Discovering the unknown

July 17, 2013July 17, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 3 Comments

We all travel the whole world and have seen destinations that take 24hours to get there… but what we tend to forget is that our own country or maybe even the area where we live has so much to offer and so many things to discover. In my case I’m talking about Belgium, but I think it counts for everybody all over the world. Not that it is wrong to travel the world, but from time to time instead of planning a city trip or a weekend abroad just pick a closeby destination in your own country. So that’s what I did last weekend in company of a few gastronomical friends like William Wouters & Ingrid (pazzo), Andy de Brouwer (Les Eleveurs) and Aristide Spies (3^rd best sommelier of the world) to name a few. Together we discovered a green area just outside Brussels aka “Pajottenland” that until last weekend was a place I only knew by name.

The initial plan was to discover the gently rolling hills using scooters, but as most people didn’t feel like it the plan got changed and we started our day with a tour in a prairie schooner aka horse and carriage. I had the feeling I was somewhere in France… it might have been the weather and the fact I was speaking French with Aristide, but it did feel like France. Have look at the below pictures and I’m sure you’ll agree?

During our carriage ride I had to think of my mom, it was when we stopped at the windmill used in a Belgian Television series from when she was young “Captain Zeppos”.I’m sure if she would have been there she would have been very excited to see it :-). It was great to hear the mill keeper talk with so much passion about his windmill works and how it is build. I don’t know if you guys ever visited a wind mill, but I was very impressed of how they are designed knowing they are from over 600 years ago. We also had our portion of workout for the day as we had to help to turn the Mill in the good wind direction and it is heavier than one thinks! If you ever get the chance I would definitely visit an old wind mill.

Zeppos Mill (1)

Zeppos Mill (2)

From all that working out and being on the carriage our throats started to get dried out… Lucky for me I was visiting the “Pajottenland” with world renowned sommeliers and they took care of the beverage part 🙂

It all started with a nice aperitif right under the “Witse” tree. FYI “Witse” is another Belgian TV series (crime) I have to admit is started to feel like a tour at the Belgian version of Universal city 🙂

Anyhow the first drink to make our throats less dry was the2000 Poème Cuvée by Glinaros. It might surprise you, but this was/ is a Greek sparkling wine and I didn’t expect it to be this good. The taste had (to me) something dark chocolaty to it and it reminded me a bit of Delamotte champagne , but maybe saying this is like swearing in a church…

Witse tree (1)

We continued our aperitif or better wine tasting at “Het wijnatelier”. At ‘het wijnatelier’ they have a very interesting motto “wine is culture. One does not drink culture. Culture is something you experience. The same goes for wine.” is cultuur. Anyhow if you ever want to have a nice wine tasting I think “Het wijnatelier” is definitely a good location for it! Already for the fact that it is located in a very beautiful building which used to be the old butchery of the current owner’s parents or I even think grandparents. I was really in love with the interior!! On top of that you also get some very nice not always very well-known wines. As you might have guessed after knowing what we had as first taster, the theme of the wine tasting was Greek wines 🙂 that got accompanied with the appropriate appetizers.

Wijnatelier (3)

We almost tasted the whole gamma wines from the Glivanos (sorry website only in Greek)estate. (Besides the rosé). Overall nice wines that tasted very fresh and waaaay better than the Retsina I used to remember from years ago when I was in Greece. I was surprised of the good quality of the Greek wines. Although for me they missed something (not sure what though)… Maybe it is just the fact they weren’t Italian ;-). No no, just kidding. This tasting did open my eyes and my intrest in getting to know more Greek wines. Anyhow there is only one way to find out for you is tasting them at a wonderful place called “Het wijnatelier”. (It had a good vibe)

In my next blogpost I’ll tell you about THE most famous product from the Pajottenland!

To be continued….

The gastronomical Odyssey continuous

July 15, 2013November 29, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 3 Comments

It had been a while so I figured it was time again for another edition of my “Gastronomical Odyssey “that combines the things I love most friends and gastronomical food ( and drinks). This time it brought us (me and my usual partners in crime) to restaurant ‘De Schone van Boskoop’. I could really give a million reasons for choosing ‘De Schone van Boskoop’… Like it already being a fix value in the gastronomical world for 20 years or that is nostalgic to come here as I came here a few times with my parents when I was younger, but also because I really like chef and owner Wouter Keersmaekers who does his ‘job’ with so much passion that when you hear him talk about food it is like hearing a poem… and on top of that he’s just a great guy! Or because I said so in one of my previous blogposts ‘a pupil in the footsteps of his master’.

