A night back in time with a nice glass of wine

November 29, 2013December 2, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

You might have noticed that I’ve become an even bigger wine lover than I already was. Wine can just be so different every time. Even when some winemakers use the same grape the end product can still be so different. I’m not a wine snob, so wine for me doesn’t have to be from Italy for me to be good… Just like with food it either is good or it isn’t. The advantage I have is that I lately always get surrounded by the ‘crème de la crème’ of people in the winery business (sommeliers, winemakers, etc…) that help me understanding smells and tastes I can’t always distinguish myself. So when last week top sommelier William Wouters and his wife Filipa Pato ask me if I wanted to join a wine and dine tasting of their own wines I couldn’t refuse, as there is still so much to learn or that I don’t know about wine yet…and ok I just like eating and tasting a lot 🙂 (And they are great people).

The location for the tasting was very unique it was the ‘Campveerse Toren’. A Unique and the perfect spot to spend a winter evening as the antique of the restaurant takes the cold away. Also nice to know is that the Campveerse toren already got used since the 15^th – 16^th century as hostelry or restaurant. So it goes back quite a while. The antique does bring a certain coziness and warm feeling, too bad they didn’t turn on the fireplace, but even without it felt like the perfect spot to be when it is cold outside. I really wouldn’t know how to describe it in a different way:-)

What Filipa Pato’s wines and the location have in common is the respect for tradition, but still doing your own thing with it. For example Filipa uses (her own) old vines or traditional grapes from the area she is from and makes wine like her forefathers (she comes from a wine making family)did but makes use of modern technology to make it her own thing and give her own schwung. The same goes for the cuisine chef Xavier, he prepares classical dishes with little schwung of his own (and of course not forgetting the historical location).

It is true that I know William and his wife already a long time now, but that is not the reason why I like their wines. I like their wines because they are good!! What I like about them is the fact that they are a bit stronger and remind me a bit of Burgundy wines. Also knowing most of their wines a only made from 1 type of grape is something I find incredible (like with Sherry)… This also shows that nothing goes to waste at the estate and that they make use of every part of the grape to make the espumante, red wine, white wine and/ or sweet wine. Great, right? I hope you are sharing my enthusiasm.

I can’t say it enough, the location was simply fantastic. With a location like ‘Campveerse Toren’ you just have to eat stews or game dishes… that get accompanied by strong and rich wines… So lucky me this was exactly what chef Xavier and Filipa served me. Please feast your eyes on the menu and of course the great wines we got served with them:

We started with some appetizers with a nice glass of 3B rosé métaolo traditional

On hay smoked wild oyster, wild goose ham and Jerusalem artichoke that got accompanied by the Vino Branco

Pheasant prepared in cedar with foamy sauerkraut sauce came with a Nossa Calcario branco

Roast wild duck with a licorice gravy, white beans and a lentil polenta. This got served with Baby Baga

Stewed deer neck in red wine with cacao, parsnips, kale and celeriac. This dish just needed the top of the bill, a Nossa Calcario Tinto! I’m sure this is what the gods drink!!

There was also a cheese assortment, but as I am not really a cheese fan I skipped this dish, but I did drink the ‘Espirito de Bago’ Filipa braught over especially for this tasting 🙂 You could compare this as a combination of an sherry and grappa.

I didn’t really have a personal favorite wine or dish as everything was very good and it got proven to me once again that the time when Dutch chefs didn’t know how to cook has been looooong gone 🙂 Alexander made some great sauces! My compliments to Xavier!! As for the wines, If I would be in a shop to buy wine I wouldn’t be able to choose and probably walk out with the whole assortment as they are all so different. Ok it is a fact the Nossa is slightly more expensive then the “baby baga’, but the Nossa is a wine you can still keep for 7 or 8 years ( or maybe even more) and the “baby baga’ to drink immediately… What I’m basically trying to say is that I’m fan and have already been for quite a while now 🙂

I will go into the wines itself more in detail in one of my next blogpost as otherwise my post will become even longer then they usually already are 🙂

BTW if you wish to try these wines you can either go to my favorite restaurant Pazzo in Antwerp or pass by the distributers in Belgium or Netherlands (let me know if you want to know it from another country) or have a nice dinner at the ‘Campveerse Toren’ just like me.

Special thanks to Filipa, William, Xavier and Mark for giving me yet another incredible food/ wine experience!

Bistronomie at its best

November 26, 2013November 26, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

That I have a long restaurant wish list isn’t a secret, I literally have a spreadsheet subdivided per country and city which restaurants I want to do… you could see it as my list of how many restaurants to do before I ever die 🙂 and by the looks of it I’ll be living for eternity ;-). Anyhow a restaurant that has been on my list for a while now is restaurant ‘Les Eleveurs’ lead by Andy De Brouwer who is already the 4rd generation in the De Brouwer family to keep the restaurant.

