Food adventure

Company 30th Anniversary and Rollende keuken 2016 Amsterdam

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The Rollende Keuken 2016 Amsterdam, Westergasfabriek.

Last week in the Netherlands was very Summer-like with temperatures of 25+ degrees and all the Dutchies were enjoying these fine days to the fullest. What’s best was at the end of those sunny days was the start of the food festival ‘Rollende Keuken 2016’ in Amsterdam. The timing of it was just right for us to enjoy the ‘outdoor food fest.’ My sister and I made arrangements to go to the festival and enjoy an evening of streetfood. 

When we arrived at the Westerpark-area it was packed with, Expats, Young Professionals and Students. I think most of them are there for the drinks and alcohol in addition for the nice outdoorsy weather to chill out. Food probably isn’t their priority, but it was one of ours. We had walked around to find food that suited our likings and stumbled on a Hot Mama stand with Korean style burgers.

  

The left pic shows a steamed bun with lettuce, kimchi and pulled pork meat that was made on the grill. It was good, just a bit expensive but everything was expensive.

The burger on the right was a beef bulgogi burger with lettuce, cheddar, some sauce and a tomato infused red bun. It was good, but not too special for my taste.

  

Our hunger was still not stilled and we wanted some more food. Paying more for overpriced food was not something we wanted to do, so we went for food that we both liked as well as being reasonablely priced. 

Most Churros found in Amsterdam are very bad, fatty and too sweet. All the bad stuff in one dish. The stand at the fest was making them fresh and from organic ingredients. So we tried it, it was incomparable with other churrosstands in Amsterdam. The Churros felt light in fat and it was not that sweet like the others, ‘those churros were your teeth would fall out instantly by having one bite.’ It was the best Churros up till now that I had in Amsterdam.

After that we still wanted something and just went for dessert. You can not go wrong with ice cream from Metropolitan, a food-truck stand of the shop in the center of Amsterdam. The shop is a regular place for me and my housemates. Chocolate, ice-cream and various sweets a place for all sweet-tooth’s. We ended with that and got picked up, to go to her place for me to borrow her car for the weekend.

30th Company Anniversary at Van der Valk Schiphol A4.

Sunday was the day of the event, dress code: Ties and Dresses, a banquet and a day of anniversary enjoyment. I took the car and went to pick up my passengers to the event. The event was held at the Van der Valk Hotel near Schiphol at the highway A4. We arrived at the location and already saw flags hanging out with the company logo. As we were rolling over the parking lot we were seeing packs of Asians moving towards the entrance. Everyone, the guys wears nice suits, shiny shoes and a tie, while the ladies are all made up, wearing dresses and on high heels. It was different to see all my colleagues dressed at their best, very different from their regular wear.

Once entering the building we were welcomed by familiar faces, who would give us our name tags and brought us to our seats. The setup was big, because every branch in the Netherlands was their to celebrate the 30th year anniversary. The program of the day was mostly speeches, first and foremost a speech of the company founder, eventually every regional manager made their talk. Later in the afternoon a play was done by the founders about the founding of the company as well as a quiz-show with all the branches competing against each other.

At the turn of night was the start of the banquet, tbh. I expected better quality of food, but I give them the benefit of a doubt. The reason was that we were with over 600 people at the event. The dessert was the best I had that day, see the picture below. It isn’t an Asian celebration with out a prize rain of lottery prizes. Too bad I didn’t won anything, maybe next time.

All in all it was fun! What’s more to come? I don’t know, but I will Keep Experimenting!

Amsterdam Coffee Festival!

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The Amsterdam Coffee Festival

Last weekend was the first dutch coffee festival of the year. It was setup at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam. The ACF is the Walhalla for all coffee-lovers and also fun for coffee-enthusiast like me. Various Roasting companies and coffee-sellers were attending. Specialty coffees everywhere as well as awesome coffee-machines.

A big hall with lots of stands and a stage for the Dutch Barista Championship.

     

The picture below is a coffee machine of the method syphon. It uses the vacuum technique to extract coffee from fresh grinded beans.

Some stands were selling complementary products like sweets to have with coffee. For instance Cakesmith selling cakes. These products are nice to have when having someone over for coffee or when you are on a coffee-break.
  
Other Stands are specialized in making something special out of coffee, like Expresso Martini Bar. Where they combine coffee and martini and create a cocktail. A fancy drink for in the happy-hour’s or while going out.

Coffee Pairing and Gastronomy: The Scandinavian Embassy Pop-up Restaurant.

