De Vitrine - Gent

After having visited 'Coeur d'Artichaut' in Gent recently I still had a hunger for some more culinary violence from this city and decided to visit 'De vitrine'.

 This resto, another disciple of the bistronomy trend is in fact owned by Kobe Desramaults from 'In de Wulf'. Where in his 1 Michelin star rated restaurant in Dranouter he can unleash his gastronomical devils with his local and experimental cuisine 'De vitrine' offers a more approachable insight in his cuisine.

We enter the resto, an old butchershop - reminds me of 'La buvette' in Brussels- and have a seat at the bar. We start of with some bubbles, Crémant de Loire L'Albatros and a portion of fresh whelks with a honey mayonaise. Ideal to start with a clean palate.

First dish is a serving of white 'dune' asparagus, cooked al dente, combined with fresh purslane, purslane sauce ,a creamy egg yolk and raw asparagus in a light vinegar. A light yet tasty starter, nice acidity and the asparagus prepared like they should.
The wine we have with this dish is a natural, bio Sylvaner with a quite prominent sour mineral taste and a hint of oak. It pairs well with this dish.

The second dish was optional and I'm glad we opted to have it as it was my favourite of the evening.

An escabeche of mackrel rolled in a thin sheet of horse radish, fermented/preserved garlic,a green herbs cream/mayo and toasted quinoa. A super fresh velvetty mackrel filet, partially raw with a nice vivid taste from the escabeche marinade. The preserved garlic was quite prominent but didn't overpower and that green herbs sauce(a mixture of garlic, chervil, taragon and chives and prepared like a mayo) was simply delicious!

Following dish was a small, roasted zucchini/courgette with charred onion leaves, toasted wheats, thinly sliced poached zucchini/courgette and a cream of zucchini/courgette flavoured with bacon(that's what  I think I tasted, the flavour was quite prominent). Nice dish combining the roasted/charred flavours with the sweetness of the zucchini and the smoked flavour in the cream. And as you can allready see green was the colour of the evening!

This was followed by a flavour packed, slow-cooked piece of lamb shoulder. A very fatty but deep taste with soft, succulent flesh and paired with some young turnips, fresh goat cheese and charred spring onions. 

Dessert was a daring combination of chervil cremeux, sorrel granité and fresh crispy cold chervil served on a small tarte sablée. A combination that seemed odd on paper but wonderfully worked as a light, refreshing end to my dinner.  A risky combo though...

My wife opted fot the assorted chees platter and received a nice piece of Damse mokke, a St-Romain and a Belgian goat cheese. All perfectly ripe.

Coffee came with some brownies and lemon curd.

There's no A la carte menu here, you can only choose for the 4-service menu for 45€ with an option for a 5th dish at 10€, drinks not included.

De vitrine offers a modern cuisine with some daring dishes but all prepared with great savoir-faire. The escabeche of mackrel is allready one of the best dishes I had this year and more than worth our little trip to Gent.

Vaut le détour!

De Vitrine

Brabantdam 134

9000 Gent

09/336.28.08

Enjoy,

Kev

Coeur d'artichaut - Gent

Is there a better way to start the weekend than being invited by a restaurant owner and his head chef to try out the new concept of resto Coeur d'Artichaut with other foodbloggers? Yes, probably but this comes close!

Restaurant Coeur d'Artichaut has been  active in Ghent since 1992 starting as a bistro with a focus on healthy food and later transforming into a gastronomic venue. 

And now owner and horeca-entrepreneur Eric de Wagenaere felt the time was there to follow another culinary path, the bistronomic way. 

A more open interpretation of the high-end cuisine and accesible for all.

Chef Tom Van Lysebettens was given the challenge to put together a menu for 13 critical and hungry foodbloggers. 

He made a menu with 4 different starters, a fix second, 4 different mains and 3 different desserts thus giving us the opportunity to sample the cuisine he's offering. With an history in 'Ter Duinen' and experience at 'Het gebaar', 'Volta' en 'C-jean' I knew he had some skills and he didn't dissapoint me.

