Test-Taste Enschede

Having been home for a month, the culinary weekend that sported snack-sized morsels, bites and culinary delights took off on friday the 4th of september. In that weekend both in Enschede, the city I grew up, as well as in Groningen, the city I now live, culinary taste-events took place.

The one in Enschede is the oldest, called 'Proefeet' (test-taste). It brings back fond memories of my childhood. I guess my love for snack-sized food was encouraged by this yearly event. More on the one in Groningen in a next blog post.

The Proefeet is staged in the city center, around one of the old churches. 25+ restaurants present themselves, letting you sample some of their food for a few coins (one coin = one euro). This way the general public can get in touch with restaurants they might otherwise not have considered going to.

My first sample consisted of something with smoked salmon, from restaurant 'Amis'. Yummy! Apparently, they won first prize in the 'newcomers' section.

Tapas

N sampled some deconstructed vitello tonnato, a combination of raw yellowfin tuna and slowly cooked veal ribeye with some garlic dressing. It was from restaurant 'Mangu', which participated in the Dutch TV-series 'Mijn tent is top' (My place is the best), where four restaurant startups competed to be the best and win their investments back. Mangu didn't win, but obviously each restaurant got a lot of publicity in return.

I had their mini-croquette of confit de canard and foie gras with a compote of caramelized apple. Very nice!

Having recently read about potato twisters at Seriouseats.com, I was surprised to find them here in Holland as well. There were very long lines of people waiting to be able to sample some. They were nice. Obviously, it was just fried potato with some nice spices sprinkled over them, but the way they were presented (one long spiral) made for a different eating experience.

Cook of restaurant 'De Tropen'.

Grilled pineapple

Some kind of fish with sweet red beet-chutney and red beet chips and some salad. Very nice!

There were more things we sampled, but sometimes we were too busy eating or meeting family to take pictures. All in all a very nice event. Thanks mom and dad for taking us there!