Events

Me versus 117 by Wout Bru

/ dolcevitaspinelli / 2 Comments

117 by Wout Bru

You guys can’t believe how happy I was when I first heard that Wout Bru was opening a “pop-up” restaurant in Antwerp. In the past I tried a few times to get to his restaurant in France, but something always came in-between. So knowing that he would bring his whole kitchen crew from “Chez Bru” with him made it even better, as this way I just knew the level of cooking would be star level, even though you could read in most newspapers that this was not Wout’s aim in Antwerp (but let’s call a cat a cat, even when relocated a Michelin star teams stays a Michelin star team).  So you can imagine that my expectations were high about the food and Wout or shall I say Mr. Bru didn’t disappoint me as I can really give no comments on the food (also not on the quality).  All dishes we got were nice looking dishes that tasted the way they looked.

117 by wout bru

But, yes unfortunately there is also a “but”, it wasn’t the “total experience” one expects to have especially when paying over 100EUR per person (the min. budget you to count at this restaurant is 100EUR, unless you don’t drink). If I think back at my dinners at restaurants like Pure C or even Nuance  where I paid more or less the same price (around 130EUR per person drinks included) I got spoiled from the moment I came in until I stepped outside. This was the thing I was missing at “117” I know they are only open for 5 days and that this is just a “pop-up” and not yet oiled machine (which is logical after 5 days). It were not the big things, but the little things that ‘bothered” (maybe not the correct word to use) me. For example not getting amuses or some “special kind of cookies” with our coffee or when my friend booked the table they asked to make sure we were there punctual at 6 pm (which we were), but they only let us in at 6:10pm….

It was also a shame to see that the serving staff was far from being at the same top level as the kitchen staff. It felt a bit like sitting in an old rusty car that has a Rolls Royce engine, it drives ok but you just know something missing.  Don’t get me wrong it were all friendly (I admit cute) young ladies, but you just missed that “sparkle” that separates the good from the best. Again, it were the small things like refilling the glasses of wine, not that I’m too lazy me to do it myself, but you know what I mean… especially when you pay 130EUR per person it are just these little things that make it worth going to restaurants like this instead of a regular restaurant.

I think if they do a few small adjustments in the serving area they will make this “pop-up” experience a trip the wonderful world of gastronomy for everybody. It would be a loss if Wout’s impeccable reputation as chef and restaurateur would become less (in the eyes of lots of people) after this “pop-up” adventure. Because I know they are the best and that’s where they should always belong!

Ok, enough of the “bad” comments, back to the good part of the night (besides my wonderful table guests!)! The food was without any doubt very good and did indeed pet my taste buds! (for a correct price to my opinion).

Feast your eyes on some of the Njammy dishes we were fortunate enough to try! I have to be honest that I don’t remember in which order I got them (besides the desserts), so I’ll just show them in the order I think it was 🙂

FYI, I didn’t eat all these dishes myself 🙂 we had 5 courses per person. Just move your scroll over the picture, this will bring up the hoover text specifying which dish it was.

117_Vitello Tonnato

117_veal sweetbreads

117_belgian endive with ham

117_veal cutlet   117_king crab 117_milk pig  117_porc legg with truffle 117_seabass

117_ lobster lasagna

117_Feuillantine

117_tarte citron

My personal favorite dishes were the Milk porc and the lobster lasagna.

To accompany our wonderful food three of us first took a glass of Jané Ventura cava (the 4th person took a Hendrick’s Fever tree Gin and Tonic) after that we had a white Italian Gavi di Gavi followed by  a 2009 red Gevrey-Chambertin from Domaine Marchand –Grillot. The red wine was slightly young, but after it got some air it opened up nicely.

117_Gevrey Chambertin

I’m sure this won’t be the last time I’ll try Wout’s food, next time i’ll go to to Chez Bru to get Bru-anized. One thing is sure, the good food made me happy and I have the picture to proof it.