Cuttlefish/Cucumber/Puffed rice/Dill was the starter I first tasted and I found it to be very refreshing and tastefull. The combination of the dill, cucumber and some grapefruit worked ,though a bit more acidity could have taken this dish to another level!

Another starter was Fresh goatcheese/Smoked red beet/young sprouts. Goatcheese clearly is a trend lately, I had it served allready a couple of times in the last weeks. I actually didn't taste this dish but I heared it was also a nice combo. Only the serving of goatcheese was a bit big  it seemed and quickly overpowered the palate. For goatcheese lovers!

Chicken rilette/Taragon/Tomato confit. We all know that chicken and taragon are a match made in heaven and this interpretation was also very good. A nice combination of textures, soft and crunchy. A rich rilette and tangy tomatoe confit cream. Nice

Pork cheeck/Pomme Pont-Neuf/Picles mayo. This was served between our entrées and mains. A braised pork cheeck, pulled apart and pressed into a rectangular shape and then baked crispy. Served with crisy pommes pont-neuf and a pickled mayonaise. Delicious!! Strong, intense flavour in the cheeks and a fresh,tart mayo to balance it out! Very nice!!

Oysters Grevelingen/Horse radish/Chervil. I didn't taste these. Somehow I wasn't in an oyster mood and to be honest I prefer my oysters clean and simple with nothing on it except maybe some pepper and a squeeze of lemon. My neighbour however told me they were great.

Cuckoo from Mechelen/Tomatoe tartlet/Greek yoghurt. Opinions were a bit divided on this one. All tastes were good but the combination lacked a bit structure, didn't blend well together. The poultry was fresh and of  good quality but the cuison was a bit on the edge, could have used a tad more heat. The tartlet wasn't necesary and another ingredient could have given this dish more value, perhaps some turnips?

Halibut/Curry cream/Fungus/Sea lavender. A nice piece of firm fish, cooked to perfection with earthy mushrooms/fungi, a salty sea lavender and a curry cream. Good but the curry overpowered the whole dish. Good effort though!

North Atlantic Cod/Cream of Oud-Brugge cheese/Tomatoe&Basil/ Cockle clams. My absolute favourite dish of the evening. Yet again a firm, flakey piece of fish served on a sweet cream of Oud-Brugge cheese and paired with the tanginess of the tomatoe and basil puffs/cream. The cockle clams added a briny taste and completed this dish! Spot on for me!

White asparagus/Cream of egg yolk/Hazelnut crumble/M'Hamza couscous. I'm not often tempted by a vegetarian dish but this was amazing. Al dente cooked asparagus, rich creamy yolk and hazelnut crumble and couscous. Nice combination and also showing that the chef knows his techniques.

Tartine Russe. First dessert and a miss unfortunately. Like someone at our table said 'You get this served, you expect to taste something refreshing and you get heavy and creamy'. Indeed the crème-au-beurre like cream was too heavy and made the whole dish a hard to eat composition. This should be lighter and fresher.

Milk chocolate tart/Speculoos/Passion fruit. This dessert was better. The milk chocolate tart was rich and dense and dusted with speculoos but the cream of passion fruit gave this dish the needed freshness/lightness. Good!

Tainori ganache/Blackberries/Quark. A deep rich taste of origine chocolate paired with some blackberries and fresh quark cheese. Nice combo.

I had a wonderfull dinner in company of colleague foodbloggers. All flavours were good and the dishes were all presented/composed according to the actual high standards but I felt that chef Tom Van Lysebettens is still a bit strugling with some dishes. These are just minor details and some dishes were truely spot on but some needed a bit more work/focus. 

Still the quality is allready at a high level and I'm sure that he will keep working to reach even higher so really don't hesitate to have lunch or dinner here when you're in Gent, you won't be dissapointed.

Thanks to Pieter Declercq and Caroline Dhondt for the beauifull pictures and Kristof Verheyden for keeping me company during our 2-hour drive to Gent trough trafic inferno!

