Lunch on top of Antwerp

September 30, 2013September 30, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 4 Comments

It took me a lot of time, but I finally had a meal at the restaurant with the most beautiful view over Antwerp… I’m talking about 2 Michelin star awarded restaurant ‘t Zilte. I’m not sure why it took so long, but thanks to a good friend of mine, who insisted (a few times)I just had to try ‘t Zilte, I finally made it there (in his company)… and I’m happy he did as I had a wonderful experience. I have to correct myself I was already at ‘t Zilte, but this was for the press conference of ‘Taste of Antwerp‘, but that time I didn’t have a meal.

What makes this restaurant extra special is first of all of course its wonderful location on the 9th floor of the MAS… which gives you the best view over city of Antwerp. And secondly the vibe. The first vibe you get when entering somewhere is the most important one (or it is to me), so the same goes for when you enter a restaurant and although I was sure the vibe at ‘t Zilte would be good, but you never know 100% in advance.. anyway it was good 🙂 and it only got better by the minute…

I know it is expected of restaurants like’ t Zilte that they serve very nicely presented plates, but still it must be said they have outdone themselves as we saw some very nice looking dishes that day and with keeping my preferred saying in mind keep it “simple”. As even though all the dishes looked amazing they still wanted to make sure you understand what is in your plate and want to respect every product/ingredient.

As I arrived last (my table guest was already there) I just joined him with starting our lunch with perfect drink, a glass of Blanc de Blanc Ruinart champagne 🙂 With this we got served a variety of delicate “amuse bouches” which were great to already start to tickle the taste buds and stimulate the appetite (for as far as I needed it 🙂 ) and as if that wasn’t enough they came to us with a breadcart filled at least 15 different kinds of fresh bread!!! I’m a huge bread lover and it was more than only a treat for the eyes as man that was some good bread!!! I would already return just to have more of their bread.

hapje 2 met crispy parsley

I wasn’t wrong was I when I said there dishes looked very njammy?? And they tasted even better. Anyhow now it was time for some real business…. As it was lunchtime it seemed best for us to go for the lunch menu… although I must say the other menus also seemed great, but sometimes you just have to make some though decisions… but as a peace offer we took and extra course with our lunch menu… as who could say no to turbot with porcini?

Finding the right wine with your food is never an easy task, especially when they give you a wine list from which you would want to order everything that it on it… luckily ‘t Zilte has not 1 but 2 sommeliers to help you make a choice. One of the sommeliers was another reason I wanted to come to ‘t Zilte as it is none other than my friend Gianluca that you might remember from my blogpost about Spiga d’oro(the better Italian restaurant) as Gianluca is the son of the owner 🙂 (and their former sommelier). So to make a long story short I was pretty sure I was getting some great wine pairing 🙂 (with a bit of consulting by the long time sommelier from ‘t Zilte Sepideh Sedaghatnia)

The first dish of our menu was a Crab and foie gras “pâté” with tomato, mushroom and curd (this some kind of drained yogurt ). With this dish my good friend paired us a Slovenian Rieseling from Joannes Protner, because because the minerality of Riesling goes well with the crab, greasiness and filming character for the foie gras and acidity of the wine is for the tomato and the earthy character of the wooden casks for the earthiness of the mushroom. BTW these are Gianluca’s words, I really couldn’t define it as well 🙂

The next dish to put our teeth into was the turbot, for this dish we had a bit of a blind wine tasting as we got served two wines that both fit this dish but both in another way… and as it was a blind tasting we didn’t know in advance which ones we would be trying. The first wine was a 2010 Burgundy – Meursault Tessons Clos de Mon Plaisir which is actually a Chardonnay. The other wine was a wine that if I had to pick on on color this would be my preferred one 🙂 it on top of that came from a region in Croatia aka Istria where I still have some family living (my grandfather was originally from Croatia), it was a white blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Malvazija, and Pinot Gris called Ottocento made by Giorgio Clai. I’m still not sure which of both wines fitted more with this dish as both gave the dish another dimension

The last dish we got served before the dessert was lamb with zucchini, ricotta, panisse (kind of polenta made from gram flour) and cremolata. The lamb was cooked with perfection and melted on the tongue. With this came a lamb tartar and a lambstock with herbs. This time Gianluca chose a Austrian red wine to go with our dish, a 2010 Burgenland which has lots of common characteristics with Syrah wines, but the Burgenland is a bit smoother.