The Scandinavian Embassy: A Coffee hotspot in Amsterdam near Sarpathi-park was at the Festival. They were having a coffee and food pairing-pop-up restaurant.

‘A screenshot of the three-course menu that the guest were having in the food & beverage-tasting.’
   

For starters we had Espresso-smoked oyster followed by a Mussel with coffee infused vinegar and lastly a Clam with coffee cherry infused butter accompanied with a Chilled Danish espresso. The way to taste the experience was to have a shellfish first and a sip of espresso afterwards to bring out the seafood, flavours and coffee combination. It was a rather unique experience to have coffee like that.

Next up was the main dish a Gin flambe scallops. Originally it was to have this dish with a strong extracted coffee, but there was a mistake of the barista and we had a different kind of experience one of a mild extracted coffee.
 
As desert was a tartar of beetroot and herring with yogurt and salt accompanied with coffee and a distilled drink poured in the first glass of espresso, giving it a boost to your taste experience.

The food-pairing was definitely an experience, but it was not suited for all visitors of the Festival. Because it is food as in gastronomy, fine dining of flavour and taste-combination.

It was fun to experience the different aspects of coffee.
Looking forward to the next Festival.
Have fun and Keep Experimenting!

naffa: Taste of Vietnam, Amsterdam

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Nocsta and Friends: Food Adventure take you this time to yet another Asian Cuisine, to Vietnamese Food to be precisely. This time was with two lovely ladies, who I had met during my student days. In the past we got together multiple times to have sushi or korean food. It was the time when we were the early-adopters of the now mainstream sushi and korean food.

The ladies and I have decided to meet up on 14th of Jan at Amsterdam Central. That day was a rainy day like buckets pouring out of the sky. Normally I would have been more prepared and on time, but this time I made the ladies wait. :s I was fifteen minutes late, supposed to meet them at 19:00. We greeted in a quickly and were heading off in the rain to Taste of Vietnam at Herenstraat 28c. The girls were starved after a long day of work and I was ready to taste Vietnam as well.

Walking through the Jordaan in the city center of Amsterdam, I noticed a lot of shops and restaurants. the Jordaan a neighbourhood that I still need to explore.. It was dark, cold and wet so, we hurried to the place. In the far we saw the signpost of the restaurant, we quickly entered into a warm, light and bright restaurant. Upon entering we were lead to our table by the two employees. The restaurant was hosted by a guy and a girl, (the girl was kinda cute.)

While seating we ordered some drinks, ice tea for the two ladies and I just stick it to water. My friends were hungry so we took a look at the menu and ordered an entree to begin with.

The three entree’s were a shrimp roll, fried shrimps and a beef roll. We decided to share the entree’s, to have a taste of each dish. The first dish is the shrimp roll with veggies, shrimps and vermicelli inside, on the sides are three dipping sauce, peanut sauce, sweet and sour vinegar and Hoi sin sauce. The shrimp roll definitely needed the sauce to give it a flavourful taste.
The second is a deep-fried prawn wrapped in a crunchy skin, accompanied by a sweet and sour chili. Nothing special, but always nice to have a crunchy fried prawn.
The third is similar to the first roll, however it had more flavour to it with out the sauce. The beef in it was seasoned well and it was the better one of the two rolls.

On to the main dish, all three of us had chosen for a beef Phô. It tasted great, but the soup was a bit oily and not as clear as some other I had. I expected the noodles of the Phô to be bit thinner, but at least it wasn’t a thick rice noodles that was sticky and starchy. The ladies and I quickly devoured our foods and talked about how everyone is doing. The two were both happy in life, one was married and the other was engaged to be married by the end of this year.

It was fun meeting the girls again, I have not seen them for a long time. The food was nice, the service was good and the atmosphere of the place was great.

Try this place out and see for yourself the Taste of Vietnam.

The 3rd Japan Market and Amsterdam Food Festival

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Last weekend was a busy end of the week or better yet end of the month. November has ended and the Festive month starts. So in hindsight it was a nice way of ending it fun and joyful with my siblings. Last week program was The FoodFestival Amsterdam at the RAI and on Sunday was The 3rd Japan Market (Fair) at the Lloyd hotel, both in Amsterdam. (I am kinda slow on posting.)

