Passion and a business card

Posted in Blog, Graphic design by

Hi dear Food Lovers,

Today I want to take a moment to reflect on my Lazy Pig Passion journey. The last three months I have been creating food videos and those have given me a lot of new followers on Facebook and a lot of visitors on the blog. Also I have written about Yokohama Ramen Saito, the new ramen place in Schiedam, which spread like a wild fire on Facebook. I am really happy to share delicious food places and make other people enthusiastic about it. It just give me so much happy feelings which leads to teary eyes. Can’t handle all that emotion.

I get so much energy from making the videos. The feeling of creating something beautiful and delicious for the eyes is so addicting.

Video process

Shooting the video takes about 3 hours. First we film views of the city and film the introduction parts for about 2 hours. Then at the restaurant we film the eating part for about 1 hour. It really feels like working then. You can’t leisurely enjoy the eating. But Lazy Penguin and I have agreed to keep it casual, since we are doing this for fun anyway.

Editing the video and sound is another story. On average I use 4 evenings to finish a video. Let’s say 2-3 hours per evening. So about 8-12 hours for: cutting video and ordering them, adding the right sound and music, adding special effects like text and pictures, adding the intro and outro titles. Then on the day of posting, I will add subtitles, make a thumbnail photo for the video and write a text for the blog. I think that’s about 18 hours for a video & blog post. Poeh.
A ‘normal’ photo & text blog post takes about 6 hours to make. Which is: writing the text, choosing photos, editing them, adding a logo and text. Done.

But, those 18 hours don’t feel like working for me. It feels like having fun. I think I have found my passion. […]
Wow, can you cry because of happiness? Because I think it just happened. Or I am feeling very emotional listening to BIGBANG songs. Ah, internet says it can happen. Good to know I am not being weird.

Dear readers, I hope one day you can also find your passion and cry about it. It’s not that hard, just DO stuff and eventually it will find you. If you already know your passion: Great! Keep working on it.

To celebrate the growing audience I am making a business card for Lazy Penguin and myself to promote us more at restaurants. Here is a preview:

If you have some feedback for the business card, let me know! Critical feedback is always good.

Well people, this was quite an emotional post… Up to the next food story!

Have a good day!

Eindhoven restaurant tips

Posted in Eindhoven, Restaurants by

Restaurant tips eindhoven

Lazy Chipmunk asked for Eindhoven restaurant tips. So here it is!

I have visited quite a few restaurants in Eindhoven, but that was before my Lazy Pig Passion era. So I don’t have any stories about them (yet). Here is a quick list which comes into mind. Prices are per person.

Rodeo (30 euro)- The best steaks I have ever eaten in a restaurant. Take a mixed grill so you can try more things. I usually take the tenderloin and lamb chops combination.

Giornale (35 euro)- This place serves Mediterranean dishes. They encourage sharing dishes. I had their tenderloin and truffle pasta and it was mind blowing. Blog post coming soon!

Trattoria Margiare (30 euro?)- Good Italian food. Quite busy, reserve beforehand.

Hong Kong (15-20 euro?)- Good authentic Chinese food. All the Chinese parents go here now to eat Chinese. There used to be two good dimsum places, but they are gone 😦

King Thai (20 euro?)- Recommended Thai place from a Nepal friend. Love the photo on their website.

Cooks (30 euro)- Interesting cafe/bistro food. Dutch/French casual food. It was good.

De Meulen (Oirschot) – Fancy pancy French food, but oh so good. It is quite expensive (50-70 euro), but then you get the good stuff.

Umami by Han (50 euro)- Chinese food in a French style jacket (small fancy bites). The food tasted good, but at a ‘normal’ Chinese restaurant you get more food and it also tastes good. Sometimes even better…This place is for people who like fancy dining with good service. I personally prefer the rustlehustle and fast service of an authentic Chinese restaurant where you get the food fast so you can enjoy the food ASAP, nomnomnom…

That’s it for now. Have a lovely day!

