Belgium

Aux Vieux Bruxelles

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Brussels, I never know what to think of this city. I don’t come often in Brussels. Either it is because I have a project there for work there or occasionally just for shopping with my girlfriend.  Another reason is the following one. Some of you might know that I’m a drummer and that I have some American drummer friends coming on tour through Belgium (the same who actually convinced me to start blogging) and as I know that being on tour for months is not always as nice as lots of you might think, I always try to let them relax and stop thinking of their daily routine of travelling – hotel- playing-travelling by taking them out to have a good bite and drink. Brussels is usually the preferred place for tour managers to choose their hotel (because of the highway access + close by airport). Of course, Brussels has hundreds of restaurants, but I mostly like to take my friends to eat some typical Belgian food… like “Stoofvlees”, Mussels, etc… A place I’ve already took some of my friends was Aux Vieux Bruxelles.

It is like going back in time.  Old brown varnished benches, red-white squared tablecloths. Already by seeing that I feel so happy (don’t ask me why, maybe it’s the child in me) and I immediately feel like sitting down and eat more than I can handle. Last time I had “Vol-au-vent”, a small puff pastry filled with a kind of white stew sauce with chicken, little meatballs, mushrooms a squeeze of lemon and topped with a “sauce hollandaise”   (some also put a bit of tarragon). Two of my friends took the mussels (as at that time it was the season) and another friend took shrimps with garlic butter and some vegetables with it. And all of this accompanied with freshly made French fries.


The good thing about this place is that it is not too touristy, most of the people coming here are from Brussels… that usually is my reference to know if the place is worth the visit

 Enjoy

Restaurant Aux vieux Bruxelles

Website: http://www.auvieuxbruxelles.com/

Address:

 

Rue Saint-Boniface 35
1050 Brussels , Belgium

 

Phone n°: +32 (0)2 503 31 11

 

 

Smooth and Tasty

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I highly recommend this restaurant everyone, it is perfect for 2 or for a whole group! A while ago the guys from work wanted to have dinner somewhere, and as you all might know finding a place where you can enter with 10-12 people is not always easy. So I suggested to go to Smooth & Tasty, a restaurant I had already enjoyed eating at a few times before. What actually surprised me is that when I called to reserve the table, we didn’t have to take a menu with the whole group… Yes indeed, you’ve heard it correctly

The owner prefers it this way as it  might be too difficult to find dishes everybody loves, etc….  The day we went to the restaurant I think almost everybody took something different… and still everything got served at the same time and we didn’t have to wait endlessly but we did take some tapas to start to give the kitchen some time (as we were not the only people in the restaurant). I remember everybody having enjoyed what they had ordered. And this for very reasonable prices.

Smooth & Tasty has all kind of different dishes on their Menu. At first you might think that this will have an influence on the food, but everything you eat there is from high quality and well prepared. I usually eat Thai food there as the Thai food at Smooth & Tasty is – in my opinion – better than in some Thai restaurants I’ve been before.  Colleagues of mine tried duck, steaks, etc… and they also had to admit that the quality was superb.

The best mussels in town!

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Mussels and restaurant Maritime, they go together like a horse and carriage …. Not only are they well known for their mussels, but my personal favorite is the sole with freshly made tartar sauce and French fries… The first time I tried it at Maritime, I was silent for a few minutes (and I don’t shut up easily). I had never eaten such a good sole! Perfectly prepared! When you are at this restaurant, you can really feel the history. Not only because it already the 3rd generation that this family owns this restaurant, but also the fact that you are in the oldest part of town. Surrounded by The Cathedral, the Renaissance City hall (on UNESCO list) and only 2 steps from the Scheldt (Schelde) river and Antwerp oldest streets. Maritime is also a must -during the Hunting season! Everything at Maritime gets prepared in the classical way and with love, you can just feel and see it when you get your food. Maritime also has a wonderful wine selection, we have to thank Glen (the 3rd generation) for that! Glen & his team really make your visit to Maritime a memorable moment and show you that food doesn’t have to be complicated to be at its tastiest !

Restaurant Maritime:

Website: http://www.maritime.be/

Address:

Suikerrui 4

2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°:  +32 (0)3 233 07 58

Njam – cooking 24 x 7

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The best decision the Belgian Mediaworld took, was definitely to create the cooking channel Njam.

Classic French kitchen, molecular, innovative cuisine, desserts, cocktails, etc… the list is just endless on how many different shows Njam has. Personally I never get enough of the Njam channel, obviously I have my favorites. If I would need to name my preferred International chef (non Belgian) I would say Antonio Carluccio, withouuuuut any doubt!! If you see him on his trip through Italy, I feel like stepping on the first plane and join him. Amongst the Belgian Chefs I would my first award would go to Johan Segers! You can just see his passion for cooking and his respect for the products he works with. Hearing him talk and explain really makes people  go into the kitchen and start cooking. The same goes for Jan Buytaert.  It won’t come as a surprise that I also have sweet tooth. That tooth gets satisfied  by two amazing pastry chefs Roger Van Dammeand Dominique Persoone, again like with Johan Segers, you can see these chef’s passion for what they do. Last but not least I really enjoy watching Njam co-founder, 3 Michelin-star chef and chef of the 14th best restaurant in the world Peter Goossens! On Njam he shows how a classical dish can be made in a gastronomical way, keeping the main ingredients…. Too bad I can’t taste all the dishes the Njam chefs J

Thanks to Njam tv (“les excuses sont fait pour s’excuser” the French would say)  me and a 3 friends decided to have a “Gastronomical odyssey” and seek for the best food in Belgium (to start with).

Let yourself carry away through the world of Gastronomy!

