Birthday dinner party

Alas. Another year has passed since my previous birthday. The first day at work, after ending our holiday. A day I had wished to be a quiet passing. No need to point attention to it whatsoever. Alas. N deemed it necessary to address it with ritual celebration, although she did manage to attend to my wish to keep it quiet nonetheless.

For starters, we got birthday cake, both for ourselves and my colleagues. Next, for breakfast, she made an array of breakfast pastry including croissants and pains-au-chocolat.

Then, for dinner, we originally hadn't planned anything special. I would just cook any of the regular meals I had already done shopping for during the weekend. But, as surprises go, she surprised me by saying she had made a reservation at restaurant De Buurvrouw, which is a little bistro near my workplace.
Since I have an inborn inability to neglect the luring prospect of eating at a restaurant, I gladly went there. On the way over to the restaurant (just across the street) I did notice a similar car to the one that her parents have. It also seemed to have a familiar license plate, but since  I don't know it by heart it might just as well have been a coincidence.

So, when I walked in, N was already occupying our reserved table (room for four people). I do remember asking her what license plate her parents' car had, but she (truthfully) couldn't tell. So we concluded it must have been a coincidence and I ordered a drink for myself.

Then, just when the waiter had brought us our menus, N's parents did walk in. I was fooled all the way by N, of course it had all been set up beforehand! Already, the week before, she had set up the visit with her parents when we were at their place having a very nice BBQ (during which I had already gotten a subscription for cooking magazine Delicious from my own parents who also attended the BBQ). Then, when making the reservation, she had specifically asked the waiter to seat us at a table for four, and when I would get there, to present us with just two menus, making it seem like we would be the only ones who would sit at our table. Those sneaky little people!

Anyway, I got an array of very nice presents from H & R (N's parents): a DVD from the Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain. Next there was another heavy package, containing not just one, but three of the Hairy Bikers' cookbooks! Yes, it was a great heap of presents.

Of course, next to all funnies and coziness, there was dinner as well. Exactly that which is what a food blog should be about of course! No blabbering about this and that, just food. So, in case any reader is still reading this, let's just post some of the pics we had for dinner.

For starters, we ordered two plates of antipasti, a meat version and a vegetarian version. Both plates came with a great variety of top-quality cuts of cold Italian meats, and such vegetables like marinated artichoke hearts, olives and marinated small little onions in a tomato-sauce. I must say, the Parma ham that came with the meat plate, was very tasty and just like the ham we had brought with us over from our stay in Rome earlier this year.

Meat antipasti: Carpaccio, spinata romana, coppa di Parma, prosciutto and mortadella

Vegetarian antipasti: marinated artichokes, courgette-carpaccio with goat's cheese, avocado-pesto bruschette, marinated olives and cipolline casseruola

Next, there was the main course. The ladies both took cuts of beef (I think; week's special, can't trace it back at the restaurant's online menu), us men both took fish.

R's steak with portabello mushroom and brie

N's lactose-intolerant version without the brie

Our menly sole filets with crispy baked coppa di Parma and a grapefruit sauce

Side dishes: fries with mayo (yes, we're Dutch), a salad and a chutney of apple and raspberry

I should mention that our sole filets where coated with what seemed like a very fine batter (it might have been just some flour coating). They were spiced up nicely with pepper and salt. Then there was the crispy coppa di Parma. I must say, the crispy saltiness of that ham combined very well with the delicate fish (which would be proven again by eating a same sort of thing later during the week when eating at another restaurant with A). Yes, very fine dishes.

Well, then there were the desserts. H & R shared the Grand Dessert (compilation of desserts), N had a specially prepared lactose-intolerant selection of fruits and for myself I had French toast (eggy bread) with lemon sorbet ice, summer fruits and a specially prepared fig (can't recall exactly how it was prepared since it was also the week's special so I can't trace it back from the menu online).

H&R's Grand Dessert. I was too preoccupied with my own dessert to notice what was even on it :)

N's fruits with cinnamon stick and an amaretto liquor.

My French toast with lemon sorbet ice and fruits.

So, everything turned out to be great! The dinner, the company and the setting, all very nice. What might even be best, is the present I got from N: a brand new digital (pocket)camera, even more compact than our previous one (whose flash was broken by the way; N was already pushing me to get a new one). So, the pictures that are shown in this post are taken with the new camera. Let's hope this new input will provide for an improved blog posting experience.

Family Day

Every year, N's mother's family celebrates their family day. Each year, one of the families gets to organize an activity and everybody gathers at their city. Also, N's grandmother (her mother's mother) celebrates her birthday (her 91st this year -- and still going strong). This year both activities were combined.

This year's activity was organized by N's parents, and they organized a chocolate workshop: grouped by three, everyone had to make some type of chocolates. More on that in a later post, I'm supposed to get some pictures from that from C.

Grandmother's birthday traditionally takes place in the same conservatory of a typical country-restaurant, where we're traditionally served a nice buffet and we're traditionally served by the same waiter. There's a regular scheme there, that's repeated each and every year: First, two cups of coffee with some pastry (choux or those squared cake things pictured above), then either vegetable or tomato soup and then the buffet itself.

Since every year, it's (supposed to be) exactly the same, we make fun of meeting the same waiter again, being subjected to the same scheme again, introducing new family members to the scheme and making remarks about things that did change ('The waiter is not wearing his glasses anymore' or 'Last year, there was another table arrangement').

I won't bore you with other family peculiarities, but instead show you some pictures of the buffet instead.

A typical Dutch cold/hot buffet, served by a restaurant like this, consists of:
- cold meat/potato salad
- cold salmon/potato salad
- smoked salmon
- smoked eel
- Dutch shrimps (smaller than more familiar ones, but I like them better, they've got more flavour)
- cold cuts of meat
- melon with prosciutto
- brined raw herring (Dutch traditional), served with raw onion
- sliced baguette
- sauces (garlic, cocktail etc)
- satay
- beef
- ham with peppercorn sauce
- pork in champignon/cream sauce
- rice
- potato sides (potato croquettes, deep fried potato parts)

...and probably some other things which I have already forgotten.

You can go as many times as you like, and each time you go you can get a new plate.

That's basically it. Dessert is a buffet again: it includes several types of icecream, tiramisu, a chocolate fountain, puddings etc. but I'm not that much of a dessert type of person.

So, anyway, I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to next year's traditional visit again :)