All posts filed under: Amsterdam

Frank’s Smoke House Amsterdam

Last time we were on trend safari in Amsterdam, we visited this wonderful, small, local producer of high quality smoked fish and meats. The place is called Frank’s Smoke House and owner Frank was happy to talk about his passion. The principle of hand crafted quality food is simple: a beautiful piece of meat of fish plus salt, wood, fire and patience. In this ‘rokerij’ they smoke about everything, from Wild Alaska salmon, grain fed pork, mackerel, trout, organic chickens and turkeys, wild boar, to cheeses and much more. Traditional, sustainable and delicious. They use honest and naturel ingredients, produced without hormones, antibiotics or other kinds of manipulation. The wild Alaskan King Chinook salmon is the most famous product. The fish are hook and line caught in the Golf of Alaska and are carefully selected before imported. The Alaska fishing industry is the most sustainable in the world and is even protected by the local laws there. Frank’s Smoke House also smokes Sockeye and Label Rouge Scottish salmon, grain fed pork, halibut, mackerel, trout, free range chickens, wild …

Saving Banksy

I can be short about this one: the Banksy exhibition ‘The Art of Banksy’ (last week still in Amsterdam, now in Antwerp) is a tourist trap. If you are really into Banksy, there are other options. Do not believe the hype that it’s a must-go exhibition, whatever the media or the so called experts try to make you believe. The entire setting is wrong. Brick or ‘arty-farty’ wallpaper to present ‘street-art-for-galleries’, cardboard & fake stencils plus to indispensable spray cans to ‘show’ how Banksy works, hardly any original street work and above all, a ‘street-art-for-the-masses vibe. We visited the expo (helàs!) in Amsterdam and could not get out fast enough. Compare it with eating a cheap pizza in a bad Italian restaurant and thinking that you visited Rome. Got the picture? Don’t get me wrong. I love Banksy and his work. We visited Dismaland (twice), Bristol, Calais & London, to see his work. Because let’s face it, the best place to see a Banksy is still in the street, were it belongs. It’s not easy to find some originals, …

Reflections to welcome a new year.

I’m not the only one who feels the urge to reflect on what’s ahead, when starting a new year. If you look at it, the start of a new year is just another day in the always faster rushing world around you. But it is also the perfect ‘forced’ moment to think things trough. What are my goals in life? What plans do I make this year? What do I stand for and can I stay true to myself in this marketing & perfect image ruled world I work in? It’s not easy. Off course I know the drill. I know what needs to be done. Making compromise is needed, and even moderation has never been my strongest asset, I’m getting better at it…. But I also know what is important in life. We want relevance, we want more transparency and honesty from others, we do not believe in empty stories anymore, we worry about time passing by and we know we need to focus on long, fundamental issues instead of our non stop quest …

Tried & enjoyed, Restaurant Café Modern Amsterdam.

As I need to be in Amsterdam for my job (creative direction for fashion shoots), I find it always challenging to dine in good food restaurants. This can be the hot spot of the moment, or a hidden treasure known by some locals, or a classic frequented by quality seekers. If Elle/harpers Bazaar/Vogue fashion photographer Wendelien Daan (who likes good food as much as I do) and later Maarten van de Vijfeijken (Founder of creative studio “Goed stel mensen”) both recommended me Café Modern, than I did what needs to be don, I booked a table. Café Modern is situated near Amsterdam North and is from the same team that brought us Hotel de Goudfazant. (not an hotel, but a great restaurant in an industrial car park). Café Modern nested in an old bank building and has a feeling of a school refter, or a canteen of a 60 ties government house. You still find the vaults of the bank, as they are turned into a toilet area in the cellar. There is only one …