117 happy me

FYI: A great surprise yesterday evening was to see Dagny Ross enter the restaurant to have dinner. To all the men reading my blog, she even looks better than on TV (or is this inappropriate to say now that I’m engaged? :-))

If you are lucky you might still be able to find a free spot at this restaurant, check http://www.117bywoutbru.be for it.

Proud to be a Belgian

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One should always be proud of its local products! Me for example I ‘m very proud to be Belgian and Italian (I’ve got both nationalities). Lucky for me that these 2 countries are filled with products from a very high quality and that are world renowned! Yes both countries!! I’m sure you’ll probably be able to some up more Italian products than Belgian products or Brands. I think a reason for this might be that sometimes you know the name (or heard of it), but you didn’t realize that it is actually a Belgian product. A perfect example of one of these products is “Mandarine Napoleon”, I always thought it was a French brand… but boy was I wrong 🙂 This product is 100% Belgian.

For who doesn’t know “Mandarine Napoleon”, I’ll give a little history lesson which will explain more about the background from this drink of Emperors.  What you first of all need know is that “Mandarine Napoleon” is a Belgian fruit liqueur. Although the liqueur originates around 1892, it was actually much earlier that the “foundations” for this liquer got discovered. Around the end of the 18thcentury and begin of the 19th century one of the main ingredients of “Mandarine Napoleon” (Mandarins 🙂 ) were seen as a luxury product as they could only grew in China and you can imagine how long a boat trip from China to France around 1769 would take. A bit later they discovered that mandarins could also be grown in places like Corsica, Andalusia or Sicily (basically they need very hot temperature to grow). One day a guy named Antoine-François de Fourcroy (aka Napoleon Bonaparte’s doctor) had the idea of soaking mandarins in a mix of alcohol and cognac (and of course distillate it). I’m not sure, but I also think it was because the mandarins were already cheaper than the time they had to be imported from China (so more affordable)so easier to start experimentig with them. FYI I’m imagining a dude with long white curly hair and white tights, you know like the English people in the House of Parliament in front of a copper distillery. I know this is not relevant info, but I needed to share it :-). (But the picture below shatters the image in my head) Anyhow, so to make a long story short, Napoleon tried the “drink” made by Mr. de Fourcroy and liked it a lot and dranks lots of them during his life! As I said it was after that only around 1892 that the Froucroy family (Belgians from around Brussels) decided that refine the Antoine-François’ drink by adding herbs and spices (the same recipe still gets used today). This resulted that on today’s day Napoleon gets exported to 137 countries and gives everybody who drinks or tastes it the same pleasure it gave Napoleon Bonaparte 200 years ago (maybe even more, because of the extra ingredients)….

What a nice piece of history, isn’t it? I have to be honest that I had never tried “Mandarine Napoleon”, not until last week that is! Last week the owners from “Mandarine Napoleon” had asked the Belgian/Dutch from Antwerp Michelin star awarded and Njam chef Roger Van Damme (het gebaar) to create 2 desserts that would match with a glass of Mandarine Napoleon on the rocks and with a cocktail based on Mandarine Napoleon. FYI, for making the cocktail they had asked the renowned Manuel Wouters (who knows really everything about cocktails) from Sips bar, who made a really beautiful and yummy cocktail (one of those that you don’t notice that you’re drinking alcohol)

It is obvious that it wasn’t an easy job for Roger to find and create a dish with this Liquor (or any drink for that matter), but during a small workshop in his kitchen Roger told us how and which steps he took for making this exquisite and beautiful dessert(s). Something he didn’t want to do was serve us the obvious, which would have been dark chocolate (just think of the orange filled cookies they sell in the supermarktet). So Roger started looking further and looked at what ingredients (or some of the ingredients) that get used to make “Mandarine Napoleon” besides mandarins.

