Author: dolcevitaspinelli

My sweet valentine

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I think yesterday a loooooooot of people celebrated Valentine’s day. Even though I’m not really a fan of Valentine’s day, I did celebrate it at the Liefmans Brewery . The reason for it, well, when I was writing my blogpost about Valentine’s day at Liefmans brewery I found the menu very interesting  (ok, I was getting hungry) and I wanted to visit the brewery for a while… So I figured this was the perfect moment to actually try good food  (made by restaurant Coeur D’artichaut) accompanied by the matching beers (from Liefmans obviously). Oh and the underwear show had nothing to do with it that I wanted to have this dinner ;-).

I first have to say that the setting of the brewery is just lovely. I think in the summer or spring it should even be more beautiful as you have a great view on the river right next to the brewery.  While walking to the entrance I felt like being in a movie from the 1920’s, walking on a Cobblestone road in a dark alley and the dew laying on the road and the only light to guide you is the moonlight ….

But all this also indicates that this brewery has a big history, did you know it is already existing since 1679? The room where the dinner was taking place was very spacious,  but yet felt very comfortable

I think it is because of the wood floor  (and ceiling). So the space didn’t ruin the romance in the air 🙂

But, we were here to eat right :-). We started off with King scallop (Coquilles St Jacques) Carpaccio, a little beetroot soup with sour cream and basil and a Lamb thymus (zwezerik) with a carrot and orange cream and beetroot paper. And to accompany this we took a Cuvée brut on the rocks 🙂 (for me this was a little bit too sweet, but if you like sweet drinks I’m sure you’ll like this)

This got followed by Seabass , with venus clams, carrot and pumpkin. Accompanied by a Liefmans Cuveé (for me this is the best fruit beer around). The fish had a very nice soft taste, together with a puree with a little spicy ness in combination with the beer, perfect…

In-between we received a refreshing  lemon sorbet  with a 20 year old Liefmans Cuvée over it; You would think the beer would become sweeter after 20 years, but it actually becomes a little more soury …. (but not too much though)

This got served together with a underwear show 🙂 I must admit at first when I saw this men in boxershorts on the catwalk … I wasn’t sure this was what I was hoping for :-), but lucky for me there were also women showing lingerie 😉 (by Timide)

Our main course quail Forestière, , Savoy, parsnip-almond, and pont neuf  and Liefmans Golden Band gravy. Served with a Liefmans Golden band beer 🙂

And to finish we had Chocolat passion dessert….

Oh yes and the little very good cupcakes with the coffee

To make a long story short, everything was very good (taking into account that it for a large group of people they had to prepare this), the only dish that wasn’t my cup of tea 🙂 was the dessert… but that’s a matter of taste, as my girlfriend’s plate was ready to put back in the closet … so I’m thinking she definitely liked it.

This discovery menu (as I would call it) makes me want to discover more of the Coeur D’artichaut’s  dishes at their restaurant. The reason, well if they can make great food for a large group, imagine what they can do on a smaller scale?!  Also if I would ever give a biiiig diner party, Brewery Liefmans’s lounge would certainly be a place where I want to be giving it…. Good beer and good food and a great location what more would you need?

I almost forgot, the Sofie La Digue live band, made the evening more jazzy J (or more romantic, who can tell 😉 )

OK, this evening wouldn’t have been as perfect,without  my beautiful girlfriend ….as she is and will always be my sweet valentine….

Fettuccini con salsiccia e porri

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I’m a leek lover, especially now in winter time I could eat it almost every day 🙂 I don’t know what it is about this vegetable, it has this sweetness in it (probably that’s what I like). Anyway last week I got a wonderful gift from my girlfriend, she gave me a new cookbook (you just can’t have enough of those)… ok ok, I  might have given her some hinds 😉  The book she gave me was ‘222easy recipes’ by Academia Barilla. In this cookbook you’ll find real ORIGINAL recipes for Italian classics. On top of that they also  they tell you from which region this recipe is from (as some people think in whole Italy you eat the same thing, which is NOT the case!!) and they also give some ‘good to know’ info on the recipe (some kind of history or product info). What makes this book different than all the orther Italian cookbooks you’ll find in the shop? Well they try to give the recipes the way they were invented  and supposed to be made… which for me is reason enough.

In this book you’ll find recipes for all levels, a kitchen nightmare until pro cooks.I want to share a recipe from them to show you that easy, cheap, fast made and yummy can go together…. So NO excuses not to try this!! You just need some pork sausages (try to get some good sausages from your butcher), take off the skin and bake in some olive oil. (crush the sausage while baking)

Add chopped leek. Bake it for a while.

