Belgium

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

 

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!

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 .

My duvel discovery part 2

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I promise I won’t give another history lesson today, but I just needed to tell you  bit or their history… That Duvel wasn’t discovered or made over one night, but took almost 40years of research to finalize  the actual recipe as we know  it today.

Back to my tour 🙂 I must say that they give this tour in a very professional  way. I actually joined a group that also booked  a tour at the same time. This brings to yesterday’s picture

Before we started our tour, we all got a headset and a fluorescent vest. The vest was just for our safety as we were visiting a production area. At some point I fell like one of those guys who has to lead planes at the airport. The tour starts with to me the most important, with naming the 4 main ingredients of  Duvel/beer: Water, yeast, barley and  hop

What might surprise most of you, is that beer consists mostly out of water… so next time the police pulls you over, you just say you drank water :-).  In the case of Duvel, it is water that they get from 60 meters under the factory.

Did you know that the more hop there is in beer, the more bitter it tastes  And if I’m not mistaking, this also makes you pee more 🙂 :-). For me yeast is yeast, I didn’t know there were actually different kinds… In Duvel beer, they actually use a combination of 12 kinds of yeast 🙂 Scottish yeast that is (for more about history why they use Scottish yeast, check this website).

Every time I visit a production site I’m always amazed how incredible it all is and how high technological… Technique really stands for nothing these days. It is also nice to see that companies like Duvel Moortgat invest in their company, in new technology and research to be able to create the best possible product.

But the most impressive and amazing machine for me was the bottling machine

This machine will remove non Duvel bottles, remove the labels, check the bottle , fill the bottle and capsule, check the filled  bottles and put in boxes… and this machine can handle between 40 000 and 50 000 bottles per hour!!!! When at full capacity, I’m really amazed, as I know what this machine has to do, you also know, but how this machine is able to actually do it, always amazes me.

Just amazing. 1 thing during this tour actually got stuck in my mind. As I told, this machine is able to handle around 50 000 bottles, but this is not the case… as they prefer producing less and better… than producing a lot and a less quality product… Did you know that it takes about 90 days for a Duvel to be ready for selling?

After seeing all those bottles, we got to the best part of the evening/ tour

Yes, the tasting 🙂 I think the next picture speaks for itself.  For all of you who are wondering how long you can keep a Duvel beer… Normally you should drink it within 3 years, as than it is on its best. After the 3 years it would still be drinkable ofcourse, but it won’t be the same. Our guide had already drunk a Duvel from 21 years old. For him this wasn’t the best beer in the world, but that is a matter of taste, because for others, this might b heaven on earth.

And on top of that I got the company of the always super friendly Saskia :-)…What more does one need? Beer, good company and some cheese?

I have to admit that I really enjoyed this Duvel beer as it is not like any other beer! On top of that I learned a lot… but I think I’ll have to visit a few more breweries, just to get the real hang of bier loving …

But this was without any doubt a moment to remember! For anybody who would be interested to visit the brewery, you can look on the duvel website for the dates of guided tours.

My Duvel discovery

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As some of you might have read, last Friday I visited the Duvel Moorgat brewery.  I’m sure that even my foreign friends know Duvel beer, as this is probably one of the most well-known Belgian beers. For those who aren’t sure, see the picture below to refresh your memory

I’m going be honest with you guys,  I’m not much off a beer drinker … Don’t get me wrong, I’ll drink it when people serve it…but I don’t like it that much.  So that is actually the first reason why I wanted to visit the brewery, to actually get to know more about how beers are made, what the best way is to serve it, etc… Because as a Belgian you cannot not be a beer lover… And this brings me to my second reason, just to learn how to enjoy some good beer.

So which beer better to start with than with the pride of Belgium, Duvel!?  And on top of that it is an Antwerp beer 🙂 , as the brewery is located just a few kilometers outside of the city of Antwerp, next to the old highway towards Brussels

Everybody might know Duvel, but how good do you know it? Our tour actually started with a little hisotry lesson about the Duvel brewery or Moorgat brewery as it is actually called was already founded in 1871 by Jan-Léonard Moortgat. What actually surprised most, was that it was not until vetween1918-1923 that the Duvel beer found its life and got produced as Victory Ale….Which actually a pretty long time?

