Belgium

Boy meets local products

/ dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Like you could already read in yesterday’s post, Belgium has a lot of great products, but sad enough not too many people realize this… So Didier Bastiaens of ‘Vrienden van de smaak’ thought it was time to change this and show everybody what kind of  treasures we have in Belgium by putting local products in the spotlights.

Last Sunday I experienced the first edition of a ‘vrienden van de smaak’ dinner. The concept of those dinners is based on what Southern European countries like Italy, Spain, Greece, etc…  have already been doing for years. Just picture a long table, somewhere in an open field, in the middle of a vineyard or even in a little town, where they only serve local dishes or dishes made with local ingredients…  The only difference is that the mothers who make the dishes in Southern Europe are replaced by some great Chefs like in this case Giovani Oosters from restaurant Vous lé vous.

The region for the kickoff was Haspengouw,  that is at its best during spring (as then all the fruit trees are flowering up). Normally the dinner was going to be at Kasteelhoeve De Kerckhem (outside), but due to the great Belgian weather they decided to do it a different location and did it at the garden of taste greenhouses.  I really couldn’t imagine a better location! As they had put the tables right in the middle of the Greenhouse 🙂

A lovely sight, ain’t it? To make this concept even more fun, they asked every guest to bring a plate with a motto or pledge on it, which they would put on the table and you were not allowed to sit at your own plate… this makes that you’ll be siting with new people you don’t know ( the social person in me loooooves this 🙂 ). I was sitting next to the lovely Marta aka Princess Misia who until now I only knew virtually, so thanks to ‘vrienden van de smaak’ I finally met her in real life 🙂

This was the plate I had in front of me

Food time, as that was the purpose of being here :-).  I can only say that one dishes was even better than the other one we started off with some white asparagus (the season has just started) with some dried meat (originating from Alken) with a walnut dressing and a salad of fresh herbs  (from the Mombeek valley) and some freshly made rye bread.  This got served with a Belgian chardonnay ‘blauw’ from Genoels-Elderen

After that they gave us some lamb ‘Hampshirre down’ (also local product) with pommes chateau and a spinach salad with goat cheese from ‘De Levende aarde’. This was really the BEST lamb meat I had EVER have, it really melted on your tongue (just picturing it makes me want more).   This got accompanied by a nice Belgian red wine (that had a really light color for being a red wine) ‘De vroege Loonse’ from Cohlenberg .

And the dessert was a pannacotta made of goat milk, rhubarb and hibiscus. This got served with I think the most special wine I have drunk in a long time, this wine was made of blueberries from Blueberry fields

The only thing that wasn’t really local, were the Coffee and Tea assortment (with thank to Barista Roel Driesen)  they served us. And again all different cups 🙂

This has been a true experience Didier, Chef Giovani Oosters, sommelier Harald Oostenbach, Puur Limburg and their team have really outdone themselves!

I really hope you guys have the change to go to one of the following dinners by Vrienden van de smaak. You can find the dates on following link . You can see ‘Vrienden van de smaak’ as a travelling restaurant only working with the products that it finds on its way.

Fyi, they also do this for companies…. (hope my boss reads this 😉 )

For the US version of the vrienden van de smaak, you can look on Jim Denevan’s outfields website

Filliers, glasses filled with joy

/ dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

This weekend I really had a wonderful weekend, a weekend that made me even prouder to be a Belgian! Sometimes I really forget that we have so many great products. One of these products we Belgians can be proud of is ‘Jenever’, in English it is known as Gin (don’t confuse with English Gin, which has the same base, but herbs are added) or juniper. This weekend I was lucky enough to visit the distillery of Filliers, one of Belgium’s biggest ‘warm’ distilleries. Why do I say Warm distilleries, well there are2 sorts of distilleries warm and cold distillers. You can compare it like you have what we call “warm” bakeries and ‘cold’ bakeries, where in the warm bakeries they make their bread, pastries, etc… from scratch. Whereas a ‘cold’ bakery will get everything delivered.  In case of the distilleries a warm one will make its own Malt wine, (is like a kind of rough beer) that is the base used to make ‘Jenever’.  Just to give you an idea, in Belgium there are less than 10 warm distilleries and most of them are in the East-Flanders region and not in the Limburg as most people (including me) have always been thinking.  You might really be surprised the big Jenever brands that are actually not producing their own Malt wine.

Filliers is one of Belgium’s biggest warm distilleries and is good for around 1,6 million liters of Jenever a year…  and is already existing from 1880, which gives that the current owners are already the 5th generation of distillers! So you can be sure that they have all the knowhow to make some good stuff 😉 and is also the reason why I wanted to visit this Belgian monument.

