The Five Flies

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Last year I went to Amsterdam with my girlfriend to celebrate her birthday. … We always enjoy this “water” city.

Walking through “de grachten” and seeing all these little shops (no not the coffeeshops). I’m sure that in the near future I’ll also be putting a blogpost about the city of Amsterdam. In this post I would actually like to draw your attention to a very nice refined restaurant I received the address from a. The Netherlands are not really well known for its good gastronomy, but this restaurant showed me different!

 The restaurant in question is Restaurant vijf vlieghen. Also called Culinary museum! A restaurant decorated with original Rembrandt paintings, wall’s coated with gold leather wall covering from the 17th century

You really feel like being back in time. We felt like Lord and Lady McSpinelli 🙂  (and my girlfriend was even on some kind of wooden throne). We enjoyed this restaurant from the first second we walked in.  The restaurant serves traditional Dutch ingredients in a refined way. To start we tried dishes like red beetroot marinated raw salmon with macarons of beetroot and salted lemon crème fraiche. Followed by  suckling pig cutlets with eggplant, young goat’s cheese potato muffin, white balsamic vinegar and vadouvan gravy  and Crispy fried veal sweetbread with stewed cheek of veal, watercress, kohlrabi and smoked butter mousseline… to finish with some very good dessert Lemon curd with raspberries, fritter of in sugar candied olives and basil ice cream. Drinking water with this would have really been a shame!

 When I get the whine list in Belgium or the Netherlands I’m always in doubt what wine shall I take? As When I’m in France, I will always drink French wine, the same goes for Italy

So when I looked at the winelist,it was a difficult choice. Untill the moment I saw that they also served Dutch wine. So we decided to try the 2009 Apostelhoeve Pinot Gris and I really have to say that we were surprised of the quality of this wine. We really recommend it to anyone.

“Smakelijk” and enjoy your trip back in time

 

Retaurant d’ Vijff vlieghen:

 Website: http://vijffvlieghen.nl/  

Address :

Spuistraat 294-302
1012 VX Amsterdam

 Phone n°: +31 (0)20 53 04 060

Smooth and Tasty

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I highly recommend this restaurant everyone, it is perfect for 2 or for a whole group! A while ago the guys from work wanted to have dinner somewhere, and as you all might know finding a place where you can enter with 10-12 people is not always easy. So I suggested to go to Smooth & Tasty, a restaurant I had already enjoyed eating at a few times before. What actually surprised me is that when I called to reserve the table, we didn’t have to take a menu with the whole group… Yes indeed, you’ve heard it correctly

The owner prefers it this way as it  might be too difficult to find dishes everybody loves, etc….  The day we went to the restaurant I think almost everybody took something different… and still everything got served at the same time and we didn’t have to wait endlessly but we did take some tapas to start to give the kitchen some time (as we were not the only people in the restaurant). I remember everybody having enjoyed what they had ordered. And this for very reasonable prices.

Smooth & Tasty has all kind of different dishes on their Menu. At first you might think that this will have an influence on the food, but everything you eat there is from high quality and well prepared. I usually eat Thai food there as the Thai food at Smooth & Tasty is – in my opinion – better than in some Thai restaurants I’ve been before.  Colleagues of mine tried duck, steaks, etc… and they also had to admit that the quality was superb.

In Escoffier’s footsteps: Cookbooks

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You have them in all sizes, colors, types of cuisine and I would love to have them all :-).

What people sometimes forget, is that for lots of those cookbooks you need a certain basic knowledge to be able to use them. For example if they talk about a fond, that you have to know what it is, how it is made, etc… or at least this knowledge is often expected (even though you can almost buy everything nowadays). So you should basically always check the degree of expected knowledge of the cookbook before buying it and not only buy the book because of the incredible pictures. Make sure you first have a good basic knowledge for cooking as everything stands and falls with this. If you paint a wall, it won’t be as good if the base is not done properly….

 And to get that basic knowledge, books that I love are Basic cooking(they also have basic Italian, sweet basics, etc…) or “Kookschool”. In the “Kookschool” cookbooks they have step-by-step pictures how everything should look. At first I just bought they because they looked nice 🙂 I also hoped that my girlfriend would start cooking. But I’m sure today’s they there are many more basic knowledge cookbooks available. But the most traditional and most used cookbook in all European Cooking Schools to learn the French Kitchen are Escoffier’s cookbooks!! (picture on top)

 My All-time favorite cookbooks are the ones from Anna Del Conte.  The Italian gastronomy book almost falls apart, that’s how much I used it! The Best Of Anna Del Conte is also recommended.

