Author: dolcevitaspinelli

RestoDays

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For all you food lovers who don’t feel like spending hundreds of euro’s for a lunch or dinner I’ve got good news!  RestoDays is already having its 5th edition. RestoDays combines refined gastronomy with affordable prices. For a lunch you’ll pay 21 EUR and for dinner 28 EUR (for Michelin star restaurants it is 43EUR). This year’s edition will be between 16 and 24 March. During this period you can choose a restaurant between around 300 different restaurants spread over Belgium, France and Luxembourg… you can find the list of participating restaurants on following link

I can say for a fact that picking 1 restaurant won’t be easy, because I’ve seen some real beauties on this list even a few from my wishlist…

Reservations can be made as off Monday March 5th via following link

Enjoy your meal!

The hard life of waiters

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I read an interesting article in the Wall street Journal, it is about how waiters can read your table. Which isn’t an easy task, as within a few second a waiter has to figure out what the clients enter are expecting from the evening or what they want… All just to be able to provide the best service obviously. Having worked in my dad’s restaurant during a lot of weekends, I can tell for a fact that it is sometimes very difficult to know when somebody is ready to order. Normally when the menus are closed this would mean that they are indeed ready, but what to do if they didn’t even open it? You have to find ways to remind them they have to place their order… as otherwise no food. It has never happened that I talk soooo much (and I talk a lot) that I don’t want to order, for me that is usually priority nr 1 😉

A simple trick  would be the old “The hand on the table” trick, by putting a hand palm on the table, just to catch your groups attention … But of let’s be honest, this trick wouldn’t be appropriate in every type of restaurant , I don’t see a waiter in a 3 star restaurant put his hand palm on the table 🙂 🙂

Some restaurants even have a “waiter script” how to read tables, in these scripts it says for example that if a laptop is on the table, the guests will most probably don’t take appetizers . The way people at a table react depends also of how many they are, is it a business lunch or a romantic dinner.

Did you know that you might sometimes being sending signals to the waiter? (and now I don’t mean winking at the waiter). For example:

–       If you’re chatty… A waiter is more likely to assume a friendly, chatty table is there to party. Get ready for more offers of drinks, dessert and a talkative waiter. So that’s why waiters always want to give me more 🙂

–       If you’re wearing a suit at lunch… Diners who look like they just stepped away from their cubicle, whether in a suit or business casual, are bound to get speedier service. The exception: If the waiter realizes the boss or valued client wants to set a slower pace by asking for more time before ordering or pulling out papers for a sales pitch.

I have to admit that it is a very interesting and funny article at the same time.

And you thought a waiter’s life was easy?

How to measure in the kitchen?

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Last night I saw lots of very handy charts from ‘Chasing Delicious’.  These charts show how to convert volume, mass, etc…

I’m sure you’ve also experienced this  that you’ve bought a foreign cookbook or found a recipe on a website, and they are talking about “Ounces, pinches, cups, etc…” and you’re not sure what they mean by it.

Well ‘Chasing Delicious bundled almost all measures used in the western world and put them in easy to use charts. The picture below is just one of the many examples you can find on their website

Now you have no more excuses not to try those foreign recipes J (and I have to admit that on Chasing delicious website has a few good ones)

My Gastronomical odyssey: Restaurant Nuance

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Last week I finally did it, I went to restaurant Nuance!  You cannot believe how many times I have rescheduled my reservation ( and the times I’ve been nagging to my girlfriend about this restaurant). Rescheduling at restaurant Nuance means  the next date will be a few months later…. As they are so busy.  Tone, distinction, both these words are synonyms for the word Nuance and are also the words that actually describe Nuance, as this is not your ordinary daily restaurant. This is the kind of restaurant you go to like an explorer trying to find undiscovered land, to experience the unknown.

I really wanted to try this restaurant for a long time now, I really wanted to taste/see  why all guides like  Michelin guide and Gault Millau (and a lot of other guides) highly awarded this 28 year old chef, Thierry  Theys, with 2 Michelin stars and a 17/20… And seeing him cook on Njam cooking channel didn’t make me less curious. ..

Like I said I was really glad I could finally try Nuance! I must also admit that I had set my standards pretty high, hoping that everything tastes as good as it looks…

Writing this blog post wasn’t easy,  as now more than ever I want to make sure you know how good it was and why it was like this.

