A few years ago, a friend of mine moved to the Ferdinand Bolstraat, a lively street in the neighborhood ‘De Pijp’ in Amsterdam. I was having dinner with him when he started telling me a story about one of the most famous snack bars in the Netherlands, FEBO. “Did you know that the name FEBO […]
Category: Blog
Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk: Oatly’s Answer Is to Do Good
Earlier this year, a report by Good Food Institute (GFI) and NielsenIQ revealed that the Dutch consume the most plant-based products per capita in Europe. Even though plant-based meat has the biggest share in the category, plant-based milk sales have experienced a significant growth of 14% since 2020. As a country where people have been […]
Graters gonna grate: the rise of the pocket nutmeg grater
In a world bustling with flavors, there are few combinations that can awaken the senses quite like the blend of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and gloves – especially in the fall. To this particular spice blend we now refer as pumpkin spice. When combined with coffee, it creates the beloved Pumpkin Spice Latte, with its warm […]
The Pyramid and the Curse of the Tainted Milk
When traversing the dangers of the modern supermarket, there’s no escaping the baby food section. This colourful creature always lurks strategically close to the checkouts, so that even customers without a need for baby food know its appearance, products and brands. The normalcy of our current form of baby food contrasts sharply with the contentious […]
Fad or Food of the Future? Uncovering the History of Plasmon Protein Powder
It’s just a tiny carton box, one so small that you could probably carry it in your pocket without noticing it´s there. Yet, it is full of promises. The words on the cover that lure you in suggest that whatever is inside this box will connect you to nature, improve your mental capabilities and, last […]
The Army Biscuit: breaking teeth in the trenches
‘An army marches on its stomach’, Napoleon once famously proclaimed, or so it is believed. When thinking about war, we usually don’t think about what the soldiers had for breakfast or when their lunch break started, but instead, we imagine fighting armies, bullets whizzing through the air, and tanks rolling into enemy territory. The First […]
Recipes of scarcity: Dealing with rations in (post-)WWII Britain
Brown vegetable soup, celery and sprout salad or pumpkin and apple pie. Does this sound tasty to you? The recipes are from the Ministry of Food cookery calendar. These recipe advice sheets were issued bi-monthly in an effort to assist and improve diets during food rationing following World War Two. The cookery calendars were part […]
Tupperware – female empowerment in a plastic container
When the Tupperware brand was founded in 1942, and the first product launched in 1946, it predominantly advertised to the suburban housewife. The product itself, an airtight plastic container was marketed to keep food fresh for longer and thus make the lives of these woman easier. The key to the success of the brand was […]
Burn down a barricade, buy La Vache Qui Rit
Wait what, they turned the Laughing Cow into a sexy party girl? They sure did, look at how she is flirting with you. How else are they supposed to sell their unremarkable cheese? La Vache Qui Rit’s soft, crustless, processed white cheese is new and exciting in the 1920s, but loses its innovative nature as […]
The Italian Job: Wine Tales from Prohibition
Most people love an occasional drink, so what would you do when alcohol becomes illegal? You could go as far as creating a monopoly in illegal homemade wine production and trade. Because that is how far the Italian-American community in California went during the Prohibition. As a result, the Italians came to be most identified […]