All this brainstorming resulted in a heavenly dessert with some the softest ice I have ever eaten! As surprise they also filled the ice cream ball with an extra flavor (when you cut the ball in two it looked like a boiled egg) . When eating dessert is was like a party in your mouth. A mix of sweet tastes from white chocolate combined with fresh flavors from mango and passion fruit with from time to time a salty taste in between that accentuates the flavor of the chocolate…and those are only a few of the flavors I tasted. To make the experience of the dessert ever better they served the dessert on a plate (I might even all it a box) that had all the ingredients from “Mandarine Napoleon” under it. This way you could experience the smell (as you know from my Foodpairing blogpost you taste mostly with your nose) from the ingredients and gives another dimension of tasting the dessert.

The second dessert were actually pancakes that got pimped with Mandarine Napoleon, this to show that food doesn’t have to be complicated to be good and tasty. (This dessert reminded me of Crêpe Suzette, but without the ice cream)

I wasn’t really a Liquor lover in the past, but Roger and Manuel did a good job convincing me to try Liquor more often 🙂 Thank to both of them and also to Mandarine Napoleon to let us have this great experience. It are products like this that make me very VERY proud to be a Belgian!

Btw, if you also want to try the desserts, you can always go to restaurant ‘Het Gebaar’ and hope these desserts are on the menu :-). If you want to try Mandarine Napoleon, you can find it in most supermarkets  ….

Mmm, what a long post, but now I’m sure you get the whole picture 🙂 🙂

Women and beer part 2

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Who is this Sofie Van Rafelghem I was talking about in my blogpost? Well Sofie is a young lady who has done law school and decided to start studying for Wine sommelier, but in the end ended up becoming Beer sommelier. I’m not sure anymore how it exactly happened, but she got in contact with beer and it was love at first sight… so she changed and became a beer sommelier instead of a wine sommelier and now even has her own beer that she initially started to make in her own kitchen 🙂

What is Sofie’s goal? Well she wants to get rid of the macho image around beer and also encourage women to drink more beer as beer can be as elegant as beer (maybe just by serving it in a wine glass or so …)

As this event was at Duvel Moortgat, there was of course also some beer to try 🙂 and boy did we try some beer. On top of that they also asked Ilse Dupocheel to do some food matching with the beers.

During our walk through the Moortgat assortment we started with a nice glass of Cuvée (not to start cliché) which for me was a perfect way to open your taste buds. This glass got served with some nice fresh oysters (you can’t go wrong with oysters).The cuvée is a beer cherry beer that gets fermented between 18 months and 3 year and only gets made 1 time per year.  This got followed by some Vedett Extra white with some marinated mackerel, string bean, lemon and wasabi (with the last to give it that little touch of spiciness).  Did you know that the Vedett beer gets made (besides with the regular ingredients for beer) with ingredients like dried orange peels and coriander? (I was as surprised as you are now!!)

Who says Moortgat, says Duvel so the next beer on the list was the one and only Duvel  The Duvel got matched with another typical Belgian product, mussels, prepared with chicory, chorizo and a butter sauce (so all typical belgian besides the chorizo). I did miss some fries (but that might have been the greedy person in me that wanted them).

No, it didn’t stop there! FYI, it were all smaller glasses in which we got our beers served (No, not a good enough excuse?) The next to taste was a Dark Maredsous , a beer that the gets made by the Benedictines whoalready started making around the year 768… so you can imagine how much tradition there and knowhow there is put in the making of the beer… This beer has a soft aftertaste with some notions of chocolate and caramel (just try the beer (and drink slow) and I’m sure you’ll agree). This aftertaste is a perfect match with some Tuna and some puffed paprika .

The next beer on the menu is not really my personal favorite (because it is to bitter), but it seems that is a beer that is liked by most women…. the beer I’m talking about is that Houblon Chouffe. This beer is also known as the La Chouffe Triple. This is a beer that doesn’t get filtered). This beer is in good balance with a dish with pork (which has a sweet sugary/fatty taste) with some celeriac crème and a sojasauce (the salty part).

