Info

Amsterdam Lunch was made by Jonah Grindler during Coding 3B taught by Quentin Creuzet at The Royal Academy of Art, Den Haag.


The assignment: "Translate a book from the Best Dutch Book Designs collection showcased at the Huis van het Boek into a website. In what ways can this digital format capture the uniqueness of its printed counterpart and convey its specific characteristics? How can it serve as evidence and artefact of the original printed object? Your website should be no larger than 2MB(2,000KB) in total and should be predominantly coded in HTML and CSS."

Published Fall 2023

Book

Amsterdam
Lunch

An investigation into dutch culture at the lunch table from the outside

Based on: Amsterdam Lunch (2019), Chen Jhen, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht

Instructions
on being
the other

Equipment

Equipment

1

Table

2

Chair

3

Bread Slice

4

Bowl

5

Cup of Tea

6

Cutlery

7

Fork

8

Knife

9

Metal pot for knife and fork

10

Bottle of black pepper

11

2 big spoons: for salad, metal

12

Cheese cutter: metal

13

Scissors

14

Couscous

15

Tomato: small, cut in half

16

Sundried Tomato: chopped into small pieces, 1/3 of the original size

17

Spinach: baby spinach

18

Pack of gluten free bread, SchärMeesterbakkerMehrkorn, 300g

19

Sunflower seeds

20

Dried Fruit

21

Nuts

22

Cucumber

23

Cucumber: small cube, 0.5x0.5×0.5 cm

24

Box of yellow hoemoes: oval shape cap, kerrie flavor

25

Box of hoemoes: Salade hoemoes Maza rode biet, 200g

26

Box beige hoemoes: oval shape cap, maza hoemoes vegetarisch

27

Box pink hoemoes: oval shape cap, hoemoes rode biet

28

Box of chocolate flavored coconut chips

29

Pack of Cheese

30

Feta Cheese

31

Pack of brie cheese

32

Pack of goat cheese

33

Mozzarella cheese: small round

34

Pack vegan cheese: Wilmersburger Classic

35

Sausage

36

Can of peanut butter, 300g

37

Can of fig jam

38

Can of white chocolate, 600g

39

Box de ruijter: puur

40

Cup of water

Notes

I felt I'm an outsider of European culture, as I often couldn't identify the food on the table during the lunch time

I secretly memorize and took notes on all the actions of the colleagues sitting in front of me.

Preface

Memory plays an important role in research. All the records made by humans are unavoidably influenced by memory. I am very interested in how memory deforms the state of reality. When I worked at a design studio in Amsterdam in 2017, I felt I'm an outsider of European culture, as I often couldn't identify the food on the table during the lunch time, how to eat it, how to combine ingredients, and the order of eating...etc. Due to my desperate desire to become part of the group, I began to imitate what the other people do. I secretly memorize and took notes on all the actions of the colleagues sitting in front of me. A few months later, Chang Che Shen, a performer with a background similar to mine, — originally from Taiwan, studying and working in the Netherlands—discussed with me how to represent the scenes. We shaped the notes into a performance script. Later, invited Che Shen to perform this script, I watched it and gave immediate guidance and correction. The former" facts" of the lunch scene, after many translations and qualitative changes, turned into a fantasy story in the name of research.

Subject N.G.

The person sitting 2 in front of me obviously prefers yellow foods. She took a few spoonfuls of couscous 14 with raw tomatoes 15 and Italian dried tomatoes in oil 16 , and had two bites.

  • 1 long table
  • 1 chair: Y chair
  • 1 white plate: circumference 28 cm
  • 1 fork: on the left side of the plate
  • 1 knife: on the right side of the plate
  • 1 mental pot for knifes and forks
  • 1 platter of couscous salad
  • 1 couscous
  • 1 tomato: half
  • 1 dried tomato: chopped into small pieces, 1/3 of the original size
  • 1 few slices of brown bread
  • 1 box of yellow hoemoes: oval shape cap, kerrie flavor
  • 1 can of white chocolate, 600g
  • 1 can of peanut butter, 600g
  • 1 cup of water

Then she grabbed a bread 3 and broke it into two halves, onto which she spread some dark yellow paste 24 . She, who has thin fingers, seemed to me a bit neurotic. I assumed her to be the only one in the restaurant aware of my observation.

Her plate 4 was dirty with bread crumbs and grains of couscous mixing together. She spooned some more couscous, which might still be lukewarm.

She talked to J's daughter sitting on her left-hand side, and all of them grinned.

They talked about the female graphic designers that account for most of the staff in their studio. J said sometimes the people with the best academic achievements are not those who succeed in real life.

Without commenting on this, she put some peanut butter 36 and white chocolate sauce 38 on the bread, which she split into pieces without the help of a fork 7 or knife 8 , and popped into her mouth one after another.

She swayed to the music a bit, clearly satisfied with the taste of the white chocolate sauce.

After draining the glass bottle of water with a strange posture, she left the table 1 , appearing uncomfortable with the nonchalance of her companions.

Subject S.K.

The person sitting 2 in front of me scooped some salad onto the plate 4 with two spoons 11 instead of a tong. The salad mainly consisted of spinach 17 , and spice-marinated feta cheese 30 originally stored in a hexagonal glass jar, and finely chopped cucumber 23 and dried tomatoes 16 .

Before enjoying the salad, she put two slices of bread 3 on the plate, and spread them with yellow Hoemoes 24 , respectively topped with a slice of yorkham 35 and vegan cheese 34 sprinkled with black pepper 10 .