We do have to make a big distinction between the ‘grain jenever’ and the ones you find with fruit flavors.  As the production of the ‘grain’ ones is much more complicated and time consuming than making the ones with fruit flavor. As for the ‘Fruit’ jenever they will just mix the alcohol with the fruit. For the grain jenever the malt wine will be distilled 2 times (1st time in column kettle and second time in alembic at 85°C as alcohol heats quicker than water), wrests in barrels (bourbon and Sherry barrels) and after this has been done, and only after this has happened they will heat the ‘alcohol’ (as you could call it) together with the famous Gin berries that will give the particular taste to the Jenever.

I’m sure you guys have already heard talking about Old and Young Jenever. The big difference between both is actually that that Old one is made in the old way of making Gin and the Young in the new way… it is as simple as that 🙂 So not really the age of the Jenever as you might think.

What gives the different color to the older Jenevers is the type of wood of the barrel, not what has been inside the barrels (as for Jenever they always re-use barrels previously used for Bourbon or sherry). Once the Jenever is bottled, it will NOT age anymore, so basically 8 year old jenever will always stay 8 years old 🙂

My (and I’m sure everybody’s) favorite part of the tour is the tasting 🙂 Ok, the tasting was at 11 in the morning, but I’m sure it was 5 pm somewhere else in world  🙂 :-).  On top of that I didn’t want to be rude or offensive against the people of Filliers.

The first (yes, there were more) I tried was the traditional grain jenever or ‘druppeltje’ as people used to call them.

My second tasting was actually one on request, as during our tour, I was told that Filliers does not only make Jenever, but also makes one of the few Belgian Whiskeys… (Again, I’m sure somewhere it would have already been afternoon). I’m not really a whiskey drinker or expert, but I did like the aftertaste of this 12 year old malt whiskey… it had tones of vanilla.

I must say that my tour at Filliers was very interesting and I would really recommend it to everybody and not only the tasting ;-). Even if you are not really into drinking alcoholic drinks I’m sure that Filliers will have a product of your liking, I know I found a few :-). I have to thank Philippe (the Guide) for giving me a taste of the wonderful world of Jenever!  (FYI, if you visit the distillery, 1 euro per visit goes into funds for handicap people)

Dinner at a flemish foodie

/ dolcevitaspinelli / 3 Comments

Yesterday evening I finally got to try restaurant J.E.F.in Gent! You cannot believe how long it took me to get a table. My expectations for this restaurant were pretty high, first of all as every review I have read about it was extremely positive. Secondly because Jason Blanckaert (chef and owner) is part of the Flemish Foodies…. So I wanted to try and check all this positiveness myself (not sure if this is a correct word, but it works for me).

For me restaurant J.E.F is the Gent version of L’épicerie du cirque (which is in Antwerp), the restaurant spreads a good vibe 🙂 from the moment you enter, both by the cozy interior (I liked it, especially the burn marked JEF lable on all tables) as the friendly staff. I was lucky enough to have the best spot of the evening, overlooking the partially open kitchen. This way I can also see the dishes I didn’t take (I’m a curious person).

If you are a too picky eater, I’m not sure if you’d find your ‘dada’ at J.E.F as we say. Lucky for me I’m no picky eater 🙂 and I liked the choice of dishes they proposed. Something I do have to add is that they also think of the vegetarians! In the choice of 4 starters and 5 main dishes there were refined veggie dishes (and no, no garden salad). For the starters you have to count between 15-20 EUR and for the main courses between 20-30 EUR. So, not to excessive.

Before we started eating, they gave a nice appetizer. They had made my favorite combination for a sandwich: ham, gherkins and crispy bread 🙂 (so for me it started well)

Yesterday evening we were lucky enough to try the new menu (they change it every x weeks). As a starter we took pork cheek with apple, pickles sauce and celeriac. As main dish I had the sole with crabmeat, pickleweed, hazelnut cream and bisque (probably made from the shell of the crab). I really love the hazelnut taste with the sole! My fellow eater had pork streaky, with young leak and ramsons.

I chose to go for wine with my meal, as they have a really nice wine list (between 5-7 EUR per glass). With my starter I had a white Pinot Blanc by Julien Meyer called ‘Les pierres chaudes’(I have to admit that I had chosen it because they said it was a funky wine J, so wanted to know their definition of it). With my main course I asked a suggestion of the restaurant, and funny enough they served (without me telling them) me a wine I had indeed laid my eyes upon, because it came from my dad’ s birthplace Valtellina, it was a Rosso di Valtellina from Ar.Pe.Pe. If you prefer beer (like my fellow eater), they also have a nice choice of beers and I’m sure the staff will be able to help you find a perfect match with your dish.