At Restaurant Nuance you can choose  either eating  ‘à la carte’ or you can go for the 5 or 6 course menu both with or without  adapted wines. In case you would want a different wine, I’m sure the sommelier Steve Wullaert will be able to find the perfect wine to suit your mood.

We started our expedition the way I like best, with bubbles 🙂 and a never ending amount of amuse bouches 🙂 I think I have never received as much different tasters as here… (and I’ve already been to a few restaurants in my life)…. Oyster with a granite of  French sparkling wine, a composition of different prepared radish (yes radish) these are just 2 examples, but they really didn’t stop coming 🙂

We took the 5 courses, the reason, the sixth dish was Foie gras, and I don’t really like the taste…. I would have done an effort if my table guest would have insisted… but this wasn’t the case this time.

After having enjoyed the appetizers, Sommelier Steven  Wullaert came to introduce our first step in our expedition at restaurant Nuance. He introduced a white Austrian wine, Zierflander

A nice soft wine with lovely fruity aspects, but not too overwhelming, but a good start and a nice match with our first course Langoustine Royal, cream of langoustine, sea vegetables & avocado sushi cream.

Followed  by Danish Cod, Fresh pasta, salsify & bergamot with a Parmesan and black truffle jus. Served with a South-African  Ridgeback Viognier  white wine (FYI, South Africa is one of Steven’s preferred wine countries)

Our meaty dish of the night was Aubrac Cattle, 6 weeks maturation, Onion-peanut crunch, black garlic and celeriac with Meyer lemon juice.   Red wine: Can Blau

As you might remember, I like stonger wines, so Can Blau was already going into the good direction 😉

Our first dessert Rose, lychee & citrus  Buddhafingers served with a dessert wine. I’ll be honest that I don’t remember the name (guilty as charged) but I remember it was South African as if we could guess the country and grape, they wine would have been on the house 🙂 🙂 (FYI, we didn’t guess it 😦 )

We had to eat the ball you can see on the picture below as last… MAN, that was one taste bomb a mix of lychee, white chocolate and roses … incredible

To finish (our menu that is) with   “Nespresso Lovers”. An dish inspired by Nespresso

But it didn’t finish yet, with our coffee we also received a wide variety of little tasters… like freshly made (still warm) Madeleines, oliebol, macarons , a  sibérienne etc …

I have enjoyed this evening from the moment I walked in until the moment I went home. This was a wonderful experience! The dishes I liked most were the Langoustine and  the Cod, these two were simply heavenly. Not that I didn’t like everything else, but these two really overtopped the others, for me.  Saying this restaurant isn’t good would be a crime, that you maybe didn’t like everything you received is something else… as that is a matter of taste. If you were expecting to get ‘Flemish stew with French fries” well ok, the disappointed would have been big finding out you weren’t getting some 🙂  It is true, this is not a cheap restaurant, but I’ve already had worse food for much more money… and let’s be honest, this is not the type of restaurant you do every day (or at least, I don’t)  so that little extra doesn’t hurt anybody once in a while (I keep telling myself). I would really come back (hopefully on invitation of somebody else 😉 )

The 4 hours we spend here passed by so quickly, I didn’t even notice we were here so long. Not for 1 minute did I feel bored or had the impression something was going wrong in the kitchen… but then again this is to be expected from a top restaurant.

I would really like to thank Nuance and his team for making this a wonderful evening, I think this wasn’t my last time at your restaurant 🙂

I would like to thank my fellow explorers 🙂 Carlos, Stijn and Valentijn for making this night even better!

I still have one thing that isn’t clear for me though, I have been to a couple of 1 star restaurants and I’m still wondering what it is that gives that extra to receive a second Michelin star (or 17/20 instaid of a 16…). Maybe I’d have to follow the Michelin or Gault Millau guys for a day to understand this;-) 😉

Restaurant Nuance

Website: http://www.resto-nuance.be/

Address:

Kiliaanstraat 6-8

2570 Duffel, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 015 63 42 65

Spaghetti alla norma

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Today I want to share again a very simple recipe and can be made in just 15 minutes

Ingredients: for 4 people (if you only take one portion)

  • 1 eggplant
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 1 chopped garlic glove
  • Tablespoon of flour
  • Drizzle of wine (white or red)
  •  Olive oil
  •  Salt
  •  Pepper
  • Basil (handful)
  • 1 tin of chopped tomatoes