The motto Wouter Keersmaekers uses at ‘De Schone van Boskoop’ is one I cherish a lot ‘keep it simple’ which doesn’t necessarily have to mean boring… it just means only mixing a few ingredients and having respect for the products you use (and honestly those usually taste best!). A great example of this would be Wouter’s homemade veal sausage with truffle and springs Savoy cabbage mash he served at “Taste of Antwerp”. Simple and yet very refined and only using few ingredients.

One thing I already decided before I came to ‘De Schone van Boskoop’ and that was I would take beer pairing with our menu instead of the usual wine. The main reason because a while ago Wouter was telling me about his new beer cellar, which made me very curious to discover it. (the beer list they have is a very nice one).

I’m also very happy the weather gods were good to us and we could eat outside.

At gastronomical restaurants like ‘De Schone van Boskoop’ I rarely choose ‘à la carte’ dishes as prefer discovering new dishes and eat things I would never pick myself and the best way to do it is choosing one of the tasting menu’s. It is Wouter Keersmaekers himself who comes to each table to explain the menus and suggestions, the only problem about this is that you want to have the menu with all the extra suggestions on top of that making it maybe a 15 course menu 🙂 🙂 (sorry I just love food). Anyhow after a minute of discussion with my table guests we choose to take the ’terroir’ aka “from the field” menu.

Every dish we received that night was a really pleasure for the eye and the taste buds! Via my blog I can only offer you the pleasure for the eye, the taste you’ll have to go and try it yourself 🙂

The gastronomical spoiling started with some ‘amuses’: starting with a calf brain croquette (I know what you’re thinking, but it was better than it sounds…. this is btw a great example why I take a tasting menu as I doubt I would ever order it myself) and fresh herring with amongst other beetroot and horseradish. Continuing with Sea robin (aka snapper, altough for some reason I doubting if we didn’t have barbin instead) with a flan made from broad bean and marinated tomatoes (they were really good!). Our ‘amuses’ got served with a Hopus

Our actual menu started off with Italian veal tarter (a classical dish from Piemonte) topped with Australian truffles. Yes Australian! You honestly didn’t taste they were from Australia. Served with a ‘Chimay Triple‘

It got followed by smoked Scheldt lobster with the last asparagus from the season and a sauce made from milk and bacon. I this might have been one of my preferred dishes of the night. Served with a ‘La chouffe’

Our 3^rd dish of the evening was 3 types of lamb meat all prepared in a different way. First there was the ‘hamburger’ made with the cheek meat, secondly the neck which was slowly cooked and came with a kind of gravy and the third piece was the crispy belly. A dish that fitted perfectly with the Rochefort 8 they served with it

Another dish I will be remembering a while was the dessert ‘vacherin’ with red fruit. Served with ‘Oude Kriek’ which is cherry beer (pretty sour) made at a very small artisan brewery (Hanssens).

The second dessert was a “boskoop” compote with curry, a special combination but not wrong at all 🙂

The crown on the whole evening were the refreshments that came with the coffee… the mind was weak (very weak) I just love ‘canele de bordeaux’ and ‘petite madeleines’… I wouldn’t mind eating a few right now 😉

It got proven to me once again what separates a regular cook from a big chef and why after 20 years they are still and established value! (A big chef with a great team behind him)

Great job guys! Thanks Carlos, Gilles and Stijn for being my partners in crime once again!

Officially old, my 30th birthday

May 27, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

I’m still writing this blogpost as a 29 year old, but I have to face it tomorrow I’ll officially old! Tomorrow (27/05, so today) I’ll be having my 30^th birthday (at 11:15pm to be precise). If it were for me I would have celebrated it in a modest way (with food obviously) and do nothing special… but my friends and especially my beautiful fiancée thought otherwise and they gave me a birthday to remember. I also didn’t know my friends were such good liars or better so good at keeping a secret 🙂 as I really didn’t know anything about it.

