The world on your plate

February 12, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

I already had this for a while, but I forgot to share it with you guys… For the International Food day in Sydney or better to promote the International Food day the organization behind the festival created 18 country flags using food/dishes each country is known for and obviously in the correct colors of the flags . Talking about being creative..right?

Too bad they didn’t have one for Belgium. I wouldn’t know which ingredients or dishes to use to make a match. Would you? Maybe we can make one ourselves? The red and yellow would be easy, but the black?? Unless I would just burn a dish 😉 🙂

Anyhow, please feast your eyes on some of the beauties they made

It is difficult to say which one is my favorite, but Thailand makes a good chance :-)Please find all 18 flags on the following link.

My compliments to WHYBIN\TBWA!

Simple is better

January 27, 2014January 27, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

Simple is better. I know with all my visits to Michelin starred restaurants this saying doesn’t seem believable… but we’ll have to be honest, no matter how great all those restaurants are the best dishes are always the classic and simple dishes. A good example would be strawberries with a bit of sugar and lemon juice that has set a while in the fridge, it is very simple but I could keep eating it.

My visit to ‘Fino zuid’ just proved simple is just so good. Fino zuid is a small shop/caterer around the corner of the ‘Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp’ where can either take some of the dishes home or just eat them there at one of the few tables in the shop (I think 5 or 6). Fino zuid is their second eatery, they also have a restaurant in the North of the city of Antwerp. I had already been to the ‘regular’ restaurant 2 weeks ago with my dad, but wanted to wait before writing something until after visiting both places… this way I could somehow compare and see what the whole Fino concept is all about. The food is in both places very nice because of the simplicity that make you feel like in Italy. (BTW the reason why food tasted great in both places is because it gets prepared by the same people 🙂 ) But my preference goes towards Fino zuid, as it is more relaxed and less fuzz… I mean at ‘regular’ Fino you have the real restaurant feel as for ‘Fino zuid’ it feels more like a trattoria where you can just take your own glass of wine (don’t worry if you want they can also serve it 😉 ) and just point at the food you feel like eating…so to my opinion more low profile. Although I’m sure all depends of the occasion for your dinner.

To decide what you want to eat at Fino zuid is very simple you can either give them the full trust and let them decide for you (fix price of 35EUR without the drinks) or you can just walk up to the counter and point to what you fancy eating 🙂 We gave them full trust and had them serve whatever they wanted to give us… this resulted in us being completely full at the end 🙂 so now I was sure it was just like in Italy as I always feel the same when I’m eating at my grandmother or aunt in Italy… I think we almost tried every single thing in their counter (ok, maybe not everything, but a lot of it)… Their melanzane alla Parmigiana was one of my favourites (I had already eaten them at the other Fino restaurant)…

My biggest problem is ‘l’appetito viene mangiando’ so I get more hungry while I’m eating so it could get ugly 😉 Luckily my beautiful fiancée was with me and at some point will give me a certain look that I know what she is actually trying to say is: “don’t you think you had enough?” 🙂 BUT there is still always room for dessert… I’m normally not a fan of Tiramisu, but theirs wasn’t as heavy as it is at lots of restaurants. I do realize I’m always very enthusiastic in my blogposts, but good food just makes me very happy and this happiness unleashes a enormous and unstoppable amount of enthusiasm where I want to convince everybody to try the place themselves… that’s just the way I am 🙂 🙂

A visit to Fino zuid or Fino are definitely places to do if you like good Italian food without too much fuzz…

Restaurant Fino Zuid:

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/finozuid

Address: Kasteelstraat 57, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 257 01 14

Restaurant Fino:

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/finorestaurant

Address: Sint-Aldegondiskaai 50, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 468 17 29 00

Quote of the day #3

January 21, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Gastronomical Odyssey at Dôme

January 20, 2014January 20, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / 2 Comments

Last week I had another edition of my Gastronomical odyssey, were I basically combine a great restaurant and friends. Nothing different than usually you might say… That’s where you are wrong, the big difference here is that I always go with the same group of friends, as for other restaurant visits the company always changes 😉 (red wire great food). For this edition I took my friends or partners in crime to the Michelin awarded restaurant Dôme in Berchem (just outside Antwerp). It is already for years that I felt like going to Dôme and at some point back in time I had a table booked, but had to cancel it for some reason and didn’t manage to get there ever since … Until now that is 🙂 . What you should know about Dôme is that it is one of the 3 food related places of owner/chef Julien Burlat and his wife (who studied with my cousin’s husband I found out later 🙂 ). They also own restaurant Dôme sur mer and Domestic a bakery where they sell the bread and sweet delights served in their restaurants. They are located at the point where 3 streets come together and on every corner you have one of the 3 places, so you might even say all ways lead to Dôme 🙂 . Something that always attracted me wanting to go to Dôme is the beautiful building which is a true architectural delight. For the architects amongst you it is an art nouveau building with a magnificent decorated dome (what’s in a name 😉 ) build by Jos Bascourt in 1893.