Made in Italy by Giorgio Locatelli is my brother’s bible 🙂so that is also a reference. If you prefer literature and cooking I would highly recommended the books from Manuela Darling – Gansser, who takes you on a journey through Italy and Switzerland. She does this per season and one by one, all her books are amazing to read! You will not only be hungry, but you will also feel like going on holiday

Mmm, you guys probably think I only like Italian cookbooks … Sorry, but Italian food is just so great 🙂

No no, it is just a joke. A chef I like both for his television appearances and his cookbooks about Belgian cuisine, are the books from Jeroen Meus. One of the books I ‘ve got from him is Jeroen Kookt. It is really a great book!

 High class cookbooks for the more refined cuisine that I also like are: Pure Provenceby Wout Bru; Guy van Cauteren’s ‘t Laurierblad; Rick Stein’s Seafood Odyssey(or any of his seafood books) ; Cees Helder’s Cees Helder, etc….

And there are many many more. But as I said before, pick up that book before buying it!

What’s your favorite Cookbook?

Peperonata

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One of my preferred Italian side dishes is Peperonata. This dish is often accompanied by homemade Polpette (Italian meatballs)mmmmm. In this post I will explain you how I make the Peperonata. Of course like every recipe there are 1001 ways to do it. Again, if you feel like adding something, leaving something out… be my guest. Cooking is a feeling. I rarely follow an entire recipe, I just start with the big lines and color it myself.

 

Hope you’ll like it (FYI, I will post the polpette in one of the following posts)

 

Ingredients:  (4 people should be able to eat from this)

 

  •  5 to 6 paprika’s (depending on their size) I take red and yellow ones, but if you feel more like taking the green (nooo problem)
  • 1 clove of garlic (or 2 if you like it garlicky)
  • 1 little to average carrot
  • Some Oregano, salt , peper and red paprika powder
  •  Bouillon cube (chicken or vegetable)
  • Eventually some fresh basil
  •    Olive oil
  •  1 can of pelati tomatoes (tin can peeled tomatoes)  (if you would want to use the peperonata as sauce and let your polpette set during the night you’d better use 2  or even 3 cans)
  •  1 onion (or if little, 2)
  •  Half a glass of wine (regular wineglass)

 

 Get Started:

 

  1.  Peel your paprika’s (I usually just use the peeler for it, but if you prefer doing it over the stove, that’s fine) and remove the seeds from the inside.
  2.   Cut the paprika’s in long thin strips ( thickness by preference)
  3.  Peel the carrot, garlic and onion. All cut them in little pieces (besides the garlic, as then you can remove it before serving)
  4.  Take your pot and put some olive oil on the bottom. Throw in all the paprika, carrot, onion and garlic. Turn on the heat  (little bit less the max) and let everything bake until you see that the vegetables start to “stick” at the bottom of the pot.
  5. You then extinguish (blussen) with the wine  and add the tomato can.
  6. Stir it all, don’t throw away your can yet, put some water in it, so all the tomato that is still in there can also be used. Poor the water in the pot
  7. Add the bouillon cube, pinch of salt, peper, oregano and paprika powder (and if you might have it some fresh basil.
  8. Let it cook until a more firm consistence (not to liquid)
  9. And there is only one thing left to do, eat it ….

 

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!

The best mussels in town!

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Mussels and restaurant Maritime, they go together like a horse and carriage …. Not only are they well known for their mussels, but my personal favorite is the sole with freshly made tartar sauce and French fries… The first time I tried it at Maritime, I was silent for a few minutes (and I don’t shut up easily). I had never eaten such a good sole! Perfectly prepared! When you are at this restaurant, you can really feel the history. Not only because it already the 3rd generation that this family owns this restaurant, but also the fact that you are in the oldest part of town. Surrounded by The Cathedral, the Renaissance City hall (on UNESCO list) and only 2 steps from the Scheldt (Schelde) river and Antwerp oldest streets. Maritime is also a must -during the Hunting season! Everything at Maritime gets prepared in the classical way and with love, you can just feel and see it when you get your food. Maritime also has a wonderful wine selection, we have to thank Glen (the 3rd generation) for that! Glen & his team really make your visit to Maritime a memorable moment and show you that food doesn’t have to be complicated to be at its tastiest !

