Locavore NXT

Fermenting

Fresh

Food is alive... even when you're not trying to transform ingredients into something very impressive for tonight's dinner party, they will shift shapes, textures (and smells) all by themselves and become an entirely different matter.

To capture this, we either made very big food or we shrank our photographer. We're not going to let you into all our secrets. But here's what we saw.

To undergo real change, to truly become something else... well, that can take some guts.

To embark on a journey of meaningful change requires leaving something behind. If you truly want to become something else, you have to give up a part of who you are now. 

It's simple logic, but it's not such a simple task. 
Change takes guts.

When a caterpillar undergoes metamorphosis, it digests itself... disintegrating its tissues into a protein-rich soup, which bags of cells called “imaginal discs” then cook up into a magical butterfly. We don’t know exactly how caterpillars feel about this process, but it sounds to us like a pretty brave thing to do.

In this sense, you could say that we are currently a big pot of Locavore soup. We have listened to the voices telling us "be more than just a restaurant". And we have found the courage to begin our own metamorphosis. 

Over the coming months, we are going to be stirring all our melted down parts and using our wildest imagination to transform ourselves into something better. 

We would be fibbing if we said that this has been easy peasy breezy lemon squeezy. 

But the world is hungry for change. 
Let’s feed it.

The Metamorphosis Issue

Honey I Shrank The Photographer

As the future of Nature hangs in the balance, so the future of our food system – from our seeds to our dinner tables – is a pretty big question mark right now.

Will there be any fish left? Will anyone know what a potato is? Will we even still eat with our mouths and taste with our tongues?

One restaurant reviewer’s experience fifty years from now sheds light on what the future of food might have in store for us. Don’t ask where we found it…

Restaurant Review
Saturday 3 October 2074

Table For 1 | 2 Free-Time Tokens | 8 Food Tokens | 45-Minute Dining Limit

I arrive early to my booking but late to my meal. For the first time in years, this is not due to how long it takes to walk down the stairs in a cooling suit because – hold on to your helmets – The Tasting Tunnels has 

No, instead my delay is entirely the fault of a restaurant host stuck on Swedish and a tiresome reset process, though management (quite rightly) don’t deduct these minutes from my allocated dining time.

Once I have smiled and nodded through frantic apologies, I am led through a dimly-lit room to my chair. Algae-bots can be left in the greenhouse by the entrance to charge – a nice improvement on outdoor waiting rooms. (Note: if you haven’t upgraded to the X-4000 yet, you’ll need to request an umbrella).

In contrast to my android friend, I find myself in a quiet, cave-like space. The flooring is standard epoxy and there aren’t any VR windows, but this sets a scene of anticipation rather than frugality. And it’s not all basic. The seats have anti-sweat covers, which I note and appreciate as I slip on the menu glasses.

Biometric profiles are automatically synced, and I find the dishes arranged in order of recommendation based on my last 30 days of consumption. I’ll leave it with you to decide whether this is helpful or infuriatingly pushy. I opt for re-sorting the seafood by Omega-3 content, meat by B12 and veggies by D –  i.e., based on which formulas are running low in my cupboard at home.

Audio accompaniment is “carefully curated by our soni-chefs and is vital to the flavour profile of each dish”, I am told, so cannot be customised.

This would be a shame if the flavour profiles turned out to be empty promises. Thankfully, they do not.

With waves of trip hop comes chargrilled jellyfish, served titillatingly cold on a briny seabed of nori mousse topped with tuna-teeth shavings. (The teeth shavings make a rare and welcome change from flavoured calcium balls, though I am reminded by my server not to chew. You have been warned).

A stack of greaseless ox-heart is taken to new heights with lashings of potato and rosemary ice cream, served with soundbites of grass rustling in the wind. Harissa chicken feet make love not war with dried pear corn-cous and upbeat folk music. Even the soft-bone sausages brought out to Mozart are the perfect example of a classic, though you’d be forgiven for deciding this is neither the time nor the place for food you can find at the market.

