East Mamma - Paris (Fr)

When in Paris, dining out can set you back a few euros. However the next hotspot doesn`t. East Mamma ( of the Big Mamma group ) is an "Italian Trattoria Popolare" serving original Italian products bought directly from producers in Italy. Located near Bastille in the heart of Paris, this restaurant is open every day and takes no reservations. Arriving a bit early already a line of enthousiast diners was forming. And we weren`t the only enthousiast there. The East Mamma staff is a young bunch and the last preparations for the evening service were completed on the tunes of The Prodigy. One last sigaret and then the doors of East Mamma opened !

 

 

 

 

When you get to your table a simple menu is awaiting you and water is presented.

 

 

You can also ask for a counter seat so you can have a look at the kitchen and the dynamic staff.

 

 

Our drinkselection is a fresh homemade lemonade and a bitter Chinotto based on grapes.

 

 

During our stay in Paris we went to East Mamma twice because the food was so good and cheap and we wanted to try more from the menu. Everybody loves some good Italian.

 

The dishes we tried were:

Fresh pasta with black truffles from Bologna with a mascarpone cream and small mushrooms vs the pizza mammargherita with buffalo mozzarella DOP ( DOP being a label guaranteeing the authenticity of a product )

 

Nice presentation on both dishes - maybe a bit odd though to present the food on top of the menu - and the taste was great, however personally to eat an entire truffle pasta becomes a bit boring after a while.

 

 

The big mamma salad with fresh peaches and Bresaola vs the pizza Marinara with tomato sauce and herbes

 

 

I actually had this salad the first night and the flavour combo was a real suprise and eye opener towards peaches on salads. Nice colours on the plate aswell. I do like some bread with my salad though.

 

 

Service at East Mamma is very quick so if you re only having one course, it will be a short dining experience.

 

So after a great salad I went over the menu again looking for interesting desserts, I saw these fresh strawberries with whipped cream, merrengue, blueberries, raspberry and strawberry coulis ( which resemble my favorite desert Pavlova ) so I decided to give it a try ... for BLOGs-sake.

 

 

Although nicely presented this dessert Frutti Coquins did not fulfill my expectations.

As the pizza only was 9 euro and this dessert 8 euro, still being relatively cheap, it felt a bit pricy for the 1 or 2 sliced strawberries with a lot of whipped cream and a bit of merrengue on top... and 6 berries.

Another funlooking dessert was the Nutella pizza, which basically is some pizza dough and a giant pot of nutella with a huge spoon. This dessert gets posted a lot on the East Mamma instagram page.

Anyway lesson learned the next day we just had a coffee. I tried the coffee with Nutella and it was a small strong coffee with a teaspoon of Nutella. Notice the "call me mamma" napkin btw.

 

 

A mention aswell for the hand cream at the toilets, a nice touch.

 

 

 

So another dining experiment with some winners and some "less to my likings", but I would recommend having lunch or dinner there if you re in the neighborhood, visiting Bastille, the Opera or the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Like I said you can not make reservations there and on the nights we passed by the restaurant there always was a line of hungry diners.

 

East Mamma is part of the Big Mamma group. You can check out East Mamma and other venues at their website. Until next time !!

http://www.bigmammagroup.com/

 

 

FATBOY - Buggle up bean bag

FATBOY - Buggle up

 

 

In search of a cozy way to enjoy the warmth of my fireplace I stumbled upon these bean bags. They combine design with the function of actually having a backrest. It designed for indoor and outdoor usage.

The Fatboy oversized label together with big buckles and metal holes gives matches the name, big, bulgy, simply nice and affordable ( under € 300 ) 

 

 

 

Personally I want to go for the 2 seater, but I 'll have to try it first cause I would prefer to have my feet also on the bag and not touching the floor ( although it s warm enough around the fireplace ) We 'll see. But the design and idea is original.

 

Check out other Fatboy designs on http://www.fatboy.com/

Check my pin and other (furniture) pins on Pinterest : http://www.pinterest.com/jimboooh/

Le 54 - Tongeren (BE)

Le 54 - Tongeren (BE)

Le 54 .

First off, on a personal note, this is a special restaurant for me.

I remember my first visit here and how it changed my cullinary vision.

I used to go to the typical restaurants which serve

sandwiches - salads - pastas meats and fish

I concidered a restaurant like Le 54 an exclusive restaurant,

having a threshold for ´people like me´.

Intentionally I was drawn by the lunch :

a starter main and coffee with sweets for twenty something euro

On top of that, served in an intimate setting.

This was long before the foodhype hit Belgium.

It was unknown to me. Never read a restaurant review.

Never heard of a cuisson :)

My chance to try this experience.

And if it made an impact.

This food deviated from the typical

´steak with creamy mushroom sauce´ serving restaurants

If you normally dine like I did in the days, Le 54 is certainly a good restaurant to take your cullinary experience to the next level.

Accesible ingredients and tastes. Food that you know and recognize on a plate cooked to perfection.

My new hobby was born and it was called tasting the finer foods in life.

I started to explore all kinds of restaurants, but regularly come back here for the good value for money, the friendly couple that runs the restaurant and the cosy interior with a fireplace and great painting.

But I'll let the pictures do the talking now, so see you next time!

1st appetizer : lobster ravioli  

2nd appetizer : celeriac soup

You always get 2 appetizers 

Our habit ; some olive oil with pepper and salt to go with the bread

1st Starter : 

Tuna carpaccio and tartar - cucumber dressing - lemon - herb salad

2nd Starter : 

pasta - pheasant ragout - mushrooms - celeriac

3rd Starter :
Sea bass filet - leak - cream of Jerusalem artichoke

As a main you can choose fish or meat

(Vegetarian on request)

Main : Beef ( Belgium - 3 weeks matured ) - savoy cabbage - chicory - thyme - rosemary

Beef

Or Cod

We chose to break habit and go for a cheese dessert

green tea and macaroons as a strong finisher

Tongeren has some great restaurants to choose from and this is one for that list. Until next time!