When it comes to food, I was always convinced it would be good, despite some slightly ‘negative’ comments I heard…but one is only guilty when proven guilty! I can only say I had an evening filled with great refined food and friendly/ professional service (and cute waitress, sorry it just had to be said!). You can either go for one of the 2 menus (7/9 courses) or just choose à la carte, my friends and me went for the 7 course menu . The 9 courses would make me feel too greedy 😉 and choosing à la carte would make the experience less adventuress to my opinion (ok, I know it’s not I’m deciding to make trip through the Amazon or so, but still…). For the wine pairing with the menu I loved Dôme’s way of working as you never know which wine you’re drinking until the end of your course… and there is also no way to sneak peak as all wines are served out of a decanter :-)… I like this way as it will make one drink his wine differently and can lead to a nice discussion with your table guests of which wine you’re drinking (you might throw in a little bet… who loses pays dinner 😉 )

Please feast your eyes on the menu they served us. We started (after some appetizers) with a silky soft and smooth Jerusalem artichoke velouté with truffle and I believe they said there was coffee oil in it?? (but not 100% sure 🙂 ) I could have emptied a few more bowls of that baby.

What followed was one of my preferred shell fish, fresh scallops with cauliflower shavings and olive cream that got accompanied (and previous dish) a white Weißburgunder trocken Muschelkalk… the part we had figured out before they told us which wine it was, was that it was German 🙂

The following dish was a good example of a dish that I wouldn’t order myself, but thanks to the tasting menu I get to taste: fresh duck foie gras with balsamic vinaigrette, hazelnut crumble, cranberries and caramelized endive. I’ll admit I will never be a huge fan of foie gras, but this dish did bring me a step closer. This dish needed a totally different wine, this time they chose to serve us an Austrian Schilcher frizzante which would be a light sparkling wine

What followed was red mullet with clams and celery gravy, I was pretty convinced I took a picture of the dish, but I guess I was wrong … so no picture to feast your eyes on. What I can do is tell you that the wine served with it was a white Masieri from Veneto . (Italian wine, so they couldn’t go wrong there 😉 )

Our ‘main’ course was without any doubt one of the two favorites I had that night a homemade ham with Basque way black pudding and green apples. I love ham!! This came with a red French Les Premières Faugéres from the Languedoc.

From this moment on it was dessert time, starting with the pineapple, tapioca, and coconut milk mousse and coriander meringue accompanied by a glass of 5 year old Madeira by Barbeito.

But the absolute star of the evening was without any doubt the chocolate pie. I have NEVER eaten a chocolate pie that was so light and fluffy and had had a crispy crust at the same time!! I don’t know how they do it, but it is definitely one of THE best I ever had!

I can only conclude that this was a great evening with great food and I’ll be back without any doubt!! What did surprise me was that when leaving the restaurant we got a bread as gift 🙂 so maybe I should eat at Dôme every Friday or saturday, this way I won’t need to go to the bakery shop the next morning…

Restaurant Dôme

Website: www.domeweb.be

Address: Grotehondstraat 2, 2018 Antwerp – Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0)3 239 90 03

Quote of the day #2

January 14, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Happy 2014

January 7, 2014January 7, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Let me first start with wishing you guys all the best for 2014! May all your dreams come through. I know it has been a while since my last post, but I’ve been so busy with renovations at home (somebody always seems things to renovate at home, somebody not gonna specify who 😉 ) and with all the festivities during the holiday periode… But I’m back

This year I didn’t go for the “cliche” New Year’s resolution saying I would eat less 🙂 . As I know I would be lying to myself as before the 2014 started I already had some nice dinners and trips planned for the New Year to which I’m looking forward a lot! I’ll keep you posted (oooooooh yeah, a little word game going on here)

Anyhow I’ll be publishing my first 2014 blogpost very soon and hopefully you’ll be liking my new blog posts as much as in 2013!

Cheers!

Quote of the day

December 17, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

2013 not over just yet

December 17, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

My New Year’s resolution for 2014 will be to eat less at restaurants (When I said this last year, a few days later I booked a table at El Celler de Can Roca 🙂 ) and I’ll try to stick to that resolution… BUT it is not 2014 yet 🙂 So Last weekend I had a nice dinner with my buddy Bram (aka one of the top sommeliers @ Pazzo Antwerp). It was Bram’s turn to pick a restaurant and he picked “’t huis van Lede” which I had never heard off before. Sometimes I prefer not knowing something, this way the experience will be much better as you go there without expectations. Something I should maybe also mention that the restaurant got awarded with 1 Michelin star, which is something if you enter the restaurant you wouldn’t expect as it is very unpretentious and not that fancy like usually is the case. I mean they don’t use tablecloths, they have very basic chairs, etc… Once you taste the food and see the wine they have you know why they have that Michelin star… and personally I prefer a low profile interior, this makes one feel more comfortable and/or cozy.