You might be wondering how and why they gave it the name Duvel (which means devil in dutch)? Well the story behind it is actually quite funny 🙂 The name ‘Duvel’ came after a beer tasting 🙂 with notable people, and at that time people were not used to drink strong beers, they were used to drink regular quite light beer… So you probably see where I’m going…. they all got drunk and one of the guests  Mr. Van de Wouwer ( a shoemaker) started shouting that this beer was a real devil…. And from that day on this beer goes under the name Devil or Duvel. OK, enough history 🙂

Just to get all the confusion out of this world. Duvel is a specialty or fermented beer and not a regular beer. First off all because Duvel has an alcohol percentage of 8,5% and a regular beer is only max 5%. Another difference is that it is not pasteurized.

Ok, this is all that I’m telling you today… please stay tuned if you want know more about  my visit to the brewery and the picture below 🙂 ok and if they got me to love beer…

To be continued…

A true discovery

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As you could read in yesterday’s post, my weekend was filled with food!! It already started on Friday evening, where I prepared dinner for a lovely lady. I really like spoiling people and I always try to do the best job ever cooking things my guest likes even if this is not always my  favorite dish. You don’t always have to think of yourself…

In this case the lovely lady liked ‘Foie gras’ lamb meat and ‘gratin dauphinois’. So I decided to give as a starter some foie gras and afterwards make some amb filet with a honey thyme sauce with gratin dauphinois. I got my inspiration for the Lamb from Start to Cook and for the gratin it was Roger van damme who gave me the idea and when cooking  I gave it my own twist. With a satisfying result (I think). This dish got accompanied by a nice bottle of Barbaresco by Batasiolo

But my food filled weekend didn’t stop here, it only just got started. Like many people, this weekend I did some Christmas present shopping:

Normally I would do this alone, but this time I asked my mom to join me 🙂 . You know what I like about going somewhere with my mom, I just know that  we’ll be going somewhere for lunch . Like  every time, we’re doubting  where we would go. And then suddenly we made a discovery (literally), we saw Enoteca ‘La Scoperta ‘ (which means the discovery). Apparently my mom had already been here a few times  (and she didn’t tell me)… So I HAD to try it. An enoteca is actually a place where you drink/ taste and buy wine, but you can also have a little something to eat like ham, cheese, maybe a panino . In La Scoperta it wasn’t any different… This shop/ enoteca had a nice assortment of wines, ham, cheeses mostly from Tuscany  and Piemonte.

I’m sure if you still need to find some Christmas presents, that ‘La Scoperta” might have something for you! Our first reason for entering was actually have something to eat, so that’s what we did 🙂 Both me and my mom took the ‘panino con prosciutto, mozzarella and pesto’ and as we are in an enoteca I just had to take a glass of wine (life can be hard). I choose a glass of Nebbiolo d’alba by Due corti, I really lilke wines made with the Nebbiolo grape… This one was also very lovely.

When looking around, I saw something that every time I see it I just wanna have it (also the ham on top of it), A Berkel cutting machine… Look at the picture below… isn’t she a beauty? If I ever have a kitchen big enough I just have to have it!!

When looking around, I saw something that every time I see it I just wanna have it (also the ham on top of it), A Berkel cutting machine… Look at the picture below… isn’t she a beauty?

Breakfast on Sunday’s

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It was a long time ago that I had breakfast somewhere else than home… I remember a time that I did this almost every Sunday. Back then it was usually at the same restaurant/bakery (that you could already read in one of my previous posts . To avoid going to the same places again, this time we asked the friends that joined us to pick a place. I must say that I was surprised with their choice, they had chosen Grand Café de Singel.  The single is actually the conservatory of Antwerp and the only times I have been here is to see a few concerts (if I remember correctly once for a drum festival and the other time for a free jazz concert). I really didn’t know you could also eat here.

The Grand café is located in a new building attached to the old Singel buildings… The architecture even got awards….

The first thing that strikes you when you walk in, is the huge chandelier and right after that the space 🙂

Because all the walls are windows, you can imagine how much external light comes in and how spacious it feels.

We chose to have the big breakfast and I was really curious how big it was going to be.