The 3rd Japan Market (Fair)

As you might know in my previous post the weather in the Netherlands sucks at the moment with lots of rain, wind and greyness. Nevertheless, I had a rather relaxed and laid-back morning with some steamed buns for breakfast. However it was a bit to laid-back and I had to change-gear from ‘zero-to-100’ for the ‘Metro’ (subway) to Amsterdam Central Station. The meet-up with my siblings was at 12:30 p.m. and I was just in time to get the 12:10 Metro to ‘Centraal’. I was the first one to arrive, my sister, brother and his girlfriend were next up and right on time. Then we took the tram to The Lloyd Hotel were the event was held.

It was the first time that I was at the Lloyd hotel. It was not a fancy new hotel, but a more traditional styled one. The hotel from within has been renovated to modern times, with an open spaced lunchroom and a stairway to multiple plateaus. These plateaus-areas can be used for various occasion, like holding small events or place to retreat to for some reading or doing things on the laptop. This time it was The 3rd Japan Market held at this location. The event was divided into two parts the non-food and the food part. The non-food part was set up in two small rooms on the first floor of the hotel. There were various small booths selling Japanese items or handcrafted works from people who studied under the Japanese art style. Some of the remember-able booths were: The butterflies that are made of ties, The handmade pottery-works following the Japanese style, The modern ‘kawaii’ (cute) handmade stuff made for girls and young-womens. Others are Japanese forged steel scissors and various Japanese arts inspired craft works.

   

Next up is the plateau area or food area. Multiple food-stands are selling their Japanese cooking-arts or just food. Stands were selling Onigiri, a triangular rice ball with fish or vegetables in it and covert with a ‘nori’ paper (processed seaweed.) green tea stands, sushi-boxes and home made sushi. Sweets stands with matcha-muffins, Doriyaki’s (Doreamon’s favorite), mochi’s and the fish shaped cake Taiyaki. We bought some of those treats and had them for lunch. The Japan Market was nice and may they become a bigger event in the future.

   
  

Food Festival Amsterdam

Before we went to the Food Fest at the RAI, we wandered a bit at Central Station and nearby IJ-burg. The thing was that we were still full from the lunch and could use a walk. So we went for a stroll or shop-hopping…. uhm, yeah shopping at the IJ-passage at Central and grabbed something to drink near IJ-burg. At around 5p.m. we hopped into the car and headed over to Amsterdam RAI for the Food Festival.

The RAI, Amsterdam largest event location and a place for holding these kinds of grand happenings. The Food Festival was at it’s last day, it started three days earlier on the 26th of november. The four of us walked to the main entrance and were saluted by the security for a look in our bags. It is supposedly not allowed to bring in any food or drinks. In the voyeur was a DJ-Truck playing loud music too welcome the visitors of the event. On the left was the way to the conference area but it was closed off and was not part of the event. On the right side was the road to the large hall were the Food Festival was held. It was huge place and filled with different kinds of people, foodlovers ‘Foodies’, parents with small children, students, expats and many more. The venue was compiled of foodtrucks, the trucks were laid out in a rectangular encirclement having an outer ring and an inner ring. Between the two rings were tables and benches for the visitors to sit and dine. There were two token-shops, where every visitor had to buy tokens in order to buy the food they wanted to consume. One token was €2,50 and the prices at the stands were mostly around 2-3 tokens. However there were some restaurants stands that offered a whole menu or a 3-dish course. Those were more on the expensive side with 4-9 tokens. Drinks can be bought at drinking booths, one token for the ‘souvenir’ drinking-cup and a minimum of one token for the beverage.

So what did we ate that day? Multiple things. (from left to right)

    

The BAO-burger or Beef-Pork-Chicken-Shrimp-patty on a bun. It was an Ok burger, but if you were not familiar with a mix of multiple meat types, it might taste a bit odd. Having something like this is not in everyone’s taste so I would not recommended it for try-out outside of home.

The slow-cooked pulled Pork meat with lots of fried stuff and spring onions on a steamed bun. This is mix of slow-cooked pulled meat and Asiatic soft steamed bun makes it a combination of the modern fusion food. A tasty grub and a change from the regular burger or other fast-food.

The Potato-twister and chicken skewers. A parties favorite that is looks fun, curled up and twisted on a stick. This fried potato on a stick is easily sharable with family and friends or just have it for yourself.

   

Fresh young coconut, very simple and yummy to have. Sipping the coconut juice and eating the young coco-meat.

A Savoury waffle with beetroot and bacon. An odd combination, but who does not like bacon. With waffles you mostly think of sweets, but savoury dishes can also be made. Same with pancakes or crèpes, it can be sweet or savoury, definitely worth a try to make some savoury pancake or waffles.

