Author: dolcevitaspinelli

My dad and I part 2

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So far, so good … the lunch at Sassella was just incredible (as always). We didn’t only come for food … (does that sound convincible?) We also came here to visit family, or better, to visit my grandmother aka ‘La nonna’ 🙂 . On the picture below, La nonna is at the left (with the white sweater), the lady in black is her best friend… They are both so tiny

After that we decided to visit my niece (Francesca) who has a hotel/restaurant at Bormio 2000 (and since Christmas also a pizza kiosk). FYI, the hotel is called Cedrone . I always like coming here, because the view you have from up here, is just wonderful.  Especially on a sunny day like this day …

I’m not really in to skiing, but this is one of the few times I really wanted to do some skiing… but my sickness decided otherwise.

I can really recommend it to everybody!! Go Bormio Go!

In case you might decide to come to Bormio, you should also visit the town of Bormio, which is a nice picturesque little town.

A must when you’re in town is to stop a the brewery/ distillery of Braulio, a local Amaro filled with herbs from the mountains. In case you’re not too keen on Amaro, they also have a beer brewery 🙂 (or you might wanna try one of their grappa’s when it is cold 😉

And unfortunately this was my last evening of good health L after this the rest of my holiday I was sick. And instead of gastronomical dishes, I ate white rice, light soups, etc… WHY ME??? But I have to thank my family for their good care (especially my dad)

Anyway, I really hope you guys get to explore Valtellina one day as you get the Italian flair, food and hospitality at its best!! In Summer and winter

My dad and I

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Ok, we’re back in business… Not that I’ve ever been out of business :-),but just a matter of speak

I’m sure all of you guys have read that I actually went on a trip to visit my family or my grandmother to  be more précised .What actually was supposed to be a wonderful trip and time with my dad and family

Turned out as a week inside my grandmother’s apartment.  Why because as of day 2 day I was sick and this up to today :-(. But let me focus on the 1 day I was still perfectly ok 🙂

So me and my dad decided to visit my grandmother who lives near Bormio a well-known for skiing and is located in the Valtellina valley in the north of Lombardy . This time it had been 4years since the last time I was here…. But every time I come here it is more beautiful and for the week we were there, the sun kept shining… it couldn’t be more perfect.  Getting here is usually the tricky part… as we didn’t want to drive the whole way from Belgium up to Bormio, we booked a flight to Verona (we paid 24 EUR per person, YES 24), were we rented a car to drive via Lago d’iseo towards to Val camonica  to than take the passo del tonale or Edolo/Aprica…. To make a long story short, this takes you through nature’s most beautiful sites, even after 28 years I’m still as stung by its beauty like the first time I saw it.

As we arrived in the evening we went to my aunt’s house to have dinner… She prepared my favorite dish (from the region), Pizzoccheri … They were really nice, but not just yet like the once from “La nonna”.

Up to day 2 and to a trip filled with food, food and family :-).

Now that I’m in Italy with my dad, the theme food is evening more present than when I’m alone 🙂

Our first lunch just had to be at my and my dad’s favorite hotel/ restaurant ‘Sassella da Jim’

Where they combine the best of the mountains with the right know how and a sauce of friendliness.  Coming here even just for a quick lunch is a must!!  We took the “Menu del giorno” that today was: veduri ai ferri (grilled vegetables), Crespelle al bitto e bresaolo, (I LOVE), bocconcini di manzo ai funghi and a dolce della casa (I took the apple pie, I soooooo love apple pie). You look at these pictures and tell me you wouldn’t want to taste this???

YUMMY. We drunk a Mazer from Nino Negri with this

To be continued….

The 45 places to visit

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Goooooooooodmorning world, I’m actually getting ready for a trip to visit my family in Italy (I’ll be eating A LOT)… But not just yet. I first wanted to share with you the New York Times list of 45 places/cities that are worth visiting in 2012. 1 thing is very clear when looking at the list, is that I have start winning that lottery and stop working 🙂

Something that is already a little bit reassuring is that I at least visit a few of the places…

What surprised me is actually the variety of countries represented, India, Brazil, Russia, Myanmar ….

Picking a favorite would not be an easy task, but I’ll try to share a few of my favorites and these o nes won’t be for 2012 as my trips for this year are already booked…

  1. Havana, Cuba
  2. Malacca, Malaysia
  3. Chiloé Island, Chile
  4. Dalarna, Sweden
  5. Tokyo

Don’t get me wrong, if they would ask me to do the whole list… I wouldn’t complain.