Something I really don’t want to keep from you, is the incredibly funny wall painting in the men’s room (FYI, normally I don’t take pictures here: -) )

I had a great relaxing night, thanks to the tasty food and the great company from my buddy Valentijn, if I would still live in Gent I’m sure I’d be a regular visitor of J.E.F.

FYI, for late eaters on friday, JEF has a special as between 10.30 pm – 01.00am you can eat a meal for 20 EUR!

Restaurant J.E.F.

Website: http://www.j-e-f.be

Address:

Lange Steenstraat 10,

9000 Gent, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0)9 336.80.58

Birthday mission part 2

/ dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Keeping a secret from your girlfriend is never easy, especially for me, because talking is something I tend to do a lot (so I’m told ;-)). So you can imagine how difficult it was to shut up about her 3 birthday celebration days??  I really like to see the look on her face when she gets surprised, as only then I know I’ve completed my mission successfully. For the part with her family, I decided to do it at restaurant InVIncible. The fun part about this evening was that she had no clue what I had planned 🙂 , but she was reaaaaally happy that her family was waiting for her in the restaurant.

This was my first time that I came to restaurant Invincible but fact that both Kenny and his wife Wendy had worked at restaurant Pazzo 🙂 (you all know how much I love this place) already reassured me… Restaurant Invincible is actually where the renowned restaurant Gin Fish had been (until 2010).

What I like about Invincible (besides they’re great selection of wines), is that the restaurant is big, but yet small… for people who are dining alone they have a big bar/counter where they can eat while seeing the chef preparing their dinner, for people who prefer dining more quit they have some nice tables and for a business dinner you can easily dine or lunch at the table on the mezzanine… FYI, the acoustic is also good

About the food I can only say we had some niiiiiice eating 🙂 I had first taken a vegetarian dish (yes, be you didn’t expect that) I took the gratinated Portobello mushrooms with a chili-Jack Daniel’s butter. Another popular first course at my table was Rillettes of fresh and smoked salmon with a salad of Parisian mushrooms and Parmesan cheese (presentation in a very appetizing way)

As main course I took some nice Côte à l’os (soft like butter) with some pomme rôti, béarnaise & garden salad . Other dishes at our table were the Quail and the cod fish candied fennel sauce & soft Absinthe sauce.

We finished with a chocolaty dessert

Our dinner got accompanied by some nice 2011 South African Syrah, The Wolftrap, that I had chosen from the wall of wines that I could overlook from where was sitting

Every filled plate had been emptied, so I’m sure everybody like the food! (including me)

So to make a long story short (for my standard), my mission has been completed successfully!

Restaurant InVIncible

Website: http://www.restaurantinvincible.be

Address:

Haarstraat 9

2000 Antwerp, Belgium
Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 231 32 07

 

 

 

 

 

Marie aka Mieke

/ dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

How was your weekend? Mine was wonderful, although, maybe a bit too many babies if you ask meJ. But my weekend wouldn’t be as perfect if I wouldn’t have had food. This weekend it was restaurant Marie that I found by accident but due to lots of positive reviews I just had to try it.  Marie is a little vintage style restaurant just a few meters from the De Koninck brewery. When I entered the restaurant, it was like seeing my parent’s living room in the 80’s 🙂

What is really nice about this restaurant is that from the moment you walk in you feel welcome and feel like coming home. This thanks to the no-nonsense and friendly approach from the owner Mieke. Yes Mieke! Then where does the name Marie come from? Well very simple, this was how her father used to call her, so in legacy to her father she called the restaurant Marie, but she had to admit that Marie sounded better as a restaurant name than Mieke (Which is true…)

We (Me and 3 of my favorite women) didn’t only come here to chitchat, but also to eat. The menu they serve can be found written on blackboards on the wall… A menu exiting out of 5-6 first courses and about 7-8 main courses and a few desserts. The portions are quit big, so if you’re a little eater, I’m sure only a main course will do .

We went for the Black Angus with roquefort sauce (with the cheese, not the beer), Brill fish with sauce vierge  and broccoli, veal steak with teriyaki and diced vegetables and quail with honey, ginger and chicory. To accompany this meal we drank a very tasty Spanish red wine

One by one (yes I tasted from all 4) very tasty colorful dishes and generous portions with the ‘Keep it simple moto’.  Not even one second did I feel uncomfortable in this restaurant, so if you feel like having a no-nonsense dinner with friends in a vintage setting… restaurant Marie is your spot 🙂

 

Restaurant Marie:

Address:

Boomgaardstraat 42

2600 Berchem, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 475 80 40 22

 

 

