Inspiring places: De Eetkaamer

A week ago a came across a cafe/restaurant which I fell in love with the moment I passed by.
Dark wooden walls full of frames, tables that remind me of Piet Hein Eek and non matching chairs everywhere. It gave me this warm homey feeling that I have been searching for in restaurants: down to earth, warm and a wow-effect.

And this was just what I saw from outside the windows.
Once I walked in to have a closer look, there was a little corner with lovely crafty objects that you could buy. In fact, everything in there was for sale, including the chairs and the tables.

As today was my birthday, I decided to have some food and drink there. Usually there's always something not matching when it comes to restaurants. Either the food doesn't match the atmosphere, or the other way round. Here however, it went beyond my expectations. This place stays true to its concept. Biological food, home made cakes, and the most amazing sandwiches.
This is what I call a full experience.

 

This is not where it stops however. Once talking to the super friendly staff, they told me this place was build in a month by a staff of three people! And that's what I like, you can really see the ambition that is put into this back in the place.

If you ever get a chance to visit the Eetkaamer, I promise you will have a great experience.

The adress is: 
Brabantplein 10A
5401 GS Uden
Netherlands

Beautiful packages

It's not really rocket science that we are easily attracted to beautiful things. When it comes to food, like a beautifully decorated cake, we can barely resist things if they look attractive.

What struck me when buying tea the other day is that Clipper has succeeded big time in staying true to their vision. I associate fair trade and organic with this earthly, flawed design without plastic and with no straight edged lines -but more playful.

Maybe it's the combination of text and drawings and the structure of the box that made me fall in love with it. I'm wondering if the exact same tea would taste as nice as this one if it was in another package.
It's funny, because I never thought I was a sucker for being influenced by the looks of something, but look at me now!

The only disappointing thing is that I expected something more natural once opening the box. It's a pity that the teabag is covered with a shiny paper which contradicts the entire 'natural' concept, but nevertheless, the tea tastes yummy.

 

Obsession

This small obsession of making home made food is getting a little bit out of hand. Some of you might remember that in my previous post about home made food I mentioned that I was done making these kinds of things, but I just couldn't help myself doing it again.
Plus getting to know more and more about what is added to food (additives, E-numbers, etc) we eat scares me to shit! Even if it says that it is biological -which is a marketing technique in my opinion- I don't trust it.
To stop eating is no option I guess, so what's better than having full control of what you eat?!

This time the lucky ingredient is: CRANBERRY.
I'm going to skip all the health blabla and just mention that it is yummy. I find it bitter eating it raw, so just cooking it with a little water and sugar makes it a very nice cranberry compote.

Some of you wonder if I eat all those things that I make myself, but the honest truth is, I love giving it away. There's something about putting care and effort into making a little something for someone you love.

Self-made is bestmade

Home made, natural food. It all started with reading the labels on jars where ingredients were mentioned that just did not make sense to me. This led to weekly making my own peanut butter, bread and apple sirop which gave me a great pleasure. Not only when making it, but also when eating it. Knowing what ingredients are in a certain product gives me a great peace of mind.

Quinoa seeds

This obsession inspired my gifts for this season. The act of giving is not necessarily buying the most expensive gift. I find it more valuable to spend time and love in the gift rather than buying something just for the sake of it. Eventually I'm not sure if I am going to do this ever again. Spending hours in the kitchen the day before is kind of energy draining. So a better planning would have made all of this less stressful.

Apple syrup

But eventually seeing it transform into something that looks wonderful makes it all worth it. If I would be able to buy this somewhere looking like this, I would buy it. It's cute, it's beautiful, it's healthy and above all, it's yummy.

Stewed pears