The southern Italian odyssey

December 9, 2013October 14, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / 2 Comments

Southern Italian wines don’t make me think of easy to drink wines. When I think of Southern Italian wines I think more of wines with a very high alcohol percentage, about wine makers that prefer quantity instead of quality… But times change and they understood it is better to make a qualitative wine and maybe have less volume, than having a big volume and not selling the wine 🙂 I mean Southern Italy (or southern Europe) has something lots of other places wish they had, the sun almost whole year round!! So they would be crazy not to take advantage of this benefit!! BTW when I speak of Southern Italy I mean everything under Rome.

My statement about the tide having turned actually got confirmed at a lunch/wine tasting from Sicilian wines from ‘Feudo Principi di Butera’ and Puglia wines from ‘Masseria Altemura’ both vineyards from the Zonin Group that has already been making wine since 1821. I also couldn’t imagine a better way to taste these wines then accompanied by dishes prepared by one of my favorite chefs Ingrid Neven (Pazzo) and in Company of some of the best Belgian Sommeliers including this year’s winner Yannick Dehandschutter (Sir Kwinten), Kris Lismont (Mondevino), Sepideh Sedaghatnia (‘t Zilte), Luc Dickens (Schone van Boskoop) to name a few and last but not least Lorenzo Zonin 🙂

Now I’ll first tell you guys something more about the vineyards. I’ll start with ‘Feudo Principi di Butera’. This vineyard owned by the Zonin Family since 1997 has a history that goes much further back in time, I might even say for centuries (read more on following link). What I think gives the Zonin family the know-how to make wines is first of all the fact that wine making is in their veins and already goes back a few generations. On top of that they also own Vineyards all over Italy which also teaches them how to work with (mostly local grapes) in different weather conditions, soil types, etc… and this could maybe even lead for them to write an own piece of history. For their Sicilian wines they make use of the grape (amongst other) that has actually put Sicilian wines back on the map ‘Calavrisi’ aka Nero D’Avola (Calavresi is the name used in Old Sicilian Dialect). Which means Red wine (Nero) from Avola (D’avola). The taste of the Nero d’avola can be compared with a Shiraz, that has round tannins (you know, the circles that stay on the glass when you turn the wine in your glass) and has spicy-red peppery smells to it.

As for their vino Pugliese Masseria Altemura, this estate joined the Zonin group in the year 2000 (No millennium bug for them :-)). Puglia is an often forgotten region in Italy, not sure why, but it sure is a pity! Like in all their other Vineyards Zonin chose to give the tradition and authenticity a high value and make mainly of a local grape. In this case the ‘Primitivo’, which is also a grape often used in California where it got brought from Puglia mid 19^th century. It is better known in California as Zinfandel :-). Although If I want to be entirely correct I should mention this grape has an identical DNA as the Crljenak Kaštelanski grape which is from Croatia (so basically from across the street if you wouldn’t count the Adriatic Sea ;-))… but try to pronounce that Croatian name, let’s just stick to the origin from Puglia :-). What this wine has as a similarity to the Sicilian ones is I think the red peppery smell .

To make our extensive lunch more interesting, with every course we were served 2 different wines from which we had to guess its vintage and to make it more confusing or difficult, 2 times they even gave the same wine but both from different vintage 🙂 The price for the ‘winner’ a magnum bottle of wine 🙂

Unfortunately I wasn’t the winner of the bottle, but I did win something during this tasting!! I have learned a lot about wine again from all the pro’s around me. (no I’m not sucking up to anyone 😉 )

With the Sashimi of mackerel , mousseline of Green apple and Japanese vinaigrette we got served a 2012 Insolia (Feudo), which is a grape that finds its origin in Sicily and some say Tuscany. But also seems to like the soil and sun in Puglia. Insolia has a typical nutty aroma. BTW this is white wine, which is not that common in Southern Italy (with a few exceptions). Most white wines in Italy come from Friuli/ Veneto.

The risotto with wild mushrooms came with:

Sasseo 2011 (100% primitive) and a 2011 Deliella (100% Nero d’Avola)

From this point it started to become tricky as with the following 2 dishes we got the same wine, but from a different vintage… if only I had more experience as I only guest 2 out of 4 correct.

