Two Belgians

Here is a post about a recent visit again to local restaurant De Twee Belgen (The Two Belgians). We went there last Ascension Day. No lengthy stories about what we ate there, just pictures and short descriptions.

Amuse bouche was a small cup of tomatosoup with a cheese twister.

Every time I eat here, I just have to have the shrimp croquettes as a starter. I'm sure they have other items on the menu, but come one, who'd order something else when you can have shrimp croquettes? Especially when they're the best in town.

Okay, maybe N's lactose intolerance made her choose oxtail stock with ravioli, stuffed with duck foie gras. Apparently, very good. Not as good as shrimp croquettes of course.

Since the asparagus season was in full bloom, we both ordered the special of asparagus, served with a poached egg and fabulous ham of a special kind of pork I've already forgotten. Served on the side were the infamous Flemish fries (whole different league altogether than french fries), though a bit on the salty side. And apparently some salad.

Service was swift since we had mentioned we were on a tight schedule because we wanted to see The Fantastic Mr. Fox, so we were amply in time at the cinema. Afterwards we had a drink at a bar and after that we even went to the fair, where I won N a stuffed bee, we had cotton candy and sugar coated nuts and I even lost some bucks on a dexterity game where you had to try to win a prize by making a stick push through some tight holes (sorry, I can't think of a better explanation). All in all, it was a great day!

Dinner at 't Koetshuys

Last night, we had dinner at 't Koetshuys (the Coach House), with Fr&Fi. For appetizers, we had a little basket of bread with pesto and garlic butter.


I had the pleasure of sampling the weekly fish dish, which was butter-fish, served with a citrus-sauce and some vegetables.


N had lamb rumpsteak. Both dishes were very nice. Fr & Fi both had a tilapia fish dish.

There were also some fries and a little salad with it.

Fi was a little pressed for time, and unfortunately the kitchen was giving in to the pressure of a full restaurant, so our food got served a little late (like, after an hour or so). We got the staff's apologies and even some discount coupons for a next visit.

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 :)

Munch Museum

On my birthday, the 2nd of august, we went back to Sweden through Oslo, Norway. We stopped there to visit the Munch Museum. No, that's not a museum purely meant for munching away delicious foods like the salmon sandwich above or the ham and pesto salad below. It's the museum for Edvard Munch's art, painter of the famous "The scream". Anyhow, the food was good.