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

The Cheesecake Factory - Dubai (UAE)

The Cheesecake Factory

Everything that is something ... is in Dubai! That´s what the Cheescake Factory must have tought, cause in August 2012 they opened their first establishment outside of the US. In the Dubai Mall, the biggest mall in the world. The restaurant is located just opposite the largest aquarium window in the world. We went to ask for a table and got a pager to our suprise, with the promise they would signal us when a table would become available, estimated waiting time 20 minutes. As the place is HUGE, my expectations for the quality of the food dropped.

The Dubai Mall entrance & Burj Khalifa by night

The Cheesecake Factory ( back entry )

The biggest aquarium window in the world.

As a good American tradition you get free refills for your drink.

We looked for a starter to share and immediately agreed on the crab cakes. And OMG they were so good, with some graded cole and some deepfried ricenoodles. We were off to a good start.

When I saw the plates passing, there was clearly a theme noticable ... TOWERS. Just one picture of the food waiting in the window to give you an idea. My hope of ever tasting the actual cheesecake there was shrinking :)

Although the place is huge, food is flying out of the window and they re certainly not understaffed. Marleen went for the "BANG-BANG CHICKEN & SHRIMP".

A spicy Thai dish with the flavors of curry, peanut, chile and coconut.

Sauteed with vegetables, served with steamed white rice.

I chose the Hibashi steak. Served with mushrooms, sesame , a tempura of asparagus and mashed patatos topped with a wasabi sauce.

It might not look so appealing but it tasted very good !

And than started the difficult task of picking out our cheesecake. Countless cheesecakes available offcourse but the price of craziest went unanimous to the one with the Snickers bar baked into the cheescake ( see picture of the menu ). However we decided to try their best selling cheesecake : The original with glazed fresh straberries and wipped cream.

 And it was some dammmn good cheesecake

I actually checked the website to regrettably read that they only deliver within the US.

But you can bet your sweet strawberry that we ll go back for that Cheesecake

when we go to NY.

Till next time !



Burj Al Arab - The Ultimate High Tea @ Dubai (UAE)

The Ultimate Afternoon Tea at the Sahn Eddar restaurant in the Burj Al Arab in Bubai

The Ultimate Afternoon Tea in the only 7 star hotel in the world. Talking about high expectations. High expectations is even an understatement, I expected it to be a complete rip-off ; about € 100 for ´´ some coffee and cookies ´´. I thought it would never live up to be the Ultimate Afternoon Tea, but did I know that we were in for the treat of a lifetime ! 

I was a bit stressed on arrival as I didn´t have a confirmation of our reservation on me.

When our black Audi A6 taxi pulled up at the gates, we were granted access to the island of the hotel just by mentioning my name leaving all the (other) tourists at the entrance to take their pictures. A great feeling off course. Driving up to the hotel we could gaze at the remarkable building.

 Our Ultimate Afternoon Tea was reserved at the Sahn Eddar a restaurant just one floor above the entrance, at the front of the hotel. You take the escalator between the dancing fountains and the huge aquarium to arrive at your floor.

We were a bit early, the Ultimate Afternoon Tea has 2 seatings one from 13-16 h and one from 16-19 h

we arrived at 12:45 but were seated immediately. Our seats had a great view on the crazy interior of the hotel. Looking up you can see how it is a big void on the inside ; just 2 walls forming a 90º angle with a sail of a unique polymer to complete the image of a sailboat  

looking up

view to the inside from our table

Inside this open building is the highest fountain which blasts every 15 min 5 floors high

You get your glass of Louis Roederer Champagne allong with the overview of your Ultimate Afternoon Tea

What ??? 7 courses for tea ? I couldn´t believe what I read. Now I was even more curious as it looked like it would be a long tasting trip with a great view .

The also asked me if there s a special occasion for our visit and as a matter of fact it was my birthday.

An extra mystery... what was I to expect. The answer as you will see was surreal.  

 1st course : Berries Tart

2nd course : Assortment of Finger Sandwiches

Ceasar chicken on brown bread 

  Cucumber on brioche bread 

 Beef tortilla wrap 

 Salmon on pumpernickelbread 

 Tuna on Ciabatta colloured with squid ink

3rd course : Chef´s Carvery 

Chicken carving with mashed potato, breadcrum and Pommery mustard sauce. 

4th course : Sorbet 

a lychee sorbet with a rose petal on top

View from our table over the drive to the hotel, the Wild Waddi waterpark and Jumeirah Beach

At the same time the coffee and tea arrived to prelude the sweet part of the afternoon tea. 

 The tea holds a flower that slowly opens as you wait. We bought one of those at home to try but it didn´t open as well as it did at the Burj Al-Arab.

5th course : Freshly baked scones, Devonshire clotted cream and Home-made preserves

Regular & raisin scones, passion fruit, strawberry and orange preserves. And the cream was sooo good.

just as delicious as it looks. Best scones I ´ve ever had.

And than ... my Birthday present, ´Happy Birthday to you´ played on the harp

a birthday pastrie with a ´Thank you for celebrating your birthday with us´

 ! crazy !

 

6th course : French pastries 

My experience is that after the explanation of the pastries you are so overwhelmed that you just point out the tastiest one :)

 HERS

HIS

7th course : Chocolates & Petit Fours

What can I say, it was a picture postcard experience !

till next time !