What would your list be out of this 45?

Anyhow, I’m off to Italy!! See you later…

The traveler’s guide to happiness

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It seems that 63% of happiness is already present before you are even at your destination, already 7% when just booking the trip 🙂

I found this ‘happiness’ chart by Travel Supermarket , where they show you how happy  travelling makes us.

It even shows how people through history liked travelling

But what surprises me most is that what you read on this chart is really true! I really recognize all of this. Because I’m indeed already very excited to go on trip when booking …

You can find the whole chart on this link

Europe’s weirdest hotels

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It might seem like my weekend was full of discoveries :-). I was  looking to a few websites, when I suddenly fell on the one from “Stedentripper”. On this website they listed the weirdest hotels in Europe.

Not all of them are too weird,

The Dasparkhotel, Ottensheim (Austria) for example. In this hotel you stay in a sewer pipe ( a clean one). The only ‘scary’ part would be that it is quit narrow, but besides that I would see myself sleeping her.

Or a more romantic hotel if you ask me would be the Elkep Evi, Urgüp (Turkey). This hotel is built in the a mountain … or actually they gave this previous mountain homes a new destination 🙂

BUT the hotel I would NEVER go to, would be the Propeller Island City Lodge, Berlijn (Duitsland). Just look at the picture… I’m sure you’ll agree. Who wants to be sleeping in a coffin (accept maybe Dracula)

But apart from that hotel you I think most of them don’t seem that weird 🙂

Which one is your favorite? Let me know (if you don’t speak dutch, I’m sure you’ll be able to tell me which one …  Here’s the weblink

The start of a healthy 2012?

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Hello everybody! Yesterday evening I did a real nice discovery… well that is if you guys are into gardening? I found a very nice website about how you can plan and organize planting your own vegetables…  The site is called Veggie Harvest.  I’ll be honest I’m not really a specialist, but I must say that they did a great job. They divided the whole vegetable planting in 10 zones, each zone stands for a period of time you should start the planting or gather all the vegetables. (for more vegetables that you know)

Below you can see an example  of a calendar

So if your new year’s resolution was to eat more healthy… you’d better put on those rubber boots and gloves!! I know, I’d also need more convincing than this to start gardening, but just know everything you do yourself is done/tastes that much better + next time your friends come over you can say the vegetables are from you garden…

Anyway get more inspired on the  Veggie Harvest website

My Pre-visit to Bodega Winterbar

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Last night I went to the pre-opening of the Bodega Winterbar that I told you guys about in company of my dear friend Carlos. At first I was doubting a little bit, as the weather yesterday wasn’t really what we could call good 🙂

I also thought they would cancel it, being that close to the river… but at the end I was glad I passed by

From the first step you set in the bar, you get an instant winter feeling (if this wasn’t already the case because of the weather)

The Winterbar is divided in 2 parts. One side you have a  sort of open-air (but with roof) bar and at the other side you can find a restaurant.

The restaurant part is in partnership with restaurant Josephine’s (that you might remember from my blogpost) and from what I tasted last night, I can assure you that they serve some nice meal … They serve winter classics like Swiss Raclette, pig’s cheek (I tried and liked) to Belgian classics like beef stew (Antwerp style), Sausages with mashed potatoes

But don’t worry if you don’t feel like eating,  they also have a big choice of warming drinks at the bar!!

All by all a nice ambiance  yesterday and I hope for the organization it will start snowing as that would make it even better (although I’m not really in for snow…) For all you guys who also want to try, the Winterbar is opened from  Thursday until Sunday as off 4 o’clock in the afternoon until …

This from today until 22 February

Viel Spaβ!

Bodega Winterbar

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For everybody who just can’t get enough of the Christmas spirit, there is only 1 place to be, the Bodega Winterbar. From 7 – 22 February the Antwerp Waagnatie will open its doors to enjoy a nice drink with view on the Antwerp river ‘ Schelde’ and the sound/smell of burning wood from the fireplace. This Winterbar is actually the variant on the yearly summer bar that is held in the Waagnatie also known as Bocadero 🙂 which has been a great success for a ferw years now…

I’ll be passing by for sure, just to feel the winter vibes….