You be the judge:

For me it wasn’t as big as I would have hoped (but maybe sometimes I’m greedy), but it was really enough and most important everything was very fresh and tasty.   I don’t know if  you can see it on the picture, but there was a ham omelet, quiche, a piece of brie cheese with a little toast under it and a dressing, fresh shredded meat, mozzarella with tomato and a fresh fruit yoghurt.  Overall a nice breakfast.

Grand Café deSingel

Website: http://www.grandcafedesingel.be/master.php

Address:

Jan Van Rijswijcklaan 155

2018 Antwerpen

Phone n°:  +32 [0]3 237.71.00

Low and high budget dining within a few meters

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Saturday we went for a dinner in Brussels, to Restaurant Houtsiplou. I got this tip from a friend of mine who has been here a few times. When I arrived on ‘Place Rouppe’ after a very long search for a parking spot, I saw that world renowned restaurant “Comme Chez Soi” was located on the same square :-). So in less than a few meters you’ve got a high and low budget restaurant…

So there has been a moment of doubt which restaurant I should go to and the valet parking made it even more interesting  too bad I had already found a parking spot and it is a good thing my wallet got me back to my senses, so ‘Comme Chez Soi’ will be for a next time 😉 + when I have hamburgers and French fries in my mind, it is difficult to get them out

Once inside Houtsiplou, you get an instant smile on your face… All the bright colors, funny creatures on the walls + I know I’m going to eat junk food :-).

Anyhow, I didn’t come for the interior but for food! Houtsiplou is well known for being a family & child friendly restaurant (so I’m right at my place) and for its delicious hambugers.  Also very good to know, vegetarians can also accompany their friends here, as all the burgers also get served with Tofu instead of meat and there are also lots of other veggie possibilities on the menu. We’re not veggie, so out with the tofu.

I went for the Basico Hamburger, 225g of beef, fresh bearnaise sauce, salad, tomatoes and fried onions (mmmm, I want it again). With some Homemade fries on the side.

My woman took the Pato, a burger with duckmeat, foie gras (that melted nicely over the duck meat)  and a green  pepper sauce.

When we received our plates it was very silent for a couple of minutes … The best sign that it was good!

I could have still gone for a dessert, because they all seemed delicious…  Tiramisu with Speculoos or Apple crumble or Cheesecake with Speculoos already make me hungry again… but I think I made a wise choice not taking a dessert, because I would have felt too stuffed J

I would really recommend this restaurant to everybody who is in Brussels with their family and wants to have a great fresh burger !! Again the only disadvantage is the parking … but that’s a common problem in every big city I would think

Houtsiplou:

Website: http://www.houtsiplou.be/

Address:

Place Rouppe 9

1000 Brussels, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 2 511 38 11

My hunger led us to Dôme sur Mer

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Friday was again one of those evenings I didn’t felt like cooking…. So there was only 1 thing left to do, pick a restaurant 🙂 . This time we decided to go to “Dôme sur mer  “. This restaurant is located in Berchem, near Antwerp and is the second restaurant from  Julien Burlat, chef and owner  from the 1 Michelin star restaurant “Dôme”.

I had actually already been to “Dôme sur mer” in May for my birthday with my whole family. As this time it was just a romantic dinner with my girlfriend. She always makes my dinners more complete 🙂

The architecture of both (or even 3) building from Dôme, Dôme sur mer and Domestic (bakery) is just beautiful, high decorated ceilings, but also the outsides are very beautiful.  In these restaurants you get and instant coziness feeling .

As you might expect from the name, “Dôme sur mer” is specialized in fish. One of THE trade mark dishes of the restaurant is the lobster with sage butter sauce. I tried this last time I was here as an appetizer (yes, I was greedy). This time we got led by this week’s suggestions. Not that there were not enough dishes on the menu, but I always like to taste new things they chef recommends.

Of course, the best way to start a romantic dinner (or any other dinner) is with a niiiiiice glass of bubbles 🙂  . We took the Spanish Clos Amador Brut Riserva which had a rich and fruity flavor. Just what we needed to get started. To not immediately be tipsy, we took some iberico ham to go with it . Maybe a ‘not done’ choice in a fish restaurant, but hey I just love HAM!! (FYI, the ham melted on my tongue)

This got followed by some Mackerel with pickled vegetables  (carrot and red cabbage) with a grain mustard dressing. This was a good combination of flavors, the freshness from the vegetables with a touch of acidity together with the softness of the fish. To accompany this we just took the house wine, bot white, from a dryer kind and for my girlfriend a slightly sweeter wine.

