I did a post a few months ago about a favorite local bar that served local beers, and I thought it was time to do a post about a local restaurant, located at Nieuwe Leliestraat 162-168 in Amsterdam.  The name Vliegende Schotel is a play on words in Dutch.  Schotel means plate, dish or saucer, and a common word for restaurants to use in their menus to indicate ‘dish or dishes’.  Vliegende means flying, and so the name of the restaurant also means UFO.

I’ve been going to this restaurant longer than any other in Amsterdam.  My first visit was 25 years ago, when I was here as a tourist.   The staff got to know me from the start, and greeted me as a returning customer on every visit.  I’m really happy to say last October the restaurant has been sold, and is now under new ownership — Woohoo!!  As much as I continued to go there, about once or twice a year, it used to be a really bad restaurant.

I used to go there because Amsterdam is really lacking in quality restaurants, and there are only a very small handful of vegetarian restaurants.  It’s also close to where I live.  It had me as a captive audience on those nights I didn’t want to cook for myself.

How it Used to Be

Americans, and maybe others, will know Molly Katzen.  She first wrote a vegetarian cookbook called Moosewood.  It was famous first because Molly wrote the cookbook without ever trying any of her recipes first, just off the top of her head, so none of them worked properly when you tried to cook them.  The other reason this cookbook became famous is it sort of defined 1980s vegetarian cuisine in America; bland, overcooked, strangely spiced, uninspired and boring.  It was also a difficult book to cook from, because every recipe needed very small amounts of large numbers of exotic ingredients, so a large shopping expedition was always needed first.  Anyway, this was the sort of food the Vliegende Schotel used to serve; boring, overcooked, uninspired and strangely spiced.

In the 25 years I went there, the menu hardly changed.  All the dishes were all pre-planned, usually totally lacking in seasonal ingredients, and without any inspiration from the cooks.  The portions were all carefully measured, so while tofu was expensive and cabbage was cheap, it was served proportionally to maximize their profits.  Much of their food came from the freezer, and it was not uncommon for it to still be half-frozen on your plate.

The big changes came about around 5 years ago, when they started serving alcohol legally (they used to have it behind the counter if you knew to ask for it), and they started using organic food ‘when available’.   This ‘when available’ business meant you never knew what, if any, part of your meal was organic, you knew profit was their overriding goal, so you never knew how much extra they were willing to pay for certified organic food rather that just stating it was unavailable.  Also, local had little to do with their purchasing choices, rather they just served supermarket certified organic foods.  They were associated with a natural foods store, that sold supermarket style certified organic foods, and presumably what was served at the restaurant was the leftovers.

They also had a ‘quiet non-smoking room’.  This was a little bit revolutionary in a city which until about a year ago pretty much didn’t have any non-smoking areas in any restaurants.  I guess the ‘quiet’ part about it was to somehow rationalize it for smokers as not being a room that discriminated against them too much, and perhaps at one time was full of loud non-smoking Americans, so they wanted to ask them to tone it down a bit.  This was a separate room, but the door between it and the rest of the restaurant was usually open, letting in smoke.  Also the staff of the restaurant used to smoke outside the window of the non-smoking room and blow all their smoke in.

You also needed to order your food at the counter which was in the smoking area, so no one was allowed to escape.  I only sort of appreciated the effort they went to providing a non-smoking room.

It’s all changed now!

Steph and I went there for dinner, the first time we’ve been there since it changed owners.

It was really good!

Amsterdam has for more than a year now banned smoking in restaurants, so that’s no longer an issue.

The menu still has a lot of the old dishes on it, but I hope they will soon phase these out.  There are several new and interesting dishes, including daily and weekly specials offered at a low price.  There are lots of vegan choices.

I ordered a salad, and the cook not only took a great deal of care preparing it by hand, but he came out to the table and presented it with pride.  It was really nicely made.

They like sprouts, everything from bean, radish, lentil to pea and more.  This really gives their food a fresh taste, and is something unusual.  It’s a little early to know if they will truly embrace the idea of local and seasonal foods, but their heads are in the right place and I have high hopes.  Their English is excellent, I think they are native speakers, and the menu is in Dutch and English.

Time will tell if it really turns into a nice restaurant in the long run, but for now I can safely recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in Amsterdam and is looking for a vegetarian restaurant serving fresh and unprocessed foods.  In fact, it’s still one of the few choices available.

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Of course you can have alliums most of the year but this is what’s mostly been coming out of the garden lately. Boy do they taste good!  I’ve started to notice my garden is getting especially full of perennial alliums.  Can you ever have too many alliums?

