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My 2013 restaurant wishlist

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2012 was a good year if you ask me. I made lots of nice discoveries and had a lot of great food… but that you’ve seen in my blogposts. I hope you liked them as much as me

I’m sure 2013 will be as promising. A New Year needs a new restaurant wishlist:

I hope to find a nice Indonesian restaurant that serves some great Rendang!

Roca Brothers

Me versus 117 by Wout Bru

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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.

The big apple – part 2

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In the big apple part 1 you could read that I had found a great hotel and the best ways to explore the city. I could start this part talking about what you should be seeing in NYC, but people who know me (and I think people reading my blog as well by now), know that when I travel the most important (or one of the most important) is eating good… so this wasn’t any different for this NYC trip and I’ll keep the things to see for one of the next parts 🙂 because to have enough strength to explore the city one needs to eat well (and most importantely not skip a meal).

Knowing that NYC has hundreds or maybe even thousands restaurants doesn’t make it easy to make a choice of which ones you want to visit in 7 days (I think somebody living in NYC doesn’t even get to try every restaurant). So I decided to bring in some help from friends who go often to NYC, friends living in NYC and NYC friend foodbloggers…. but let me just say that it didn’t make the actual picking of the restaurants easier (as I thought it would)… the Total NY list I had initially might have decreased, but I still had a list of at least 60 restaurants… so I just wrote them all in my little Moleskine cityguide booklet (I liked this as this booklet in pocketsize contained a map of NYC streets and the NYC subway) subdivided per district or are of NYC and checked on the spot which restaurants were close by where I was at that moment. Or that’s what I did most of the time, because there were indeed a few eateries I just had to do in NYC 🙂

In general I found NYC quite expensive to eat, LA or Miami are much cheaper… not that this stopped me from eating of course (a man has got to eat).  What I have to admit is that in general I ate well, but not extraordinary or mind blowing for a normal price (but maybe I’m just too spoiled)… OK, enough jibber jabber and more sharing of eateries, let’s start with where you can have lunch

One of the places I just HAD to try when in NYC was Eataly, I already went there on day 1 for lunch (a man has got to do what a man has got to do). I think I was about to cry out of happiness or maybe have a heart attack of the overwhelming choice of what to eat (really). I have never seen so much great Italian food in 1 place (no, not even in Italy).  You can ask my fiancée, I was like a kid in a candy store (or like a Spinelli in a food store ;-)).  So again we had to choose (it just didn’t stop during this holiday), did we want pizza, pasta, meat, fish, veggie, just some antipasti, which kind of wine did we want…., but we did I we chose to just sit in the ‘middle square’ of Eataly and try different things. Starting with some salumi (ham, salami …) followed by the day special a sandwich with Sicilian sausage) in between (a bit too salty if you ask me) and my fiancée took a salad. Overall a nice meal accompanied with some good wines, but for me a bit too expensive
for what you get… but definitely a great concept and a must see as food lover in NYC

Another eatery everybody told me to go to was the Chelsea Market. At first when my friends talked to me about the Chelsea Market I was expecting to see a kind of open air market in New York were you would be able to eat the things the stalls are selling… But it is actually one very big food court, but with no fast food chains in a very vintage like setting. There are around 35 different small restaurants (American small, not European small) that are all specialized in a type of food, for example a bakery, a lobster restaurant,  a cupcake shop, sandwich shop… BUT the best part of all you can see how everything gets made freshly, because the kitchens are setup with glass walls that allow checking it all out…

Our choice in the Chelsea Market went to Friedman’s lunch where I had a burger (the real deal) served with French fries and Ketchup that was not from Heinz (I was as surprised as you are now) and my fiancée for a Turkey sandwich. A nice lunch for a correct price… but still lots of places to try at the Chelsea market and definitely a place to visit for a nice lunch

The third restaurant I want to share with you guys is Tartinery, a nice little French eatery where you can eat some nice slices of bread, salads or sandwiches AND that has a great wine list 🙂 (Is actually also known for it). Tartinery is located in Mulberry street which is a street in New York’s very own little Italy. I know it has no editorial value, but I just need to share the following. On our way to Tartinery I saw the cooles magnet with the following on it: ‘Not only am I perfect, I’m Italian too’, I wanted to buy it for on my fridge but forgot it. OK, back to Tartinery. For our lunch here I had the Jambon Puree (Ham with mashed potatoes) and my fiancée the Mozza … both nice slices accompanied with a garden salad and for me followed by a ‘Tarte Tatin’. We had a nice lunch with portions big enough for lunch for a still ok price considering it is NYC.