The first part of my threefold birthday celebration was with friends at the restaurant of a lovely hostess and friend of mine aka Comocomo which you might remember from one (or more) of my previous blogpost. I can say for a fact that my friends really love me as they spoiled me with gifts!! I’m not worthy to have such great friends 🙂 🙂 I can’t thank you enough. One person (besides my beautiful fiancée) I want to give a special thanks is the lovely Stephanie Straatman! She and my fiancée designed a brand new logo for my blog!!! A true beauty they designed, don’t you agree? Thanks again to ALL of you, you guys ROCK!!

For the second part of my birthday surprise my sweet woman took me to the restaurant from the chef that still up to today has made the best lamb meat I have ever eaten!! It is true I might have given a few hinds about where I wanted to go (yes woman of mine, two can play that game 😉 <3). The restaurant I’m talking about is Giovani Ooster’s “Vous Lé Vous” located in the gastronomical heart of Europe (blogpost) aka Hasselt. I wanted to come here as the few dishes I had tried from Giovani in the past just made me want to have the whole Giovani Oosters Gastronomical experience!

To summarize my whole “Vous Lé Vous” experience… Giovani Oosters is the type of chef I like and that for fits perfectly into the list of my favorite chefs like Ingrid Neven (Pazzo) or Wouter Keersmaekers (Schone van Boskoop) to name a few. Why? Simple you can really see the passion and sparkle in their eyes when they are talking about food or when they are preparing the food and they try to share that passion with everybody (a bit like me) . I just love it! Passion is the best motivation in life!! What I also like about them is their respect and pride of local products which try to use as much as possible. You mostly notice this in the little things like in Giovani’s case the homemade herb butter or the fact that he has his own vegetable and herb garden at the restaurant for example….. This is to me what separates the cooks from the chefs! Take what I said above companied with the perfect team with that same passion you can see on their faces and you have the best gastronomical experience one can have! (with a smile)

Let me start talking about the food, as that is what is all about (besides spending time with my woman) 🙂

We started our evening with a variety of “amuses bouche” a feast for both the eyes as the taste buds. Rice croquettes, cucumber bonbon, salmon and asparagus role … just to name a few…. I had a classical “Gin tonic” with it, but they had replaced the gin with a local grain jenever.

It might see unbelievable, but it got even better. Let me present to you the menu “Vous Lé Vous” served us:

Mackerel Escabeche with green celery, black olive crackers and crumble and something called green star accompanied with a 2011 (white) Spanish Arindo Verdejo from Bodegas Shaya

Fried green asperge with a wild garlic mayonnaise, an Alken goat cheese crème and frog legs accompanied with a 2012 South African (white) Chenin Blanc/viognier from Bellingham vineyard

Langoustine with a asparagus carpaccio and mango and citrus flavors accompanied by a 2011 French (white) La Gascogne aka Gros Manseng – Sauvignon Sec wine by Brumont

Veal sirloin with chateau potatoes with lemon verbena, grilled asparagus and mini mushrooms accompanied by an 2011 (red) Italian Avignonesi from Cantaloro vineyard

Cod fish with chateau potatoes with lemon verbena, grilled asparagus and mini mushrooms accompanied with a 2010 Argentinian (white) Septima (chardonnay/torrontes)

Desserts: Chocolate and coconut explosion, a rhubarb, hibiscus and Wellen strawberry dessert, a yogurt, pictache, pineapple dessert accompanied by a Spanish Moscatell Priorat from Rotllan Torra vineyard.

With the coffee also came some njammy delights! Even a chocolate “praline” with mustard

Wasn’t I right that it was a treat for the eyes? If you also want to agree with me on the taste part I can only suggest for you to go to Vous Lé Vous and try it… or to “Limburg proeft” where Giovani will also be present (amongst other great chefs/restaurants). Also a very good selection of wines Harald (sommelier) paired for us!

We stayed overnight at Vous lé vous’ chocolate room… this way we didn’t have to worry about drinking too much.

I don’t mind celebrating my birthday, but I don’t like the spotlight being on me (you know what I mean?) So I never tell when I’m having my birthday dinner… but I didn’t organize it… ok ok I’ll stop b…shitting, it is nice to get the extra attention…

Thanks again to Giovani, Harald (sommelier) and the rest of the “Vous lé Vous” team and to my beautiful fiancée for looking and being as great as always!

My birthday wouldn’t be my birthday without also having my family and especially my mom with me to celebrate it (yes, I’m a mama’s boy, so what?!)…. so the third and last part (unless I still have something coming?) was at my brother’s place for some lovely cake which was the perfect ending of a perfect weekend and now I’m all ready for a new decade!