Mess Officier

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You know the feeling coming home and don’t feel like cooking and don’t really feel like going too far to have dinner…. I know I do!  One of those nights I decided to try out restaurant Mess Officier, about 4 min by car from my house (remember it was a lazy night, so walking was out of the question). After my first time at Mess Officier, I’ve been going there ever since J. One of my favorite Belgian dishes would be “Stoofcarbonade” or “Stoofvlees” as most of us would call it. “Stoofvlees” is a Belgian beef stew made with dark Belgian beer that just has to be served with French fries and accompanied by a nice Belgian “Trappist” beer. I’ve already tried “stoofvlees” in a lot of restaurants and lots of times it is too dry, or they didn’t leave it to rest long enough (what usually should be at least overnight) and therefore the taste isn’t what it should be…. But at Mess Officier it is always sooooo good (writing this makes me actually pretty hungry) and on top of that they make their own French fries and their own mayonnaise (made from mustard and a bit of lemon). This is exactly what I like about places like this, they try to give their best to satisfy the customer!! For people who like organ meat, this restaurant is also for you as they always have some suggestions for Organ lovers, like marrow (mergpijp), calf brains, etc…. Don’t worry guys they really have a wide variety of different dishes!! Mess Officier also always have some nice international wine suggestions that can be taken by bottle or by glass.

Bon appétit!

Retaurant Mess Officier:

Website: no website

Address :

De Burletlaan 187
2650 Edegem, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 294 73 61

Fin du monde

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Moving back to Antwerp after living 2 years in Gent was not the most difficult thing. Don’t get me wrong, I really loved the city, but being from Antwerp, plus having most of my friends and family there…. Always having to drive tons of times between those two cities became endless. If one would ask me, what do I miss? I would then have to say the Sunday open air market in Ledeberg (I’m sure I’ll be talking about this in a future post) and a few restaurants (what a surprise) or actually one restaurant in particular, restaurant Fin du monde. Living in a city for a few years, you try to find nice places to eat, drink, etc… But Fin du monde was something special. I liked the no nonsense attitude. In the summer it was nice walking through the old city,  walking from the “vrijdagmarkt” to the “Patershol”, through this little narrow street were you then would find the restaurant behind an old wooden door. In the beginning both the ground floor and first floor used to be a restaurant, but they now changed the Ground floor in a winebar and the first floor in a restaurant. There is no fix menu, every few weeks the menu changes and they prefer working with daily fresh products. All the dishes would be written on a blackboard, always having at least 1 thing I would like. They would have about 12 different dishes from pasta  to vegetarian tofu dish  to meatloaf… accompanied with some garden salad and mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, etc…  Some dishes can be ordered in smaller portions, because they are really generous. Highly recommended is the chocolate cake as dessert (for the romantic souls one with two forks also gets done 😉 ) Also a nice thing to know, is that all the wines they serve are biological wines. Reserving a table is highly recommended. And after the perfect meal, enjoy Gent’s beautiful city by night…

 All to Gent I would say

Retaurant Fin du monde:

 

Website: http://www.findumonde.be/

 

Address :

Meerseniersstraat 3
9000 Gent, Belgium

 

Phone n°: +32 (0) 9 233 35 33

 

Pazzi Per Pazzo

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Yesterday evening I was in wine heaven again, I went for a drink at restaurant/ wine bar ‘Pazzo’. And you might even take this literally, as when you enter the big wooden door you have to walk up to the first floor where youthen bump against a big glass wine cooling cell as if the world stops there.  The Italian word ‘Pazzo’ means  crazy in English. It definitely  is the least you can say about my love or better passion for wine. For more than 10 years restaurant/ winebar Pazzo is one of my favorite places in Antwerp to get lost in the world of wine and fusion kitchen.  Pazzo is one of the most well-known places when it comes to wines. Owner William Wouters, a longtime friend of my father,  is a well-reputed world class sommelier and won several awards worldwide. So who better to give advice and open a restaurant/ winebar than him?

Last night we started with a gentle white ‘Bossa’ wine. The ‘Bossa’ is actually one of the wines of William wife’s  vineyards in Portugal, an aromatic, crispy and dry white wine. This wine accompanied by some thinly sliced San Daniele ham, grissini and parmesan cheese…. Can the evening start better than this? Then I decided to continue with some red wine, even though the friend who joined me to ‘Pazzo’ is not really a red wine lover. So basically a bigger challenge for Douglas (William’s brother) to find a wine that could convince and make my friend change his mind about red wines. To some this might seem easy, but to find the best matching wine in a constantly changing collection of more than 250 wines, could be a tricky job.  When we got the wine my friend’s exact words were: ‘that taste is right on what I love’. And so we continued to enjoy this perfect evening.

This time I didn’t have lunch or dinner at ‘Pazzo’, but I can highly recommend to everybody to try it. You can see it as a perfect harmonization of French, Italian, Asian and Eastern cuisine. I know it might sound frightening , but Chef Ingrid Neven ‘s motto is ‘ Keep it simple’. Basically have respect for the products that you’re working and don’t over mix tasts. Besides the ‘ à la carte ‘ menu  they also have a black board with lots of suggestions. Both of them change every few weeks. With some fixed values as fresh Goose liver Carpaccio van verse ganzenlever with  aceto balsamico and sel de guérande, Truffels Pazzo’s Style, “Tempura” of gambas with  stir-fried vegetables and light curry. But they have a wide variety of dishes for everybody’s taste, all prepared with care and love. And it is also this that made her Lady Chef of the year 2010

Summerized, No better way to spend an relaxing evening!

Retaurant pazzo:

Website: www.pazzo.be

Address :

Oude Leeuwenrui 12
2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 232 86 82

Other links:

Bossa Vinhos Doidos (bossa wine): http://www.filipapato.net/