Get Started:

  •  Cut the eggplant in small cubes. If you have time (20min), you can put the cubes in a drainer with some salt on them, to drain the water in the eggplant. If you have no time just proceed with step 2 🙂
  • Put some olive oil in a pan.  Once the oil is hot you put in eggplant cubes and top them with a tablespoon of flour. Bake it until you see some of the cubes are a little bit colored
  • Put them on plate. Again put some olive oil in pan, fry the onion and garlic for a second and thrown in the eggplant again
  • Season with salt, pepper and chopped basil
  • Add the tomatoes, a drizzle of wine (if you want you can also add a very little bit of chicken or vegetable stock, but not mandatory)
  •  Let it cook on low heat for 10 minutes while you cook you spaghetti

Serve and you’ll see that the simple things are always best 🙂

Bistronomie

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If you don’t know if yet, is normal… as this year the first edition of the Bistronomie guide has been launched. Not another restaurant guide you might think? Well yes and no 🙂 Bistronomie is not just another guide, this guide concentrates itself on, as the name might already reveal, on Bistro’s, brasseries, and non-sophisticated restaurants :-). For the moment only containing locations in the Flemish and Brussels area, but I’m sure that they’ll expand their area.

Don’t worry, not only the expensive eateries have been chosen! The idea of Johannes Denis & Steve Engels (the auteurs) is that everybody, depending on their resources will find something of their liking in this guide. A restaurant doesn’t have to be a star restaurant to be good … that’s basically the message they’re trying to send us.(which is true)

They also have an smartphone app and a very handy website that will help with you to find the best eatery for your crave to good food 🙂 (or is it just me always craving for food?

Every week they also put their favorites in the picture …

Let this guide surprise you in a bistronomical way

Enjoy your meal

A night in Filipino heaven, Spinelli and the Peks

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That I like food, will not come as a surprise…. I’m also very curious to taste new things and learn more about them… So a while ago I asked a Filipina friend of mine aka Samantha :-), if she was able to teach me or maybe cook together with me some traditional Philippine dishes  … Because I’m going to be honest, what do/did I actually know about the Philippines? Besides that it are islands, that it has been a colony from Spain and that the capital is Manila… Do you guys? So I was really glad Samantha wanted to help me.

Not only did she want to help me to discover more about the Philippine cuisine, she even asked a few of her friends to join us.

I bet all of my male readers  are jealous right now, right? I’m still thinking it was a dream (and yes, you’re seeing twin sisters). Good food and goooooorgeous women, no better way to learn 🙂

When I arrived,it was like entering in” Santa’s workshop” or shall I say” Spinelli’s little workshop” :-). The girls were worried that I was expecting everything would already be ready to eat… which wasn’t the case, because I really wanted to see how and what got made …

The first dish they wanted me to taste was Lumpiang Shanghai (springrolls), which is a typically meat-laden, fried type of loempia made with ground pork and beef meat, onions, I think I saw some garlic going in, cilantro, etc…  What you should know about Philippine cuisine, is that it got influenced by lots of the countries during the colonization of  the Philippines….well not only food, also language is influenced, some words they use are Spanish words

Back to the food. Thesewere very yummy (really!! Not trying to score points) spring rolls got served with sauce made by Ramona on the spot… it was like I was watching my private cooking channel. She made her own creative spicy sweet sour sauce

We even had  an injured person,  if this isn’t live cooking and devotion/ love for cooking, than what is? 🙂

I wanted to help the girls, but I couldn’t as I was the guest of honor…OK, I’m not that sad I couldn’t help … usually it’s me always working in the kitchen whole night

The main course was “Pansit” in this the ‘Canton’ version, as I’ve read that there are more than 30 different types of “Pansit”. Pansit actually means noodles in Filipino Cuisine. These noodles then get combined with fish, meat, vegetables, eggs …  With this dish you can really see the Chinese influence the Filipino cuisine has.  The ‘Canton ‘version is made with paprika, carrots, soy sauce, chicken (boiled before putting it with the other ingredients), garlic , chicken broth, green beans , onion (if wanted you can also add mushrooms) that they stir-fry before adding the boiled noodles.