Deglaze with white wine (add a drop of water) . Boil pasta (fettuccine or tagliatelle will also do fine)FYI just water and some salt NO OLIVE OIL!!

Once you cooked the pasta (al dente) you add it to the sauce and add a lump of butter. Mix it all with spoon or fork and let it cook together for a few minutes and serve with some parmesan cheese.

It might seem simple, but trust me you’ll like it (if you like leek obviously)

FYI, you can also follow Academia Barilla on Twitter, as they share lots of great recipes…

Enjoy

My 2012 restaurant wishlist

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This is my 2012 restaurant wish list (so far)

Unfortunately I didn’t finish my 2011 wishlist, but I sure hope to do so with my 2012 wishlist

I’m getting hungry just by looking at this list. It might seem like a small list, more chance of finishing it 🙂

Dinner parties at casa Spinelli

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I really like to have people coming over for dinner, but it is always so difficult deciding what I’ll be serving… You guys know what I’m talking about, right?

For me there are  few prerequisites deciding what I’ll be making:

  • everything has to be freshly made,
  •  cannot be tooooo time consuming  at the evening itself,
  • NO LIGHT products are to be used!! (diet on your own time)
  •  and most importantly it has to be something I like myself 🙂 :-).

Something  I also try to figure out if there are some things my guests  don’t like to eat (or are allergic to). Ofcourse what you’ll be serving also depends of how many guests you’ll be having… When I have a big group over like 6 or more people  I prefer serving dishes like stews, lasagna, crespelle, roasts, etc… that you just have  to push it in the oven or heat it up and serve it.

Something I do try, is not to serve the same thing every time, as that would be boring for me and my guest (if are the same people) Only when they specifically ask me to make something (which is usually my lasagna, as everybody seems to like it a lot

When it are smaller groups then I’ll try to make more sophisticated things like in fancy restaurants. Although it has to be tasty, not only beautiful….

BUT the most important thing in both cases is Time management, for example there are always things you can make days upfront, like chicken stock (if you might need it), when I’m making my lasagna I’ll make the bolognaise a few days upfront, etc…. Just try to spread it as much as possible in the 1,2 or 3 days  before the ‘big evening’

For me all the cooking shows and the Belgian Cooking Channel Njam (I could watch this channel whole day long) are a big help. Or just walking around at an open air market also gives a big inspiration (and sometimes asking the merchants, as they know the best way to prepare their products).

Last weekend for example as I appetizers I made mini vitello tonnato (the sauce is made in 2 minutes and the meat you just have to boil with few vegetables and some stock  for a while and let it set for a night), mini pizza (from my recipe, but dividing the quantities by 2 or 3), some vegetables with cocktail sauce, mini ‘worstenbrood’ (puff pastry filled with minced meat) for this I got the recipe from the last Njam magazine (2 different kinds of stuffing, 1) minced meat, apples, parsley 2) minced meat, mushrooms, mustard and a little bit of basil (not in original recipe)) which took about 5 minutes to make…. so the last minute work took me about 10-15 minutes (not including the oven time, but not that I’m standing next to it the whole time…)

For the main course I made ‘Saltimbocca alla romana’ which is just an escalope (from white meat, veal, porc, chicken,…) with a few leaves of sage and covered with parmaham (which will keep the meat nice and juicy) wich also give you the great base for a tasty white wine sauce to go with it. With that I serves some broad beans and ‘patate al forno’ (potatoes in the oven with rosemary, olive oil and some garlic). Which you can all make up front! Only the meat you might want to bake at the last moment

For the dessert I just made chocolat pie… for ideas on dessert, you really have to look on the princess misia website!!

But 1 advice, keep it simple, don’t be a hero and try to be like a 3 Michelin star chef.

The best thing about dinner parties (besides spending time with my friends) is being able to go pick the wine to match my dishes at ‘van Eccelpoel’ or as I call it ‘ali baba’s cave  of wines’.

Anyhow, have fun at your next dinner party 😉

FYI? Next week I’ll be posting some recipes….

 

A snowy dinner in Antwerp

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Friday was one of THE worst days in Belgian history to be driving as there was over 1200km of traffic jam due to the heavy snowfall . So basically the best thing to do was to just stay at home…. Which would have been ok if I hadn’t booked a table in a restaurant with my colleagues :-). So I had to face the snow. (No snow, storm, etc… will keep me from eating 😉 )

My colleagues and I went to restaurant  12 place du marché. Something nice to know is that the chef, Thomas, did a few years of Chef school with me.  What I liked when I booked the table, was the fact that even if we were with 10 people, we still didn’t have to let them k now in advance what we were going to eat…But even though I didn’t have to, I still send them a day before what we were going to eat, as I just figured it would be easier for the kitchen …. They serve a wide variety of International dishes, with influences from Italian, French and even Asian cuisine.