Cheers!

Music was my first love… Or was it food?

May 7, 2013May 7, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Not all of you guys might know it, but I have a bit of a music history. Around the age of 11 I started playing drums and has always been a big passion of mine. Over the years I got quit good at it (but I don’t like to brag) and I was fortunate enough to meet some of the best musicians I might even say legends that have played with the biggest names. Through the years some of these people turned into very good friends. Initially they saw me as a drummer/musician, but as more time past (and I started to enjoy food more) they saw me more as a synonym for good food (on top of the drummer/musician). It is true I could be the synonym for worse things 🙂 . It actually works in two ways whenever they are on tour and they stop in Belgium I take care of them and make sure they’ll be tasting the best Belgium has to offer, whenever I’m visiting the country or better city they live in they do the same for me. Nowadays I don’t play too much drums anymore as at a certain moment choices had to be made (but that is what life is all about I guess). What I do still enjoy is combining my passion for food and the company of some great musician friends. A top combo if you ask me.

Last week was one of these occasion I had some friends of mine from the US passing Belgium on their World Tour. The only “disadvantage”is that they were staying right in the city center of Brussels, I needed to find something not too far from their hotel (they are already enough on the road as it is)… preferably in walking distance. If it would have been in Antwerp there would have been a million places I’d know to take them, Brussels on the other hand is more difficult. Especially near the “Grote Markt” as taking them to a “tourist trap” is the last thing I want to do. Lucky me that I had Andy De Brouwer (who you might know from restaurant Les Eleveurs) to save the day. To make a long story short, we went to restaurant “La roue d’or”. La Roue d’or is a typical Belgian Brasserie serving classical Belgian dishes in the way they are supposed to be served and the way our grandparents would do it (so basically by not using light products, or my way of thinking).

Funny enough from all the types of cuisines I propose to all my friends visiting Belgium, they are always craving to eat mussels, Flemish beer stews, etc…, drink beer and have some freshly made waffles as dessert (or crème brulée). If that’s what they want, than that’s what I’ll get for them, as making people happy and making them feel home is definitely the thing I like to do most! I’m sure you can’t wait to hear what I ate, well I had the meatball stew with beer and Sirop de Liège sauce and onions ( I so love meatballs) accompanied with some great Belgian beer of course!! It must be said they were very good and tasty food! The most popular dish at the table were the Mussels with a white wine sauce… all plates were empty and I only saw smiling faces, you do the math!

If you ever have foreign friends visiting, you know where to take them now (when in the center of Brussels)!

The next day I went to see the band play in a sold out venue (aka Sportpaleis) and it might have been one of the best shows I’ve seen from them (even better than the other ones I saw). One thing is sure a band stands and falls depending of the musicians playing in it… you can have the best singer, but when the band sucks (or vice versa) it won’t be doing any good to the total picture 🙂 Alecia can consider herself very lucky she has some of the best that are around! Keep spreading the love…

I’m actually curious to know if you guys found out which band I’m talking about, maybe the below picture might help 🙂 (I did give a few tips in the text)

Thanks guys, you rock and see you in LA!

Tasting with the pro’s

April 25, 2013October 14, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to join Belgian sommelier guild for a tasting of Colombo wines (no, not from the TV show). If you say wine, you also say food… that’s why the tasting took place at Le grill aux herbes that gets a 17/20 in the Gault Millau Guide (very high score). When it comes to wines, I’ll have to be honest that I know more about Italian wines than about French wines… but now thanks to my blog step by step I’m getting more familiar with all the great wines France has to offer, like on last year’s trip to the Loire valley. Although I also learn a lot by reading blogs from friends of mine like JDR or wine chick Miss Vicky Wine (who has a cool new website) and of course also thanks to my good friend William Wouters (Pazzo) and the Belgian Sommelier Guild. Don’t get me wrong, not that I didn’t know anything at all 🙂 🙂 I did, but Italian wines were just more present in my life.

Anyhow, back to our wine tasting. I didn’t know Colombo wines, but it was my friend William who said I really had to taste these wines as they are very good and something I shouldn’t miss… So I followed his advice 🙂

Colombo wines are the life work of Jean Luc Colombo and his wife Anne who started in 1984 making wine at their vineyard in Cornas better known as Côtes du Rhone region. Since 2010 their charming daughter Laure joined them in making the wine and I can say for a fact that she putting her own stamp on the Colombo wines. So the future of Colombo wines is guaranteed!