The another lunch eatery I want to share is ‘INO , this was for me the one of the nicest lunch places we had lunch, good, low price, in a quiet neighborhood and very njummy  (Italian influenced)… nothing more to add, just try it yourself. I can say for a fact it wasn’t easy to choose the sandwich or other lunch dish you wanted to eat as they all seemed good…

The last lunch place I want to share is actually for the healthy people amongst you (I want there because I promised my fiancée I would try at least one healthy lunch). This lunch was at Hale and Healthy  and I have to admit that I liked it the whooooole healthy way 🙂 an idea would be to buy your food here and eat it in Central park or NY high line. I went for a healthy sandwich (FYI, the red on the picture is NOT bacon, before you start judging me) and my fiancée this was an even better experience as she could choose everything she wanted in the salad from an almost endless choice of vegetables, nuts, … Definitely the place for you if you like to keep it healthy

Wow, I have told you guys so much… Sorry for that, but I like to make sure you get the whole picture and believe it or not, but to be continued with some dinner spots, tips and things to see in NYC…..

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!

Not all coffee is just coffee

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Coffee is often seen wrongly. Lots of people see coffee as something that helps you to stay awake, to make you warm, etc… But for me coffee is so much more, I see it as a harmonization of smells and tastes. And just like wine or beer it is the master blender who puts all his love and knowledge in the making the perfect coffee for all of us to enjoy.

This is also why I was more than happy to accept the invitation from Douwe Egberts to learn more about the magic and especially craftsmanship that is behind the making of Coffee.  For those who don’t know Douwe Egberts, it is a major Coffee brand that was founded in 1753 (YES, 1753), so if there would be somebody knowing how to make coffee, I’m sure they are having all the experience. Eventhough Douwe Egberts is a very large company, they still succeed of keeping the quality of their product! Which to me is one of the most important things (besides keeping is simple).

Something important to know about coffee is actually that 99% of ALL coffees produced in the world, are either ‘Arabica’ or ‘Robusta’. The big difference between both would be that if you like a strong coffee with a kick, you would be going for a Robusta (I would go for this coffee). Like I said coffee is all about the flavor and smell, the first thing that influences the smell and taste might seem normal. Depending on where the coffee bean comes from it will be having a different taste (normal I would say). For example a Colombian bean will give your coffee a more lemony flavor.

Anther very crucial part of preparing the perfect coffee or ‘blend’ is the burning of the beans. Depending on how long you let the beans burn, you will be getting a different taste.

My favorite part of making the coffee (before drinking it) is the grinding of the coffee… the smell that comes free at that moment is just soooooo wonderful. I’m sure people driving on the Ring in Brussels will have already had the pleasure of smelling the freshly grind coffee from Douwe Egberts (so you know I’m not lying). You just can’t ignore it as it smells so good. It always makes me so happy and actually crave for some coffee 🙂 . Did you know that depending on which coffee maker you use, the coffee beans should be grind differently!? If you are for example using a fresh coffee maker  the beans have to be grind  rougher, whereas for when making an Italian coffee with a Bialetti coffee maker the beans have to grind more finely.

Of course, making coffee really needs the hand of the master blender like André Hoinkis to make the perfect blend of coffee. Although for some of you this might seem like a very easy job, I can assure you that it takes a lot of experience and research to find the perfect combination of beans and the time it should be burning. If not a balanced well you will get one crappy coffee 🙂

You might have already seen the new commercials on TV or in magazines about the new types of coffee Douwe Egberts has launged. What André Hoinkis together with the other master blenders  they have tried to create 4 types of coffee, these 4 types should cover and please all the types of coffee drinkers. These 4 all have their own character, going from very strong and complex (Black) , a normal milder tasting coffee (Delicate) to a very balanced blend (Original).