Veggie sharing platters show off the kitchen’s access to giant varieties and the latest hybrids. The two-metre cold-roasted carrot stuffed with asparbage and mini cormatoes is my personal favourite, the buttery sweetness offset perfectly with generous sprinklings of crispy salted mosquitos. Other newcomers include parsnions (tangy), fennelery (perfumy) and caulibarb (a little confusing).

To be sure, not everything hits the mark. The smoked “fish” in algae crumb is a reminder that it’s easy to get too carried away. This arrives at the table in a salt-ice pyramid backed by deep, booming vibrations which I can only assume are composed to bring an extra marine kick to the recipe. Upon inspection, the pyramid is covered with personalised motivational engravings. Mine includes a suggestion to visit Neptune again soon, a blatant exposure of the restaurant’s sponsors.

It’s a work of art, of course, as well as a flaunting of their latest 3D-printing technology.

But I should point out that a funeral march for a mummified haddock trapped in an ice tomb doesn’t make the “fish” any more real. I’d have been happier to forgo the drama of pretending that it’s not pretend-fish.

And then dessert arrives – and all is forgiven. A sculpture of tofu arrives in a playground of texture, from the lightest of sponges to crunchy bean-curd sheets, and a voice encourages me to enjoy my taste journey. As aromatic mists flow from the walls, ceiling and below the table I begin to eat and find myself transported through forests of blueberry, pools of white chocolate, clouds of ginger biscuit. Here, the parade of innovation has purpose… and is simply brilliant.

My chair provides a five-minute neck and shoulder massage before my time is up, and I am escorted back to the lift. Despite the reality that I’ll know nothing but Vita-Shakes for another month, a lingering sweetness tingles on my tongue all the way to street level and keeps a smile on my face. If the Plutonians haven’t invaded by then, I’ll be back for more.

Since the State Health Insurance Policy update announced in August all restaurant bookings require you to submit your Body-Type Certificate and Gastro Health Card prior to arrival. Any attempt to arrive without doing so may result in a food token penalty.

Restaurant Review

Food From The Future

Infographics

Change can happen fast. We made these infographics back in 2021 as an example of the seismic shifts that the pandemic brought to our neighbourhood. Now that we’ve had a 4 million % increase in Bali visitors since last year with 50,000 tourists arriving per day in December… we’re no longer sure which was more dramatic. Bali’s decline or Bali’s comeback?

What The F Just Happened

We commissioned our talented illustrator friend Toys And Flowers to develop a "what if..." story about the future of food. True to form, he went the extra mile and conjured up a vision of a world where fruits became animals...

“Fruitanoids are fruit that have been ‘Genetically Modified Organism’ (GMO’d) to transform into animal figures, and no longer require to be planted into the soil. They just live on sun and water.  We hope this new invention inspires humans to give food more value, eat more fruit in a fun and quirky way, and in turn create a healthier population.”

– Toys And Flowers, Bali


Soursloths & Goldy Monkey

Applepillar & Salakobra

King Duri & Naga

Fruitonoids

Meet The Fruitonoids

Like most sane people, we’re very inspired by 

. He makes us want to be a better bunch of humans and, luckily for everyone, he even tells us how to do it.

Back in 2017, Sir Dave shared the seven changes he thinks humanity needs to make in order to stop crash-burning our Earth:

Raise people out of poverty to slow population growth

If we want to fly this planet better, we should all be listening to him. But unless you’re in a position to change global policies (in which case please treat these as an urgent to-do list) these actions can feel a little out of reach. Creating no-fishing zones isn’t something many of us are capable of doing. Not meaningful ones anyhow. Your bathroom doesn’t count.

We are transforming Locavore into NXT because we realised we need to be the change that we want to see in the world. We’re going to be trying a bunch of different ways to work with nature as our ally and inspire a better way of running food systems.

