Restaurants

For an Italian it is not always easy to admit that other cities, countries or villages are breath taking if they are outside of Italy. Collioure in the French département Pyrénées-Orientales along the Côte Vermeille is one of those places. Only a 20 minute drive from the Spanish border, to my opinion this is what makes this region so wonderful. The best from both French and Spanish (Catalonian) culture.

About two weeks ago, when I was driving towards Collioure, from Montpellier onwards I was astonished from the beauty nature has created there…..At your right the hills with the vines enjoying the sunshine wresting on its leafs at that same moment you also notice the amazing view over the Mediterranean sea… And as cherry on top of the cake The blue sky overlooking all this beauty. The more I drove the better it became.

The hotel we chose was 2 minutes (by car) outside of Collioure, in a little town called Argelès-sur-Mer in hotel Les Mouettes. A nice hotel with pretty spacious rooms, but what makes this hotel even better is the stupendous views:

As you can see on the picture above, just wonderful! Afterwards we also noticed that the group to which this hotel belongs, also had a hotel right in the center of Collioure and according to the comments it gets on booking.com It is/was also a very nice hotel. The only thing that could be negative is that both hotels don’t have elevators… but personally, it didn’t bother me… as the rooms were nice, the hotel had everything one could want; swimmingpool, Jacuzzi, etc… (all free for use) and all with view over the sea. Plus the hotel staff was also very kind and helpful.

In the evening after having enjoyed some southern sunshine, we headed towards Collioure city. What actually happens to be the world capital of anchovy (ansjovis), so I was already a bit scared that everything on the menu was anchovy related. Driving towards the city center we enjoyed a nice short drive surrounded by vineyards and overlooking the sea we entered in this picturesque little mediaeval town with 2 sights that immediately catch your eyes are the Collioure Notre-Dame-des-Anges church and the Château Royal (in the summertime there are open air concerts in this castle). Something that also fascinated me about collioure is that in the early 1900’s, it was a center of artistic live as lots of artists made it their meetingplace, artists like Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, etc…. as they were all inspired by this wonderful town.

When I visit a town or city, the thing I refuse doing, is eat at a so called ‘tourist trap’ restaurant. We could have of course asked at the hotel where to go (as they have the menu carts from most of the good restaurants), but I always see it as a quest to find a nice spot myself, which sometimes can annoy my girlfriend. When looking at some menu’s my fear was already over, although they indeed had some dishes with anchovy, but most dishes were southern French- Catalonian tinted. And so we started our first search for good food.

To be continued…

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

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

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

Summerized, No better way to spend an relaxing evening!

Retaurant pazzo:

Website: www.pazzo.be

Address :

Oude Leeuwenrui 12
2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 232 86 82