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

Sprout Salon Tonight promises to be parfumistic

December 15, 2006

Iva Supic loves sprouts and culiblog.org
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 settled, and the sponsorship agreements for the final month of the Grow Yer Own Dang Food Sprout Restaurant have been sealed with hearty handshakes and teary phone calls, we can get back to the important matters at hand. Take a look-see at who’s sponsoring us (!):

Van der Plas Sprouts
Harvesting the pea shoots at Van der Plas Sprouts

Van der Plas Sprouts is the main sponsor of the Grow yer Own Dang Food sprout restaurant and is a true sprouting pioneer, constantly expanding their assortment with new varieties. The entire crew at Grow Yer Own Dang Food is literally addicted to the highly aromatic sprouted herbs, like coreander and fennel. This company is passionate about elevating the use of sprouts and this is what I most love about them. Some of their famous clients include El Bulli, so I guess we’re in good company.

the Koppert Cress selection
An assortment from Koppert Cress

Aside from being one of the Netherlands biggest suppliers of ‘micro-greens’, Koppert Cress is the originator of the ‘cressperience’. Seriously, Koppert Cress thought up that word. The cressperience is a sprout tasting room avant la lettre and gawd knows how I love avant la lettre and a parfumistic approach to their sprout assortment. (I thought up THAT word.)

de Peulenschil Schudmachine
Mung bean sprout production at de Peuleschil

de Peuleschil (which means, the pea shell in the cute Dutch language) is Netherlands biggest producer of 100% organic sprouts. Although sprouting doesn’t involve chemicals (it’s just water, warmth and darkness)- de Peulenschil is proud to use seeds that are 100% certified organically produced.

Each one of these sprout growers brings something important to the experience that I want to create at the Grow Yer Own Dang Food restaurant. Culiblog is not into monoculture; not in agriculture, and also not in sponsoring agreements. We believe in healthy, diverse markets for thriving local growers. Diversity is culture afterall.

Tonight, December 15th, Mediamatic will host a Dinner Party Salon, serving, surprisingly, micro-green cuisine.

There will be origami.
There will be nerd yoga.
And other things.

If you want to dine, you’ll need to respondez s’il vous plait +31 (0)20 638 9901. But if you just want to sit passively like a bump on a log and listen to folks go on and on about their projects (including me), fold a little paper, fold your body and be done with it, you can just show up.

Time: 20:00h
Location: Mediamatic’s Night Garden, Post CS Gebouw, ground floor, Amsterdam

Iva Supic loves sprouts and culiblog.org
Culiblog covergirl Iva Supic en double with sprouts

debra at 10:38 | Comments (0) | post to del.icio.us

Compost heaps of the rich and famous

December 14, 2006

Culiblog.org loves the Christoph Seyferth House in Maastricht with compost heap!
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 infrastructure was already in place. This bodes well.

In the beginning of December I travelled far south below the rivers to discuss co-curating an exhibition about food and the Dutch landscape at the brand spanking new NAi dependance in Maastricht with its brand spanking new director Guus Beumer (additionally director of the Marres Centre for Contemporary Culture). The meeting took place on the drive down from Amsterdam so that once we were finally in Maastricht we could do some location scoping and focus on checking out Guus’ new domestic pied à terre. The house designed by architect/designer Seyferth is truly beautiful and almost, nearly, barely, just about to be finished.

Culiblog.org loves the food prep in the Christoph Seyferth House in Maastricht.
The kitchen in the guest flat isn’t yet completely installed but the artists-in-residence joyfully ad-hocked this fab food prep setup together. Some folks are just inherently stylish!

Culiblog.org loves the kitchen Christoph Seyferth House in Maastricht.
User testing in the eventual Seyferth House kitchen

Culiblog.org loves the Christoph Seyferth House in Maastricht with external staircase wrapped in plastic weave.
Under the first floor, looking towards the garden.

Culiblog.org loves the Christoph Seyferth House in Maastricht.
The stairs are wrapped in agricultural polyweave.

Culiblog.org loves the Christoph Seyferth House in Maastricht.
From the garden looking up!

Culiblog.org loves the Christoph Seyferth House in Maastricht.
La façade

Culiblog.org loves the ambience at the Christoph Seyferth House in Maastricht.
Not even moved in and the ambience already rocks!

I’ve been told that if I behave myself (whatever that means) I can come over for dinner once or twice and eventually worm my way in for an extended stay.

debra at 14:45 | Comments (1) | post to del.icio.us

Cooking with supermodels

December 1, 2006

Erga kitchen princess
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 Own Dang Food sprout restaurant. We think it may have something to do with the fact that in the kitchen, the food is only touched by those burgeoning with youth, people as beautiful as the sprouts they mindfully transform into dinner. Whatever it is, it’s working wonders and several regular guests have reported contemplating using more mellow facial moisturisers. It’s so fuqn cool to be clear.

Nadya and Carla
Nadya and Carla laying in the grass

vanderplas sprouts at the sprout restaurant - culiblog
Experimenting for the visit from Hermes’ today

Oh, did I mention that the fab folks from Hermes are coming for a look see? They want to contemplate throwing away their moisturisers too!

vanderplas sprouts at the sprout restaurant - culiblog
Peas, shoots and leaves

vanderplas sprouts at the sprout restaurant - culiblog
Culiblog loves verticality

debra at 10:33 | Comments (1) | post to del.icio.us

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