If you feel the same way but don’t know where to start ticking off the ‘I’m a good human’ list, here's our suggestion of ten pretty easy things you can do.

Well, easier than changing global politics. Try them for a month and see how you go.


Total no brainer. Who doesn’t like free things? How you consume resources is giving a powerful statement as well helping the planet a little at a time. Every time you’re about to buy something new, check first that someone else isn’t giving it away. Join Facebook groups for second-hand furniture, clothing, technology… there’s one for everything. Go to Really Really Free Markets (RRFM) instead of shopping malls – or if there isn’t one where you live, set it up. Keep an eye out for boxes on the street full of goodies. That means they’re for the taking. Do a bit of research and go urban foraging for edible leaves and flowers. If you’re brave enough, go dumpster diving behind supermarkets and bakeries where they throw away totally edible (still-sealed) food. 

It goes without saying that giving away your own stuff is also a nice thing.

You’re throwing away your food scraps anyway – why not compost them and create new nutrients for the soil? Use a section of your garden or get a composting bin for your kitchen… or ask a neighbour with a compost pile if you can throw them on theirs. Sharing is caring. If you want to be a real pro, you can even get some pet worms to frolic around in there and help break it down for you. This will make the plants in your garden or pots thrive and be happier and healthier too. 


Okay, we lied. You should probably try this one for longer than a month. You probably won’t even be able to help yourself, because chickens are cute as well as mighty useful. They eat your leftovers, naturally till and fertilise the soil, get rid of unwanted insects (cockroaches we’re looking at you) AND provide nutritious sunny-side-ups in the morning without supporting factory farms. Win win win win. If you’ve never done this before, get the know-how by searching “keeping chickens” online. See if you can find a local one-stop-solution provider too, as you’ll need a bit of equipment, and some chickens of course…

4. Eat the stems and leaves of your vegetables.

A lot of perfectly edible nutritious food gets wasted when people peel their veggies. Try to be more careful about what you’re scrapping. Carrots, leeks, beets, asparagus… all these can be eaten from root to stem. The leaves of broccoli, cauliflower and celery are packed with good stuff. The stalks in herbs – basil, mint, parsley – can be thrown into the pot if you’re using them to cook. If there’s anything you’re not sure about, just look it up first. 

5. Put a brick in your toilet... or pee outside!


Water might well be the greatest currency one day. Putting a brick in your toilet makes it use less water per flush, and peeing outside reduces that amount to zero. If you go for the giving-back-to-mother-earth option, you’re also fertilising the soil, as urine is full of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Well done you. Some plants thrive more on pee than others – lime trees love it – so try to aim wisely. Of course, only in your own garden!


”Eco-friendly” and “sustainable” are buzzwords used very liberally these days as companies want to sound environmentally responsible and make you feel like a hero for buying their products. Try to avoid the half-truth traps and marketing tricks. The best way is to do some of your own research on anything calling itself environmentally friendly. Us included.

Are we joking though? We’ll stop short of giving you personal hygiene advice (shit shower shave and save the dolphins – who said that?) but many of us could help the water tables out with some easy changes to our laundry routines. If you’re washing your jeans after every wear out of habit rather than necessity, consider not doing that. There aren’t many noses at knee-level who care about bad smells anyway. Do you really sweat out every T-shirt every time you put it on? We’re just asking the question. You decide.

8. Only eat local food, wherever you are.

The closer your food source, the better. It’s fresher, it’s more likely to be seasonal, it supports your local community, it has less preservatives and bad stuff added to it, it’s less manufactured, it has a softer carbon footprint, and it’s probably way more culturally interesting. If you find yourself craving a dish that isn’t native to where you live, get creative. Lots of ingredients can be substituted when you put your thinking/chef’s hat on. Or if all else fails, consider moving to the home country of your favourite cuisine.


