Introducing Jeroen de Bakker

I am so excited to have my man introduce insanely talented photographer and his friend Jeroen de Bakker. Take it away M.

A friend of mine, Dutch documentary photographer Jeroen de Bakker, spend last year in Myanmar, the South-East Asian country formerly known as Burma. Jeroen met, befriended, followed and photographed a politician of the opposition party who earns his living as a hair dresser, a happy rice farmer who likes to ride his ox as if it was a horse, and an HIV-infected guy who used to serve in the army. He spend three weeks following inhabitants of a leprosy hospital, he went to gigs of a bad-ass hip-hop crew and spend a night with a graffiti posse roaming the streets of Yangon. Jeroen's Myanmar Project shows how life is rapidly changing since the military regime started to open up to the world.

Take a look at the Myanmar Project to see more of his work. If you like what you see, make sure to stay tuned. Jeroen will share his experiences and his pictures on September 12th in The Hague, where his work will be exhibited at ProDemos. Later this year, parts of The Myanmar Project will be shown in the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.

Amsterdam: De Laatste Kruimel

Amidst the crowded tourist center near the Spui, in a place you would never hope to find such a treat, sits De Laatse Kruimel. The window display looks promising; cakes, brownies and cookies on the one side, piles of bread, quiches and sandwiches on the other. Inside, is a fridge full of freshly squeezed juices and home mixed smoothies and shelves filled with homemade jams and curds. And the smell! Baking everything in their café, the owners constantly pull the most deliciously smelling goods out of their oven. Hiding in the back of the café, is a tiny terrace with just enough space for a couple of people to sit comfortably, looking out at the canal. It's the perfect spot to enjoy your bread pudding, or pistachio-orange cake, or brownies... Really, it's all SO good.

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De Laatste Kruimel

Mon - Sat | 8am  - 8pm
Sun | 9am - 8 pm

Langebrugsteeg 4, Amsterdam

Sea Bean Salad Recipe.

On our recent mini trip to a North Sea island, Maarten and I did some accidental foraging. While we were walking across the mudflats, M. suddenly pointed out some green stalks growing from the sand. We agreed that it looked like zeekraal, which is the Dutch word for samphire, sea beans or salicornia, the stuff in seaweed salad when we order sushi. (How cool is the word samphire btw? Doesn't it sound like something really important that should belong in the Lord of the Rings?!) Naturally, M just started eating it on the spot, no reservations. I was a bit more reluctant to try it, although I did have a bite or two.

So where am I going with this? Only two weeks later, when we received our local produce box, low and behold, what did I find nestled between our weekly vegetable haul? You guessed it, sea beans! I was so excited to actually see them in our box, because obviously I love this kind of serendipity, but also because I was majorly relieved that they must have been deemed edible by some official food authority. My worries of suffering from a delayed onset of food poisoning were gone. Instead, thanks to the tip of our foodie friend Maaike, we set out to make a salad. It's a keeper.

Sea Bean Sesame Salad

Ingredients

2 big handful of sea beans (or samphire or salicornia or whatever they're called)

2-3 tbsp of sesame oil

1 tbsp honey

juice of 1/2 a lemon or lime

2-3 tsp sesame seeds (slightly roasted would be lovely, too, I'm sure)

1/2 tsp ground or fresh ginger

some pepper to taste

Directions

Wash your sea beans. Pat dry and put in a salad bowl. In another bowl, mix sesame oil, honey, lemon juice, ginger and pepper. Pour the dressing over your sea beans, add the sesame seeds and mix. Add some more sesame seeds for garnish. Enjoy!

Did you ever cook/make something with sea beans? Do share, I'd love to try more recipes.

new workspace

Favourite foxes+wolves print by the talented Erica Salcedo.

Sooo, this has been a long time coming. After spending a year either on the couch, in my pjs, hunched over my laptop or at the dining room table, in my pjs, hunched over my laptop, the time has finally come. I present to you my first proper little workstation.

It is tiny, put in a far away corner of the living room, but nonetheless I already love it fiercely. And so does my neck and back after suffering too many months of abuse on the previously mentioned couch. The Hunchback of Notre Dame has nothing on me people. Thank goodness for yoga and balancing it all out, I tell you.