And our last beer for the night (we did indeed eventually stop drinking) was the Liefmans Goudenband (yes indeed, made by the first or one of the first Belgian Female head brewers was Rosa Merckx-Blanquaert) . This is a more complex kind of beer and is even unique brown beer that gets fermented between 4 and 12 months  in the cellars at Liefmans and has a very strong aroma. When I think of strong aroma’s I also think of goat or sheep cheeses… which was also what Ilse matched it with. She had foreseen a gingerbread toast with some apple jam and sheep cheese.

I’m really happy that I got the try all these beers and being surrounded by so many wonderful women made this experience even more unforgettable (that’s another reason why women should start drinking more beer). I also think and hope that more women will start drinking and appreciating beer …

If you would want more inspiration regarding beer/food matching, checking the Beer Bits book might be a good start. In case you want to know more about beers you can check the beer consumers’ organization website Zythos

What better way to end than with a quote from Kaiser Welhelm:

“Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world.”

Women and beer

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For some reason women and beer don’t always seem to go together? Or better that is what most men think. Personally I think those words fit perfectly! After my workshop with Sofie Van Rafelghem’s at Duvel Moortgat I got convinced even more that not only those words are a perfect match, but also that if it were not for women maybe there wouldn’t have been beer at all! Yes indeed, no beer at all! The first fact is that the first actual ‘beer recipe’ was a tribute/homage to the goddess Ninkasi from between 5000-3000 BC.

On top of that fact it is also known that until 17thcentury it were only women brewing beer. Mostly this beer was made by priestesses. They were making the beer because most men saw it as an inferior job and therefore good enough for women. It was even so that if the beer they made was too good or too bad these priestesses got executed for this! (Cruel times). It wasn’t until men in the 17th century noticed that a lot of money could be earned with making beer. From then on beer became a really manly drink with for some reason a macho tone to it. We cannot get around it; all beer related advertisement is always focused on men drinking it… I think if marketers would get rid of that macho image in the commercials more and more women would start drink beers. Although I have to admit that most women I know drink beer, all kinds of beers. The fact that women only drink fruitier or sweeter beer is a misconception.

Maybe we should also add some science to convince you? As you most probably have read in some of my previous post around beer, one of the key ingredients in making beer is hop (FYI, this plant helps against menopause). To make beer it is only allowed to use the female hop flower (virgin flower). It is even so that there is even a law that forbids planting a male hop flower within x meters from the female flower (not sure which cop would know the difference, but still…).

Sadly enough today’s day there are not too many female brewers in Belgium (or the entire world).  The first or one of the first Belgian Female head brewers was Rosa Merckx-Blanquaert from Brewery Liefmans her stamp and knowhow can still be tasted in the Goudenband. A few other female brewers that come in mind are An de Ryck from brewery De Ryck, Anne-Françoise Pypaert from Orval (she hasn’t yet been named officially as head brewer, because the friars need to get used to the thought) and last but not least Sofie Van Rafelghem herself 🙂 she started making her own beer (first at home, now more professional). I’m not sure if there are more, but I have to say it is pretty poor knowing that we have over 140 official breweries in Belgium. Never say never, maybe one day there will be more female brewers (it is said that women have 30% more taste buds than men, which only help making better beer). Don’t worry, we won’t burn you if you make it too good like in th 17th century  🙂

It becomes more and more clear that women and beer have more in common than we men knew!

To be continued….

Pop up event in a tent with a touch of class

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If you have never had a Michelin star dinner in a luxury tent, you are very lucky! As on 21, 22 and 23 November you’ll have your chance as ‘Taste the seasons’ presents ‘Into the wild’. A culinary event good for networking. What makes this unique is first of all that they have asked the Michelin awarded chef Wouter Keersmaekers (schone van boskoop) to cook  a special autumn menu and Sommelier Steve Bette to forsee some Top wines perfectly matching for this occasion, there will be a 5 star Tent aka Le Quatre Bras and a unique location somewhere in the wild. This time they location is right in the middle of the ‘Brialmontforten’ in Mortsel that were build around 1859. So basically there is even a piece of history included in the package 🙂