I’m glad the menu “ended” (it wasn’t totally over yet) with a refreshing dessert with strawberry varieties with crushed Gin ice and white chocolate… I must admit that I wasn’t really a fan from the Gin ice, but together with the white chocolate it got balanced (I don’t like bitter tastes 🙂 ) . I normally don’t like wine with my dessert, but who could refuse it when it is presented with so much enthusiasm? He did surprise us by giving us a glass of Riesling (not a dry Riesling obviously) with the strawberries, it was a 2011 Kabinett from the Reinhold Haart wine estate.

Strawberry variaties

But best was yet to come as now instead of the the bread cart, the now came with the “cookies” for with the coffee cart 🙂 I wasn’t planning on being greedy, but I just couldn’t stop myself and I honestly didn’t care what they thought of me!! everything looked just sooo good, like the mini Berliner’s (in this case grease is very very good) or the Madeline set in a rum, vanilla and sugar jar… you would think it would have a too strong taste, but it didn’t it was juuuuust right 😉 … the reason to go back for a meal at ‘t Zilte just keep adding up 🙂 (BTW I didn’t take a picture of everything I had, that would have been to confronting 😉 )

friandises

I can only say that I had an amazing lunch that because of the good coordination and professionalism from Viki Geunes’ team (multicultural team even) became an every greater experience!! I’m sure this isn’t the last you’ve seen of me. Thanks!

Restaurant ‘t Zilte

Website: http://www.tzilte.be/

Address: Hanzestedenplaats 1, 2000 Antwerp – Belgium (in the MAS museum at the 9th floor)

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 283.40.40

The way the cookie crumbles: Ingrid Neven

September 20, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

I hope you guys already had the chance to read some of my new blog items where I ask chefs 10 question. The previous 2 chefs I question were Syrco Bakker and Giovani Oosters. This time the I asked the questions is one that just couldn’t miss on my list. In the 14 years I eat her dishes not once I have been disappointed!! (and trust me I’ve tasted quite a few in all those years) On top of that she’s a great chick 🙂 She no one else than Chef Ingrid Neven from my all-time favorite restaurant Pazzo!

1. What is your favorite local product(s) to work with? And in which way should it be prepared?

Especially the things the seasons produce time after time, in autumn(my fav season) the wild forest mushrooms, the Polder hare (TOP!). Brussels sprouts, Belgian endive, …. In summertime all the njammy local fruits like strawberries, raspberries and in spring asparagus. In our kitchen we just love to mix all those things to get surprising results like mixing them with products from Italian and Japanese cuisine. Although the best way to prepare them is the most natural as possible!

BTW, we have a friend (no name) who searches for wild “rucola” or eatable mushrooms in roadsides, forests and fields (snappy and local).

2. Is it important for you to use local products?

Yes, but only if it are products of high quality… I mean if a product from down the street has a bad or poor quality, I prefer getting a product from high quality even if it has to come from somewhere else. Also because of our Italian and Japanese influenced dishes some ingredients can’t be found locally 🙂

3. An ingredient you couldn’t miss in your kitchen?

Spices, first of all salt & pepper, preferably sea salt, but also spices like ras- el- hanout, wasabi, fresh herbs in general, they always give a different dimension to a dish.

4. When did you get the passion for cooking?

From my mom, I’m a real farmer’s daughter. My mom always made her own ice-cream from fresh milk from our own cows (nothing beats that!!). She was also butcher and for a long time we butchered and prepared our own animals… so I basically always had great and fresh food already from a young age.