The fact that I could drink all these coffees without sugar, really means they are good, otherwise I would have added so much sugar you could straighten your spoon in it . Now it is up to you guys to see what kind of fruits, nuts, etc… you taste or smell in these coffees. You will be  surprised what you will find.

The last thing I really want to share with you is actually how Decaf coffee is made.  Something Important to know about decaf, is that it is never 100% decaf :-), there is always still 0,1% of caffeine in it as it would be impossible to take it all out. The taking out of the caffeine already happens with the Green bean (so almost immediately after picking it and removing its holster). As this way they can take the caffeine out and still keep most of the flavor. There are 2 ways that are mostly used. The first is the water-carbon method (H2O/C)  where water will stream over the green beans for as long it takes to dissolve the caffeine in the water (they reuse the water, so nothing gets wasted). The second way would be the dichloromethane method (DCM). Here they will be using dichloromethane to dissolve the caffeine.

I know this might seem very technical, but I really needed to share this with you guys!

I really would like to thank Douwe Egberts and André Hoinkis for revealing some the secrets of making the perfect blend of coffee!

Boy meets local products

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

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

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

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

This was the plate I had in front of me

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An Italian in Spain part 1

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You might think it is not easy for an Italian (ok, half Italian) to admit he likes Spain? Well it isn’t…. not that I have already travelled a lot to Spain, but what I have seen so far I liked. Although Italy will always be my nr 1 country to visit 🙂

My favorite city in Spain until now is without any doubt Barcelona. Barcelona is one of the few cities in the world where one immediately feels like coming home. This city has something for everybody for food lovers, art lovers, beach lovers, etc…. the list is endless.  Last year I took my girlfriend to Barcelona as a birthday gift… why Barcelona well, this city combines everything you expect from a city together with sea and a beach. So this way (if the weather permits it) you can enjoy both, which worked out perfectly for us and we  had the best 5 days ever.

Like in every city, there are always a few ‘mandatory  ‘ visits you have to do. Funny enough that most of these sight in Barcelona are designed by Gaudi :-). One of the most famous is  the Sagrada Familia,  it is indeed an impressive cathedral…Although we didn’t enter it, as I found 13EUR pp.  a lot to visit a ‘church’.  Another ‘Gaudi’ sight was Park Güel. Simply beautiful with impressive entrance and this park was bigger than I had imagined it…  The most famous piece  at this open air museum is without any doubt the mosaic bench. You also have a great overview over the whole city from here A tip, first visit Park Gel and then  Sagrada Familia, as it is on your way back to the city center.

There are of course much more must see museums and parks (for who likes it of course), like the National Museum of Art of Catalonia , Montjuïc park, Palau de la Musica Catalana, Liceu opera house etc…

But as I was here, only going museums (especially with great weather) isn’t the only thing one wants to be doing 🙂 . One of the things you can also do in Barcelona is shop until you drop 🙂  and you guys know how much the ladies like to see all those shops, so better put on some good footwear! Like in every city, usually the men are waiting outside of the shop. I also have never seen soooooooooo many Zara’s in my life.

The central place in Barcelona is Plaça de  Catalunya , from this square you have roads leading you to all the sights, La Rambla,  Passeig Garcia (this is where you can find all the fancy shops) , …  La Rambla was actually one of the places in Barcelona I liked least , it was too busy, lots of pickpockets and I don’t know I just didn’t like it. Only 1 exception, what did like on the Rambla was Mercat de la Boquiria! I have never seen so much food displayed in one place, so foodlovers and maybe even nonfood lovers… This is maybe one of my favorite sights in Barcelona ;-). FYI, they all cut the fruit, etc… if you want to eat it siting at the beach or on a bench in one of the parks …

I know this trip was for my girlfriend’s birthday, but food was still a very important part of this trip! The Mercat de la Boqueria is something you really have to see, but for people who don’t like this crowded places, you can find covered market places like this  all over Barcelona. A great alternative is  Mercat de Santa Caterina, with one of the most colorful rooftops 🙂 and a very nice little restaurant Cuines Santa Caterina in this Market  (you also a a tapas bar, sushi bar, take away, …).

 

To be continued….