Now for the tour…

This is a new bed I’ve started this year, so it’s not very full yet.  In the front left I have the Utrecht Onion (local version of Allium dictuon) and the right is the Amish Onion.  In the middle left are a few plants of what I call Afghani Leek, because I got them from an Afghani gardener a few gardens down, but I think these are allium currat.  On the right is Mc Cullar’s White Onion, that I got from Stephen (stevil) in Norway last year, and directly behind that is allium ceruum or knodding onion also from Stephen and finally in the back left are Cook’s Multiplier also from Stephen.

While we’ve been eating both the Amish Onion and the Utrecht Onion already this year, the others will have to wait a few years before we have enough to both grow and eat.

In the back of this bed is Heritage Sweet White Multiplier from Søren, but originally from Paquebot in Wisconsin.  In the front are klimt shallots from Frank in Belgium, just starting to poke through the straw.

Here are the two victory onions I got several years ago from Søren.  They are really great, but haven’t been multiplying very much and all we’ve been doing is eating the leaves from time to time.  I’ve been growing them in tubs on our roof.  I think this year I have to try moving them to the garden, and see if they do better there.

These are He Shi Ko Bunching Onion from Baker Creek.  I just bought and planted these, and don’t know a lot about them.

I guess these don’t look a lot different from all the other pictures of onions here, but these are Egyptian Walking Onions.  I got these from Salt Spring Seeds in Canada years ago, and they’ve been going great.

Finally, these are a few of my roughly 1000 bulbs of garlic I grow each year.  I currently have about 60 varieties.

Can you tell I like onions and garlic?  Does anyone have anything else I might want, and want to trade??

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It’s really a problem in Amsterdam that small producers have little chance of participating in the city’s markets.  All stall holders have to pay a fee, which is too big of an obstacle for many potential vendors.  There are also organizations that run the city’s markets with implicit and explicit rules, about what’s allowed or not allowed to be sold and at what price.  It’s very normal to go to a city market, and be faced with every stall selling virtually the same thing at the same price and almost none of it having been grown by the farmer themselves.

I hope this underground market goes some way towards breaking up these cartels which don’t benefit any consumers and not very many small farmers.

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She made a similar list of food blogs.

Thanks Jeanne, for spending the time putting these lists together.

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What do you think?  Is the fact that 92% of America’s soybeans and 85% of corn are being grown with Monsanto’s seeds a problem?  Is it just as Monsanto claims that they have a superior product so it’s natural for farmers to want to grow their seeds?

Is it normal that in 2000 enough seeds to plant an acre of Round Up ready soybeans cost $17 and now ten years later as much $50?  I guess this is just inflation.

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While browsing Anne’s blog, I came across this great video of Jamie Oliver. I guess by now he’s someone pretty well known on both sides of the Atlantic. While I like Jamie a lot, there are clearly some points I disagree with him on, so I’m going to say something about these too.

To be honest, I have a problem with his strong imagery regarding sugar.

When it comes to processed foods containing sugar, and children especially consuming large quantities of this, there’s little to disagree with. Children don’t need sugar added to their milk to make it taste better, nor do they need artificial flavors and colors. In addition, there’s reason to be concerned about salt and fats in processed foods. While I say concerned, I want to be clear that moderation is key here, and those that have the most to worry about are people that eat only processed foods and little else.

There’s also little doubt that the healthiest food for anyone to eat is fresh, home cooked, locally produced and free of chemicals and pesticides. The healthiest diet is also one that emphasises fruits, vegetables and simple starches over animal products and other processed foods. This is particularly important for children.

On the other hand, sugar, salt and fats/oils are also perfectly normal cooking ingredients, that nearly all of us have in our kitchens. These are perfectly fine to use in cooking or to season your food. It’s absolutely crazy that some people think it’s unhealthy for the average person to add a spoonful of sugar to their tea or salt to their meal. If you’re diabetic, have high blood pressure or otherwise under doctors care, there may be some specific reason why you personally cannot eat certain things, but there’s no evidence to suggest it’s in any way unhealthy for the average person.

Many of us also eat modest amounts of processed foods containing these ingredients, like dairy, soft drinks, meats, and even things like soy sauce, catsup and so on. There’s little evidence to suggest there’s anything wrong with this. In fact there’s evidence to suggest that not only are these normal things to consume, they can also be healthy. There can however be many reasons for concern regarding how these foods are produced, and in general it’s becoming increasingly clear how important it is to think about this.

Food companies make huge profits by making people afraid of normal foods, and selling them supposedly healthy alternatives or by substituting something cheaper for these common ingredients.

Sugar is one of the most clear examples. In relative terms, sugar is expensive to add to processed foods. It’s price fluctuates on world markets, and supplies are not reliable. Soft drink companies have long sought alternatives to common sugars for their products. By using a sugar substitute, for example aspartame that’s commonly used in sugar free soft drinks, manufactures save an estimated 1.5 cents (US dollars) per can of beverage. This is a huge savings when considering how many cans of sugar free drinks are made each year. A similar savings can be had by using high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) instead of normal sugar, which is common in the US.