Sometimes we also took time to take some pictures  and to drink bubbles, I’m not sure how many bottles got emptied, but let’s just say that we were all very cheerful 😉 and at some point the girls were disappointed that they didn’t bring a karaoke set 🙂 🙂

Something that I do found and still find strange is that they served these noodles with white rice… I ate it anyway 🙂 Just to make sure how much l liked it, I took twice!! If I wouldn’t have liked it, I wouldn’t have done that. When I look at the below picture, that’s really the dish I think off when I think of Asian food

The girls explained to me that this dish is always served at big feasts and/or celebrations… So I know what I’ll be serving my next feast 🙂

But it didn’t stop there, nooooooo sir! They also made me a rice dessert called ‘Biko’.  Biko is made with sticky rice that gets boiled, put in a baking tray and they top is with coconut milk that has been cooking for a while. While this coconut milk has been cooking they added brown sugar. Afterwards they put in the oven… I didn’t taste too much of the coconut, but that’s probably because brown has a pretty strong taste. This dish actually reminded me of rice pudding (but better, I even took some home) And after dessert at some point even I started singing (THANK GOD there is no video from that)

One thing was sure, they made more than enough food, but seems to be the tradition in the Philippines

That after dinner everybody can take some home .

I must say that this has been a WONDERFUL night and I’m happy that I got surrounded by 6 friendly, funny, beautiful and food cooking Ladies!! Thank you Samantha, Crystal, Christine, Ramona, Tanja and Cindy for making this Filipino feast possible 🙂

One thing is for sure, I was really in heaven and can’t wait for the next time 🙂 🙂

I also want to share this little video from my favorite standup comedian Russell Peters  explaining the difference between Asian people (including Filipinos) 🙂

One to put in my top 10 list

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Friday I had another fabulous dinner, this time it was at restaurant “épicerie du cirque”

It was already for a while now that I wanted come here, but it wasn’t easy to find a free table here  :-).

Friday I finally managed to get a table and who better to accompany me, than my mom.  I have to admit after hearing nothing but positive comments  about this restaurant, so my expectations were pretty high…. So I was really hoping the expectations would be granted

I cannot start a dinner without a nice glass of bubbles to loosen up  the appetite (well not that I really need that, but it’s the thought that counts) They proposed us their ‘house’ apero, a Cuvée Vourvray  made with the Chenin blance, which is not a traditional “champagne” grape.  But they bubbly wine is made on the traditional way and a great way to start what turned out to be a wonderful evening (besides the great company of my mom ofcourse)

At « épicerie du cirque you can choose between the menu “Les Saveurs du Cirque” (The taste of the circus)  where you can take either the 3, 4, 5 or 6 courses (35-65 EUR p/p)  which come with accompanying wines, beers or the restaurant also has a “water’ card. Or you can choose “à la carte” which contains a lot of dishes that also tickled my taste buds … but you cannot have it all, we took the 3 course menu (as more courses would have been too much for my mom).

Together with the glass of bubbles the served us a little “amuse bouche” , a sunroot (or Jerusalem artichoke how it is originally called)mousse with porchetta  and tuna. It might seem like a strange combo, but it worked (I like eating porchetta)

Something that I liked was the way they served there bread :-), it came with a little cup of celeriac paste/mousse with a crumble of bacon 🙂 instaid of the usual butter you get.

Ok, so we already had a great departure, hopefully the rest of the flight will be as nice or even better…

As a starter  we got Chickpeas , young spinach leaves, Soprafino oil, some white topped with a Poached egg  and served with a light, not too strong, but gentil tasting  2010 « Cuvée Henri »Domaine de l’Aumonier  whic is a Chenin blanc from Touraine (France). Simple, but a true harmony in the mouth and that’s the way I like it :-)(the words of Ingrid Neven (from Pazzo) come to me now, “keep it simple”)

The main course was  a  nice piece of Canette Barbarie (duck) with pak choi, pipe Onion as mustard puree (and mustard soaked mutard seeds)  and a I think soy sauce (but I could be wrong) to accompany the choose a 2007 red  “Oltre” by  Serafini & Vidotto, from the Veneto region in Italy. If this wine would have been made in the Bordeaux region, they would have called this a Bordeaux as it is made from the traditional Bordeaux grapes: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc….FYI, the merlot was mostly present in this wine, see if you have remember my Bordeaux blog post, what  Merlot does to this wine 🙂