Long live the bees! And the butterflies, and the hummingbirds. And the wasps, we suppose. Having flowers and other pollinating plants around helps make a happy environment for nature to thrive. They don’t look half bad, either. All you need is soil, sunlight and water.


Or any fermented food. Fermentation is a super low-energy way to preserve ingredients that will go off soon and allows you to still eat your favourite ingredients when they’re out of season. Bacterial cultures are also great for your gut and for warding off illnesses, so you can be healthy as well as really cool.

Good luck! Time to make David Attenborough proud…

“Nature is our biggest ally and greatest inspiration”

All Content

Ten Ways To Make David Attenborough Proud

The world's most popular guess-what-they-ate game. As far as we know. 

Green letters are in the right place, yellow are in the wrong place, blanks are for all you smart alecks to figure out... and we've given you some big clues. Use the change in these (lucky or unlucky?) contestants' faces to spell out what food they've just eaten. 

More coming soon...

Foodle Part 1

FOODLE: Guess What They Ate

Hot Hot Eat

Pots of broth, sate skewers, grilled cheese sandwiches, little fried delicious things. None of our favourite roadside snacks in Bali could exist without the transformative powers of fire and the hot sizzlin' heat of the cooker. 

But what's really going on under the grill? How toasty does it get when you're in charge of fanning the flames? What would the world of street food look like if you walked around with thermal vision?

 glassware trash, natural stone waste from construction sites, old plaster moulds


 ceramic glazes, clay, new collection moulds

Kevala Ceramics

 biopolymers used to make “not-plastic” bags

Avani Eco

Pattika

 plastic blocks used for building materials and furniture

More transformation inspiration coming soon...

Sungai Watch

Shape-shifting doesn't necessarily get a good rep. Too often, masters of transformation use their powers to trick and deceive for selfish means. When we look around us, though, we also see a lot of people using this ability for good. To turn bad things into better things. To get some lemons... and make some banging lemonade.

Perhaps none are more inspiring than the great minds turning one man's trash into another's treasure. During our search for like-minded collaborators on our new project, we've come across innovative entrepreneurs all across Bali using their creativity to change underused, overlooked or thrown away materials into useful, beautiful, 

These ventures bring hope that maybe, just maybe, we humans are capable of swapping out our old harmful habits for new regenerative ones. 

If you want to feel a bit less doomy and gloomy about the state of the planet, take a look at what these heroes are up to. They might even trigger a genius idea for a new enterprise of your own...

Shifting Matters


"now the monkey comes out of the sleeve!"

Another drawing from tiny hands coming soon...

Now The Monkey Comes Out Of The Sleeve

Our head chef Eelke says the strangest things, which according to him are perfectly normal. 

Dutch idioms, it turns out, don't always translate very well into English.

While it might be quite common in Holland to exclaim "Alsof er een engeltje over je tong piest!" when you're enjoying a meal, it's less familiar to hear somebody say "it's like an angel is pissing on my tongue" at the dinner table.

We love the confused silences that these lost-in-translation moments bring so much that we asked Eelke's kids to draw their interpretations of his expressions. 
Can you guess what they mean?

Eelke Says...

For our new project at Locavore, we’re teaming up with a guy who everyone calls the mushroom man. His real name is Aaron, but really… he’s the mushroom man. He founded 

 where he runs mushroom cultivation workshops and shares all his fungal wisdom. And he’s our fungi, mycelium, mushroom expert who’s going to live in the basement at our new project NXT. Okay, 

. But that doesn’t sound as funny, does it?

You might be super clued up on the myco-scene and know exactly why it’s very important and VERY COOL for us to have built our own fruiting chamber for our own mushroom guru. Maybe you saw the Netflix documentary 

 and had your mind blown by the magical beauty and incredible intelligence of the mycelium world. Or perhaps you’re not on this hype yet because you’ve been living under a rock. In which case, consider the fact that you might be more like a mushroom than you think.