Keep you posted

BODEGA WinterBar

Waagnatie – Hangar 29

Rijnkaai 150

2000 Antwerp, Belgium

A trip down memory lane: Spezzatino

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This recipe actually brings me back right to my childhood, as my dad and grandmother made this dish soooooooo many times. The original recipe is with veal stew meat, but as I was a picky eater when I was young (now I made up that lost time 🙂 ) my dad used to make it with chipolata sausage… so if you prefer the original recipe, just use the veal instead of the chipolata.

This is a dish you can make for 1 up to a whole bunch of people and best to serve with Polenta or boiled potatoes. Ok, here we go. With what remains you make use to make a pasta.

For  4 pers.

Ingredients:

800 g chipolata (beef or veal stew meat)

1 big finely chopped onion

25 g butter

Olive oil

3 dried bay leaves

Fresh rosemary

Paprika powder

Little bottle of red wine

Pepper, salt

Peas (frozen, amount according to liking)

Kenya (frozen, amount according to liking)

2 big finely chopped carrots

2-3 tins of peeled (chopped) tomatoes

1-2 chicken stock cubes

 

Get started:

Bake the meat in a large cooking pot with a little bit of butter and olive oil and some Rosemary until nice golden brown.

You now add all the chopped vegetables  (not the tomatoes) and let it simmer for 15 minutes or until you see the vegetables start to brown

Quench with the red wine, add the tomatoes  and add the salt, pepper, bay leaves, chickenstock and paprika powder. Also add water until all is under water.Let is cook on a low/medium heat for about 2 hours (stir from time to time)

until it basically looks like picture below 🙂

Best to serve with polenta which is ver easy to make!!

The last 2011 fish and wine

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Normally I wasn’t really planning on still posting something in 2011, but yesterday evening I had such a wonderful evening that I still wanted to share it with you…

What started off as an ‘Apero’ on Friday evening, resulted in an ‘apero’, diner and after diner drink 🙂 For the initial apero we went to the Vitrin bar, that you all might know from my Bordeaux wine blogpost? If not, read it 🙂

For diner we wanted something good, but not too expensive… as December is to my opinion the most expensive month of the year (with all the presents, etc….) So for me the Fiskebar seemed like a wonderful idea! As you can already imangine when seeing the name, this is a Fish restaurant, where you can eat very good fish for a very reasonable price.  You can either go for the fish on itself with a garden salad and some rice (or potatoes) or you could go for a fish prepared with a sauce and special dressing and side dishes… Tonight I took the swordfish with wasabi pesto/ puree, eggplant pickles and balsamico…

My girlfriend took salmon with the gardensalad, my friends (who actually introduced me to my girlfriend 12 years ago) took the Scampi (Prawns) with Red thai curry and rice, and the catfish with mushroom risotto.

To accompany this we had a Red wine, a Rioja ONTAÑÓN CRIANZA… which actually worked out well… the fruitiness and yet powerful wine was (to us) a nice harmony with the dishes. To finish our diner, me and my buddy took the lemon tart, my  beautiful girlfriend plum cake  and Isabelle took the crème brûlée… mmmmmm

I would advise everybody to eat at Fiskebar as it is very tasteful, cozy (especially when you’re sitting upstairs) and normally price(most fish around 20EUR) . But make sure you make reservations, as it is a hotspot!

BUT our evening didn’t stop there, noooooooo sir. After the Fiskebar we went to a brand new winebar at the South of Antwerp… A winebar that I didn’t even know it was there (we passed by it while going to Vitrine..  Vinicity it is called, but it is actually a wineshop where you can taste the wines and if you like them you can buy them … every day there is a choice of 9 wines devided in the type of wine it is…

Elegant, fruity or powerful… (between 4 and 7 EUR for glass) I went for the red elegant which was a Portugese dado… the reason, well everybody else already went for the Fruity and powerful and this was we could try them all :-). And he said that it was good 😉 I liked all three wines, although I would have liked them more powerful, but I just should have picked/asked for a much stonger wine… but don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a sacrifice to drink the glass I had 🙂

When you are sitting here you get in instant home feeling, the interior of the shop/bar is so relaxing that you could sit here all day… for the people who would want to eat something here, this is also possible, they serve a nice lunch (not too much, just a few dishes…)

I’m pretty sure this isn’t the isn’t the last time Vinicity has seen me  (Fiskebar neither) The perfect ending of a wonderful evening

So now only 1 thing left to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! ALL the best for 2012

Restaurant Fiskebar:

Address:

Marnixplaats 12

2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0)3 257 13 57

Wineshop Vinicity:

Address:

Karel Rogierstraat 40

Leopold De Waelplaats

2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 345 33 44 .