And a big thanks to Edward Vanhoutte for setting this up and to Eric De Waegenaere and Tom Van Lysebettens for having us.

Be sure to check out the blogs of the other food bloggers:

• Caroline Dhondt  - www.avocadovandeduivel.be
• Edward Vanhoutte - www.tafelvooreen.be
• Els Debremaeker - www.njamelicious.be
• Frank Cops - www.be-gusto.be
• Kim Recour - www.cookanista.be
• Kris Herrijgers - www.kriskookt.be
• Kristof - www.meersmaak.be
• Kristof Verheyden - www.legourmandbelge.be
• Mélanie Velghe - www.illyvanilly.be
• Pieter Declercq - hotcuisinedepierre.wordpress.com
• Steve Engels - www.bistronomie.be
• Yves Van De Ven - www.coolinary.be

Enjoy,

Kev

La Buvette - Bistronomy in Brussels

If you want to get a whiff of the actual bistronomy buzz then it's time for you to go to Brussels and give this resto a try.
It's located in Saint-Gilles, Brussels, on the busy Chaussée d'Alsemberg just in front of 'Café des spores', the renowned Brussels resto specializing in dishes with mushrooms of all kinds. This location is no coincidence as both resto's share the same owner, Nicolas Scheidt, a young entrepreneur with his roots in the French Alsace region.

Though he has a background in law school he never put it to use but opted to make a career out of his passion, good food.
After having  worked at  London's 'Bellamy' and 'Jamie Olliver's 15' he opened a bistro in the centre of the gastronomical capital,Paris, named 'L'office' and later took over 'Café des spores' and opened 'La buvette' here in Brussels.
It all adds to what you get now in 'La buvette'! A simple, laid back yet very original setting -an old butchershop- the pending meathooks are the remaining witnesses of the former use of the house together with the typical butchershop tiling,  and a culinary experience at high level for a 'bistro'-price!
And after a a couple of reviews by colleague good food lover/blogger Be-gusto we knew we had to give this place a go!

Service is without ceremony, friendly and easy, welcoming. A couple of young waiters take care of the service together with the chef's explaining the dishes with passion. The young waiters are somewhat unexperienced and clumsy but were allways correct when asked for info.
Fun thing is that we were actually seated in the cooling area where they used to hang and keep the meat.

There's only one set menu available, 7 dishes for 45€ with the option for cheese for 7€ and a slow coffee for 5€. Bistronomical prices!

They also have an impressive wine and beer menu, the collection of beers  they offer really left an impression on me and I opted for a beer as an apperitif, a 'Saison de Dottignies' from brewery 'De Ranke', a smooth unfiltered white/blond beer.

 Amongst the wines a couple of beautiful natural wines, we tasted a good fruity/mineral Riesling and a special Pinot noir from the same house, Rieffel, which tasted very candy like,  warped me back to my childhood.






No appetizer is served and the first dish came while we were still enjoying our drink. Different structures of kohlrabi with bergamot and a Cecina crumble. A preparation served cold, very refreshing and crisp with some smokey flavour from the Cecina crumble.

Next came a ravioli with a savoury black pudding sausage filling swimming in a delicious, strong yet balanced pork&chicken broth. Some braised spinach and toasted buckwheat on top.

This was followed by a dish that was so good that I forgot to take a picture of it :( Try to imagine it as I describe it....

A moist and flakey piece of pollock, a hearty reduced bisque as sauce and a potatoe cream with sepia ink. The fish was cooked perfectly, the rich flavour of the bisque elevated the fish and the potatoe cream with sepia ink harmonized the whole nicely. Texture wise the potatoe cream was a bit weird but taste was good.

Our fourth dish was probably the winner of the evening, a laquered piece of veal(shoulder I think) combined with a rutabaga cream and some rumex(zuring in Dutch) leaves. The veal had a sweet taste, so did the sauce, and was tender like butter - no knife needed- and countered perfectly with the earthiness of the rutabaga cream. Nice!