An important grape for their wines is the Syrah aka Shiraz grape. The Syrah grape gives you a full-bodied and powerful wine. Just think of flavors like dark chocolate, black pepper, Arabica espresso. So if you are not a fan of this grape or full-bodied wines I’m not sure you’ll like these. I had no problems with it as Syrah happens to be (next to Nebbiolo, Corvina and Merlot to name a few) one of my favorite grapes. As I mentioned in the beginning of my post I was here with some people of the Belgian Sommelier Guild which actually make the tasting more interesting as you can learn a lot from the pro’s. I also ran into an old classmate who I haven’t seen in at least 10 years….

We tasted the whole Colombo gamma and I was surprised about the variety Colombo has. The only way was up, we started with their white “table” wine (maybe this is an understatement) and only went crescendo from that point to end with the top of the bill their “les ruchets”. I could start defining the taste from each and every wine, but there were just too many we tried and not being a wine blogger I’m not sure if I could put it in as good writing as my friend wine bloggers could do it… what I do know is what I like and what I don’t like and I definitely liked every single wine I tasted from Colombo What I can suggest you to do is check the Colombo website and see the technical specs, buy some Colombo and see if the tastes match and try to recognize them:-)At least that’s how I would do it (every excuse to buy wine is good enough). BTW if you want to have more info on where to buy Colombo wines, please check with Mampaey wines and spirits. This tasting has also learned me that from time to time have an expensive taste, eventhough I loved all wines, it must be said that the last two we tasted the les ruchets 2009 and 2010 were everything I look for in wine.

It might surprise you that I didn’t start talking about the food yet, but this time I just wanted to share something about the wines. But I’ll let the pictures from our food speak for itself. I could indeed suggest that if you are ever around Brussels, you might want to stop at Le grill aux herbes for lunch or dinner. You won’t regret it! My compliments to Chef Evan Triantopoulos.

I’m sure it won’t be too long before I’ll be visiting the Colombo vineyards (I even have a few wine partners in crime in mind to join me 🙂 )

Thanks to Laure and Evan (and all my table guests) for this wonderful tasting!

Welcome Malcolm McChouffe

April 24, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

I don’t know if you guys remember it, but last summer the mascot of the La Chouffe brewery Marcel Chouffe (on picture below) got stolen. I’ve got no idea how they did it as the wooden sculpture weighs over 200kg , so it’s not that you can quickly move it…. but it seems that La Chouffe items are very wanted.

This Saturday we were proud and happy to be able to welcome Malcolm McChouffe aka Marcel’s cousin. Malcolm will now be pointing the direction towards the little town called Achouffe (where the La Chouffe beer is made), overlooking his cousin’s empty barrel, hoping one day he will be joined again by his missing cousin! As the name might have already revealed, Malcolm is Scottish. So I cannot think of a better way to welcome Malcolm than on the tunes of the bagpipers?? Could you? I know not everybody likes it, but I really do (that’s the little drummer in me)!! I always feel like taking a snare drum and marching along!

I first feel like sharing a piece written by a Walloon writer and Beerologist Rony Couteure after a visit to the La Chouffe brewery. I really couldn’t express it better myself:

“In the annals of his forefathers McChouffe, a Scottish gnome from the Edinburgh woods, discovered the origins of his lineage. More and more he became suspicious that long lost nieces and nephews were waiting for him in the Belgian Ardennes. One Scottish morning he decided to bid farewell to the land of his birth and to go and seek out his foreign family. He travelled for months and took shelter in many golden mushrooms along the way. He enjoyed luxurious herbs in the Belgian beer land until suddenly he found himself at the edge of the dark Ardennes wood. Without hesitation he entered the deep wood but swiftly lost his way between the trees which resembled each other more and more. For days he wandered around until suddenly a stimulating smell of hops lured him to the brewing village of Achouffe. McChouffe was welcomed with open arms by the Achouffe gnomes. They told him all about themselves and their lives and this culminated in a great feast which went on until the early hours of the morning.

During this intoxicating feast McChouffe met the fairy Fleurdor and, as if a bolt of lightening hit his heart, he fell madly in love. The beautiful fairy persuaded him to give her the secret recipe for a brown beer which was once brewed in his fatherland. With his Ardennes family he set everything in motion to brew this beer. As an old and wise gnome he returned to Scotland with the fairy Fleurdor. Their many children are still roaming around there.