The modesty of Modeste

/ dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Nothing better than dinner with friends, right?! The most difficult question every time again, where will be eating???  I know the company is the most important of the night, but for me the food I’ll be eating is as important :-).  So a few days ago I had dinner with a friend at the recently opened “Grand Café Modeste”  (I think they opened around January).If you like the beers from the Duvel Moortgat Brewery , Grand Café Modeste is  THE place to go as the Brewery is owner of the building and also the home brewery for this restaurant . One beer that is actually one of the reason I’ve already been to Grand Café Modeste 3  times in 3 weeks , as this is one of the few places where they sell Triple d’Anvers (a special beer from De Koninck Brewery). As they didn’t have it the first and the second time I came here, I decided this week to have another try 🙂 , but this time with result!! I’m not a beer dinker, but I really liked this one …  (But don’t worry, I didn’t dry out the other 2 times 😉 )

Another reason for me going back 3 times was just that I like the vibes hanging at this restaurant and the staff was very friendly and helps you with a smile  (the fact the waitresses were very  cute was a bonus 😉 )… I can also say for a fact that the acoustics in the whole restaurant is good (I already sat at all angels)… so  don’t worry if you want to come with a larger group. The only minor point I could say is that you notice that the restaurant isn’t open that long and you can still see that everything is not running 100%, but that didn’t really disturb me (otherwise I wouldn’t have returned 3 times)

The food, the reason I came to Grand Modeste in the first place. As I came here 3 times, I took the liberty of trying other dishes every time I came. They serve the classical Belgian cuisine with dishes like Belgian Stew made with Maredsous beer, vol au vent, asparagus with Mousseline sauce, A Hamburger Antwerp style, Ostend vispannetje, etc… We’ve done the test and I liked all dishes, what made the burger special, was actually the fact that the buns were focaccia with Rosemary, which really added a big value!  Grand Café Modeste also tries to incorporate Beer in most dishes … which would seem logical as their house brewery has such great beers …

Initially I wasn’t convinced of Grand Café Modeste, but I have to say that I have changed my opinion… I’m sure I’ll be going there again.

What food and love have in common

/ dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

It is no secret, the love of a man goes through his stomach….. with me this is no exception and my girlfriend knows that she can’t make me happier than with food (drink) related gifts. Last weekend I didn’t feel like cooking, so I asked my girlfriend in the morning to surprise me by bookoing a table in a restaurant of her choice … didn’t matter where it was…

She really did a great job! She knew that for a time now I wanted to go back to Ghent for dinner, as I really love walking through Ghent in the evening as everything gets illuminated  at night, this together with the water in the city, the old buildings, … just great! So she started searching and eventually  found a tip on Tiany Kiriloff’s website (as she didn’t want to go to something I knew).

On Tiany’s website she found restaurant Eatlove, which is a pizzeria and the second restaurant of Valentina Gatti (fashion journalist). The interior is actually very simple as it is made of pressed wood and yet very fashionable + cosinessr 🙂 I liked.

But ofcourse the interior is not going to take away my hunger 🙂

Eatlove is actually a pizzeria (but also serves a few other Italian dishes) and when it comes to Italian food I might say I’m pretty picky , not that I’m a difficult eater, as I will eat it anyway…

When we received our first course I have to say I was very pleased. As all the starters you could find on the menu were prepared in 3 ways, 1 traditional way and 2 more ‘experimental’ ways. I took the vitello (from the vitello tonnato) which had the traditional way, a lemon filling and a wasabi toping on the plate. My girlfriend ordered the carpaccio, with traditional carpaccio, veggie carpaccio with goat cheese and a salmon with special dressings. Again, I liked

For our main course, I took pizza Parma (I just love ham so much) and my girlfriend took the pizza Gamberi (shrimps)… They were both really nice! Honestly ! What is special about the pizza at Eatlove is that are not made with regular 00 flour (usually used), but made with semolino (or at least that’s how it tasted) and olive oil, which gives their pizza’s a different dimension. I’m sure this is not the last time I eat pizza here!!

FYI, if you come between 5pm and 7pm you get 5 appetizers with your drinks …and you can also

You also can’t miss their other restaurant ‘De Mineral’ as when going to the bathroom (at EatLove) and continue the hallway, you come in the entrance of ‘De Mineral’… sharing toilettes 🙂 I think I’ll have to try that as well (the other restaurant, not the toilettes)

So I really have to thank the beautiful lady on the picture below for this wonderful evening combining good food and love (yet again) and also Tiany Kiriloff for sharing the restaurant 🙂

And after our diner, we took a nice walk in Gent…

Restaurant EatLove

Website:  http://www.eatlove.be/

Address:

Ajuinlei 10a

9000 GENT, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0)479 879 387

My Gastronomical odyssey: Restaurant Nuance

/ dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

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

Bistronomie

/ dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

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

One to put in my top 10 list

/ dolcevitaspinelli / 6 Comments

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