5. Who is your big example in the gastronomical world?

I’m a huge fan of Nobu Matsuhisa, I have all his books and already ate at his original restaurant in LA, amazing Japanese cuisine with little twist.

6. Where do you get your inspiration for making new dishes and combinations?

Going out to eat, cookbooks, but also by just walking around in food stores, open air markets or supermarkets (mostly sun wah an Asian store in Belgium).

7. What has been the most culinary experience? (The restaurant was already on my list, but now I got even more curious)

My last culinary highlight was last year in NYC at the Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, a very unique dining experience, nice pure flavors with Japanese influences. No nonsense!

8. For which dish would you make a big sacrifice to be able to eat it?

Well, if I would ever be in dead row, you never know, my last wish would be a last supper at Nobu LA!! (My ultimate dream would of course be Japan)

9. What is your most wonderful memory of chef school?

Without any doubt the practical classes by Mrs. Vanderstraeten, a small a small delicate woman who knew how to give gas, not your average teacher, but a real worker!! Every time it felt like it was the real thing, I learned a lot from her!

10. A culinary experience everybody should have had besides have a meal at your restaurant?

There are so many, but a piece of advice I’d like to give is that no matter at what level you eat, ENJOY it and go somewhere without expectations… only then you’ll have a total experience of a restaurant! Usually it is not only the influence of the waiter or food that counts, but also the atmosphere or company…so again ENJOY and every culinary experience will be an incredible one!!

A trip to little Burgundy the end

September 17, 2013October 14, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

The last vineyard we visited on our trip through Borgloon was Optimbulles or formally known as Champinnot. Champinnot had to change their name as the association behind the French Champagne wine region took it to court as the name referred too much to “Champagne”. Luckily this didn’t stop them to make wine! Visiting this vineyard as last was the perfect ending of an incredible slightly sunny day on top of a hill overlooking the beautiful Borgloon fields! And I couldn’t imagine ending this day without a nice glass of wine 🙂

As the name Optimbulles (or the previous name) might make assume, this vineyard is especially specialized in bubbled wine aka sparkling wines (although they also have some mighty white wines). The wine I’ll always remember from this vineyard will definitely be the “Briljant” this wine made me so hungry!! It smelled exactly like one of my preferred bread kind Rye bread. I know I get hungry pretty fast, but due to the smell of a wine was a first 🙂 Don’t get me wrong all the other wines were also good, but this was just a unique smell I had never experienced before.

Around the 90’s Guy Geunis, Theo Pasque and Rik Schreurs decided to make wine on their vineyard in Jesseren (at the border of Borgloon). Their focus (as I said before) is on sparkling wines made in/with the traditional grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) and way of working. Something they cherish a lot at Optimbulles is that they don’t add extra sweeteners, they only “sugar” in them is the natural one. This is why their wines are referred to as Extra Brut or Brut Zero (No liqueur d’expédition has been added and has less than 6 grams of residual sugar per liter). Optimbulles has 3 types of sparkling wine “Robijn”( 70% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Noir red and 10% Pinot Noir white – so basically this is a rosé sparkling wine), “Trilogie” (mainly Chardonnay, filled up with Pinot Noir and a little bit of Pinot Meunier)and Briljant (that I mentioned above and is made of 100% Chardonnay). Besides the sparkling wines they also make white wine and something more remarkable, rosé wine made from a local grape called “Vroege Loonse” which is a clone from the Pinot Noir.

Another important thing to know about this vineyard is that until recently they only made sparkling wine using grapes, now they also make a kind of cider using the local apples (old types like “Boskoop”, “Ceuleman”, “Sterappel”) from their orchard…. again, some people who want to creative and that want to see what good can from the Belgian soil. I can only encourage that!! This product is better known as Apples & Pearls :-)… when tasting it, it obviously first of all tastes like apples, but it also reminded me a bit of wheat beer , but all tastes are well balanced!! This actually goes for all their wines!!