May the force be with you

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This weekend  Quick France (French/Belgian fast food chain) sold a special Dark Vader burger. Although  I’ve never been a big Star Wars fan, when food gets involved I started to get more interested. I know it might seem over the top to drive to France to have a hamburger, when at the local Quick they also sell special hamburgers as tribute to the new Star wars Episode 1 3D movie… But what makes the French burger more special than the burgers they make here in Belgium, well first of all the bun they use was black (and not because they burned it! On top of the black bun, they also add red peppers to spice up the burger… At first it seemed a little bit too far for me just to get a burger, but let’s just say that Valentijn (who asked me to join him to France) didn’t need to much pep talk to convince ;-)and well, this burger was only available this weekend

So after a one hour drive we finally laid eyes and hands on the one and only ‘Dark Vader burger’…

And I must admit it was worth the drive. I was also surprised of the amount of Belgians who were there to try it :-), but I’m sure they were bigger Star Wars fans (too bad that they didn’t wear a Darth Vader outfit 🙂 ). I’m sorry you guys didn’t try it, next time Quick pulls a stunt like this, I’ll inform you

The force was definitely with me!

A night in Filipino heaven, Spinelli and the Peks

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That I like food, will not come as a surprise…. I’m also very curious to taste new things and learn more about them… So a while ago I asked a Filipina friend of mine aka Samantha :-), if she was able to teach me or maybe cook together with me some traditional Philippine dishes  … Because I’m going to be honest, what do/did I actually know about the Philippines? Besides that it are islands, that it has been a colony from Spain and that the capital is Manila… Do you guys? So I was really glad Samantha wanted to help me.

Not only did she want to help me to discover more about the Philippine cuisine, she even asked a few of her friends to join us.

I bet all of my male readers  are jealous right now, right? I’m still thinking it was a dream (and yes, you’re seeing twin sisters). Good food and goooooorgeous women, no better way to learn 🙂

When I arrived,it was like entering in” Santa’s workshop” or shall I say” Spinelli’s little workshop” :-). The girls were worried that I was expecting everything would already be ready to eat… which wasn’t the case, because I really wanted to see how and what got made …

The first dish they wanted me to taste was Lumpiang Shanghai (springrolls), which is a typically meat-laden, fried type of loempia made with ground pork and beef meat, onions, I think I saw some garlic going in, cilantro, etc…  What you should know about Philippine cuisine, is that it got influenced by lots of the countries during the colonization of  the Philippines….well not only food, also language is influenced, some words they use are Spanish words

Back to the food. Thesewere very yummy (really!! Not trying to score points) spring rolls got served with sauce made by Ramona on the spot… it was like I was watching my private cooking channel. She made her own creative spicy sweet sour sauce

We even had  an injured person,  if this isn’t live cooking and devotion/ love for cooking, than what is? 🙂

I wanted to help the girls, but I couldn’t as I was the guest of honor…OK, I’m not that sad I couldn’t help … usually it’s me always working in the kitchen whole night

The main course was “Pansit” in this the ‘Canton’ version, as I’ve read that there are more than 30 different types of “Pansit”. Pansit actually means noodles in Filipino Cuisine. These noodles then get combined with fish, meat, vegetables, eggs …  With this dish you can really see the Chinese influence the Filipino cuisine has.  The ‘Canton ‘version is made with paprika, carrots, soy sauce, chicken (boiled before putting it with the other ingredients), garlic , chicken broth, green beans , onion (if wanted you can also add mushrooms) that they stir-fry before adding the boiled noodles.

Sometimes we also took time to take some pictures  and to drink bubbles, I’m not sure how many bottles got emptied, but let’s just say that we were all very cheerful 😉 and at some point the girls were disappointed that they didn’t bring a karaoke set 🙂 🙂

Something that I do found and still find strange is that they served these noodles with white rice… I ate it anyway 🙂 Just to make sure how much l liked it, I took twice!! If I wouldn’t have liked it, I wouldn’t have done that. When I look at the below picture, that’s really the dish I think off when I think of Asian food

The girls explained to me that this dish is always served at big feasts and/or celebrations… So I know what I’ll be serving my next feast 🙂

But it didn’t stop there, nooooooo sir! They also made me a rice dessert called ‘Biko’.  Biko is made with sticky rice that gets boiled, put in a baking tray and they top is with coconut milk that has been cooking for a while. While this coconut milk has been cooking they added brown sugar. Afterwards they put in the oven… I didn’t taste too much of the coconut, but that’s probably because brown has a pretty strong taste. This dish actually reminded me of rice pudding (but better, I even took some home) And after dessert at some point even I started singing (THANK GOD there is no video from that)

One thing was sure, they made more than enough food, but seems to be the tradition in the Philippines

That after dinner everybody can take some home .