If I should describe the type of food they serve, I would say that they serve a classical kitchen with a bit of fine-tuning and replacing some “classic” ingredients with a ‘newer’ one. What I liked about this kitchen is the fact they didn’t hold back on the ‘real’ butter :-). Which doesn’t necessarily have to mean it is heavy food. Picking what to eat was more than ever the most difficult part as again I liked everything on the menu. The dishes that stood out for me were as starter the ‘Fried langoustines, Iberic ham, croquette of pork leg and mustard, celeriac salad and puree of roasted onion’ and as main course the ‘Vol-au-Vent from range chicken, sweetbread, veal tongue, salsify and mushrooms with a mash from Rat potatoes’ (this just stood out as I love Vol-au-vent). Bram first had the ‘Goose liver cannelloni with scallops’ followed by the ‘Slowly in Westmalle beer cooked hare buttock with plum, black pudding, endive with fresh herbs salad and fries’. Before we stared with all these treats we got a pigeon mousse taster… very light consistency, but very rich of flavor (great way to pet the taste buds).

I cannot speak for Bram’s dishes, but the combinations I had on my dishes I liked. The surf and turf in my starter worked just great, and the combination of the croquette of pork leg, mustard and celeriac salad gave me a christmas spirit… when tasting it I pictured myself at a German Christmas market eating “sauerkraut with sausage”… So basically felt like a little holiday at my table ;-). For my main course the fresh grey shrimps and mousseline that came with the dish definitely did the trick for me and were as they say ‘the frosting on the cake’ :-).

To pick the wines I gave full trust to Bram as he for sure knows more about wines than me…Bram trusted sommelier Stijn 100% (who Bram knows from when he was doing an internship @ 3 Michelin star awarded restaurant Hof van Cleve, and Stijn was their sommelier at that time) and gave him carte blanche with a glass of white wine for with the starters and a bottle of red for the main course. To make it more interesting Stijn never told us in advance which wine it was… For the white wines I have to plead guilty I forgot to write down which wines it were (but once I find out, I’ll share it). As for the red wine, Stijn couldn’t have done a better job as he gave us a 2010 Valpolicella by Pieropan which happens to be a wine of one of my preferred Italian wine regions (together with Piemonte and Valtellina for red wines).

A dinner wouldn’t be complete without a dessert … I went for a dessert that my chocoholic fiancee would die for 🙂 chocolate mousse with a chocolate brownie, sour cream sorbet and vanilla caramel (FYI the chocolate mousse was served like a Melo cake with chocolate mousse instead of egg white and without the cookie). Bram picked the Dame Blanche or was it chocolate sauce with a bit of ice cream 😉 .

To finish what was already a perfect evening in good company, Stijn had us taste a few of the many ‘Stählemühles’ AND still warm Madeleines with he coffee (I like) . To make long story short Stählemühles’ is aquavit that comes in 1001 different flavors and combinations (just check pick from the closet) made by Christoph Keller and Christiane Schoeller who Gin lovers will know from their gin ‘Monkey 47’. For the record I just had a sip of the aquavits 🙂

Restaurant ‘t Huis van Lede, a unpretentious restaurant serving honest food at a Michelin star level !

Enjoy !

‘t Huis van Lede

Website: http://www.thuisvanlede.be

Address: Lededorp 7, 9772 Wannegem-Lede – Belgium

Phone n° : +32 (0)9 383 50 96

Andalusian roadtrip: the food

December 16, 2013December 16, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

I know I always write long blog posts about the food I had during my trips, but this time I figured to take a different approach as there were far too many restaurants I did 🙂

The restaurants you see below are not the only restaurants we did during our trip in Andalusia, but they sure were our favourites with DéO and Eslava in Sevilla as two of the best during are whole trip. No Michelin starred food or fancy smancy things, just good honest food and mostly tapas in all kinds!! With special thanks to trip advisor and some local people to guide us to these places 🙂

Malaga

El meson de Cervantes

El Tapeo de Cervantes : this might also be the smallest restaurant we did during our trip (you are literally breathing down each others neck ), but they serve some great tapas and I hope you don’t mind the waiters telling you what you should be eating 🙂

Vino Mio : we did this restaurant at the end of our trip when we had enough of eating tapas every day. They serve Balinese inspired food 🙂 (I know! But we were so sick of eating the tapas the whole time) and they also sometimes have some flamenco dancers dancing the night away (not really my thing, but it was nice to watch)

Jerez de la Frontera

Albala

Reino de Leon Gastrobar: on top of the good food we got a beautiful interior :-). I also can’t get enough of one of the dishes on the picture below 😉

Detabernas: in a small street where you wouldn’t immediately go, but it is worth going.