As I said, a feast for the eye and the taste palet  🙂 A very popular dish at our table as a starter was the ‘Tortellone Gigante’ filled with cep mushrooms and truffle with a light creamy sauce with wild mushrooms…This plate really had a nice harmonization of tastes (well if you like mushrooms that is 🙂 )

The prettiest dish of the evening  was without any doubt the Foie gras, just look yourself… Even for me,  who doesn’t like foie gras that much, I would eat it just because it looks this nice 🙂

For the main course I went for an Italian classic, Saltimbocca alla romana … For some reason I always get attracted by these dishes although there were lots of things I would have liked to eat. The most popular main course at our table was Teriyaki steak.

All plates were empty, so I assume everybody liked it 🙂 (I know I did). We didn’t feel like taking bottles of wine as with the heavy snow and all it didn’t seem  like good to drink too much, but I even with the responsibility in our minds,  we did sponsor the Duvel Brewery this evening 😉 if you ask me

I enjoyed this evening, first of all because of the wonderful company of my dear colleagues. Second of all because of the nice food and the attention of Audrey, our hostess.

And so after a sweet dinner, we headed back home (by this time all traffic was gone)

 

Restaurant 12 place du marché:

Website:  http://www.12placedumarche.be/

Address :

Nieuwstad 12

2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 707 11 29

 

A romantic Valentine’s day dinner at Liefmans Brewery

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For all of you who didn’t find anything to do on valentine’s day, and if my previous suggestions didn’t help, maybe this suggestion might be something for you. As Brewery Liefmans together with restaurant Coeur d’Artichaut organize a romantic Valentine’s day dinner at the Brewery itself.

I know that it might not seem romantic, but just imagine a romantic setting overlooking  the Scheldt river, enjoying a sip of a glass of Liefmans Fruitesse or its world renowned Fruitbeer together with  a mouthwatering gastronomical dinner…  while relaxing with some jazzy music played by the Sofie La Digue live band.

AND on top of that they are having a little lingerie show (but I’m sure the men will be more interested in this)

If that doesn’t convince you yet, maybe the menu can?

We start off with a nice glass of Liefmans Cuvée of Liefmans Fruitesse on the rocks accompanied by a King scallop (Coquilles St Jacques) Carpaccio, a little beetroot soup with sour cream and basil and a Lamb thymus (zwezerik) with a carrot and orange cream and beetroot paper .

Followed by a Seabass , with venus clams, carrot and pumpkin. Inbetween a little refreshing Sorbet.

As main course they serve quail Forestière, , Savoy, parsnip-almond, and pont neuf  and Liefmans Golden Band gravy. To finish this perfect meal with a Chocolat passion (White chocolate mousse with passionfruit, blood orange, pomegranate seeds and a dark chocolate crunch. All of this with the matching beer or wine… but as this is by a Brewery I would go for the beer 🙂

And this for only 69 EUR per person ….

To my opinion this is a perfect combination and yet get to see that Liefmans has more than only Cherry and raspberry beer (that are my preferred fruit beers btw and I’m not just saying this)

I’m tempted, are you? I hope to see you there!

For more info or reservations you can always contact Restaurant Coeur d’Artichaut at phone n° +32 (0) 473 70 44 08

The dinner starts at 7 o’clock in the evening

Competition for Mcdonalds

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I thought it was time to give you guys another recipe… although fort his recipe I can’t take credit

As this recipe come from the wonderful people of ‘Taste of Home’.  The recipe I want to share with you is Basil Burgers with Sun-Dried Tomato Mayonnaise.

I must admit that I first I was a little bit scared of the sundried tomatoes being too salty, but when I saw you first had to put the tomatoes in boiling water ( to take away most of the saltiness) I was reassured.

I did change a few things from the original recipe as I’m not really a fan of Light products. I used a mayo made with olive oil instead of  Light mayo. I left garlic away (although I think it would indeed give another dimension to the burger… I also think that you can easily replace the Mozzarella , you can use cheddar or another cheese that melts well.

But 1 thing is for sure, this was one NJAMMY burger!! (OK, the picture of the original might look better)

A weekend at Vlissingen with Flexso

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This weekend has been a nice weekend actually. We went to Vlissingen, a little town in the South of The Netherlands  located  between the Scheldt river and the North Sea. Vlissingen is also known ( so it seems) for building  most of the ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy.