It is true that I think this event is more for business people to do some networking with customers or prospects, but honestly I could also see myself eating there with a couple of friends (only tables as of 6 persons available) and who knows maybe I will ;-). I really see this combination work and I’m sure the food will be wonderful, as Wouter has never disappointed me so far …. (and it is hunting season, so prepare youself for some wiiiild dishes)

For reservations or questions about this fabulous event please contact:

Website: www.tastetheseasons.be

E-mail: vip@tastetheseasons.be

Tel: +32(0)486/94.60.51

Young chefs cook for young people 2012 edition

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Vlaanderen lekkerland has outdone itself again to find 39 top chefs to participate in the 2012 edition of ‘Jong Keukengeweld’ (I leave it in Dutch as in English it just sounds cruel: ‘Young Kitchen violence’).

For you that are not familiar with the concept of ‘Jong Keukengeweld’, I’ll explain it briefly. Jong Keuken geweld is basically Young talented Chefs who cook for Young people both under 30 for a modest price of 45EUR. For this price you get 3 course dinner (fix menu) including beverages (wine, water, beer). The participating restaurants are located all over the Flanders, you can find the list of chefs on the following link

It is all about making choices, difficult choices! That is if you don’t want to do all of them :-). There are already 2 restaurants in Antwerp that I can say for a fact that are must do’s if you have the chance, restaurant épicerie du cirque in the center of Antwerp and restaurant Veranda in Berchem (just outside of Antwerp). But of course all of the restaurants on the list are good, up to you to try them!?

The 2012 edition runs from October 1st until November 15th, per chef/restaurant it is indicated you can book a table and the days the menu is available.

FYI, there is also a daily Facebook contest where you can win a dinner at one of the restaurants… (so check their fb-page)

Enjoy.

Taste of Antwerp 2012

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Don’t forget this Thursday THE culinary event from Antwerp opens its doors again on the ‘Vlaamse’ and ‘Waalse’kaai. The 2012 ‘Taste of Antwerp’ Festival is the place to be if you like top gastronomy and a great feast for a modest price.

The prices of the dishes are indicated with ‘b’ (restaurant coupons). You can buy these coupons in strips of 9 for 10EUR

Thursday at 6pm Vicki Geunes and Roger Van Damme will offically open the culinary event of the year!

You can find more info on Taste of Antwerp on following weblink

If you feel like have something extra special at this event, you might want to book a table to taste the 5 course menu prepared by the Dream team menu. The dream team exists of chefs who have a score over 15/20 in Gault Millau. For this year this team is Viki Geunes (’t Zilte), Wouter Keersmaekers (De Schone van Boskoop), Axel Colonna-Cesari (Centpourcent) and Dave De Belder (De Godevaart). The Masters of cheese Michel Van Tricht & Son will also be serving a special cheese taster.

Reservations can be made via following link

On top of that you can also win one of Belgian’s top chefs to cook in your kitchen, for more info check this link

Hope I’ll see you there!!

Cooking contest for mussel lovers

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If you like mussels, are a creative mastermind in the kitchen and want to be called the Best Belgian Mussel Chef of 2012 participating to this contest is a must!

You will be able to show your skills in front of a professional jury who will choose the best chefs. During the pre-selections you will be judged on how well you know your product and with how much respect and care you handle it. Another reason for participating you get to cook in the Miele Culinary institute  (so you’ll be using top material), get a goody bag and I didn’t even speak about what the winner gets 🙂

The competition is only for hobby chefs, so this way you get to compete against people from the same level as you…

You can subscribe and find more info for the contest via the following link and who knows; maybe you’ll be Belgium’s next Hobby Chef. Subscriptions need to be done before September 10th

For my readers from the Netherlands there is also a competition, they can check the following link for more info

Good luck!