Maybe it was destiny, but there was no better time to visit restaurant ‘Les Eleveurs’ as lots of changes happend in its scenery as after a having had Michelin star and Andy being the Best Belgian sommelier, they changed their way of working and exchanged their Michelin starred food for an affordable and more basic Bistronomie cuisine. What this basically means is that they are a ‘bistro’ serving more gastronomical dishes than in a regular bistro, but still keeping it simple. So I couldn’t have asked for a better table guest than Mr. Bistronomie himself Steve Engels 🙂

Something good to know before I go on is that ‘Les Eleveurs’ is a hotel and restaurant… so basically no excuses not to drink 🙂 that’s all I’m saying. I wanted to share this as with a top sommelier as Andy De Brouwer in the restaurant it would be a shame not to go 100% for the wines, beers and other great beverages (like Madeira or Sherry) they have.

Les Eleveurs’ Chef Nico Corbesier might be a lot younger than Sofie Dumont who used to be headchef at ‘Les Eleveurs’ (who decided to go her own way), but when it comes to experience Nico has already worked in lots of great restaurants and has been leading the kitchen upon Sofie’s maternity leave. I know it might sound cocky , but to my opinion age or where you learned how to cook or did chef school doesn’t really matter, it might influence you… you either have it in you or you don’t and I think Nico has it.

I don’t know if you guys like wild game dishes, but if you do it is worth to pass by ‘Les Eleveurs’ as they now have something called the “Wild Festival” (no, not the wet t-shirt kind). Basically they are serving different kinds of meat from wild animals (for the non-wild game lovers, they still have few other dishes on the menu). We took the tasting menu, this way we got to taste several things.

We started with an assortment of 4 pieces game pies with lettuce, red cabbage, celeriac and an authentic made remoulade sauce. With which Andy paired a white2011 Spanish El Pajara.

We continued our meal with a “vol-au-vent” of pheasant that Andy served with a Lustau Solera Reserva . A combo of one of my favorite dishes and one of my favorite drinks… so an easy score 😉

The main course of the evening was a deer loin with beetroot, pomegranate, truffle potato(purple), red onion and cherry sauce that got paired with a herby and bit stronger wine what is needed for piece of meat like deer loin (but not tooooo strong dough). It was a French Malbec, Les Escures by Mas Del perie

To finish this wonderful meal and evening we were served a nougat ice cream with quince and nuts that got served with a Gran Riserva PX by Toro Albala so basically stuff I like… because of the PX grape it is of course a sweeter drink, but a nice sweetness and not a toooo sweet drink.

Technically speaking ‘Les Eleveurs’ can be taken of my wishlist, but I think I’ll keep it on there as I’m pretty sure I’ll wanting to come back here and the experience will be as enchanting as this time!

Hope when you get to go you’ll be having the same opinion as me, but I’m sure Andy and his team will do their best that you do.

Restaurant Les Eleveurs:

Website: http://www.les-eleveurs.be

Address: Suikerkaai 1A, 1500 Halle – Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 2 361 13 40

Konfijt the ultimate food and music combo

November 21, 2013November 21, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

I know it has already been almost 2 weeks, but I just had to write something small about Konfijt the food and music festival organized by Wouter Keersmaekers’ (you might remember from a previous blogpost). Combining food and music has always been a hit, but combining great food and great music got even my interest :-). Although the fact Wouter himself cooking was already enough reason for me to go, but when finding out he had people like his mom, Ingrid Neven (Pazzo), Olivier De Vinck (Kommilfoo), Wouter van Steenwinkel (Ardent), Dennis Broeckx (épicerie du cirque) and the list goes on and on (entire list) cooking at this event made me want to be part of it more and experience it at the fullest! It is through that I initially was a bit afraid it would become a mass event, but luckily Wouter wanted to keep it relatively small and most importantly cozy.

I know the music was also a big part of the festival and that I’ve only been talking about the food…but I just like food that much… nevertheless I discovered some nice bands (so Wouter, I’d say mission accomplished). At some point they even had a rabbit kind of thing (or whatever it had to represent) on the stage playing a snare drum (and I’m sure I didn’t have too much to drink yet)

The problem with some food festivals is that you only get to taste the dishes (which isn’t necessarily bad), but what made Konfijt the better festival for me was that you actually got to see the chefs prepare the dishes and hear them talk about their dish with some help from Cathérine Vandoorne (who FYI has a very nice voice to listen to) who was the host on the stage. Anyhow it was nice to see local (young) chefs prepare ‘simple’ but very tasteful dishes (ok, the best part was still the tasting).

The frosting on the cake on the whole festival for me was the little market where there were local craftsmen like the miller of the stone mill in Boechout (Den Steenen Molen) from which I didn’t know it existed and even still gets used today to make flour. Or the owner from Migino that makes oil from all different kinds of nuts that happens to be one of Wouter Keersmaekers’ preferred oil makers. Although the one that caught my eye immediately when I walked in was Alhies naturally also because of the very tasty cider they made, the first of all they some of my preferred (homemade) sweets on their counter… Canelé de bordeaux!! That is a real soft spot of mine (guilty as charged!!). It was nice to meet the people behind all those good ingredients.