One day I’ll be able to describe you the wines like a real wine expert! 😉

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a website from them, but in case you would want to know more I’ll give you their credentials: Lindesstraat 78, 3512 Hasselt – 0472 21 89 72 of 0478 20 57 79.

Ok, enough about Borgloon (for now)

A trip to little Burgundy part 3

September 11, 2013October 14, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Lots of winemakers in Belgium are people who just do it as a hobby and still have another job next to the winemaking. One of those examples would be Ghislain Houben from Wine Estate Hoenshof or better Professor Ghislain Houben as he is Professor in economics at the University of Hasselt.

When I think of a Professor, I think of someone who likes to try new things and experiment. I think this does describe what Ghislain Houben really well when you look at his vineyard. What started with having some animals and a few cherry trees has since 2002 grown into a vineyard with more than 5000 vines known as Wine estate Hoenshof. I was really surprised on the wide variety of different grapes (and wine as end product) Professor Houben has on his estate, from Chardonnay (with which he has won a price as best Belgian Chardonnay in 2011) to Cabernet to Dornfelder and he keeps trying new things 🙂

Although Wine Estate Hoenshof has won prices with his white wines, the future of the estate will be focusing on good quality red and dessert wines as the amount of vineyards producing this in Belgium is quite low. During our visit Professor Houben showed us a map with on it all the vineyards there were in Belgium around the 18^th century (in red), I must say we were all amazed to see how many there were in these regions today the day it is not even 1/3 of amount you see on the map… funny enough most in the regions that are now also “well-know” for making wine.

What differentiates Wine estate Hoenshof from most vineyard is Belgium is the type of barrels that get used. Most vineyards will be using French oak aka winter oak, as for Hoenshof they decided to go for summer oak which originates from Austria/Hungary. The big difference between the two types of oak is the fact the summer oak has bigger pores.

With the big assortment of wines we couldn’t just leave without trying all (or most) of them 🙂 I know we are too good for this world, I think one day I’ll be naming a street after me 🙂 🙂

Anyhow, tasting we did. Normally I’m not really a dessert wine kind of person as they are usually too sweet and sticky. It has to be said that the dessert wines Hoenshof makes are anything but sticky or too sweet… they are soft, fruity and nice acids with a nice nose (they smell nice). I’m not sure which one was my favorite, but if I would have to pick it would be the 2012 Wurzer as it had the smell that reminded me of Mosel/Austrian wines that I like a lot and has a fruity taste with well-balanced acids. Again, I’m not a pro… I just know what I like.

Overall some nice wines not all grape combinations were my cup of tea, but that is a matter of personal taste… I do admire Professor Houben for his creativity and would recommend you to try them yourself and you judge which one is your favorite.

Stay tuned for the last part about my trip through Borgloon…

A trip to little Burgundy the sequel

September 9, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

From all the tasting we did at clos d’opleeuw’s vineyard (that you could read about in my previous blopost) a person becomes very hungry 🙂 luckily Kris Lismont is owner from a restaurant called “Mondevino”. Mondevino might not immediately ring a bell, but maybe restaurant “Ambrozijn” might sound more familiar. Restaurant Ambrozijn was the restaurant Kris Lismont had with his brother Johan, but earlier this year the brothers decided to go their own way. Johan will be focusing on teaching young cooks all tips and tricks. Kris on the other hand continued with the restaurant, but with a slightly different approach and concept where the focus will be mostly on wine, this resulted in Mondevino.

I got instant feeling of happiness when entering Mondevino, not only because of the nice selection of wines you immediately see (I saw some beauties I wouldn’t mind trying), but also because of the very warm welcome (aka Limburg hospitality) Kris Lismont and his wife give you!