Restaurant Maritime:

Website: http://www.maritime.be/

Address:

Suikerrui 4

2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°:  +32 (0)3 233 07 58

The LA vibe

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Los Angeles is definitely one of my preferred destinations during the winter… as in Europe it is freezing cold by that time.

From the second you then walk off the plane you feel the sun spreading its warm glow over California. I find it just wonderful; especially knowing it was –12°C when you got on the plane. I’ve already been a  few times to LA and thanks to a few buddies of mine I’ve been able to experience  LA at its best!! I hereby want to thank them for that  :-).  It might not be the most beautiful city in the US, but there is definitely something about this city that keeps attracting me. Everybody knows the touristy things like Kodak theatre, LA strip, Malibu, Rodeo drive, etc… which you of course have to see when you’re there, but knowing the real LA, that’s what it is all about !

When in Rome, do as the Romans…. So when in LA, do as the LA people!!  One of my favorite hangouts and for sure a ‘must do’ in LA is the Baked Potato, THE FUNKIEST PLACE ever!! An old LA underground club, where the most amazing artists have performed and had jam sessions. All the walls have pictures and autographs of every artist that played here. Ofcourse once you are here, you have to try one of the jacket potatoes!  Check out the calendar, you might be surprised who you’ll be able to catch playing! It is really worth the trip. You might also wanna check out King Chris and The Groove Thang at Backstage Bar And Grill. A trip to House of Bluesis also really nice.

Who thinks fast food, thinks US.  I re-quote when in Rome …. (Thank god my girlfriend wasn’t with me, otherwise the romans would have had different habits 😉 ) The best burgers are without any doubt the In n’ out burgers, no freezers, etc… Everything gets freshly made on the spot! Most of their restaurants are drive-in only. A restaurant that also has seating possibility is the one on Ventura blvd, Woodland Hills. On the corner of La Brea and Melrose you’ll find the world’s most famous and huge celebrity hangout  Pink’s hot dogs

Don’t know if they are the best, but believe me, they were really good!! I must admit that taking the 9inch chili dog was tempting … but I got my senses back and tried the normal chili dog, some mustard, chili & onions.. mmmmm (I bet my LA friends feel like jumping in their car and get one of those puppies). But for the ultimate experience you should really have the best pastrami sandwich ever at Johnny pastrami’s. Take the Johnny’s famous pastrami dip and you’re golden! By the way, this place is close the LAX, so get one before you head back home.  At this point, you might also wanna try some doughnuts?  I needed some convincing at first, but once I entered the Krispy Kreme’sshop I was sold. The time you would want to go, is when  they are freshly making them. The first bite you take out of a glazed doughnut (filled or unfilled), you really believe that sugar heaven exists!! WOW!! Although I have to admit I’m glad they don’t have a shop in Belgium, I wouldn’t be able to stop eating them.

The places above are obviously more a snack thing. In the evening I need something more consistent  :-). A few classics in LA or the States would beThe Cheesecake factory, the red lobster, etc… but I’m always in for something new. Most of my friends know I like this, so my buddy Rick and his wife have taking me to a few authentic Korean restaurants in Korea town and thank god Rick’s wife is Korean, as everything happens in Korean. The first restaurant we went to had like this big grill in the middle of the table on which they put really thin meat and countless little cups with different kind of dishes on the table like spicy stuff (not to their standards) , sweet-sour, etc… it was endless, but it was a great experience and I am definitely going back!! The second one had, the Seoul garden, more or less the same amount of side dishes, but this time it was, it was a kind of fondue pot filled with fish or meat broth (bouillon)   where you would ‘cook’ the fish or meat instead of a grill … again a really nice experience. It is actually called Shabu Shabu.

You cannot go to the US and don’t try some BBQ meat, ribs or burgers… you should really go to Tony Roma’sor Wood Rangeand taste their baby back ribs. Normally I’m not really into spareribs, but man were they good!!

My list could go on and on with great places my friends took me. But if you ever go to LA and you are interested in more info, just let me know!!

 

 

 

Njam – cooking 24 x 7

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The best decision the Belgian Mediaworld took, was definitely to create the cooking channel Njam.

