Traveling around West Vlaanderen

They are over, but we had two nice long week-ends. One from thursday to sunday and one from saturday to monday. All thanks to the fact that in Belgium every Catholic  festivity is celebrated. The first long week-end as well as the second we stayed on the Belgian coast, in a place called Sint Idesbald (a fraction of Koksijde) ... they say Belgium, but it is only few kilometers from France.

We took the occasion to drive around the area, which happens to be where Elke comes form (!!!), visiting breweries, World War (one) memorial cemeteries, little villages, etc etc. I will post more photos and details as I manage to find time to actually do something with the few hundreds I took. And this is a start .... and what better way to start if not by introducing a rather unknown (at least to the general public, but not to the lovers) beer, which now sits calmly in my stomach: the Pannepeut . A quadruple (read 10%) dark ale brewed with spices.

This beer comes form a non-professional brewery in the sense that it is run by amateurs (De Struise Brouwers or DSB). They have been voted the best brewery in the world for 2008 (see here) on top of the legendary Sint Sixtus Abdij (of the legendary Westevleteren 12 beer). So I was curios ... I bought a few and tonight gave a try at this one (which is not among their best). Well, what a nice beer. Not in the league of the legendary Westvleteren 8 and 12, but definitively a beer with a complex aroma and taste, just lacking in texture and aftertaste. I am looking forward to taste their better Pannepot and Black Albert!!! 

Among other things I saw in the area were cows .... and I discovered that cows are definitively not friendly. At least not to me. Why? Well, I saw one stuck in mud and ... yes what a photo. But as soon as I got out of my car ... I felt observed ... by 40 cows, then they all grouped together and with angry faces (just check the photo above)  they started getting close ... time to go away!!! Better run !!!

And now let's end with a different note .... the 28th of April was our 1st anniversary .... of marriage. As it was a monday we took advantage of the first long week-end to celebrate it sligthly later. And we did it in style. We went to one of our favorite restaurants: Hostellerie St Nicolas. We know this place from before he got to two Michelin stars and I say it since they mean nothing to us (except the danger of high price). 

The meal was almost perfect (just like the time before 2 years earlier), relatively reasonable prices, great food dominated by a desire to explore a combination of asian-belgian fusion, perfectly matched wines, fresh ingredients, good bread, nice decor and ambiance, very nice service and tempo .... but .. too much food and (only for me, since Elke is pregnant) wine. We had 7 amuse, a first started composed by 3 dishes for me and 4 for Elke (she got changes due to the pregnancy), two other starters, a good sized main course, cheese, dessert, coffee with lot of little sweet things .... and my wine glass was always full. Simply incredible.

Despite the price this is the best price/quality we have ever had (and we have been there 3 times in 5 years) .... if you are around Ieper, definitively give it a try .... but maybe avoid the degustation menu ... simply too much food!!!

And now time to go back to the wifey ... and the little one. Ciaoooo

Den Gouden Harynck*

Sometimes curiosity killed the cat ... in this case, curiosity led to a disappointing dinner. It was quite some time we wanted to go to Brugge (Belgium) and try either the Karmeliet*** or the Den Gouden Harynck* (read * as michelin star) normally described like the tradition of vlanderen and the modern view on flemish cuisine. Highly praised. As we managed to book another triple star (that is an 8 months waiting list!!!) we decided to opt for the modern praised Den Gouden Harynck*.
This is how it went ... yesterday evening.

Good start. Very friendly and nice atmosphere even if it felt that the tables were crammed as much as possible to get as many people in as possible. We get promptly the menu and our glasses of champagne .... we wait quite a lot to order. Well, we though they do not want to be oppressive. Our choice was the season menu with the wine arrangement (4 courses) ... with the idea to also get the optional cheese tray.

Amuses arrive right after we ordered. The first was some sort of solidified broth cut in tagliatelle style with some gray shrimps. Now ... nice effect but my fiancee comment (after 2 weeks of good fish in Italy) was something like: "Does it have any sea taste?". The second amuse was a strip of haring with a drop of roasted pepper cream. Tasty ... but small.

Dishes go .... first starter arrives ... ops! Are they gonna rush us into eating here?? We'll see. This was nice. The smell was fabulously of lobster and it was indded half lobster tail in a lobster bisque with cardamon and turmeric (kind of curry-like) with a rhubarb compote. Nice combination, sauce of great taste. Lobster taste ... only in the smell. Overall a good dish. Served with a very young german riesling. Good choice.

We waited one hour for the second starter ... and I noticed the reason was that they synchronized us to a recently filled table. This was the best dish of the evening. A little stripe of sole slightly fried in oil with soy sauce with some soy sprouts, tomato compote and a parmesan foam. Great stuff .... next to it some useless mini stuffed pasta they dared to call cannelloni. Well, this kind of pasta I would not tolerate in any restaurant, but given the beautiful sole ... I was very happy. Even more impressive was the wine, a Pecorino Terre di Chieti I now want to seek and buy. A fantastic white wine. We were really thrilled to get the main dish.

Now ... after more than an hour we got a sort of main dish. Again a delay due to the synchronization to yet another late coming table. Unacceptable in a michelin starred restoraunt! This was no main course ... two mini pieces of lamb fillet with a spoon of peas. Peas tasted frozen and full of lemon. The lamb ... was it lamb? It tasted only of pre-made curry. It was a 3-bite main course of poor taste and execution. Wine was just ok. I went berserk with this dish ... the cheese trolley, no way! It seemed poor and I even saw a supermarket cheese!

The dessert arrived 10 minutes after the main course. A red fruit compote with a prosecco granita. I hate red fruit and I left the dish untouched (so no comment). The dish was taken away with no comment whatsoever on the fact that it was untouched. This is an unacceptable behavior in such a place. The service treated us like just a number. Maybe we were too young to be there ... bah! We did order like most other people, though.

We paid the nice sum of 210 euros for this. Way above its real value and quantity. I would have been ok with 120 or 130 "at most"! I wanted to stop and buy fries on the way home. The level of service and care of the customer is really low. It is simply a show-off place ... you go there to say I was there. The food had one great moment and too many poor ones.

Will I go back? Only if I do not pay and drive (wine is good). Not worth it otherwise.