Filet of pheasant, crushed potatoes with tartufata and a light sauce:

2010 Altemura (100% Primitivo) and a 2008 Deliella (100% Nero d’avola)

Cheese assortment (I got something else as I’m not a huge cheese lover, I confess)

2010 Altemura (this was clearly a trick question) and a 2006 Deliella

Drinking these wines made me feel on holiday in Southern Italy… I’m not sure if my preference goes to the Sicilian wines or the Puglia wines. Maybe I have to try them all over again 😉 Although I think it depends of the moment you’ll be drinking them which one will get your preference.

OMG, I did again… ah well better writing it all than having an empty page I always say 😉

Oh and I know it might seem like it, but I’m not turning this blog into a wine blog 🙂 It is just coincidence there’s a lot of wine involved in my meals lately.

For more info on where to buy these wines check with Hasselt Millesime.

A light version I like

December 4, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Every time a new restaurant opens I try to hold myself from immediately wanting to eat there. I say again, I try it as mostly in the beginning the machine is not oiled up yet… but sometimes (more than I feel like admitting) I am weak and get tempted on going there after all 🙂 A good example of one of those places is restaurant ‘Te Kook’ by Johan Segers or as I like to call it” ‘t Fornuis light”. Te kook is the newest restaurant from chef Johan Segers, who is first of all known because of his 2 other restaurants in Antwerp ‘t Fornuis that already holds a Michelin star since 1986 and “De Koraal”. (Funny enough all 3 restaurants are a stone throw from each other) But I’m sure most Belgian People know him because of his cooking shows on Njam TV.

The reason why Johan Segers wanted to open another restaurant is (or so I think) as he already has 2 classical restaurants serving classical French/ Belgian cuisine it was time for something more modern, but still having the same respect for the products as in his other 2 restaurants and keeping it simple… so basically classic dishes in a modern jacket.

What tempted me to come here was besides the fact I wanted to see the yellow bar/counter everybody kept talking about, and that I wanted to try the ‘light’ version of ‘t Fornuis (that has already been on my wishlist for a while now) and this way I get one step closer to ‘t Fornuis 🙂

Although it is a different chef/ team(Thijs Vervloet) cooking you still see the touch of John Segers. With he best example the ‘Crab sandwich0’ I found on the menu. I know lots of you might think a dish like this doesn’t belong here and probably lots of young chefs wouldn’t serve something like, but to my opinion it does deserve a place on this menu!! A dish like this is exactly what I’m talking about when I say ‘keep it simple’ and a dish like this proves that when it is prepared with the best fresh ingredients possible even something as simple as this can taste incredible.

How the menu at ‘Te kook’ works is you can either share ‘tasters (can be taken per 2 as portion is big enough) or you can take the tastings as a starter and afterwards choose a main course from the main course menu 🙂 and that’s what we did. We took 3 tasters , 1 main dish and when I saw they had ‘pain-perdu’ aka ‘French toast’ I just had to have a dessert 🙂

The tasters without the picture of the Crab sandwich from before: (scroll over the pictures to see what it is)

The Main course

The Pain Perdu:

My personal favorites were besides the ‘pain-perdu’, the Portobello mushroom and the Langoustine. Oh oh and it really made me happy to see that they have some Oroloso sherry by Lustau on the winelist (which I obviously tasted). I love it!! As for the other wines they suggest us first the aFrench (Loire) chenin blanc Arcane by Chateau de Fosse-Sechè and as red Italian wine, a Nau di Sardegna cannonau (you can never go wrong when serving me good Italian stuff 😉 ). I also think they kept the best for last as I got one of my preferred sweets with my coffee, the ‘canelé de bordeaux’ (see picture below)

I’m not going to lie about it, Te kook isn’t the cheapest restaurant in Antwerp.But then again you can make a lunch/dinner as expensive as you want and I’m sure you aren’t all as greedy as me :-). On top of that they do also only use the best and fresh products that are prepared correctly and you don’t go home hungry… and I’m sure I’ll be back (after I have finally tried ‘t Fornuis that is, as I can’t wait to taste one on Johan’s famous stews!!!)