In order to keep up this tradition, Brasserie d’Achouffe is still brewing this special brown beer: McChouffe which is rightfully named “Skotch van de Ardennen” (Scotch beer of the Ardennes).

This legend was told by Professor Servoisius, alias Ronny Coutteure, God rest him…”

Of course after all this visiting and listening our throats needed some moisture! Being a very curious person (at a brewery) and wanting to make sure I only give good notes to my readers I felt obligated to test all the types of beer the La Chouffe brewery offers (Yes, this is how much I love you guys). It must be said that the beers were served in tasting glasses, otherwise I’m not sure how my visit would have finished ;-). Anyhow please find the whole La Chouffe gamma on the following link. I did learn during this ‘tasting’ that I prefer dark beers :-), I’m not really into the Houblon Chouffe (aka Triple) as for me it is a bit to bitter, but according to what I’ve learned during my introduction in the world of beer & women, women prefer drinking bitter drinks… so ladies do the test!

At the end there is only one question to ask ourselfs

I do hope you guys will one day be able to visit this brewery and very beautiful part of Belgium! With a good glace of La Chouffe of course… I got enchanted, hope you will too. We can only hope that one day the empty barrel beside Malcolm will be joined again by his cousin Marcel.

FYI, Malcolm is under camera surveillance, so don’t get any crazy ideas!

For some reason I think I’m related to Malcolm (picture taking after tasting)

A million reasons to go to the Taste of Antwerp

April 17, 2013April 17, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

Not that I need that much convincing to go to the “Taste of Antwerp”, but maybe you guys do? So let me give you a looooooooot of reasons why shouldn’t miss this year’s edition that will take place from May 9^th to 12^th.

The first reason would already be the fact that some friends and acquaintances of mine are participating at this year’s edition, like 12 place du marché, Comocomo, mamakookt, De Schone van Boskoop (Michelin awarded), restaurant Ardent , ‘t Leeuwekopke and also Cheese masters Van Tricht… and if those names are not enough do check the rest of the list of participating restaurants and get blown away!! There are even some restaurants on it that I have on my wish list (some got added during the press conference 🙂 ) and I’m not only talking about the still to open “La Chapelle” 🙂

This year’s edition has changed a bit according to last editions. First of all “Taste of Antwerp” changed the location from the Vlaamse/ Waalsekaai to Waagnatie (in Navigation system you need to enter Rijnkaai 150). Secondly, and I know it might seem like bad news at first, but since this year an entrance fee of 5 EUR will be asked… but in exchange and in addition to your “entrance ticket” they give you 2 beverage vouchers… so the entrance fee is more a symbolic fee if you ask me.

Something else that is new on this year edition is the “Bowers & Wilkins Theater”. At this theater you’ll be able to follow master classes and cooking demonstrations from participating chefs, Beer & wine tastings, Autographing sessions, etc… The full schedule will soon come online.

I hear you think, this all sounds nice, but will the actual food cost me? Well the dishes will be costing between 4 and 7 EUR, which is a very reasonable price considering you’ll be able to try dishes from 3, 2 and 1 Michelin star awarded restaurants, explore new types of cuisines like Peruvian, Nepalees or Ethiopian. If you are as greedy as me and feel like trying everything from every restaurant, it might indeed get more expensive than imagined, but you guys won’t worry that is just very greedy me talking 😉

In case you feel like lifting it up a notch, you might consider taking the VIP-arrangement? This arrangement costs 99,99 EUR and has to be booked online via following link . But what do you get for this price? A very important question, I’ve listed it up for you:

1 + Entrance to Taste of Antwerp and the Bowers & Wilkins Theater (valid whole day)
2 + Access to the luxurious VIP pavilion.
3 + Reception by a hostess
4 + A glass of Perrier-Jouët champagne at arrival
5 + Coupons for Taste of Antwerp dishes with a value of 40 EUR
6 + Beer and cheese pairing with the Cheese masters Michel Van Tricht & Son and the Duvel Moortgat Brewsery
7 + Beverage à volonté
8 + Goodie bag

You can check the Taste of Antwerp website for more details.