Japanese food videos

Posted in Blog, Japan by

Since I will be visiting Japan in November I am binge watching videos about Japanese food. I follow a few YouTubers who either live in Japan, or are foodvloggers and have traveled to Japan to eat. Below I share some of their mouthwatering videos. Enjoy!

Simon and Martine (Eat Your Kimchi) live in Japan and share their food stories (and life stories). I just want to eat all the things they have shared.

Mark Wiens (Migrationology) travels all over the world and has a famous tilt-to-side-food-enjoying movement. When I saw his Tsukiji Market video, I was smiling from ear to ear, seeing all those pretty food visuals.

Mikey Chen (Strictly Dumpling) loves to eat. He works out a lot, to eat a lot. Good life goal.

Chris Broad (Abroad in Japan) is a British guy living in Japan and makes informative, funny, sarcastic videos.

This Great Big Story video is short, but very informative and is nicely edited. Also a lot of respect to the curry chef making his fresh rice and curry everyday for his vending machine.

Captain Joe ~ The freshest seafood in Nijmegen

Posted in Nijmegen, Restaurants, vlog by

I didn’t expect a seafood bar in Nijmegen, it is so far from the sea!
Lazy Penguin discovered a new seafood restaurant in Nijmegen and suggested to make a video. Trusting Lazy Penguin’s exceptional food nose, I said: Let’s do this!

 

Food & Menu

Captain Joe serves cold and hot sea food. We went for the cold dishes, so we don’t have much experience with the hot food. But hot lobster on Monday for 24,50 euro sounds good! (For more info about the cold food, please watch the video.)

Drinks
Food

Lazy Penguin also ordered two white wines with the seafood. ‘Senora Rosa Chardonnay’ and their home wine ‘Holy Cow’. The ‘Holy Cow’ was really nice with the seafood, not too bitter. I also took a sip.

After all the seafood we were okay full, so still place for a dessert. The dessert where little art pieces by themselves.

So I also made an art piece:

We went to the restaurant at 17:00, quite early for dinner, so we had the place for ourselves. After we were done with filming and eating the place was full with other customers and it was on a Monday!
Don’t forget to make a reservation if you want to eat around 18:00.

My verdict: really tasty and fresh seafood. I particularly liked the “chicken” vongoles and the razor shell salad. I was disappointed there was no cold lobster in the Fruits de Mer, so the next time I want to eat the hot lobster. Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Have a lovely day!

Visit them!

Captain Joe
Kelfkensbos 22, 6511 TA Nijmegen
+31 (0)24-333 3171
captainjoe.nl       Facebook

Mon-Thu     16:00-23:00
Fri-Sat         16:00-24:00

How to do art

Posted in Blog by

This is not really food related, but I find this video very inspiring in how to keep on improving your art. Or any other skill.
Also I really like the art style. I would like to have these kind of drawing skills one day.

With this blog I am also practicing ‘art’ stuff, so I hope one day I can call myself an artist and put my art in a museum.

Round&Round ~ Sweet cakes in Rotterdam

Posted in Coffee shops, Rotterdam by

After talking about Round&Round so often on the blog, I have finally visited the place with Lazy Chipmunk. We had a lovely afternoon with the Matcha Lover Hightea, celebrating 20 years of friendship.

This store is so cute and adorable. It’s everything I would have ever wanted in my cafe. But since they already did it so well, plús serving the most delicious soft (not too sweet) cakes, I gave up my dream and I will just blog about them.

History

I have followed their cake business since they had about 100 Facebook followers. Back then, Bing and Chao would bake cakes for friends and others who were interested. After a while I saw they had started a cafe. A store in Rotterdam where they would sell cakes and other cute stuff, which is Round&Round today.

Food

The cakes have a moderate amount of sweetness. I usually prefer to eat salty things, so I don’t like too much sugar. I have been to high teas before, but often the sweetness was too much. The Matcha Lover high tea however, is quite low on sugar, but still sweet enough. The amount of cakes you get is very generous. Whenever I thought they had served all the cakes (and made photos), more sweets were coming in.