Before I forget to mention it, ‘Te Kook’ is more something to do with 2 or 3 as it is not the place for big groups as you can only sit at the Yellow bar/counter… just FYI

Restaurant Te Kook

Website: http://www.tekook.be

Address : Vrijdagmarkt 7, B-2000 Antwerp

Phone n°: +32 (0)3 689 39 29

A night back in time with a nice glass of wine

November 29, 2013December 2, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

You might have noticed that I’ve become an even bigger wine lover than I already was. Wine can just be so different every time. Even when some winemakers use the same grape the end product can still be so different. I’m not a wine snob, so wine for me doesn’t have to be from Italy for me to be good… Just like with food it either is good or it isn’t. The advantage I have is that I lately always get surrounded by the ‘crème de la crème’ of people in the winery business (sommeliers, winemakers, etc…) that help me understanding smells and tastes I can’t always distinguish myself. So when last week top sommelier William Wouters and his wife Filipa Pato ask me if I wanted to join a wine and dine tasting of their own wines I couldn’t refuse, as there is still so much to learn or that I don’t know about wine yet…and ok I just like eating and tasting a lot 🙂 (And they are great people).

The location for the tasting was very unique it was the ‘Campveerse Toren’. A Unique and the perfect spot to spend a winter evening as the antique of the restaurant takes the cold away. Also nice to know is that the Campveerse toren already got used since the 15^th – 16^th century as hostelry or restaurant. So it goes back quite a while. The antique does bring a certain coziness and warm feeling, too bad they didn’t turn on the fireplace, but even without it felt like the perfect spot to be when it is cold outside. I really wouldn’t know how to describe it in a different way:-)

What Filipa Pato’s wines and the location have in common is the respect for tradition, but still doing your own thing with it. For example Filipa uses (her own) old vines or traditional grapes from the area she is from and makes wine like her forefathers (she comes from a wine making family)did but makes use of modern technology to make it her own thing and give her own schwung. The same goes for the cuisine chef Xavier, he prepares classical dishes with little schwung of his own (and of course not forgetting the historical location).

It is true that I know William and his wife already a long time now, but that is not the reason why I like their wines. I like their wines because they are good!! What I like about them is the fact that they are a bit stronger and remind me a bit of Burgundy wines. Also knowing most of their wines a only made from 1 type of grape is something I find incredible (like with Sherry)… This also shows that nothing goes to waste at the estate and that they make use of every part of the grape to make the espumante, red wine, white wine and/ or sweet wine. Great, right? I hope you are sharing my enthusiasm.

I can’t say it enough, the location was simply fantastic. With a location like ‘Campveerse Toren’ you just have to eat stews or game dishes… that get accompanied by strong and rich wines… So lucky me this was exactly what chef Xavier and Filipa served me. Please feast your eyes on the menu and of course the great wines we got served with them:

We started with some appetizers with a nice glass of 3B rosé métaolo traditional

On hay smoked wild oyster, wild goose ham and Jerusalem artichoke that got accompanied by the Vino Branco

Pheasant prepared in cedar with foamy sauerkraut sauce came with a Nossa Calcario branco

Roast wild duck with a licorice gravy, white beans and a lentil polenta. This got served with Baby Baga

Stewed deer neck in red wine with cacao, parsnips, kale and celeriac. This dish just needed the top of the bill, a Nossa Calcario Tinto! I’m sure this is what the gods drink!!

There was also a cheese assortment, but as I am not really a cheese fan I skipped this dish, but I did drink the ‘Espirito de Bago’ Filipa braught over especially for this tasting 🙂 You could compare this as a combination of an sherry and grappa.

I didn’t really have a personal favorite wine or dish as everything was very good and it got proven to me once again that the time when Dutch chefs didn’t know how to cook has been looooong gone 🙂 Alexander made some great sauces! My compliments to Xavier!! As for the wines, If I would be in a shop to buy wine I wouldn’t be able to choose and probably walk out with the whole assortment as they are all so different. Ok it is a fact the Nossa is slightly more expensive then the “baby baga’, but the Nossa is a wine you can still keep for 7 or 8 years ( or maybe even more) and the “baby baga’ to drink immediately… What I’m basically trying to say is that I’m fan and have already been for quite a while now 🙂

I will go into the wines itself more in detail in one of my next blogpost as otherwise my post will become even longer then they usually already are 🙂

BTW if you wish to try these wines you can either go to my favorite restaurant Pazzo in Antwerp or pass by the distributers in Belgium or Netherlands (let me know if you want to know it from another country) or have a nice dinner at the ‘Campveerse Toren’ just like me.

Special thanks to Filipa, William, Xavier and Mark for giving me yet another incredible food/ wine experience!