It doesn’t matter which formula you choose to come to the Taste of Antwerp, the most important of it all is that you can enjoy some of the best food Antwerp has to offer! Nothing better than friend, family and great food all in 1 spot! FYI I have already tried some of dishes that will be served and I can say for a fact they are tasty!

Anyway I could keep naming reason why to come, but I have to stop somewhere

I do hope to see you guys at the Taste of Antwerp!

Thursday May 9^th between 14.00 – 24.00 u
Friday May 10^th between 14.00 – 24.00 u
Saturday May 11^thbetween 14.00 – 24.00 u
Sunday May 12^thbetween 14.00 – 22.00 u

My fiancée’s birthday weekend

April 9, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

It seems I didn’t only make my fiancée curious for her birthday weekend, also some colleagues and friends started to ask me yesterday when I’d finally start telling what I had planned 🙂

My fiancée is without any doubt one or maybe even the most important person in my life, she always believes in me, supports me and so much more. So spoiling her is my life mission and I’d do almost everything to make a smile appear on her face (and boy that is one beautiful smile). For me her birthday celebration has to be something to make her feel even more special! Usually my planning already starts around Christmas! Yes Christmas and her birthday is not until April….I just want to make sure that I have time enough to organize everything the way I want it, where I want it and to get everybody free (as people’s agendas are fuller every year). It is indeed a fact that it does become more difficult year after year to still find something as already on her first birthday that we were a couple I took her to Venice and since that time cities like Turin, Rome, Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Thailand, etc….have passed the review! So you can see the “trouble”…

Celebrating only between us two wouldn’t just do the trick, or at least when we go abroad we obviously celebrate it there always by us two, but to compensate it before our trip I organize (without her knowing of course) either something with her friends or her family (or both). This year I chose to do something with her family and I chose restaurant Kamu. Why restaurant Kamu, well it was already on my wish list for a while 🙂 it might not be my birthday, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to eat well 🙂

If you haven’t been to Kamu yet, you should there’s a really good vibe in this restaurant. I definitely also had the best seat in the house (with the best view) of the evening and this was with a view of the open (but with a window in front for the smell) kitchen.

The reason this restaurant actually came on my list thanks to my fiancée’s sister 🙂 as she likes Kamu a lot. Anyhow I’m wondering off, we came here to eat something and I’m glad we did! Chef Emanuel opened our taste buds by serving us a homemade spring roll filled with duck confit, young spinach and black olive crumble as appetizer. I
also couldn’t imagine a better beverage to start the festivities than some
sparkling wine? Our choice went to the Joan Sarda cava.

At restaurant Kamu you can either go for the 3 or4 course menu or you can choose “à la carte”. We took the 3 course menu that we accompanied by a 2009 red Italian Barbera d’Alba by Reverdito. Piemonte is one of my favorite wine regions, after Valpolicella and Valtellina… I like them as the wines always have these very round tastes…

After the appetizer the first dish chef Emanuel prepared us was a Carpaccio from sea bass (if I remember it well). This got followed by some veal with black salsify and what we call in Dutch “smoutebollen “or “Oliebollen” (in Dutch from The Netherlands). Normally these are served at a street carnival and are sweet, but in this case Chef Emanuel made “salty”ones to fit the dish. I always get so happy when I see creative dishes like this.

For dessert we could choose if we wanted either a chocolate or lemon dessert. I picked the lemon dessert. On the tune of Stevie Wonder’s Happy birthday and some fireworks they also brought my fiancée’s dessert 🙂

Overall a very nice meal and a true price/quality value and a successful first part of my fiancée’s birthday as I saw the smile 🙂

So the family part has been done, now our “couple” part starts, but you’ll have to wait for tomorrow to read all about it… I could give a tip, but I actually already gave a tip in one of my previous blogposts about my fiancée’s birthday planning

To be continued ….

Dinner without thinking and going to the supermarket

April 8, 2013April 8, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

I’m sure you guys are all anxious to know more about the birthday weekend I had planned for my fiancée, but for that you’ll have to have another day of patience.

I first want to tell you more about “Smartmat”. Smartmat is a “concept” founded in 2007 in Sweden by a woman called Kicki Theander. The concept existed out of shopping bags filled with ingredients to deliver at people’s homes… I bet you are now thinking “there already exist lots of initiatives and concepts like this”. Yes, which is indeed true, but what makes Smartmat ‘s way more interesting is that they also include very easy to use recipes for these ingredients. Also important to know is that by the end of the week you’ve used up all the ingredients (except maybe some garlic gloves), so you won’t have to worry about leftover ingredients.

