Month: August 2011

Visiting my brother….

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Last Friday it set sail to my brother’s house in Lichtaart, a little town about an 45 minutes from Antwerp. Normally when going to my brother, he cooks something, as he’s a very good cook  and he always serves us great wine…. So what more would one need?! But this time we decided to go out, to give my brother the chance to relax for one evening.  As I’m not really familiar with the area, he chose the restaurant and  took us to Restaurant Den Cardijn.  A really nice little cottage in the “city” center of Lichtaart.

 

We of course had to start the wonderful evening in a proper way, and  what better way the with a nice glass of bubbles  🙂 . For the choice of the wine, we just took one of the suggestions they had (Madonna Alta, Grechetto). I liked the wine, but if it would have had a little bit extra vivacity it would have been better. The food on the other side, was really nice. To Start I took the “Bombe of salmon with grey (north sea) shrimps and mango salsa”. My brother and his wife took home made croquettes with a shrimp filling and my girlfriend took smoked salmon.

 

The reason my brother always goes to “Den Cardijn” is to eat their “Gambas a la plancha”… so you obviously know what he had as main dish 🙂  My girlfriend joined him in that idea. I just took a nice steak with béarnaise sauce and French fries (I just needed to eat some red meat). My brother’s wife, she took Mussels (shellfish) with French fries… although she is pregnant and it is said that it’s not good for pregnant women … but she really craved for it 🙂

 

 I really enjoyed eating here. They really have fair prices for their food and wine.

 

But what made my evening in this restaurant even more special, was that my brother asked me if I wanted to be godfather of his, in October to be born, baby… to which I of course said YES!!

 

 

 

Restaurant Den Cardijn

 

Website:  http://www.dencardijn.be/

 

 Address:

 

                Mgr. Cardijnstraat 34

 

                2460 Kasterlee, Belgium

 

 Phone n°: +32 (0) 14 71 33 08

 

Red Raspberry cheesecake

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Red Raspberry Cheesecake is a very nice dessert. You can replace the red raspberries by blueberries, blackberry and I think maybe strawberry could also do the trick.

 Ingredients:

  • Short crust pastry (kruimel/zanddeeg) you can either make it yourself, but I usually buy it prepared.

(Please, do let me know if you want the recipe for making it yourself, then I will give it to you)

 For the filling:

  • 1 dried vanilla fruit (vanillestokje)
  • 2dl milk
  • 80g butter
  • 4 eggs
  • 200g sugar
  • 80g flour
  • 500g fresh soft cheese  (verse kaas)
  • 300g Red Raspberries (or whatever fruit you choose ) (fresh or frozen)
  • 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar

 Get started:

  •  Grease your springform pan with some butter. And spread your short crust pastry in the springform.

  • Put the milk & butter in a cooking pan. Cut the vanilla fruit in 2 and take the seeds. Add the seed as well as the vanilla fruit to the milk and put this on stove. This until the butter is melted (don’t cook the milk)
  • Split the eggs (put egg yolk and white in a separate bowl). Add the sugar to the egg yolks and mix until it gets a creamy look.
  • Add the flour.

  • Add the milk (first take out the vanilla fruit stick) and mix it all until it is a homogeny (homogene) mixture. Let this mixture cool down.
  • Pre-heat your oven at 180°C (356°F)
  • Once the mixture is cooled down, add the fresh cheese and mix until it is nice and fluid. Add the flour. mix

  • Beat the egg whites with a whisk until you gets a nice stiff mass .

  •  Add this to the mixture (gently as otherwise you will lose the lightness of the cheesecake)

  • Put some of the mix in the already prepared springform. Put 140g of the raspberries on top. Put again some of the eggs mix on top. (it might be that you still have some mix left over, then you can just make a few extra small cheesecakes. I usually do this for my girlfriend as she is a big fan of cheesecakes)

  • Put in the pre-heated oven for 55 minutes and afterwards let it cool down.
  • For the dressing you take the remaining amount of Raspberries and put them in a cooking pot and add the powdered sugar (I always also add a sprinkle of water) and let it simmer on a low fire for about 15-20 min. and it is up to you if you prefer it like that or if you want to sieve it (zeven).

Only 1 thing left to do, slice the Cheesecake, put some Raspberry coulis and enjoy!!

I wanted to add a picture when the cheesecake was finished, but some greedy people ate it before I could take the picture 🙂 🙂

 Let me know if you liked it?! Or maybe show me your result ?

How not to behave on an airplane: a passengers’ bill of rights

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Yesterday I read a really nice article about a survey conducted by  Lonely planet ! The aim of this survey is “to establish some basic guidelines for the traveling community to promote peace on airplanes”. This resulted in a ‘Bill of rights’.

