Supermarket

Homecooking without cooking at home

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Just two weeks ago Mama Kookt opened its doors. Mama kookt is a caterer/delishop that focuses on making home cooked meals. Mayda andBeatriz ( owners) are of the opinion that people don’t take enough time to eat a decent meal (I fully agree with them), which often results in eating fast food or unhealthy food. Eating a good home cooked meal is so much tastier (I sometimes dream of home cooked meals, I really do 🙂 ). That is why they decided to change this by offering a home cooked meal for a modest price of 9,5 EUR, that you can either pick up or get delivered at home. Mayda and Beatriz  prepare their home cooked meals with a Hispanic twist as Mayda is from Venezuela and Beatriz from Spain.

Just in a few clicks or via the phone you order your home cooked meal either per day, a week or a whole month. FYI, the menu also changes every day and for what you can see on their website looks very yummy :-). Every day you can choose between meat, fish or veggie always accompanied with vegetables (so you even get your daily vitamins) and for those who want also some desserts. You can also just pass buy their shop in the trendy Antwerp fashionstreet Kammestraat. In their shop they also cell imported Spanish, Italian and English deli products.

So if you’re in for a nice home cooked meal with a southern influence, you should definitely check out Mama kookt!

I’m sorry for my foreign followers, for the moment it is only available in Belgium… but who knows, maybe someday they’ll be thinking of expansion 🙂

Mama kookt:

Website: http://www.mamakookt.be

Address:

Kammenstraat 79

2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0)3 232 03 10

Little Italy

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You know the feeling, when you are somewhere and you smell familiar things that makes you feel at home?  Last week I went with 2 friends to Raineri in Genk (eastern part of Belgium) to by some wine and Italian products.  One of my and my brother’s favorite shops. Every time I enter this shop I instantly feel in Italy (like I was Beamed  up like scotty by Captain Kirk in Star Trek). The smell really brings me right to my Nonna’s kitchen (and man do I loove that kitchen). I think even my friends felt it?! Entering Raineri is really great, because everywhere you look you see ITALY, every product, ingredient, etc… The first image when entering in the shop is like a picture in a frame. They even have lots of products of their own, like their Ligurian olive oil (that I always buy). Usually I take their Biologica (just because I like the taste, no other purpose) , but all of them are really good for putting on salads, etc… For cooking I would find it a waste of using such a good product and burning it. They have a whole wall with all different kinds of pasta… it’s not an easy job choosing… If you have doubts or questions or want extra info, the staff of this shop is really friendly and helpful. You can really see their passion for what they do when they helping you finding the product you want.

In case I’m not hungry yet when putting the first step in the shop, you can be sure I will be hungry by the time I see their counter. At that moment my stomach is going like “Hey buddy, gimmi some food” . Fresh lasagna’s, cannelloni , ravioli, gnocchi, all nominations of dried hams (Parma, San Daniele, etc..), cheeses, ….

 Then walking down to the basement, you will find a wide variety of Italian wines and this in the setting of an old/new wine cellar.

Some nice wines I’ve bought there from Azienda Marcato: ‘IL TIRSO’ SOAVE CLASSICO SUPERIORE DOCG and BARATTARO IGT NOIR. And you should really try the “Durello Met. Tradizionale DOC 36mesi” (jammi) But feel free to pass by, Raineri sometimes has wine/ food tastings.

Worth the stop!!

Ali baba’s cave of wines

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If I need wine, Van Eccpoel  is definitely my favorite spot. Everybody, including my brother,  was always telling me to go there.They have an enormous choice, etc… So one day I decided to go and have a look. Van Eccelpoel is actually a supermarket . So I entered the supermarket and in a distance I saw some wine, so I figured  that would be what everybody was talking about. Honestly, it didn’t look any different from any other supermarket and didn’t seem enormous as everybody said .So at that moment I decided to call my brother as he had been there before….

And he said “no, you should go to the back of the shop  and in-between the cheese and meat counter you should walk down the stairs….” . At first I didn’t really want to believe him as it wouldn’t be the first time that my brother would want to pull a joke on me J . But I thought, let’s hope for the best and I decided to follow his instructions … It was like finding the “Holy Grail “ a true WALHALLA …. An old cellar with more wine than my eye could see….

Once down, Karel Van Eccelpoel immediately came to us to see if he could be of assistance. As I came there to buy sparkling wine (cava, champagne or spumante), I told him what kinds of sparkling I liked and what I was looking for. Upon my likes and dislikes Mr Van Eccelpoel made me taste some wines and explained me about each wine where it came from and what the difference was with the once we already tried. The only problem we still had, was that all of them were great so we didn’t know which one to take…  So Mr Van Eccelpoel made us turn around (not being able to see) and so he made us taste again … and that is when de taste that our preference went to the SIERRA SALINAS BRUT. Price-quality this was really the best choice (for us). What I really like(d) about Van Eccelpoel is that you have wines starting at 5 EUR per bottle up to … EUR and there is no pressure for buying. Although I would really be surprised if you walk out of that cellar empty handed.

It is About 20 min from Antwerp by car, but soooo worth the trip!