Simply put, mushrooms are going to change the world. We know enough about their fascinating nature to know that they are one of the keys to creating a better future for food. And a better future full stop. Now all we need to do is put the time, effort and energy into understanding more about what mushrooms can do and what we can learn from them. So, we’re going for it. We’re setting out to unearth more of mushroom’s hidden secrets. It’s quite exciting.

It goes without saying that nobody is more excited than Aaron “the mushroom man” himself, so we had a chat with him about what exactly is so game-changing about mushrooms and why we should all be on the edge of our toadstools.

Aaron Boyer, mushroom cultivation expert a.k.a. fungal wizard

mushrooms getting cosy with a tree, photo by Jesse Bauer

Have you ever seen a mushroom transformed into something else?

Mycofabrication is all the rage in the myco community. From furniture to myco-coffins, there is the potential for a broad range of applications using the bonding strength of mycelium to make materials. We will be featuring several pieces of mycofabrication at NXT.

mycelium "leather" range by MYLO

Bob Hendrikx designs "Living Cocoon" mycelium coffin

mycelium ceiling pendants by UK designer Sebastian Cox

a Pink Oyster ready for chopping, photo by Edgar Castrejon

What can mushrooms do for us when we eat them?

Mushrooms have an extensive history of use as medicine, especially in China where the recorded use of Reishi (known as the ‘mushroom of immortality’ or ‘mushroom of spiritual potency’) amongst the Taoists goes back several thousand years. Today, scientific studies recognise the amazing properties of Reishi for immunity, heart and brain health, fatigue and depression, blood sugar control and its ability to kill cancer cells. This is just one of many known functional, medicinal mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms can lower cholesterol. Lion’s Mane is prized for its ability to induce nerve growth factor which can help prevent cognitive decline. Cordyceps mushrooms can increase performance and stamina. And, of course, the Psylocibin mushrooms can be used for deep journeys into consciousness – or as is more popular these days, as a microdose (a sub perceptible dose) which can be used for depression, anxiety, creativity and cognitive improvement. We are only just tapping into the amazing resources mushrooms can bring to fungi-human relations!

wild 'Mushroom of Immortality' growing in Indonesia, photo by Aldo Risky Pratama

magical 'Amanita Muscaria' toadstools , photo by Hans Veth

Do you think humanity’s attitude towards mushrooms is changing?


Yes, mushroom attitudes are changing around the world, as we learn more about the wisdom they hold and the gifts that they offer more and more people are becoming curious about fungi and the role they hold in nature as well as the advancement of fungi-human relations. I have taught over 10,000 people an introductory course into mushroom cultivation and I have witnessed first hand the different walks of life of my students, from 6 year olds to 90 year olds. From corporate to permaculturist, there is something for everyone in the realm of fungi.

Do you think mushrooms have an important role to play in our future?


Sustainable farming, mycoremediation, myco-fabrication, functional medicine, connection to the divine… mushrooms can change the world.

If you could wake up in bed one morning and find yourself transformed into a mushroom, which mushroom would it be and why?


Amanita Muscaria for sure. No mushroom brings more wonder and curiosity than these massive Red and white mushrooms. They are such a contrast to their surroundings and an entry point into getting interested in Fungi. As someone who rocks a mohawk in a town full of man buns, I definitely appreciate embodying contrast and bringing attention to Fungi is my purpose and passion... so I resonate with that mushroom the most.

Keep an eye out for the second half of our talk with the mushroom man, where he’ll be revealing what he's up to in our basement…

Mushroom Man Part 1

A Talk With The Mushroom Man

Somewhere, in a parallel universe... nothing is quite the same. 

Grass jumps from the sky. Bats swim backwards. And plates of talking food share their stories.

Talking Organic

You've read about change. You've watched about change. You've seen about change. Maybe it's time for a listen, for a change.

Like all good mixtapes, this one was thoughtfully curated by a real person, Gerry Zulchairy (a.k.a. Gero).


Honey I Shrank The Photographer

5. Food From The Future