Below are three pics of Saturday, when I also went to the Food Festival. (two days in a row how about that :p)

   

A pulled pork sandwich, followed by a beef meatball and a beef-burger. A meat-lover must-try meal and a lot of ‘punny’ comments to add. Get a taste of these ‘meaty-buns’ and make sure to ‘sandwich’ it while sharing. Have a lick or a bite of the ‘juicy spiced balls’ and make sure to have this threesome of meat.

Some bite-sized fried snacks, good to go with some beer or drinks. It was seafood flavour, but a meat version was also possible.

Orange Punch and Green Power Smoothies to boost your daily fruit and veggies needs.

 

That’s all folks, it was a day of treats for the eyes and stomach. For the next time I try to post it more on time, cause now it is way after some time. Nevertheless up to the next Food experience! I hope you like it and Keep Experimenting!

nocsta and friends: Food Adventure. Izakaya Tanuki, Amstelveen.

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The first ‘nocsta and friends: Food Adventure’ Izakaya Tanuki, in Amstelveen. I had great ideas of doing this, but forgot all about it and just had a very good dinner with friends. I have not seen them in a long while, so it was just great to have fun and enjoy the moment.

The Idea of Food Adventure comes from a Youtube channel, Justkiddingfilms. The channel shows a group of friends making video-content on youtube and one of their video-topics are their Food Adventures. The JKF-group will often make a video of a foodie-hotspot where they showcase the delicious foods of the establishment they visit.

The videos are entertainment that I enjoy to watch and I wanted to have something similar. That’s why I started with this new blog subject of Naf:fa, (food and friends). At the moment I am just starting out, so bear with my materials for now. I hope to gradually to create something like a photo blog content and eventually video content.

Izakaya Tanuki

Amstelveen has one of the largest Japanese community in the Netherlands and is not that strange to find a hidden gem inside the Dutch horeca-landscape filled with All-you-can-eat-Sushi places. (horeca is the dutch term for the HOtel, REstaurant and CAtering service industry.)

Izakaya: is like a tavern, but Japanese style. Tanuki has a definitely a modern Japanese feel to it, with a Japanese looking building. It has his own garden which you walk through it from the main-entrance to the sliding door entrance. Follow through  on the inside, the restaurant contains an open kitchen with bar seatings and regular chair-and-tables seatings, at the wall-side in a L-shape are the tatami style seatings with boxed in tables.

The dinning style is somewhat different than you would expect. The menu has a lot to offer and ranges from various Japanese dishes, like [sushi and sashimi] cold dishes to [karage] fried dishes and [yakitori, ramen] warm dishes. The style of ordering is similar to all-you-can-eat but without the rounds or filling some paper or pc-tablet. Old-skool style with your waiter/waitress on paper and pen. And it can be done whenever you like to order from the menu.

That night we had some fresh made sushi’s. The rice of the nigiri and maki sushi’s were at the right warm temperature and the fish toppings were freshly cut and layed on top.
We ordered various skewers to share, from yakitori (chicken skewers) to other kushiyaki (meat and vegetables skewers). The Tsukune or chicken meatballs were interesting a different way of what you normally would expect of yakitori. Other skewers which were nice are the Gyutan or cows tongue. Cow tongue needs to be grilled well or it will be really tough like chewing on a leather belt.

The dishes of Izakaya Tanuki that I liked the most that day were two meat dishes. The first one is the Japanese fried Chicken or better known as the Tori Karage. The dish what we had was the Wakadori No Kara Age described as Japanese style marinated chicken. The meat was very tender and the chunks of chicken were huge. The next dish was the MVD (play on MVP) of the night, The Wafu Steak. We ordered it two times and if we had known it was that good from the start, we would have ordered it more times. The beef dish was sharable and it was deliciously good and done well. Seriously yummy tender steak and I was able to enjoy it multiple times with every piece that’s on the plate.

It was nice to have a good quality meal with my friends. Although this time I haven’t made a lot of food pics, on the next naffa I will show a more foodporn post with lots and lots of food pictures.

Until next time, Like, share and Keep Experimenting!

Starting a new blog series!!! NAF:FA

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An upcoming series for some of the nicest place in Amsterdam to grab a bite.

While I am searching for a job, I got like loads of time to spare. So I came up with an idea that would let me Explore Amsterdam the city and meet up with some friends that I haven’t contacted with in a while.

The series will be “nocsta and friends: Food Adventure”

Stay tuned and keep experimenting