To make the lunch even more fun Kris decided to do a blind wine tasting. So with every course we were given 3 different glasses of wine from which we had to guess the country they were from and which was the best pairing with the dish. I know it might be they did it especially for us, but you should try it sometimes! Finding the country was obviously the most difficult, or at least it was for me 🙂 although sometimes the tastes seemed familiar, but I just couldn’t figure it out. At least everything after our glass of Champagne 🙂 Kris bought this bottle (Henri Giraud) during his trip to the Champagne region and wasn’t sure how it would be, I say it was good

The first dish they served us was salmon with tepid potato slices and chive cream. The wines we got with it (first without knowing the kinds) were a 2012 Chateau Simon Graves Blanc (FR), 2009 Pinot Bianco (IT) and a 2012 El Hada (Verdejo – ES). It is strange that now that they gave us the choice one really starts drinking/tasting different. I mean normally you just drink whatever they give you and don’t really think if it really works together with the dish, but this time when having to choose between those 3 you start to think which taste goes best together… Me personally I don’t know the technical details behind it, but at some point you just feel/taste it that the combination is right! Cant’ explain it, it just is like that 🙂 I’m also glad my taste buds where nearly as good as the ones from the pros. I didn’t guess the countries, but I did guess which one was best with the dish and the winner was the Verdejo. (Everybody agreed on this one)

The next round was the same, but with red wines in combination with some Lomo Duroc with Blackwell sauce. This dish needed some strong, but not too strong though. They did chose to go for the same countries as with the white wines, but again we only knew that afterwards. The wines we had were a 2009 Chateau Argadens (FR), a 2010 Les Crestes (ES) and a 2011 Dolcetto d’Alba (IT). It was the Dolcetto d’Alba that fitted best with the Lomo Duroc… it didn’t overpower the taste of the food, but was still powerful enough… and it might be a coincidence that Dolcetto is one of my preferred wines.

We finished our meal with a Trifle of red fruit from the area, this time no wine as we still had to visit 2 more vineyards and the line has to be drawn somewhere right? 😉

To summarize this lunch experience, it was not only a delicious meal, but also very educational one. I will definitely be back, if only already for Kris’ enthusiasm!

Definitely a nice spot to stop during your trip(s) in the beautiful hills of Haspengouw!

Address: Tongersesteenweg 30, B-3840 Borgloon

Website: http://www.mondevino.be/

Phone n° : +32 (0) 12 74 72 31

Opening hours:

Wed – Fri: 10.30h – 23h

Sat: 17h – 23h

Sun: 11.30h – 17h

To be continued with more about my trip and visits to vineyards in Borgloon…

A trip to little Burgundy

September 4, 2013October 14, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / 2 Comments

It might seem that I’m exploring a lot of the eastern part of Belgium (Limburg) lately, but they just have so many great things to explore :-). This time my trip east brought me a little town called Borgloon, which is a little town right in the heart of the Belgian Fruit region also known as “Haspengouw” (beautiful for cycling in spring). The red wires during this daytrip were top Belgian wines and 2010 best Belgian sommelier Kris Lismont.

I know Belgium is not known as a wine country, but I can say for a fact that the amount of winemakers making good and even great wine that can easily compete against the famous wine countries is getting bigger by the day! Thanks to Kris Lismont we were fortunate enough to visit a 3 of them with all the same goal putting Belgian wines on the map.