Ristorante del grano, a lunch in paradise

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Saturday I was lucky enough to have lunch at ‘ristorante del grano’ in the middle of the wheat fields or ‘paradise’ as I would prefer calling it. My reason for being here was to try a few new creations of fresh foods producer ‘Come a Casa’ (you know, I’m sure you’ve seen them in the supermarket).

When arrived at the fields, I have to admit that I somehow indeed felt like ‘come a casa’ because the first thing I saw was a ‘Piaggio Ape’ just like my Italian grandfather used to have  (without the logo that is 🙂 )

But I came here to try some new dishes…  So let’s follow the arrow and find our way home

Somehow following the arrow seemed really like going to paradise (but this time I reaaaaally wanted to follow that light)

I have to be honest that when I got asked to try packaged lasagnas, I wasn’t too enthusiastic

I mean, being an Italian and eating lasagna that is not freshly made just doesn’t work (or so I thought)… I have never in my life eaten pre-packed lasagna’s or even other dishes. But I did want to give come a casa the benefit of the doubt, because you can’t judge a book by its cover….

So with an open mind I was ready to try the new products lasagnas ‘Come a Casa’ wanted to introduce, the ‘Lasagna Verdure’ and ‘Lasagna Bolognaise’. For both lasagnas ‘Come a Casa’ used whole wheat flour instead of regular flour to make the pasta.

Why whole wheat? It is said this is more healthy for us, so reason enough 🙂 (FYI, I personally also make my pizza dough with whole wheat flour instead of regular… for me it just gives an extra punch of flavor to your dish).

To my opinion there was no better place for the big introduction than in ‘Ristorante del Grano’

But check out the pictures and you be the judge ….

I shouldn’t forget to show you guys our little place in paradise

So setting perfect-> Check

To open our taste buds, we received some antipasti and some caprese as starter dish (For the wine lovers amongst you, we first got served a Prosecco gran Riserva with the antipasti and a 2010 Pinot Grigio  from Veneto with our starter)

But of course we were here to try the news lasagnas… (I love having more than 1 main course) a bonus was that it got served in style

First we received the Lasagna Verdure served with a 2011 organic southern Italian rosé wine:  Era Terre di Chieti

After that we tried the Lasagna bolognaise served with a 2010 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Col di Sotto by casa vinicola Botter

I did indeed like both lasagna’s, first of all because you can taste that they used fresh ingredients and not only tomato (for the vegetable one), although I personally preferred the bolognaise, I think it is because I need meat 🙂 but I’ sure my veggie friends will enjoy the Lasagna verdure as much…

The only thing I do find strange is that the lasagna got served with salad… but as it looked so good I ate it after my lasagna’s (it would have been a crime throwing this away)

And as if this was not enough, they spoiled us with a trio of desserts lined up for us 🙂

Mascarpone with fresh strawberries and a meringue crumble, panna cotta with red fruit coulis and a classic Tiramisu.

The perfect end of a perfect lunch. If paradise would exist I sure hope it would be like the Ristorante del Grano!

Even though I would prefer making my own lasagna, BUT if I ever won’t be able to make it (or be too lazy, I admit) the Come a casa whole wheat lasagna would definitely be my first choice as a replacement… I’m sure you also won’t regret it

Thanks to the come a casa team and the wonderful hosts for all their care!

TheTricolere a piece of Belgian pride

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For the Belgian National celebration  the 21st of July, the fast-food chain Quick has create an exclusive burger to make the national celebration even bigger. They created the Tricolore, a hamburger in the colors of the Belgian flag. A black bun, some red tomatoes and yellow golden cheddar cheese and this for only 2,50 EUR. The best of all, it will be available from July 20th untill the 22nd in every Quick restaurant in Belgium.

FYI, Quick is also organizing a Drache contest , via the following facebook page you have to guess (before Friday) what temperature it will be on Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Royal Palace in Brussels.  The price is a  Free Quick menu for you and 20 of your friends.

Good luck and if you don’t win I hope you’ll at least be trying the Tricolore.