The problem is these sugar alternatives are linked to obesity, diabetes and other health problems. Statistically, people who drink soft drinks containing aspartame instead of sugar are heavier. In addition, the current obesity epidemic in the US corresponds almost exactly to the introduction of HFCS into processed foods and soft drinks.

There’s little evidence to show a connection between consuming modest amounts of ordinary sugar and weight gain. In fact, sugar is known to suppress appetite and many people who switch to sugar alternatives find themselves coping with a significant increase in hunger. Aspartame is a known appetite stimulant.

In simple terms, there’s little evidence to suggest an average adult without specific medical concerns is doing anything unhealthy by consuming modest amounts of fats, sugar or salt, as long as these come from natural sources. Specifically, there is no benefit in looking for alternatives to these foods. Certainly, no one should be afraid of these ingredients for use in home cooking.

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In fact this is something I’ve known for a while, and coincidentally sent Matt an email about the other day, but I’ve never posted here on the subject.

It’s just a fact, the science of genetic engineering (GE) is quickly moving out of the laboratory and into the home.  Not just in our ability to buy products that are themselves a result of GE, but also in our own ability to make GE organisms.

Already, if you have a well equiped home, it’s possible to do an awful lot.  The cost of this equipment is within the budgets of many people, it’s only getting cheaper and it’s accuracy increasing.

The amount of publicly available data that can assist GE is also increasing at a dramatic rate; including things like decoded genomes and cataloges of marker genes (a fancy term that just means genes with a known trait).  All of this applies to plants, microorganisms, animals and even humans.

So while the debate now often centers on the latest Roundup ready gene Monsanto inserted into our soybeans, tomorrow it could be the latest accident caused by a teenager or the mess intentionally caused by someone knowledgeable.

I often compare GE to abortions.  I don’t really think it makes sense for anyone to be for or against abortions.  An abortion is just a medical procedure.  You can argue if it’s immoral, talk about it in terms of legal or illegal, safe or unsafe, early or late, but you can never deny the existence of the procedure itself.

This is really where we are now with GE.  It doesn’t make sense to call it good or bad.  The genie is out of the bottle.  Now it’s time to start learning as much as possible as quickly as possible about the science, and to focus honestly and diligently on what the real risks are.

In the meantime, this crap doesn’t belong in our food or the environment, until we’ve had a chance to honestly research and learn more about it!

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There’s little doubt, I wasn’t the only one who noticed this.  Friends and family noticed too, and when I was back last November it was clear there was increasing demand for products that didn’t contain HFCS.  Soft drinks are becoming available, and more and more other products, that are just made with normal sugar.  This almost certainly was connected with the world wide shortages of cane and beet sugar over the last year or so.

Where did it go?

If Americans aren’t eating HFCS anymore, it must have gone somewhere.

It’s pretty clear Europe is at least one of the recipients of the surplus.  They don’t call it by the same name here.  It’s usually called something like ‘glucose syrup’ or ‘glucose-fructose syrup’.  It seems to go under a number of names.  These are in a lot of foods and beverages here by now.  I especially notice it in a lot of beers and sweet alcoholic drinks marketed towards young people.  It’s also in many processed foods.

It does not seem to have any so-called European E-numbers associated with it, I guess because it’s not an additive but rather a foodstuff.  For those of you reading this who aren’t in Europe, because of the number of different languages here, and because it helps the food industry hide what they add to food, they have created a special coding system for food additives.  I would have to think about the the politics of it not having an E number a little more, but I guess consumers are more reluctant to buy E-numbers now, and perhaps it was an issue to get HFCS certified as a safe food additive.

What’s wrong with it?

Besides many people disliking the taste, HFCS is associated with many health problems.  It’s use as a food additive in the US corresponds almost exactly to the increase of obesity and related health problems we’ve seen in recent decades.  It’s associated with diabetes, gout and many other health problems.

If you’re trying to avoid eating GM foods, you should avoid this too.  It’s not necessarily made with GM corn, but often is.  According to Monsanto and other large food companies, processing will remove GMOs from this product.  That means, even though it may be made from GM corn, it is legal for sale as a food in Europe.  There hasn’t been any independent confirmation of food industry claims that GMOs are removed, and many people dispute it.  Nevertheless, it is legal for sale in Europe, GM or not.  There is also no requirement to label it as a GM food.

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I think we really need something like that in Europe, because there are so many loopholes by now that let in GMO foods.