Now the moment arrived to start the landing of this great flight, the dessert. I’m still not sure why, but for some reason we got a “pre-dessert”, I suppose the our dessert was not ready yet. But the more things I can taste the better 🙂 :-). This dish showed again how the simple things are always the best… They gave us, pineapple with cranberry, whipped cream (FYI , I don’t really care about calories (in case you didn’t know this yet) and muesli

Not long after this we received our real dessert, we had a dessert that combined  Tonka, chocolate  and Bergamot ,  I can only say that this dessert was heavenly… the bergamot ice that went with it was  a little bit too sour for me, (but that’s a matter of taste). If you are a chocolate lover, this plate is definitely for you!! We didn’t take the dessert wine that normally accompanied it, as I’m not really in to dessert wine, toooooooooo sweet for me (I’m already sweet enough 😉 ) I tried one of the waters they had on their ‘water’card… I never had a better landing 🙂 and they little sweets with the coffee was like the cherry on a pie.

I can only say that I will be taking more “épicerie du cirque” flights in the future (thanks to the pilot and his cabin crew) , as this restaurant could become another  restaurant Pazzo for me…

I know I talk a lot (in all my blogpost ), but I’m always so excited when I’m writing my posts

I can’t wait to share my great experiences with my readers, to try to convince them to visit the restaurants I’ liked …. As I always like it when my readers say to me I was right 🙂

Restaurant épicerie du cirque:

Website : http://www.lepicerieducirque.be/

Address: (they will be moving in a few weeks, just to the other part of the street)

Leopold de Waelstraat 7

2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0)3 238 05 71

Friday fishday recipe

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For a lot of people in Belgium , Friday is a day you eat fish … So as promised, I share a fish  bordelaise recipe with a twist 🙂 and is easy to make and only in 30minutes… and served with a Leek puree…

Ingredients:

  • 2-3 pieces of white fish (pangasius(it doesn’t always have to be expensive fish), cod fish, cat fish, etc…)
  • Olive oil

For the topping:

  • 1 tin of tomato puree
  • 1 tablespoon of mustard (you can also add 2, if you like is more spicy)
  • Handful of Basil leaves
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Breadcrumbs  (chapelure)

Side dish:

  • 2 leeks
  • 6 medium/big potatoes
  • Milk
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Nutmeg
  • Butter
  • milk
  • Olive oil (optional, you can also bake the leek in butter)

Let’s get it on :

We first start with the fish:

–          Put the tomato puree in a little mixing bowl, add the mustard, chopped basil, salt, pepper (and if you would want some paprika powder . mix all

–          Take a baking tray and put some olive oil in it. Turn your fish in this olive oil and season with some salt & pepper.

–          Put a table spoon  of the tomatomix on each piece of fish and spread

–          Put some breadcrumbs (chapelure) on top  and a drizzle of olive oil

–          Put in a preheated oven at 185°C (365°F)for about 15minutes

As you all know I really like leek, so a leek puree would be nice to serve with it.

–          Peel your potatoes and boil in salted water

–          Wash and cut the leek

–          Put a drizzle of olive oil in a pan (but also be done with butter) and ‘stew’ (bake) them on low heat for 10-15 minutes.

–          When potatoes are done, drain them and add to leek

–          Mash all together, add a few pieces of butter (about 30gr), salt, pepper, nutmeg and a drizzle of milk

Now all is ready to serve 🙂

I served this with a nice white Sauvignon-blanc from Les Salices

White Cabbage Cannelloni

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I found yet another wonderful recipe in Njam magazine, White cabbage cannelloni by Johan Segers (restaurant ‘t Fornuis).  This would actually a perfect to replace the traditional “witloof in de oven (Belgian chicory dish). What is good about this dish, is that it is easy to make, don’t need million ingredients, yummy and the ingredients are not too expensive.

You would just need ham, a ½ white cabbage (the external leaves are used to make the actual cannelloni, take about 6 to 8 of them), salt, pepper. For the’ Béchamel’  just milk, salt, pepper, flour and butter ( the last 2 to make the roux)

If you are not sure how to prepare it, You can see the master himself preparing it via following link

There are a few differences between the recipe on the website in the magazine. On website he bakes the ‘cannelloni’ before serving them, as for in the magazine it is advised to put the ‘cannelloni’ in a baking tray and putting the remaining ‘béchamel mix’ on top , some grated cheese and put it in the oven …

I would suggest try both and see which you like best…. In this way you can use all your white cabbage you’ve bought…

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing on of my very own fish recipes