Bistronomie at its best

November 26, 2013November 26, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

That I have a long restaurant wish list isn’t a secret, I literally have a spreadsheet subdivided per country and city which restaurants I want to do… you could see it as my list of how many restaurants to do before I ever die 🙂 and by the looks of it I’ll be living for eternity ;-). Anyhow a restaurant that has been on my list for a while now is restaurant ‘Les Eleveurs’ lead by Andy De Brouwer who is already the 4rd generation in the De Brouwer family to keep the restaurant.

Maybe it was destiny, but there was no better time to visit restaurant ‘Les Eleveurs’ as lots of changes happend in its scenery as after a having had Michelin star and Andy being the Best Belgian sommelier, they changed their way of working and exchanged their Michelin starred food for an affordable and more basic Bistronomie cuisine. What this basically means is that they are a ‘bistro’ serving more gastronomical dishes than in a regular bistro, but still keeping it simple. So I couldn’t have asked for a better table guest than Mr. Bistronomie himself Steve Engels 🙂

Something good to know before I go on is that ‘Les Eleveurs’ is a hotel and restaurant… so basically no excuses not to drink 🙂 that’s all I’m saying. I wanted to share this as with a top sommelier as Andy De Brouwer in the restaurant it would be a shame not to go 100% for the wines, beers and other great beverages (like Madeira or Sherry) they have.

Les Eleveurs’ Chef Nico Corbesier might be a lot younger than Sofie Dumont who used to be headchef at ‘Les Eleveurs’ (who decided to go her own way), but when it comes to experience Nico has already worked in lots of great restaurants and has been leading the kitchen upon Sofie’s maternity leave. I know it might sound cocky , but to my opinion age or where you learned how to cook or did chef school doesn’t really matter, it might influence you… you either have it in you or you don’t and I think Nico has it.

I don’t know if you guys like wild game dishes, but if you do it is worth to pass by ‘Les Eleveurs’ as they now have something called the “Wild Festival” (no, not the wet t-shirt kind). Basically they are serving different kinds of meat from wild animals (for the non-wild game lovers, they still have few other dishes on the menu). We took the tasting menu, this way we got to taste several things.

We started with an assortment of 4 pieces game pies with lettuce, red cabbage, celeriac and an authentic made remoulade sauce. With which Andy paired a white2011 Spanish El Pajara.

We continued our meal with a “vol-au-vent” of pheasant that Andy served with a Lustau Solera Reserva . A combo of one of my favorite dishes and one of my favorite drinks… so an easy score 😉

The main course of the evening was a deer loin with beetroot, pomegranate, truffle potato(purple), red onion and cherry sauce that got paired with a herby and bit stronger wine what is needed for piece of meat like deer loin (but not tooooo strong dough). It was a French Malbec, Les Escures by Mas Del perie

To finish this wonderful meal and evening we were served a nougat ice cream with quince and nuts that got served with a Gran Riserva PX by Toro Albala so basically stuff I like… because of the PX grape it is of course a sweeter drink, but a nice sweetness and not a toooo sweet drink.

Technically speaking ‘Les Eleveurs’ can be taken of my wishlist, but I think I’ll keep it on there as I’m pretty sure I’ll wanting to come back here and the experience will be as enchanting as this time!

Hope when you get to go you’ll be having the same opinion as me, but I’m sure Andy and his team will do their best that you do.

Restaurant Les Eleveurs:

Website: http://www.les-eleveurs.be

Address: Suikerkaai 1A, 1500 Halle – Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 2 361 13 40

Konfijt the ultimate food and music combo

November 21, 2013November 21, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

I know it has already been almost 2 weeks, but I just had to write something small about Konfijt the food and music festival organized by Wouter Keersmaekers’ (you might remember from a previous blogpost). Combining food and music has always been a hit, but combining great food and great music got even my interest :-). Although the fact Wouter himself cooking was already enough reason for me to go, but when finding out he had people like his mom, Ingrid Neven (Pazzo), Olivier De Vinck (Kommilfoo), Wouter van Steenwinkel (Ardent), Dennis Broeckx (épicerie du cirque) and the list goes on and on (entire list) cooking at this event made me want to be part of it more and experience it at the fullest! It is through that I initially was a bit afraid it would become a mass event, but luckily Wouter wanted to keep it relatively small and most importantly cozy.