  • 1 long table
  • 1 chair: Y chair
  • 1 white plate: circumference 28 cm
  • 1 fork: on the left side of the plate
  • 1 knife: on the right side of the plate
  • 1 bottle of black pepper: table salt size
  • 2 big spoons: for salad, metal
  • 1 scissors: black plastic handle and metal
  • 1 mental pot for knifes and forks
  • 1 bowl of salad
  • 1 spinach: baby spinach
  • 1 feta cheese: white cube, Apetin
  • 1 cucumber: small cube, 0.5x0.5x0.5 cm
  • 1 sundried tomato: chopped into small pieces, 1/3 of the original size
  • 1 pack of gluten free bread, Schär Meester bakker Mehrkorn, 300g
  • 1 pack vegan cheese: Wilmersburger Classic
  • 1 box yellow hoemoes: kerrie flavor
  • 1 pack of yorkham
  • 1 pack portugal round shape ham: circumference 5 cm, from a colleague who travels to portugal
  • 1 can of peanut butter, 300g
  • 1 box de ruijter: puur
  • 1 box of creampaté : 170g
  • 1 cup of tea

Each mouthful of sandwich was accompanied with some salad, before she finished both slowly.

I noticed that the nails of her fingers, with which she held the spoon, were small and flat while the tips are well-trimmed and arched like crescent moons.

She cut her second sandwich into two halves, and again spread some yellow Hoemoes over the first half.

With not enough paste for the second half of the sandwich, she placed three round slices of Portuguese smoked ham on it. It is unbelievable that this smoked ham can contain milk, she exclaimed.

She and J discussed for a while about the bit of milk in the smoked pork ham. D said it would have been so much worse without poisoning yourself with some dairy products from time to time, adding that one of her friends who have gone to China found her health getting worse without drinking milk once in a while.

Though I think it probably had more to do with the air in China than milk itself.

She smeared another piece of bread with some smashed meat, which looked more like smashed raw meat to me, reminding me of cat food.

She pulled out another slice of bread, slathering it with peanut butter 36 and chocolate flakes 39 . She and D shared their ideas about a book.

We sat there for a long while, discussing how a lot of birds had been perching on the tree in front of J's house. It was said that their droppings could accumulate to 30 centimeters in depth, enough to kill a tree.

Y said their President Vladimir Putin piloted a motorized hang glider to lead Siberian cranes on a migration route. Then she left to answer a call from the school.

Subject J.S.

The person sitting 2 in front of me looked angry when she did not smile. She already had some salad on her plate 4 when I sat down.

  • 1 long table
  • 1 chair: Y chair
  • 1 white plate: circumference 28 cm
  • 1 fork: on the left side of the plate
  • 1 knife: on the right side of the plate
  • 1 mental pot for knife and fork
  • 1 bowl of salad
  • 1 nut
  • 1 spinach: baby spinach
  • 1 tomato: small tomato cut in half
  • 1 goat cheese
  • 1 cucumber: small cube, 0.5x0.5×0.5 cm
  • 1 dried fruit
  • 1 feta cheese: white cube, Apetina, 265g
  • 1 few slices of brown bread, place on the table
  • 1 box of hoemoes: Salade hoemoes Maza rode biet, 200g
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 box of chocolate flavored coconut chips
  • 1 cup of tea

Her salad was very wet today, with white cheese spread in it. She spent some time finely chopping the salad.

After finishing it, there were still abundant sauce and juice stuck to the plate, which she mopped up with bread just as usual.

Later, she smeared some pink paste 27 over the bread, and then spent some more time opening the jar of feta cheese in oil 30 . She scooped a dozen cubes onto the remaining space on the plate, carefully chopped them up into small pieces, and sprinkled them over the pink paste.

She cut some slices of cucumber 22 and placed them on the top as decoration.

Finally, she pulled out a piece of plain bread and put it on the very top, squeezing the sandwich together. I liked the way she matched colors for the sandwich.

She cut the sandwich in the middle, nibbling at it from the soft side in the center of the bread. Then she had a bread-sized slice of chocolate-flavored coconut 28 . We talked about our train trip in October last year, but all she could remember was things about foods.

Subject Y.K.

The person sitting 2 in front of me had neatly trimmed eyebrows. She helped herself with a little salad and two pieces of bread 3 , one of which was sliced into halves.

  • 1 long table chair: y chair
  • 1 white plate: circumference 28 cm
  • 1 fork: on the left side of the plate
  • 1 knife: on the right side of the plate
  • 1 cheese cutter: metal
  • 1 mental pot for knife and fork
  • 1 bowl of salad
  • 1 mozzarella cheese: small round
  • 1 tomato: small and cut half
  • 1 sunflower seeds
  • 1 spinach: baby spinach
  • 1 dried fruit few slices of bread
  • 1 pack of cheese
  • 1 box beige hoemoes: oval shape cap, maza hoemoes vegetarisch
  • 1 box pink hoemoes: oval shape cap, hoemoes rode biet
  • 1 pack of brie cheese
  • 1 pack of goat cheese
  • 1 pack of ham
  • 1 can of peanut butter, 300g
  • 1 can of fig jam
  • 1 cup of tea

She ate the first half simply with some beige spread 26 , and cut some cheese 31 for the second half.

Among the total of four to five very thin slices, two or three were incompletely shaped.

She divided the second piece of bread into halves. For the first half, she smeared it with the pink paste 27, and ate the softer part in the center of the bread, and finished the bread crusts with two pieces of brie cheese she cut.

She layered some goat cheese 32 and ham 35 over the second half, and ate it after folding it up.

She pulled out the third piece of bread and sliced it into two pieces, the first of which was spread with goat cheese and jam 37 (or honey), and the second, peanut butter 36.

She paused a bit, appearing to consider if she should fold them together. At last she decided against it, and instead finished the one with goat cheese first and then the peanut butter one.

They discussed about the guinea pig I had bought just recently. She also talked about Russian cartoons.