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Kokopelli Seeds of France, who last year was fined more than €17.000 for selling ‘illegal’ seeds, is involved in a new legal conflict.  Baumaux, the same company that instigated the previous legal action against Kokopelli Seeds has now registered the ownership of the name Kokopelli and is selling a new variety of tomato with it.

Baumaux is not stopping there however, they are also demanding Kokopelli Seed cease and desist in their use of the name Kokopelli and all business activities associated with it.  They are also demanding a payment of €100.000 in compensation for use of the name to date.

The original French language story is here, and a Google translated version here.

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Here’s a video I found on the GRAIN website, a translated French documentary on La Gloria and the associated Smithfield Farms factory pig farm where the latest outbreak of Swine Flu occured.

It’s about 45 minutes long, and contains some disturbing images.

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UN Secretary General Welcome Message for the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity from CBD on Vimeo.

Our challenge will be to make sure this applies to the food we eat, as well as the world’s ecosystems.

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Will Allen, in his first very well written and powerful post, offered a
A Good Food Manifesto for America.  In particular my attention was drawn to this:

Many astute and well-informed people beside myself, most notably Michael Pollan, in a highly persuasive treatise last fall in the New York Times, have issued these same warnings and laid out the case for reform of our national food policy. I need not go on repeating what Pollan and others have already said so well, and I do not wish merely to add my voice to a chorus.

I am writing to demand action.

It is time and past time for this nation, this government, to react to the dangers inherent in its flawed farm and food policies and to reverse course from subsidizing wealth to subsidizing health.

While I have a great deal of respect for Michael Pollan, and he has without a doubt done more to attract attention to the US and worlds food problems than anyone in the last century, he is not a doer.  By far the most important people in the battle to fix the broken food system in today’s world are the people in the field like Will Allen.

This is not the first I’ve heard of Will Allen.  Cynthia, a reader of this blog and someone I have been in frequent email contact with over the last few years told me about him some time ago.  Having interesting information and being able to translate it into a post suitable for publishing don’t always go together, as was the case here.  The same thing is true with Cynthia herself, who is very involved in the food culture of Virginia and a market gardener.  The best I can offer on her is to take a look at her recent comments on the last post.

Next on my list of doers are public domain plant breeders and collectors of old varieties.  Some really amazing things have been created or found in recent years by people like Tom Wagner, Alan Kapuler and Tim Peters in the US, as well as many others.  In Europe people like Lieven David, Ben Gabel, Frank van Keirsbilck and others.  Together with these people are all of those running small farms around the world, have a look at my links page for some of those.  I’m sure there are many others I’m forgetting.  These are the people who roll their sleves up and get their finger nails dirty, and they are all special in their own ways.

These are all the people creating the food systems of the future, and they are the ones we need to be talking and listening to.

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Many of us know what it’s like to have a glut of zucchini’s (courgettes) or when all 100 apples come ripe on your tree at the same time.  You give them away or you have methods of processing and storing them.  You may have neighbors or friends to give them to.  Since I grow about 1000 bulbs of garlic every year, it’s always a bit of an issue to find people to eat them.

What about selling them or giving them away to other people in your community?

President Obama has the stated purpose of producing fresh vegetables for a local homeless soup kitchen.  James recently posted about an initiative in his community to encourage hobby gardeners to offer their excess to others.  I got an email from Maureen telling me about her new site, The Farmers Garden, set up to match people offering their home grown fruits and veggies with those looking for offerings.

I must admit, while I usually try to be positive and encouraging, I’m also not shy about dismissing impossible sounding ideas.  I wasn’t very encouraging in my reaction to either of these initiatives.

The basic problem is this.  Being a market farmer is a very special skill, and takes considerable effort and dedication.  In most places in the world it’s difficult or impossible to run such an operation financially without government assistance.  Certainly it’s all but impossible in the face of government subsidized factory farms, or cheap imported alternatives.

While market shoppers may not be as picky as some, everyone expects their food to be reasonably free of blemishes, insect damage and generally look good.  Harvest gluts need to be managed with succession plantings and other season extension methods.  Varieties of plants need to be selected that fit in with the general business model of a market farm, and these are usually different from what we choose to grow at home.  A selection of produce needs to be offered that’s consistent with buying most of your food in a single place, and since people eat 365 days a year this sort of variety needs to be offered year round.  Most of us also depend on a relationship with the person we buy our food from, in order to have some assurance of it’s quality and safety.  It’s a tall order.

As much as I like the idea of communities coming together and sharing their food, and it’s certainly a great way to meet your neighbors, in my opinion what can come from a home garden is no substitute for market farmers.  It doesn’t matter if a whole community offers their excess produce.  It doesn’t seem like this kind of system will ever be able to provide a significant contribution to local food needs.  Or can it?

Hopeless idea or food system of the future?

Does anyone have first hand knowledge of a working system like this?

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