I know the music was also a big part of the festival and that I’ve only been talking about the food…but I just like food that much… nevertheless I discovered some nice bands (so Wouter, I’d say mission accomplished). At some point they even had a rabbit kind of thing (or whatever it had to represent) on the stage playing a snare drum (and I’m sure I didn’t have too much to drink yet)

The problem with some food festivals is that you only get to taste the dishes (which isn’t necessarily bad), but what made Konfijt the better festival for me was that you actually got to see the chefs prepare the dishes and hear them talk about their dish with some help from Cathérine Vandoorne (who FYI has a very nice voice to listen to) who was the host on the stage. Anyhow it was nice to see local (young) chefs prepare ‘simple’ but very tasteful dishes (ok, the best part was still the tasting).

The frosting on the cake on the whole festival for me was the little market where there were local craftsmen like the miller of the stone mill in Boechout (Den Steenen Molen) from which I didn’t know it existed and even still gets used today to make flour. Or the owner from Migino that makes oil from all different kinds of nuts that happens to be one of Wouter Keersmaekers’ preferred oil makers. Although the one that caught my eye immediately when I walked in was Alhies naturally also because of the very tasty cider they made, the first of all they some of my preferred (homemade) sweets on their counter… Canelé de bordeaux!! That is a real soft spot of mine (guilty as charged!!). It was nice to meet the people behind all those good ingredients.

I could keep finding ways to convince you all to get hold of some tickets for the next edition of Konfijt in 2 years, but I have to stop somewhere. I know I’ll definitely be back for more next time. I think maybe Jürgen Aerts’ pictures might also help 🙂 I have to admit that pictures taking by a pro a sooo much better… his pics on following link . And you don’t have to stay home for its price as it might cost as much as a small concert, but at Konfijt you get dinner and a show!

Andalusian Roadtrip

November 14, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 3 Comments

It seems like ages ago I went on holiday, but in reality it has only been a month… time flies when you’re having fun I guess 😉 My last trip was a 2 week tour through Southern Spain aka Andalusia where people are happy, eating good food and enjoying life. Just the way I like it.

We started our trip in Malaga that to my opinion is the perfect city to transit when visiting Andalusia as when comparing it with the other cities we visited like Sevilla, Malaga was the one that convinced me less to visit again (but this is a personal opinion of course). What we did like when arriving in Malaga was finally feeling the sun (I could use some of that right now actually) and we did have some very nice food, but more about that later

After 1 day in Malaga we set sail to our first destination Jerez de la Frontera. One tip when you are planning a trip to Andalusia renting a car is a must!! The panoramas you get to see when crossing Andalusia are just amazing and would be a shame to miss. AND when having a car at your disposal you can stop whenever and where ever you want. For example while heading towards Jerez we drove by Gibraltar and as neither me nor my fiancee had ever seen the “Strait of Gibraltar” we decided to have a quick stop and photo moment 🙂 ooooh yeah baby!!

When me and my fiancee (and when I was younger and still traveled with my parents) travel we like to have a “base” point, so sleep in one town like in this case Jerez and travel from this base to other cities, towns… you could of course also stay in every town or city you visit, but that would be too much fuzz to always pack and unpack your luggage :-).

Although we also became a big fan of Sevilla, when thinking of Andalusia we (my fiancée and me) think of Jerez and all the beautiful towns around it that we visited…strange. Not sure why, maybe it was the visit at the Tio Pepe Bodega (as you could read in my 2 previous blogposts: post 1 – post 2). Or maybe was it Conil de la Frontera one of the famous “Pueblos Blancos” with its narrow streets (when you see the pictures below you’ll figure out why they call them that) overlooking the Atlantique Ocean. Conil? (Definitely the “happy place” I think about when I’m sad!!) Or the thought of walking to one of Europe’s most ancient cities like Cadiz?

Sometimes I really which I could just share all my mental pictures with you guys (mmm, maybe better if I didn’t ;-)) that you could see all the beautiful places I have seen during this trip!! Cadiz was maybe the biggest surprise as it is maybe the most undervalued city in Southern Spain that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. I think it is the only city I have every visited where as a tourist you can walk around and find your way without using a map. Yes sir! Cadiz has 4 different routes (each one has a different color) and to make it more easy when walking out of the Tourist office you only have to pick a color and follow the lines painted on the street. I thought the lines were only to give you a head start, but they are all over the city!! So basically you be a tourist without looking like one always looking at his map to make sure he’s taking the right street…OK, if you’re wearing white socks in white sneakers or sandals, I sure they’ll still figure it out, but besides that they won’t 😉

Cadiz 9 Cadiz 10

Cadiz 8

The lines lead you through the most important streets and make sure you see the most important sights of this ancient town. Oh and there is a nudist beach, not that I’m against saying the gifts of nature, but some pieces of nature are too rough to be explored or seen 🙂

Andalusia got a very special place in our hearts and even though it will never replace Italy, it is getting very close! Stay tuned for more about our trip in Andalusia and of course my preferred topic the food 😉

Enjoy your day!