I must say that this has been a WONDERFUL night and I’m happy that I got surrounded by 6 friendly, funny, beautiful and food cooking Ladies!! Thank you Samantha, Crystal, Christine, Ramona, Tanja and Cindy for making this Filipino feast possible 🙂

One thing is for sure, I was really in heaven and can’t wait for the next time 🙂 🙂

I also want to share this little video from my favorite standup comedian Russell Peters  explaining the difference between Asian people (including Filipinos) 🙂

My sweet valentine

/ dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

I think yesterday a loooooooot of people celebrated Valentine’s day. Even though I’m not really a fan of Valentine’s day, I did celebrate it at the Liefmans Brewery . The reason for it, well, when I was writing my blogpost about Valentine’s day at Liefmans brewery I found the menu very interesting  (ok, I was getting hungry) and I wanted to visit the brewery for a while… So I figured this was the perfect moment to actually try good food  (made by restaurant Coeur D’artichaut) accompanied by the matching beers (from Liefmans obviously). Oh and the underwear show had nothing to do with it that I wanted to have this dinner ;-).

I first have to say that the setting of the brewery is just lovely. I think in the summer or spring it should even be more beautiful as you have a great view on the river right next to the brewery.  While walking to the entrance I felt like being in a movie from the 1920’s, walking on a Cobblestone road in a dark alley and the dew laying on the road and the only light to guide you is the moonlight ….

But all this also indicates that this brewery has a big history, did you know it is already existing since 1679? The room where the dinner was taking place was very spacious,  but yet felt very comfortable

I think it is because of the wood floor  (and ceiling). So the space didn’t ruin the romance in the air 🙂

But, we were here to eat right :-). We started off with King scallop (Coquilles St Jacques) Carpaccio, a little beetroot soup with sour cream and basil and a Lamb thymus (zwezerik) with a carrot and orange cream and beetroot paper. And to accompany this we took a Cuvée brut on the rocks 🙂 (for me this was a little bit too sweet, but if you like sweet drinks I’m sure you’ll like this)

This got followed by Seabass , with venus clams, carrot and pumpkin. Accompanied by a Liefmans Cuveé (for me this is the best fruit beer around). The fish had a very nice soft taste, together with a puree with a little spicy ness in combination with the beer, perfect…

In-between we received a refreshing  lemon sorbet  with a 20 year old Liefmans Cuvée over it; You would think the beer would become sweeter after 20 years, but it actually becomes a little more soury …. (but not too much though)

This got served together with a underwear show 🙂 I must admit at first when I saw this men in boxershorts on the catwalk … I wasn’t sure this was what I was hoping for :-), but lucky for me there were also women showing lingerie 😉 (by Timide)

Our main course quail Forestière, , Savoy, parsnip-almond, and pont neuf  and Liefmans Golden Band gravy. Served with a Liefmans Golden band beer 🙂

And to finish we had Chocolat passion dessert….

Oh yes and the little very good cupcakes with the coffee

To make a long story short, everything was very good (taking into account that it for a large group of people they had to prepare this), the only dish that wasn’t my cup of tea 🙂 was the dessert… but that’s a matter of taste, as my girlfriend’s plate was ready to put back in the closet … so I’m thinking she definitely liked it.

This discovery menu (as I would call it) makes me want to discover more of the Coeur D’artichaut’s  dishes at their restaurant. The reason, well if they can make great food for a large group, imagine what they can do on a smaller scale?!  Also if I would ever give a biiiig diner party, Brewery Liefmans’s lounge would certainly be a place where I want to be giving it…. Good beer and good food and a great location what more would you need?

I almost forgot, the Sofie La Digue live band, made the evening more jazzy J (or more romantic, who can tell 😉 )

OK, this evening wouldn’t have been as perfect,without  my beautiful girlfriend ….as she is and will always be my sweet valentine….