Classic French kitchen, molecular, innovative cuisine, desserts, cocktails, etc… the list is just endless on how many different shows Njam has. Personally I never get enough of the Njam channel, obviously I have my favorites. If I would need to name my preferred International chef (non Belgian) I would say Antonio Carluccio, withouuuuut any doubt!! If you see him on his trip through Italy, I feel like stepping on the first plane and join him. Amongst the Belgian Chefs I would my first award would go to Johan Segers! You can just see his passion for cooking and his respect for the products he works with. Hearing him talk and explain really makes people  go into the kitchen and start cooking. The same goes for Jan Buytaert.  It won’t come as a surprise that I also have sweet tooth. That tooth gets satisfied  by two amazing pastry chefs Roger Van Dammeand Dominique Persoone, again like with Johan Segers, you can see these chef’s passion for what they do. Last but not least I really enjoy watching Njam co-founder, 3 Michelin-star chef and chef of the 14th best restaurant in the world Peter Goossens! On Njam he shows how a classical dish can be made in a gastronomical way, keeping the main ingredients…. Too bad I can’t taste all the dishes the Njam chefs J

Thanks to Njam tv (“les excuses sont fait pour s’excuser” the French would say)  me and a 3 friends decided to have a “Gastronomical odyssey” and seek for the best food in Belgium (to start with).

Let yourself carry away through the world of Gastronomy!

Mess Officier

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You know the feeling coming home and don’t feel like cooking and don’t really feel like going too far to have dinner…. I know I do!  One of those nights I decided to try out restaurant Mess Officier, about 4 min by car from my house (remember it was a lazy night, so walking was out of the question). After my first time at Mess Officier, I’ve been going there ever since J. One of my favorite Belgian dishes would be “Stoofcarbonade” or “Stoofvlees” as most of us would call it. “Stoofvlees” is a Belgian beef stew made with dark Belgian beer that just has to be served with French fries and accompanied by a nice Belgian “Trappist” beer. I’ve already tried “stoofvlees” in a lot of restaurants and lots of times it is too dry, or they didn’t leave it to rest long enough (what usually should be at least overnight) and therefore the taste isn’t what it should be…. But at Mess Officier it is always sooooo good (writing this makes me actually pretty hungry) and on top of that they make their own French fries and their own mayonnaise (made from mustard and a bit of lemon). This is exactly what I like about places like this, they try to give their best to satisfy the customer!! For people who like organ meat, this restaurant is also for you as they always have some suggestions for Organ lovers, like marrow (mergpijp), calf brains, etc…. Don’t worry guys they really have a wide variety of different dishes!! Mess Officier also always have some nice international wine suggestions that can be taken by bottle or by glass.

Bon appétit!

Retaurant Mess Officier:

Website: no website

Address :

De Burletlaan 187
2650 Edegem, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 294 73 61

Fin du monde

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Moving back to Antwerp after living 2 years in Gent was not the most difficult thing. Don’t get me wrong, I really loved the city, but being from Antwerp, plus having most of my friends and family there…. Always having to drive tons of times between those two cities became endless. If one would ask me, what do I miss? I would then have to say the Sunday open air market in Ledeberg (I’m sure I’ll be talking about this in a future post) and a few restaurants (what a surprise) or actually one restaurant in particular, restaurant Fin du monde. Living in a city for a few years, you try to find nice places to eat, drink, etc… But Fin du monde was something special. I liked the no nonsense attitude. In the summer it was nice walking through the old city,  walking from the “vrijdagmarkt” to the “Patershol”, through this little narrow street were you then would find the restaurant behind an old wooden door. In the beginning both the ground floor and first floor used to be a restaurant, but they now changed the Ground floor in a winebar and the first floor in a restaurant. There is no fix menu, every few weeks the menu changes and they prefer working with daily fresh products. All the dishes would be written on a blackboard, always having at least 1 thing I would like. They would have about 12 different dishes from pasta  to vegetarian tofu dish  to meatloaf… accompanied with some garden salad and mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, etc…  Some dishes can be ordered in smaller portions, because they are really generous. Highly recommended is the chocolate cake as dessert (for the romantic souls one with two forks also gets done 😉 ) Also a nice thing to know, is that all the wines they serve are biological wines. Reserving a table is highly recommended. And after the perfect meal, enjoy Gent’s beautiful city by night…

 All to Gent I would say

Retaurant Fin du monde:

 

Website: http://www.findumonde.be/

 

Address :

Meerseniersstraat 3
9000 Gent, Belgium

 

Phone n°: +32 (0) 9 233 35 33