The first vineyard on our agenda is maybe to me the maker of the best Belgian white wine. I’m talking about the lifework (since 2000) of Peter Colemont aka Clos d’Opleeuw a vineyard from only 1hectare. Peter only makes Chardonnay (1 year in best quality oak barrels) wine from 5 chardonnay grape varieties. I must correct myself he also has a few Pinot Noire vines but the wine he makes from these grapes is for private use only, or at least until Peter finds the quality good enough for actually sharing it with the world (I tried it and have to say although it is still young it had a typical Pinot Noire taste to it). Back to Clos d’Opleeuw’s signature products their Chardonnay that during lots of blind tastings of well-known white wines is mistaking for a Burgundy wine… so that’s how good it is! Before I start speaking of the wine, maybe I should first tell you more about the person behind the vineyard. Peter Colemont is besides a very friendly and modest person also someone who knows what he wants and is not ashamed to say he consults well-known winemakers and wine experts to make sure he’ll make a TOP product. Peter even worked for a while in some well know vineyards in the Burgundy Wine region to fine-tune his knowledge on how to make wine. When we asked him who gave him the passion for making wine, he said without hesitation Jean Bellefroid who was a pioneer in making Belgian wine.

There are multiple reasons this wine is this wonderful 1^st of all because of the lime/loam soil in combination with the fact it goes downhill is perfect for the “drainage “of the water (and in Belgium there is a lot of rain 🙂 ). Just think of vines of Chateau Petrus, this also goes downhill. BTW when you see a mistletoe tree you immediately know the soil is lime/loam as this tree only grows on this type of soil. Secondly because of the fact it is a “Clos”, which is the French word for “closure” or “enclosed”, so basically this means it is a vineyard with walls around it used to protect the grapes from theft as well as improving the mesoclimate. The mesoclimate will be creating the perfect circumstance and environment for growing the grapes (or any other fruit you would like to grow). This is a “technique” used in lots of French regions for making wine. The last and maybe most important reason is Peter himself as he works with so much devotion, care and passion! There is a saying that says “everything you do yourself is done better” well this is Peter’s motto as he does do it all himself, he literally crawls on hands and knees between all his vines to check and take care of every branch. He could use a machine, but this would cut away too much.

Clos rijpingskamer

Peter’s passion and high quality product didn’t stay unnoticed as people like Jancis Robinson tasted the wine and started spreading the word ( article) and on top of that Clos d’opleeuw’s chardonnay can also be found on the wine list of the 3 Belgian 3 Michelin star awarded restaurants and Oud Sluis! Lots of people would start flying and start to feel full of themselves, but not Peter he keeps his 2 feet on the ground :-).

I did already know Clos d’Opleeuw for a few years, but it was not until 2 months ago (it might be 3 months) that I tried my first glass thanks to Tom Ieven from restaurant Ardent :-). I also wasn’t sad when I could taste it again, but this time in company of the winemaker himself, we tried the 2010 and 2011. The 2007 would be Peter’s personal favorite, at this moment that is.

Anyhow, to make a long story short(er) you should definitely try a glass (or bottle) of Clos d’Opleeuw when you have the chance!!! I know it might be difficult to find it as the production is not enormous (3000bottles a year)… and therefore very quickly sold out but you won’t regret it if you get hold of it.

Stay tuned for more about the 2 other vineyards we visited and the lunch we had with of course wine as main topic….

Hinky Pinky Robby Gin & Tonic

September 2, 2013September 2, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

After Dominique Persoone’s Rock ’n Roll Gin & Tonic I now also share with you the recipe of coffee maker Eveline’s Hinky Pinky Robby Gin & Tonic creation.

Ingredients:

Bombay Sapphire,
Tonic (Fever-Tree Mediterranean),
Red caster sugar,
Pure Fruit & Hibiscus tea,
Rose pepper,
Rosemary,
Chives in bloom,
Orange thyme,
Sage in bloom,
Lemon zest.

Get Started:

Make a day upfront a Pure Fuit & Hibiscus tea, let it cool and make ice cubes from them OR , as Eveline did, make 1 big ice cube using a tea holder (in this case Robby).

Rub a lime wedge on the rim of a glass (preferably a burgundy glass) and dip it the rim in red caster sugar.
Put 1 ice cube you made in the glass and top it with transparant ice cube, add the lemon zest, 5cl Bombay Sapphire and top with tonic

Imagin - Cocktailbar - Bombay Sapphire - Fever-tree - Knokke