So many cakes and sweets!
A tea + edible tea leafs
Matcha Tamagoyaki, savoury nomnomnom

We could just barely finish it. In the menu I saw that they also have a mini high tea, for the little eaters.

Menu

Their menu is lovely. Hand drawn sketches everywhere. I especially like their mindmap and sketch of their cafe.

Drinks
Cakes and high tea
Mindmap
Drawing of the cafe

Ordering cakes

It is also possible to order the cakes for a birthday or a cake craving. You can contact them via Facebook, email, calling or visiting the shop. I have ordered their roll cakes before, they range from 18 to 20 euro. The Matcha roll cake was really good, something you won’t eat often in The Netherlands. I also tried the Black charcoal roll cake. It was so black, but not chocolate. It had fresh fruits inside. I couldn’t finish the cake in one day, but after 3 days, the cake was still delicious!

Charcoal and Matcha roll cake

Shop

In the back of the cafe they have a shop section. They sell cute products and art from artists in Rotterdam. 

They have also researched a lot of matcha powders and teas and are now selling their own brand of matcha tea powder. It can be used for baking and drinking tea.

They still have so many cakes I want to try. Gotta taste them all!

Visit them!

Round&Round
Hoogstraat 55A, 3011 PG Rotterdam
☎️ +31 (0)10 7856 545
roundandround.nl      Facebook

Monday     Closed
Tue-Sat     11:00-18:00
Sun            12:00-17:00

Rotterdam restaurant tips

Posted in Restaurants, Rotterdam by


A friend asked for Rotterdam restaurant tips. So here it is:

Chinese cuisine:

Orient Pearl – Good for dimsum according to friends. Reserve beforehand, it can be busy in the weekend. Internet says the service is crap, but that is fast and efficient Chinese service. Just accept it.

Grand Garden – Good for dimsum and Chinese food.

Tai Wu – Good Chinese food according to parents and friends. I think it’s just good Chinese food. Authentic.

SanSan – Authentic Sichuan food. Tastes like China. Spicy dishes are the best here. “Three Spicy” is like burning/numbing the inside your mouth, even for me. But the food is delicious.

Kiroren Restaurant [blog story] – Authentic Xinjiang food. If you like meat, noodles, high flavoured food, visit Kiroren. They have delicious lamb and chicken dishes. (Halal)

Markthal, above Wah Nam Hong (Toko) –  There is a restaurant/shop above the Chinese supermarket. You can order different Asian dishes. Quite good if you want a quick lunch/bite.

Japanese cuisine:

Hinoki Noodle Shop [blog story] – Good ramen, good side dishes. Delicious rice bowl with chicken.

Takumi Düsseldorf Rotterdam [blog story] – Okay ramen, delicious side dishes. Try the chicken karage and fried mashed potato.

Shiki Sushi & Lounge – Higher quality all-you-can-eat sushi. The portions are a bit smaller, so you can try more different dishes. Ordering is done via a tablet. No social contact needed!

Ono Japanese Dining – High quality sushi a la carte. Atmosphere is too fancy pancy for us.

Other cuisines:

Firma Pickles Markthal – The best burgers I ever had in the Netherlands. Went to this place 3 times, every burger had such a good taste (wagyu, duck, pork belly). They have burgers made from all kinds of meats and fish. Also good wines, but I am not a wine person, so I can’t judge.

Loetje – Delicious steaks. Reservation recommended, it can be busy. We had to wait for about 1.5 hour for a seat O_O.

Desserts:

Round&Round [blog post] – Delicious soft, not too sweet cakes. Come here for desserts or relaxation at a sweet cafe. Blog post coming soon!

YoYo Fresh [blog post] – Bubble tea drinks. I always go for the Hong Kong milk tea with black pearls. The best!

After making this list, I realize, I mainly visit Asian restaurants in Rotterdam. Ah well, still a million non-Asian restaurant to visit in the future. That’s a good future. ^^

Enjoy the restaurants! And if you have any good restaurant tip, let me know!