But in all seriousness, it feels really good to have a designated work area where I can just leave my computer and tablet without worrying about cleaning it away at day's end. And I got to decorate the minimal space I have with some undying succulents and favourite prints. Oh and we impulse-bought this new chair, which is kind of a hybrid between comfortable and back-supporting but still pretty enough to be standing in the living room on display. So really, hurrah on all fronts!

On a related note, Eva has an amazing column on her blog about people's work spaces. Go check it out for some serious desk inspiration. I'd love to know where you work in your home. Are you a recovered couch-worker, like me, or do you have a different set up? Do share!

Now back to work :)

New work: Cava catalunya

These were so much fun to make! My client Max sells Cava, which is basically like Champagne, only it comes from Spain and not from the Champagne region in France. His Cava is so delicious, organic, no added sugars, no headache the next day. I can vouch for that, having consumed my fair share of it over the last few months.

Instead of regular business or thank you cards, we came up with something a bit less formal and I couldn't be happier about these postcards. Bold in their simplicity, they reflect the product in that, more often than not only a few quality ingredients are necessary to produce something great.

Edited to add: The moodboard! I thought it would be nice to see the initial inspiration. It corresponds pretty well with the final outcome, don't you think?

specimens of the north sea

Some of the things I came across on our walks on the island. Including a crazy beautiful stranded jellyfish, a dead beetle and a pink Barbie slipper, naturally. Oh and my slippers, too. 

adventures on the north sea coast.

Two weekends ago we took a ferry to one of the tiny North Sea islands off the coast of the Netherlands, called Schiermonnikoog. We stayed in this super old-fashioned hotel, that positively screamed Grand Budapest. It is kept in its mostly original state, which gives it that lovely good-old-days charm, holes in the walls and all.

During the day we explored the island with our little tandem and walked a lot. And man, that tiny island is VAST. During low tide, the beach is crazy wide and there were literally no other people, which felt eery in a way. What a change of pace compared to Amsterdam, where people are basically living on top of each other.

We also had a little adventure that included us crossing a tide pool, wanting to get to what I thought were seals on the other side. The only problem was that I totally misjudged the depth and distance. I ended up wading through waist deep water, stubbornly wanting to get to the other side, no matter what. I was drenched,  BUT I made it, only to discover that there were no seals. Of course not. So I took off my soaking wet pants and made the track back through the water, half naked. Another big advantage of those empty beaches, is zero chance of public nudity complaints. Back on solid ground, we took a nap while our pants were billowing in the wind and drying in the sun.

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P.S: Thank god for the iPhone and taking photos in a pinch. I feel that more and more, I don't want to lug around my hefty DSLR on trips anymore. I really need to invest in a decent compact camera though. I am dreaming about this Olympia model, but it's so pricey. Do you guys have any recommendations?

morocco part 7: goats in trees.

A sight too strange not to take pictures. Maarten had told me about this phenomenon before we went to Morocco, but neither of us had ever seen it live. So when we were driving through the country and finally stumbled upon our first goat-filled tree, I let out a squeal of excitement. 

I knew goats were excellent climbers, but this is just ridiculous.

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Disclaimer: The below video was never meant for publication, but I thought it might be fun to see the little guys in action. So in case you'll watch it, please excuse the poor quality and my major weirdness. 

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And thusly ends the longest vacation recap, ever. Morocco, you've been good!

In case you missed them, here are the other Morocco posts: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

morocco part 6: Paradise Valley

Taking the scenic route, across the water.

Road tripping through Morocco is a dusty affair. Driving through a dry country, seeing mostly rocks, desert sands and barely any vegetation except some cacti, for kilometers on end. So you can imagine our surprise when we chanced upon so called Paradise Valley. Suddenly there were palm trees EVERYWHERE! And there was water. It was like walking through a small green terrarium within the wide brown moroccan universe. 

I hope you guys aren't sick of my endless Morocco catch-up, yet. I'm almost done, promise!

happy weekend

Hi guys. Just popping in to let you know that I am guest posting over at Natalie's. She is the mastermind behind the most beautiful blog and design shop La Designerie. Not only is she a skilled designer, but the woman has a way with words, I tell you! Every post is such a pleasure to read, I just want to make her blog into a book. She kindly asked me to fill in for her while she is on vacation, so of course I gladly accepted. I am talking a bit about my freelance life in Amsterdam (including pyjamas and furry slippers, naturally!), so if you're curious check it out here. 

Happy weekend!