To be continued…

Palet de dame nougatine cookie by Delacre

November 7, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

This cookie is again very easy to make! Made with my some of my favorite ingredients sugar and butter 😉

If you don’t feel like cooking it yourself, only one solution, buying them at the Delacre boutique in Brussels

Ingredients

For the cookie:

65g Butter (room temperature, butter has to be soft)
65g sugar
1 egg
½ tsp. vanilla extract
75g flour
Pinch of salt

For the nougatine:

300g Sugar
50ml water
100g pine nuts

TIP! Make sure all the measures are correct as with pastry cooking it just needs to be precise.

Getting started : Nougatine

BE CAREFUL when making the caramel, do not touch with your hands as it will leave some nasty burn marks!!

Put the 300g sugar and 50ml of water in a cooking pot on the heat just until the caramel gets the desired color (own choice).

When it has the desired color put the pine nuts and stir.
Quickly dump the caramel on an oven tray with baking paper on it. Equalize it using a steel spatula

Let it cool down

Getting started with the cookies:

Mix the soft butter with the 65g of sugar either using a machine or using a dough scraper until no loose sugar is visible anymore

Add the egg and mix (it will stay a bit lumpy)
Add the flour and mix until you get a firm dough

Put the dough in a piping bag.

Take a baking tray with baking paper on it and use the piping bag to make nice rounds (see picture below). You can choose the size you prefer, but I prefer making them smaller (this way I can eat more)

Break you nougatine in small pieces and put a small piece of it in the middle of every cookie.

Bake in a preheated oven of 200°C (392°F) for about 6-8minutes (until they are blond/brownish)

Let cool down before you eat them.

Ultimate Delacre cacao cookie

October 29, 2013October 29, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

As promissed in my previous blogpost here you have the recipe of the delicious Unlimited Delacre cacao cookie. Hope you’ll enjoy them as much as my sweet fiancée did 😉

Best of all, they are very easy to make… just mix, put in the oven and let cool down.

Ingredients : (for 10 cookies)

45g Butter

30g Granulated sugar

1 egg

60 g Flour

30 g Cacao

40 g small chocolate chunks

+ Almond slices.

Before getting started

Your butter must be on room temperature, so leave it out of the fridge about an hour until it feels soft. For pastry it is also very important to use the correct measures as mentioned above.

Getting started :

Mix the sugar and soft botter until it becomes like a paste aka crèmer le beurre
Add the egg
Add (sieve) the flour and cacao (keep mixing)
Add the chocolate chunks until you get a ball of dough.
Puis, ajouter la farine et le cacao.
Enfin, ajouter les morceaux de chocolat.

Preheat the oven at 170°C (338°F)
Roll little balls ah roll the in Almond slices

Put them on an oven tray (on baking paper)

Put in oven for 5 minutes and let the cool down before you eat them

Enjoy

Rock-fort the restaurant, not the beer

October 24, 2013October 24, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

I have been wanting to try restaurant Rock Fort for a long time but every time I wanted to go it was either fully booked or something came in-between or it was weekend and therefore closed… but like they say in Dutch “De aanhouder wint” which basically means if you try long enough eventually it will work 🙂 so after a few years I finally made it here thanks to a very good friend of mine who likes eating almost as much as I do 🙂

Good thing we didn’t enter the wrong door, otherwise the bill might have been a big surprise as “Rock-fort” is right next to the 3 Michelin star awarded restaurant Karmeliet… and their entrance doors are next to each other. One thing is for sure, I’m not sad to have chosen the door of Rock-fort (Maybe next time I’ll take the other door 😉 ) as it reminded me of my all-time favorite restaurant Pazzo in Antwerp… it is not too fancy, modern and even trendy but with comfortable furniture and a cozy vibe (I loved their chairs!!) .The choice on their menu is just lovely (with the keep it simple motto in mind) and they have a great selection of wines that can be taken either per glass of bottle and you get a great view of their open kitchen (it was separated by glass)… so basically the recipe for success and a great night out.