“Article I: The right to remove shoes
Passengers shall be allowed to remove shoes from their feet, but only if the aforementioned feet don’t stink or present health risks to other passengers. The right of the passenger to go to the lavatory without shoes shall not be infringed, as it is really your own business should you want to stand in the urine of others.”

 68% of the people they asked, said it was ok to take of your shoes during the flight. And I’m one of the 68%, especially on  a long flights, because if you have a flight  for 10 hours or more, letting your feet get a bit of air can be really nice.  I remember one time flying back from Thailand I was wearing wrong shoes . Maybe you know this feeling when your feet are swelling a bit and  you feel like sticking my feet out of the window J… I know I do!! I really was in heaven (or close enough)  after taking of my shoes… man did that feel good   

BUT watch out when taking off your shoes….

 “Article II: Freedom from unreasonable aromatic assault
No passenger shall, in the time of flight, be subjected to unreasonable aromas, be it from powerful perfume, foods redolent of onion, or other fragrance wholly unnecessary whilst on an airplane.”

I can’t remember too many flights  where I didn’t have the pleasure to experience the great smells a plan has to offer. There was this one time (long before you could pick your own seats via internet) and they had put me in mid console 5 seat row and of course they gave me the seat right in the middle. Sitting at my right hand side Smoky Smokersen and at my left somebody they just picked off the street (damn strong cologne) … it was so bad I even lost my appetite (yes, my appetite), that’s how bad that smell was. And below graphic shows what the most irritating fragrances you will find on a plane:

“Article IV: The article of reclension
A well-justified act of reclining one’s seat shall not be prohibited at all times, apart from meal time and other times specified by the flight crew. All instances of reclension shall be preceded by a rearward glance so as not to unwittingly crush the patellas or portable electronic devices of the affected passenger.”

 Beeing a tall person, I really don’t like it when people in front of me recline their seat… because then I can’t move anymore. Although I have to admit that it depends which flight company you use, the planes having the most space (flying economy) would be South West and Jet Blue, for International flight KLM usually also has “reasonable” space. I’ve flown quit a lot and most of them are ok, but the really good ones you can count  on two hands…. (unless you fly business)

 “Article V: Freedom of no speech
There shall be no requirement for other passengers to listen to you drone on about your child, cat or other subject not directly germane to an immediate inflight emergency situation. The right of other passengers to give you the ‘book-off’ shall not be infringed, nor shall you assist with the answer to 14-across if unprompted.”

This Article actually reminds me of my flight back home from Toronto (connecting flight to New Delhi). I saw an older guy sitting next to me looking at the little display in front of him and thinking “how does it work”. So being a nice person I thought I’ll just help him… I should have NEVER done that, because for the next 9 hours of my flight he’s been going on about religion and tried to convince me to become a Hindu… I now understand why the Pope kisses the ground when he gets out of a plane! Lesson learned, the only moment I’m not social is on a long flight 🙂

I know I ‘ve skipped some articles, but if you want to see that whole blog post from Lonely planet, please click on Lonely planet blogpost

 What experiences do you guys have? I’m sure you have some!! Let me know

Den Artist

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As I mentioned in my “Aux vieux Bruxelles” post, I often have foreign friends and colleagues visiting.  If I can be honest with you, I prefer to receive them in in Antwerp, as this is the town where I grew up and that I know best. A restaurant that I always like to take them is “Brasserie Den Artist”.  They serve mainly  traditional Belgian food like “Steak Tartare”, this “Stoofvlees” (Belgian stew), “Stoemp met worst” ( mashed potatoes  (+other vegetables in it) with sausage and gravy) “Witloof in de oven” (Ham and chicory role served with béchamel sauce), Mussels, Vol-au-vent,  etc… All prepared as it should be prepared. But they always give it their own twist, like the “vol-au-vent “, they added some Tarragon, what really gives this dish this little something extra. at “Den Artist.  Of course this comes with freshly made French fries.  Even my Italian colleagues have enjoyed this restaurant…and usually Italians are the most difficult to convince 😉

 

Besides the exquisite food, “Den Artist” is greatly located. It has a magnificent frontal view of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts.  A majestic neoclassical building (makes you think of a Greek temple)… really impressive. “Den Artist” is in the Southern part of Antwerp (town) and is considered as the more trendy part of town.

 

Have you been there already?

 

Brasserie Den Artist

 

Website: http://www.brasseriedenartist.be

 

Address :

 

                Museumstraat 45

 

                2000 Antwerp, Belgium

 

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 238 09 95