Online Fashion :Thorocraft shoes

While surfin I stumbled upon a pair of Thorocraft shoes which immediately caught my eye with their particular design. I went to their site and found some more interesting pairs. They 're midrange priced so ideal for me to add to the "collection".
I ll post a top 3 but you can check out the site yourself .

www.thorocraft.com

Top 3

The Cooper

The Porter

The Hutchinson

Till next time!

Aan Tafel bij Luc Bellings * * - Hasselt (Be)

Summer has finally hit Belgium and to start it right I booked 2 "2 Michelin star" restaurants during

" Restaurant Week " Presented by Dining City.

I got the announcement via Facebook and immediately looked to book some amongst the star restaurants but dinners were allready fully booked and even weekend lunches weren´t available, so 2 week lunches were the result.

Tuesday : Hasselt : Aan Tafel bij Luc Bellings

Friday : Dudzele : Bij Danny Horseele

2 opposite sides of the country , I was curious if that would be translated in the product choice.

I can allready tell you that it were 2 entirely different experiences, not so much foodwise though.

I had dinner already once at "Aan Tafel bij Luc Bellings" which was my only 2 Michelin star experience up to now.

Arriving at the restaurant you are welcommed by the hostess and guided to your table as chairs are pulled out for you and your handbagg (my girlfriend´s that is :) ) placed neatly on a stool.

The concept of Dining City´s " Restaurant Week" is that you can go to the participating restaurants and they will serve you for € 22,5 ( + € 10 / Michelin star ) that brought us to € 42,5 . Now as you can see on the menu, you can complete your experience by the adding the following :

- The champagne with 7 amuses

- Wines & water                            

- The coffee or tea with sweets   

This will bring the total to € 75 which is the normal price charged for a lunch at

"Aan Tafel bij Luc Bellings".

So bassically as there is no price difference between "Restaurant Week" or any other week. It merely was an inceptive to finally book these restaurants, looking back. 

Now from my experience I would certainly recommend to choose for the entire experience if you go to this type of restaurant and certainly at "Aan Tafel bij Luc Bellings". And so we did.

It´s almost natural we think but, pepper, salt, butter and olive oil are present at the table.

Like last time, Bellings adds a rose flavor and a rose petal to this house champagne which my fiancée chose. As I already tried it, I just took their champagne.

The house champagne is a Didier Michel Brut Premier Cru.

The 7 amuses were the following :

A krupuk of potato with a poultry dip.

                     

Chicory with shrimp, a shrimp pudding, a drop of grapefruit served on a crumble of nut

Bread with an anchovy an olive tapenade and a an anchovy mayo.

Anchovies are usually to salty for me but as we say you only now if you don´t like something if you have eaten it at a quality restaurant.
This one was great actually so soft tasting.

2 great amuses

An asparagus mousse, a green asparagus tip, mimosa egg, a musterd cracker and a safran drop

a pike-perch carpaccio, tomato and a drop of basil

a mackerel tartare, an avocado carpaccio, apple, a drop of curry and a string bean sauce 

An orriginal sauce, supprising, tastes great.

And a final warm amuse :

A duck oyster, a drop & roll of sweet potato and a peanut crumble

 Now would you really pass up on all of this to save € 18 ... indeed , a must , I would say.

On to the starter, a tuna carpaccio served with shrimp, slices of radish, a cloud of sea urchin and a spinach sauce.

The sea urchin is very soft tasting and adds texture to the dish.

The accompanying white wine was Albet i noya from Cattalunia.

The main was "black leg" chicken, asparagus, spring bean, parsnip, carrot and anise mushroom.

Served with a glass of red Bila-haut Michel Chapoutier 2011 also a nice wine.

No real WOW flavours in this main, so on to dessert(s)

Starting of with a beauty babtised " Strawberry new style " 

bringing strawberries in 5 different ways using a regional product Haspengouw strawberries

joined by basil ice cream topped with a strawberry tuile and a little crips and crumble for texture.

Than only chocolate containing dessert, hey we re in Belgium this is a must :)

Dulce Lecce with a layer of chocolate topped with mango and passion fruit and a white chocolate flake

 A great combination of flavors. 

Since a month I ve said farewell to coffee and started exploring the world of tea

Great green tea here ( which is my favorite anyway), served in nice Taitù porcelain.

Check their eshop for more designs.

 http://www.taitu-eshop.com/

You get free refills on your tea by the way.

Accompanying your tea is a fest of sweets :

 Hasselt speculoos, another regional product

Blueberry and passion fruit marshmallow

a raspberry miserable

a cup of chocolate cake filled with Italian merengue, a praline sponge-cake and a lime jelly

a cold coco mocha soup

 

Resulting in this nice table you can enjoy in any order to finish your cullinary experience.

And while you re goin through all these sweets occassionally a waiter drops by with some fresh baked Belgian waffles ...

... or an orange jelly, a signature seasalt praline

or a cuberdon ( a Belgian candy originating from Ghent which is a must if you visit Belgium )

     

And so our cullinary experience came to an end with an overall excellent service, a kind hostesse, an enjoyable view over the open kitchen which is very disciplinary run by Luc with an minimal amount of talking, realy very quiet it oozed rest.

If you like fine dining , which you do otherwise you wouldn t be reading this post ☺. 

I would recommend visiting this place. You can allready have an entire all in experience at € 75.

I hope you will enjoy it like we did.

http://lucbellings.be/welkom