receive weekly education about nature and the environment on these plots. Although this garden grid offers an extreme image of mini-allotme... Read more

Posted on April 21, 2006 7:13

An improbable history: meal assembly centers

image of friendly community hugging © Super Suppers, used entirely without permission Kim Severson and Julia Moskin's New York Times article about meal assembly centers has me all excited and flapping my wings. For other people. They report on Texan Judie Byrd's service called Super Suppers, ... Read more

Posted on March 26, 2006 22:40

Not cooking with flowers and leaves, a raw food recipe for marinated shitake mushrooms

If I want to eat with my friends, I can't just serve up vegetables with the dirt still clinging to the rootball, the way I like it. I have to engage in some refining. Hibiscus flower and green tea leaf marinated shitake mushrooms (work: 7 minutes, wait: 1-4 hours) - dried hibiscus flowers ... Read more

Posted on March 21, 2006 14:14

Let the future begin, kimchi air conditioner is here

Romantic kimchi photo courtesy of "Do the Bart" Charlotte Yong San Gullach Kimchi is pickled cabbage (or radish or mustard leaf or...) and I feel quite comfortable in reporting that it is one of the top five most delicious things you can put in your mouth. It is Gawd's own comfort food, made with ... Read more

Posted on February 15, 2006 23:58

Food-related film at the Berlin International Film Festival

Pack up your yurt, we're moving to the steppes of Berlin for a week, where it's much colder than it was in Rotterdam, and where a yurt will come in handy. The craziness begins today at the Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival. Culiblog will be attending the madness for an entire week, ... Read more

Posted on February 9, 2006 14:12

Fritz Haeg’s Edible Estates
homesteading on the suburban lawn

Start with one suburban home in Middle America (images of Salina Kansas Edible Estate © Fritz Haeg, used entirely with permission) Situated on what was once a massive sugar beet plantation, the iconic housing development of Lakewood is an embodiment of an American Dream in which each single-fa... Read more

Posted on September 26, 2005 12:34

Fallen Fruit

Red apples on the left, yellow apples on the right. All of the apples were going to waste. As a fan of food foraging and fruit stealing, and as a woman who had never bought fruit except for bananas, mangos and the occasional avocado until she moved up North to the Polar Circle, I applaud the Fa... Read more

Posted on May 7, 2005 1:58

Eat off the floor? Get the facts…

In Amsterdam if I drop food when I'm cooking I always just pick it up and pop it into my mouth. I eat off my floor - sometimes days after the 'fall'. And what you may ask are my criteria for scrapping or scarfing? With me it depends on whether the food was initially wet or dry. (See semi-unrelated... Read more

Posted on September 23, 2004 12:08

Recipes for Geese and People
and Jeremijenko’s OOZ

2nd course of the dinner for geese and people was called Vegetable Matter Underfoot, (salad carpaccio) visually references the trampled vegetation at the sides of ponds and lakes where waterfowl like to hang out. Natalie Jeremijenko is developing a zoo without cages, and she's calling it 00Z. T... Read more

Posted on March 2, 2004 17:50


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