I could keep finding ways to convince you all to get hold of some tickets for the next edition of Konfijt in 2 years, but I have to stop somewhere. I know I’ll definitely be back for more next time. I think maybe Jürgen Aerts’ pictures might also help 🙂 I have to admit that pictures taking by a pro a sooo much better… his pics on following link . And you don’t have to stay home for its price as it might cost as much as a small concert, but at Konfijt you get dinner and a show!

Andalusian Roadtrip

November 14, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 3 Comments

It seems like ages ago I went on holiday, but in reality it has only been a month… time flies when you’re having fun I guess 😉 My last trip was a 2 week tour through Southern Spain aka Andalusia where people are happy, eating good food and enjoying life. Just the way I like it.

We started our trip in Malaga that to my opinion is the perfect city to transit when visiting Andalusia as when comparing it with the other cities we visited like Sevilla, Malaga was the one that convinced me less to visit again (but this is a personal opinion of course). What we did like when arriving in Malaga was finally feeling the sun (I could use some of that right now actually) and we did have some very nice food, but more about that later

After 1 day in Malaga we set sail to our first destination Jerez de la Frontera. One tip when you are planning a trip to Andalusia renting a car is a must!! The panoramas you get to see when crossing Andalusia are just amazing and would be a shame to miss. AND when having a car at your disposal you can stop whenever and where ever you want. For example while heading towards Jerez we drove by Gibraltar and as neither me nor my fiancee had ever seen the “Strait of Gibraltar” we decided to have a quick stop and photo moment 🙂 ooooh yeah baby!!

When me and my fiancee (and when I was younger and still traveled with my parents) travel we like to have a “base” point, so sleep in one town like in this case Jerez and travel from this base to other cities, towns… you could of course also stay in every town or city you visit, but that would be too much fuzz to always pack and unpack your luggage :-).

Although we also became a big fan of Sevilla, when thinking of Andalusia we (my fiancée and me) think of Jerez and all the beautiful towns around it that we visited…strange. Not sure why, maybe it was the visit at the Tio Pepe Bodega (as you could read in my 2 previous blogposts: post 1 – post 2). Or maybe was it Conil de la Frontera one of the famous “Pueblos Blancos” with its narrow streets (when you see the pictures below you’ll figure out why they call them that) overlooking the Atlantique Ocean. Conil? (Definitely the “happy place” I think about when I’m sad!!) Or the thought of walking to one of Europe’s most ancient cities like Cadiz?

Sometimes I really which I could just share all my mental pictures with you guys (mmm, maybe better if I didn’t ;-)) that you could see all the beautiful places I have seen during this trip!! Cadiz was maybe the biggest surprise as it is maybe the most undervalued city in Southern Spain that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. I think it is the only city I have every visited where as a tourist you can walk around and find your way without using a map. Yes sir! Cadiz has 4 different routes (each one has a different color) and to make it more easy when walking out of the Tourist office you only have to pick a color and follow the lines painted on the street. I thought the lines were only to give you a head start, but they are all over the city!! So basically you be a tourist without looking like one always looking at his map to make sure he’s taking the right street…OK, if you’re wearing white socks in white sneakers or sandals, I sure they’ll still figure it out, but besides that they won’t 😉

Cadiz 9 Cadiz 10

Cadiz 8

The lines lead you through the most important streets and make sure you see the most important sights of this ancient town. Oh and there is a nudist beach, not that I’m against saying the gifts of nature, but some pieces of nature are too rough to be explored or seen 🙂

Andalusia got a very special place in our hearts and even though it will never replace Italy, it is getting very close! Stay tuned for more about our trip in Andalusia and of course my preferred topic the food 😉

Enjoy your day!

To be continued…

Palet de dame nougatine cookie by Delacre

November 7, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

This cookie is again very easy to make! Made with my some of my favorite ingredients sugar and butter 😉

If you don’t feel like cooking it yourself, only one solution, buying them at the Delacre boutique in Brussels

Ingredients

For the cookie:

65g Butter (room temperature, butter has to be soft)
65g sugar
1 egg
½ tsp. vanilla extract
75g flour
Pinch of salt

For the nougatine:

300g Sugar
50ml water
100g pine nuts

TIP! Make sure all the measures are correct as with pastry cooking it just needs to be precise.

Getting started : Nougatine

BE CAREFUL when making the caramel, do not touch with your hands as it will leave some nasty burn marks!!

Put the 300g sugar and 50ml of water in a cooking pot on the heat just until the caramel gets the desired color (own choice).

When it has the desired color put the pine nuts and stir.
Quickly dump the caramel on an oven tray with baking paper on it. Equalize it using a steel spatula

Let it cool down

Getting started with the cookies:

Mix the soft butter with the 65g of sugar either using a machine or using a dough scraper until no loose sugar is visible anymore

Add the egg and mix (it will stay a bit lumpy)
Add the flour and mix until you get a firm dough

Put the dough in a piping bag.

Take a baking tray with baking paper on it and use the piping bag to make nice rounds (see picture below). You can choose the size you prefer, but I prefer making them smaller (this way I can eat more)