At this point we had an intermezzo with some cheese. A nice selection of  refined cheeses(from top, clockwise) 'St-Nectaire' 'Tomme de Chartreuses',  'Etivaz' and 'Fourme d'Ambert'. My personal favourite was the Fourme d'Ambert, a deliciously strong and salty blue cheese. One of France's oldest cheeses.

After the cheese we had our first dessert, a  combination of fresh 'Faiselle cheese ', mango, pumpkin, spiced meringue and caramel cream. Unfortunately this dish didn't work. I was expecting something refreshing, giving a nice tangy contrast but it lacked harmony. The different elements didn't blend well together leaving us dissapointed. I had a similar dish a week before at resto 'Veranda' in Berchem and there it was spot on so I knew what I was missing here! Too bad!

Luckily for us we weren't done yet and the next dish hit the sweet tooth in me! Chocolate heaven ;) A chocolate tart covered with a praliné demi-sel crackle and a chocolate/praliné quenelle. More of this please!!

Last dish ended on a refreshing note (as it should in my opinion), a lemon icecream covered with a light white chocolate sauce and a kardemon/cilantro syrup. I didn't really notice the cilantro and the lemon was a bit punched back by the white chocolate but it was a good refreshing ending.

And when you order a coffee here don't ask for an esspresso or latte-frape-machiato! You might end up banned from this place(so is asking for a coke apparently), they take their coffee seriously. You can choose from a couple of origin beans, all roasted in Belgium and then prepared following the 'slow coffee' principle. And I must say they make one hell of a coffee!

Very nice experience in this bistronomic resto in Brussels but I must say that my recent visit to 'Veranda' had left me a with better impression of what bistronomy is all about. Very good effort though and I wouldn't mind a second(or a third) visit!

Enjoy,

Kev

La Buvette

Chaussee d'Alsemberg 108

1060 Saint-Gilles/Bruxelles

Tel: +32(0)25341303

Veranda - Berchem

A dinner amongst foodies/foodbloggers/kindred spirits;

• Crime scene: De Veranda - Berchem
• Crime scene catering: Davy Schellemans&team
• Crime scene photography: Thomas Van de Water - AKA Filet-Pur
• Kingpins: Cookanista & Be-Gusto
• Motive: Good food makes good people unite
• Victims: rabbit, pig, cow,cod. All died but not without serving a good purpose, feeding our eager minds and stomachs.

Eyewitnesses :    

• Kim - Cookanista
• Frank - Be-gusto
• Yves - Coolinary
• Myriam - Hap&Tap
• Kristof - Meersmaak
• Ruth - NientediParticolare
• Caroline - Advocado van de duivel
• Kristof - LeGourmandBelge
• Sven - BelgianTasteBuds
• Thomas - FiletPur
• Dennis - LazyMonday
• Edward - Foodzoeker
• Pieter - HotCuisinedePierre
• Steve - Bistronomie
• Iris - YummyBlogsisters
• Dorien - JongeSla

I'll let the beautiful pictures speak for themselves and advise you to try the Veranda out when you have the opportunity. They'll let you experience a passionate cuisine, hook you up with some top-class wines or craft Belgian beers and the bill won't be too painfull. Top experience in Berchem-Antwerp!!

Steamed egg/Dashi/Uni/Spring onion

 Pickle butternut/Butternut cream/ Mustardseeds/Bacon

Poached cod/Green asparagus/Shrimp/Savora dijonaise

Sot-L'y laisse/Radishes/Chinese broccoli/Lemon cream/Yuzu

Vichyssoise/Ginger/Salmon eggs/Mimolette/Sunflower seeds

Holstein 'Paleron' aged for 49 days/Spinach/Onion/Horse radish

Rabbit/Celery root/Apple/ Bear's garlic

Goat cheese/Passion fruit/Buttermilk/Yoghurt

Pear/Sorbet/Allmonds/Lemon cream

                          Chef Davy Schellemans @work

Sommelier and waiter Daan demonstrating his passion