A while ago a man called Anders Åsarby who according to his name you can already expect he’s Swedish, thought this might also be a very nice concept to bring to Belgium (as he’s already living here for 20years). So together with Kicki and Dirk De Maeyer they started thinking how they would be able to launch and get this concept going in Belgium. I can say they did a REALLY good job as this is a well thought true concept!! (from the portions, to using everything that is in the bag as the easy to use recipes)

It was actually a friend of mine (Stephanie) who had brought my attention to the existence of Smartmat and I’m glad she did 🙂 :-). The reason for it, well I think the most asked question in every household around the world is “what are we going to eat tonight” (it drives my fiancée crazy). Smartmat actually solves this problem for you as you just subscribe via the Smartmat website, decide the way you would like to pay, the times you which to receive a package (every week, every 2 weeks, etc…) and don’t forget to mention allergies, after that Smartmat does all the thinking for you. Every week they put together a package of ingredients for a week (including vegetables, meat fish, …), add the recipes how to prepare the dishes (explained in around 7 easy steps) and get them to you in the beginning of the week (after working hours + they let you know day before at what hour they’ll pass by). Only one thing for you left to do and this is preparing the dish. Again, it is very well and easily explained, everybody could do it… I feel like specifying a name, but that’ll only get me into trouble, so let’s just call it “people who can’t cook” could even prepare it. There is indeed a list of ingredients you have to foresee at home (like salt & pepper), but find the list here

So the beginning of last week I had my first package delivered

The menu of the week was (and you have to follow the order they put it in the ‘week menu paper’ as some ingredients turn bad quicker than others…) BTW, they were all ready to eat within 30-40minutes

– Lam moussaka à la Smartmat : This came with a rucola, carrot salad with a yogurt /honey/wine vinegar sauce

– Fish with orange sauce and wild rice

– Spring pasta with porc filet

All 3 dishes were nice, but my personal favorite of all 3 was the Spring pasta, after that the moussaka and last the fish. The only reason why the fish is last was because of the rice, I only like eating rice with Asian dishes, otherwise it always remembers me of the million times I had to make calf blanket with pilau/pilaf rice and I hated that dish (still do). I also prepared every dish how they described it (besides the pasta, but still only used the ingredients they provided)

I really like Smartmat because they give a healthy menu that changes every week (some dishes might come back obviously) and I’ll keep doing this, every 2 weeks that is, otherwise the restaurant owners will start striking that I don’t visit them anymore 🙂 🙂

In case you do have some leftover dishes you can in that case either share them with “thuis afgehaald” or you can follow the indications that can be found on “week menu paper” how to freeze the dishes or find out how long you can keep them in the fridge.

OK, now I have tried to convince you enough , I do know that I always write a lot…. but when I like something I really get so excited and want to make sure I convince everybody and want to make sure I don’t forget telling something

P.S.: This is not for people who don’t like everything , as you don’t know in advance what you’ll be eating…

Enjoy!

Taste of Antwerp: News flash

March 28, 2013March 28, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

The list of chefs that will be present at “taste of Antwerp” next month just keeps getting better and better! They already had an impressive list (including some friends of mine) with cheese maturers Michel & Frederick Van Tricht, Thomas Coenen with his team of 12 Place du marché, the lovely ladies of Mama kookt and a bunch of Michelin star awarded chefs, restaurant Ardent, ‘t leeuwekopke, etc…. but the cherry on the cake for me is without any doubt that Sergio Herman and Nick Bril (Sergio’s sous-chef) will be presenting some of “La Chapelle’s” dishes. For you who don’t know “La Chapelle” yet, this is the new restaurant project of Sergio Herman in Antwerp on which they have already been working for 2 years and will finally be opening January 2014 (I’m counting the days for it to open!!). The executive chef in this restaurant will be Nick Bril who has already been for a while at Sergio’s side. So if you already want a sneak peak of what “La Chapelle” will be offering on their menu! (Although I think you’ll have to wait in line for a bit).

Hope to see you there!

You can find the list of restaurant that already confirmed their participation on the following link

Taste of Antwerp

9 – 12 May at “Waagnatie”

Rijnkaai 150, 2000 Antwerp

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