As main dish, I had the bream fish with braised savoy cabbage.  My first bite from the cabbage, brought me back to my childhood, it had the flavor like when my dad used to cook (ME like). Again very nice combination, I would want to be negative… but I just can’t… ok, maybe an extra piece of fish wouldn’t have been bad 🙂 . I drank a glass of red Poggialupi by Rodano with it.

We ended by sharing a Lemon tartlet. If you look really close to the below picture, you can see my girlfriends fork ready for attack 🙂

Overall a very nice restaurant, as the second time was as good as the first time. I wouldn’t call it the cheapest restaurant, but the prices are still on the normal side.  I can’t wait to go to restaurant Dôme in January.

Restaurant Dôme sur Mer

Website: http://www.domeweb.be

Address :

Arendstraat 1

2018 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n° : +32 (0) 3 281 74 33

Still on top of their game!

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A few friends and I decided a while ago to have something we call “The Gastronomical Odyssey”. Basically, in this odyssey we go and explore all good restaurants or you could also say that I am just working off my Go To List . Yesterday we (Carlos and me) had another one of those Odyssey moments and decided to go to the renowned restaurant “Sir Anthony van Dijck”. Why, simply before being able to understand all the modern dishes and cuisine, you have to know how the perfect classical kitchen tastes like. Sir Anthony van Dijck is actually one of the most famous Antwerp restaurants. The restaurant had 2 Michelin stars for more than 20 years.  This until 1992, when chef and owner Marc Paesbrugghe (one of my big examples) decided as one of the first European chefs to give his Michelin stars back. The reason for this was that he didn’t feel living up to the demands of Michelin anymore and he just wanted to keep doing his thing.  Now that I’ve been there I can say, they might have given away there stars, their food is still heavenly! On top of this refined cuisine, you also get one of the most unique locations in Antwerp. The restaurant is located in one of the oldest streets of Antwerp, the ‘Vlaeykensgang’. This street is a must see for everybody visiting Antwerp.

I must say that from the moment you walk in the restaurant, you can feel the touch of class and immediately feel comfortable. While following the waiter to your table you can enjoy the beautiful interior of the restaurant. The interior makes you feel like being somewhere in the south of France, where everything is balanced… The advantage that the weather is getting colder in Belgium is that they had put on the fireplace, which made the atmosphere even better (The restaurant is bigger than you would say from the outside). Carlos started the evening with a glass of  Jameson Whiskey  and I went for a glass of champagne as starting with whiskey seemed a bit strong J.  For the food, we decided to go for the gastronomical menu (but I must say a lot of dishes on the à la carte menu also looked tempting) as for me this is always the best way (in this kind of restaurant) to discover new tastes.

The first course of the night was a  wood pigeon mousse, consommé of  pheasant and foie gras. The Consommé was just wow, the first sip of it told me enough that the evening would only get better (if possible).  The foie gras wasn’t my thing as I don’t like eating it, the mousse on the other hand was also very exquisite

The following courses were

Greenland turbot with endive, lime and Hoegaarden beer, roasted fawn fillet (hertekalf) with celeriac puree and juniper. We finished with Poached pear with chocolate ice cream and a cold amaretto sabayon.

The only thing I can say about all the dishes that, one by one they were simply fantastic. You can really taste the chef’s experience and the know how he has!!  Our wine for the evening was a ‘Brolo di Campofiorin’ from Masi. It is just a coincidence that it is Italian, the waiter also agreed that this was a perfect fitting wine for our meal.

Result of this whole meal, 2 happy campers that enjoyed a top class restaurant on an historic location for a price you would pay at the average restaurant!  (you don’t have too many of those)

Up to the next one on the list

Restaurant Sir Anthony Van Dijck

Website: http://www.siranthonyvandijck.be/

Address:

Oude Koornmarkt 16,
2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n° +32 (0) 3 231 61 70