Rock-fort is “subdivided” in 2 parts. The first part (where you enter) is the bar where you besides drinking (they have a big Gin collection) you can also have some tapas to go with your drink. The second part is the actual restaurant where you can see their “open” kitchen. The reason I say “open” is that the restaurant and kitchen are separated by a very big window, so let’s call it semi-open ;-). I actually like it when a restaurant has an open kitchen, this proves they have nothing to hide… (too bad I can’t show a picture, but you’ll see it yourself when you go)

Choosing what to eat is as always very difficult or maybe even more difficult than ever as everything on the menu looked so good and to make us doubt even more they also presented the Chef’s menu to us (which also sounded great)… in the end we took the Chef’s menu:

We received some homemade popcorn before to go with our glass of bubbles

We started with a Tuna tartar with cucumber and seaweed . A very refreshing combination I might add… I couldn’t imagine a better drink to go with it than a refreshing glass of 2009 Jané Ventura ‘Reserva de la Musica’ cava.

We continued with some scallops with a black pudding crumble, pumpkin and peas. I initially thought when they set the plate in front of me that it would be a dry dish, but I was very wrong it was a well out balanced dish and not dry at all 🙂 With this I drank a 2010 Morgadio Da Calcada Tinto. I know most people would drink a white wine, but this red wine was not too overpowering to go with the scallops.

Our main course was pheasant with chicory and earth apple (aka Jerusalem artichoke) cream. These are the dishes I just can’t get enough of 🙂 rich, full of flavor and the taste for more (that and stews). With this I went for a wine from one of my preferred wine regions, but made by a Belgian, it was a 2010 Langhe rosso from Le Cecche. One sip of the glass and you know why I like the wines of this region 😉

We finished our meal with a chocolate and figs dessert. Again a winner! I’m glad there was some fruit with it the refresh the dessert.

Moral of my story at Rock-fort, my fiancée can be glad this restaurant is closed over the weekend as otherwise we’d be spending lots of weekend in Bruges 🙂

Restaurant Rock Fort

Website: http://www.rock-fort.be/

Address: Langestraat 17, 8000 Bruges, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0)50 33 41 13

Date night in Ghent

October 22, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

I don’t know about you men out there, but I take my fiancée out for a date from time to time as even after being together for 14 years I still love spoiling her! It is a fact we see each other every day, but having a special night with just us 2 without having to cook and getting served can be very nice. Don’t you agree?

This time I decided to take her for a night out in Ghent also known as the city where we lived for 2 years, it is a bit like going back in time. I took her to restaurant “Coeur d’Artichaut” located in the heart of the Ghent for dinner. It was the first time we ate at this restaurant, it did already exist when we used to live here, but we never made it here.. .BUT we did already have a meal made by the team from “Coeur d’artichaut” as they do the catering for the Liefmans Brewery and we once celebrated Valentine Day at the brewery. In the blogpost I wrote I said one day I’d be eating at the actual restaurant… and so a few weeks ago we finally made it there 😉

I do remember every time I passed by the restaurant it always looked very cozy and warm inside, so I hoped once I got inside it would be as I imagined it… it was. I don’t know how I could describe the interior of the restaurant, a mix of old and newer I’d say :-).

Their concept is actually eating healthy and showing the people this doesn’t necessarily means having boring low/light flavored food 🙂 and if you ask me they succeed very well in this “mission”… I have to admit that during my whole meal I felt like biting a piece out of the “pata negra” ham standing next to me 🙂 but I (or maybe it was my fiancée) was able to keep myself under control. What we did eat that night was as good as the ham probably was. We started with for me lobster with confit tomatoes, beurre blanc and hazelnut. My lovely fiancée had the terrine of foie gras with popcorn, mango and cashew. It tasted as good as it looked, maybe a bit too much foie gras, but who’s complaining 🙂 (Better a bigger portion than something to fill your hollow tooth)

We continued our meal with for me Cod with spice crust, whelks, a cauliflower and coconut cream and a curry mayonnaise. My fiancée took the Oven roasted figs with quinoa, goat cheese and crispy bread

Having a chocoholic fiancée I couldn’t finish this date with anything else than a nice chocolate dessert a white chocolate mousse with lychee, ganache and raspberry.

The perfect ending of a perfect night… it might have been the moment or the Romeo in me speaking, but my fiancée looked more beautiful than ever that night… (well she actually looks great every night)

Restaurant Coeur d’Artichaut

Website: http://www.artichaut.be

Address: Onderbergen 6, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

Phone n° : +32 9 225 33 18

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