Sevilla

Eslava: One of our favorites and looking at the people waiting in line for a table tells me I’m not the only one who likes it here and lots of locals btw. I can still taste the rich flavors of fresh food prepared in the perfect way! Simple, but amazing!

DéO: together with Eslava one of our favorites. Refined food, great wine selection, good prices aaaand the most friendly staff!!

Vineria San Telmo

Taberna Coloniales: no nonsense food for low prices and great portions. Special thanks to the Taylor family for this one 😉

Conil de la Frontera

Doña Lola: Serves the most fresh fish ever! From the sea directly in your plate (Great tuna!!)

A real Tuscan treat

December 11, 2013October 14, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

What usually stops me from drinking Tuscan wines is the fact that even though there are lots of good wines in this region, there is also lots of rubbish… What people need to understand is that, it is not that because a wine or product is from a particular place it therefore always is wonderful… as it isn’t!! What makes a wine or product good is the care of a farmer, craftsman or viticulturist of course in combination with good soil, weather, etc… Luckily there are still craftsmen or winemakers left who want to make a good product or in the case of Tuscany winemakers wanting to make a ‘real Tuscany wine’ as Matteo Cantoni from Fattoria Fibbiano calls it.

I probably already mentioned it in previous posts, but more than ever cooks and winemakers are thinking as the French call it ‘terroir’. Meaning that they try to use local and even primitive products as much as possible to make their end product. At some point I’m glad it is turning this way as I’m of the opinion that when you for example go on holiday to Thailand, Spain or where ever, that you can eat, drink and try the local things instead of stuff from other countries (as good as they may be). So I’m a fan of this “new” wind.

That is what Matteo Cantoni meant with making ‘ real Tuscan wine’ as at Fattoria Fibbiano they only use authentic from origin Tuscany grapes. Instead of using Merlot or Carbernet grapes they use Sangiovese, Canaiolo , Colombana, Colorino and Malvasia from vines that are over 100 years old and playing with them to make some very nice combinations. What you should maybe also know is that Matteo together with his family (Brother, Parents, …) only took over the vineyard of Fattoria Fibbiano 20 years ago. Fattoria Fibbiano itself had already been used as vineyard over 100years 🙂 For people only doing this for such a short period of time they have done a really good job in bringing back the real Tuscany!! Fattoria Fibbiano is a rather small vineyard, they annually only produce 120.000 bottles of wines (all types together). So you can imagine getting hold of a bottle isn’t always as easy, but not an impossible mission.

When talking to Matteo Cantoni, he stressed out that his purpose of making wine is making drinkable wine… meaning the wine can drunk immediately with exception of their ‘Ceppatella’ (that can be compared with a good Brunello di Montalcino) that is at its in a few years and can be left in your cellar for easily 15 years (but if wanted it can already be drunk now, but best to first decant that it gets some air). Matteo said his Ceppatella from 2005 is now perfect to drink.

Besides the Ceppatella which is the tip of the iceberg from Fattoria Fibbiano’s gamma, we also got to taste their following wines:

Sofia: a rosé wine (yes rosé from Tuscany) made from 100% Sangiovese grape. Something I think is almost unseen in Tuscany wine making. As they always want to keep the Sangiovese for making strong red wine. A wine that gives rosé another dimension.

Fonte delle Donne: a white wine made with a combination of 50% Vermentino grapes and 50% Colombana. Resulting in a floral smelling wine with a rich taste to it 🙂
Le Pianette : probably the most special grape combination as they use 70% Sangiovese and 30%Colorino that back in the days got used for coloring the wine (because of the thick skin of the grape) and giving it a good smell… I couldn’t tell what the smell was, but it had a sharp and typical sangiovese aroma and taste.
L’Aspetto : a red wine and I think the star of the evening as price-quality this is a very good wine. It was a more complex wine than the previous one with a delicate wooden smell to it (very subtle smell) . About the taste, I know I’ll be cliche, but I tasted strawberries 🙂 and as I like that taste, I liked the wine… it is as simple as that 😉

I think I’l l be having some L’Aspetto and Ceppatella in my wine cellar veeeery soon 🙂

If you also feel like tasting or want to know where to buy the Fattoria Fibianno wines, please contact Rik de Jonghe who imports wines of Fattoria Fibianno on following email address: rik.de.jonghe@skynet.be

OR you can go to Tuscany (Fly to Pisa) and stay in Fattoria Fibbiano’s Agriturismo (a bit like a B&B) and give the wine that little bit extra aka la dolce vita Toscana ( oooooooh yeah)

Spinelli's Dolce Vita

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