The reason we were here, was because my boss wanted to thank all his employees for the hard work and commitment. And what better way to do this they with food, drinks and a wonderful location close to the sea? For me it was just perfect, I really like being at the sea side… when you look at the sea it always looks so endless… aaaaah, just great. What I prefer at the Dutch seaside (in confront of the Belgian) is actually that there are less buildings and much more nature and you can walk across the dunes for miles and miles.

Don’t get me wrong, I really love the Belgian seaside, but  sometimes I really feel like walking a lot without seeing buildings 🙂 . The party was a the Panta Rei beachpavilion, I think in the summer time this place must be even better, as you are right at the beach …. And the pavilion has a huge terrace!

I’m only showing you outside pictures, as not all the party pictures are to be seen by the world 🙂 :-), but trust me, it was good AND they served BELGIAN beers (thank god, because if we would have had to continue the evening with Heineken 🙂 ) La Chouffe, Duvel, Maredsous, De Koninck …. And there was more than enough food and it wouldn’t be Holland if there wouldn’t have been some Croquettes 🙂

During our stay we stayed at the Vlissingen Westduin Golden Tulip hotel as sleeping in the dunes or driving back after the party back to Antwerp didn’t seem like a good idea :-). The hotel was located just in front of the dunes and was overall a nice hotel… or at least I slept really really well, but there might be other reasons for that.

Then last but not least, Vlissingen itself… It is a very nice not tooo big town with a long seaside walk, but surely worth visiting or you can also visit the little bit bigger town Middelburg, which is also very nice (FYI, every last sunday of the month, all the shops are open). Or Yerseke, one of the most famous Dutch fisherman’s harbors in The Netherlands, where should definitely stop to eat some fresh sole, blue mussels etc…  (according to a foodlover/colleague, restaurant Vistro is really THE place to go) Last time I was in Yerseke was when I was about 9 years old, so don’t remember the restaurant … I think this all is even better in Summertime. Although I was only here for 1 night, it felt like a whole vacation and I was totally relaxed when I arrived at home.

So only 1 more thing left to say. Thanks Raf  AND to all my colleagues for making it a wonderful night!

That’s all folks

What kind of Pasta?

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Some people say that every pasta is alike. Well, those people are wrong 🙂

Which pasta I’ll be eating, will depend of the sauce it is with… for example I would only eat regular Spaghetti with Vongole or trofie with pesto sauce, when I eat a sugo di carne (bolognaise) I’ll be tempted more to eat penne or maybe some taglierini, etc…. I know, it might sound strange and maybe it is something Italian, but that’s the way it is … You try it at home and you’ll see, it really makes a difference!!

Last night I actually found a very nice infographic created by Charming Italy together with Barilla. They made a whole chart with all different kinds of pasta where you they help you to find to the right pasta, but also if you’re eating somewhere and wondering which pasta you’re eating, this chart will help you discovering which pasta it is.

If you want to have a closer look at this chart you can find it on the following link

These are obviously not ALL the types of pasta that exist, but I’m sure you’ll discover and learn new pasta’s thanks to this chart

Some ideas for Valentine’s day

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We all know Valentine’s day is approaching, not that I’m really into this whole celebration

As I’m of the opinion that you should spoil your loved one every day and not only on Valentine’s day (or at least, that’s what I do).

February 14th has actually always been another special day for me, my brother’s birthday.

But for the people who do want to give this day something extra or make it a romantic getaway, here some romantic tips.

Maybe a trip to Tuscany? No better place than Hotel San Simeone in Val D’orcia (close to Siena). This old monastery ‘village’ has been renovated and is now a very romantic place where you can enjoy incredible views over the Tuscan landscapes. At this hotel everybody gets its own little house. I’ve enjoyed this hotel A lot!

Or maybe you prefer having a little SPA weekend?  Mmm, For this I have a very nice hotel in Portugal

Hotel Vilalara Thalassa Resort, I took my girlfriend here when I was 22 :-). This is the perfect combination of luxury, wellness, sunny weather  and Portuguese atmosphere . FYI, the standard room is a Junior suite. + The treatments are heavenly!!

Or maybe you prefer just to Have a romantic dinner? In that case restaurant Les Foudres has something romantic… This old wine warehouse seems like the perfect spot for some romance.

Or maybe you can make something yourself? And make a romantic dinner for your loved one????

As long as it says ‘I love you’, I’m sure it will do!!