Belgium: Mussels (and Waffles) in Brussels

The husband was craving Belgian waffles (not the Liege ones with sugar) and managed to convince me to take a side trip to Brussels so he could satisfy his craving. It was a lovely day : )


We arrived in the Grand Place and after a bit of sightseeing, started looking for lunch. Being rather tired, we took the easy way out and went for the tried and tested....Chez Leon, which despite its mainstream reputation, turned out to be a pretty good choice. Starting off with Belgian beer - I had the dark beer while the husband had the lager.

The husband had a mix of prawns, mussels, and calamari cooked together in a tomato concasse sauce, which was extremely flavourful. This was amazing! The sweetness of the fresh seafood coupled with the tomato-garlic-onion-parsely sauce was drink-worthy...we slurped up every last drop. This cost about 24 Euros or so.

I had the relatively more boring set lunch of mussels in white wine, which came with fries and a beer for around 12 Euros. The belgian mussels were sweet, tender and extremely succulent.

After lunch we spotted this rather exciting shop along one of the back alleys...unfortunately there was no space left in our tummies!

After a bit more sightseeing, we went to Wittamer for afternoon tea at the husband's request. This entailed walking about half an hour across town to another more quiet corner, away from the rather touristy Grand Place. We had a chocolate sundae and a hot chocolate which cost us about 17 Euros all in.

The hot chocolate was the best ever....better than Max Brenner and Hediard! Drinking it brought about memories of Roald Dahl's description of the chocolate waterfall in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...it was rich, sweet, and absolutely decadent and made us both very very happy.

Before leaving Belgium on the train back to Paris, we found Mort Subite - cherry beer! This was really yummy. Cost around 3 Euros.

Also ordered the trappist dunkel...but the cherry beer was more exciting.

The outdoor seats were packed....it was a lovely ending to a lovely 24 hrs.

And the husband found his Belgian waffle : )

Mort Subite: www.alamortsubite.com

Lufthansa - thumbs up!

I've only flown Lufthansa once during a work trip 3 years ago between Frankfurt and Stockholm, and have never thought much of the food nor service. This time, when I was flying between Porto and Frankfurt, I was pleasantly surprised by (1) being upgraded, and (2) by the excellent food on board.

This was breakfast: a cold platter of ham and cheese, a Portugese egg tart and a hot breakfast.

The hot breakfast had something similar to a vegetarian lasagne and a grilled steak. A bit odd at 7am, but it was still pretty yummy with the meat nice and tender.

What got me slightly disappointed was the realisation that despite having flown on Singapore Airlines almost once a month - sometimes twice - for the past 3 years, I have not been upgraded a single time despite earning literally hundreds of thousands of miles. It's sad that other Star Alliance carriers treat Krisflyer members better than SQ does : (

Frankfurt: Bratwurst and Roast Pork

I had a 12-hour layover in Frankfurt and happily decided to go into the city to sightsee instead of waiting in the airport, which would have been incredibly boring. Bought a day ticket, hopped on a train and was in the heart of town in less than 30 mins. According to Wikitravel, the Zeil and Romer areas were supposed to be fairly interesting for an afternoon out, so I hopped off at Hauptwache station and started walking around the area. Most of the streets were pedestrianised so it wasn't too hard finding the most tourist-friendly routes.

Around 11am, I came across a shop selling sausages and grilled meats between the Zeil and Romer just across the square from the Liebfrauenkirsche and the fountain, and decided to give it a try.

So much to choose, so little stomach space

Nothing like a dark beer (2E), and bratwurst and sauerkraut in a bun (2.50E) to start the day. Total cost = 4.50 Euros - a pretty good deal!

I tried the roast pork at another shop later in the day - there were several branches of the Schlemmermeyer shops around Frankfurt city. This was the shop located near the Alte Oper, along a street called Kalbach G. full of wonderful deliccatessens (which I was too intimidated to go into, since they looked expensive and non-English speaking.)
The pork looked so good, I couldn't walk away without giving it a try.

Check out the crackling

Sauerkraut

Dinner - this cost 7.60 Euros, and while it was pretty tasty and crispy, wasn't as good value for money as the bratwurst.

France: Les Crayeres - Brasserie Le Jardin, Reims

This post is terribly long overdue since this Hungry Hippo has been real busy slogging away at work and travelling a lot. I'll try to finish up this France series before going to Beijing: The Final Phase, and then Portugal after that.

After the wedding, the husband and I headed to Reims, the capital of the Champagne region for one night. We had planned to take it slow with a tour of the champagne caves at one of the houses (more on that later), and to walk around the town to see its Cathedral and the room where the Germans signed the surrender document with the Americans in 1945. Reims was a lovely town and we enjoyed ourselves there very much.

The highlight of our trip was going to Chateau Les Crayeres to have lunch at their Brasserie, Le Jardin. We had heard from our friend that Reims had a fairly famous (and very expensive!) Michelin-starred restaurant and were quite insistent on trying it. Unfortunately (or fortunately for our wallets) it was closed on Mondays, and we were only going to be in Reims that day, with a connection to Brussels on Monday night. So we did the next best thing, which was to have lunch at the Brasserie, which is housed in a separate building from the Chateau (front view pictured below).

Rear view of the Chateau facing the garden. The restaurant is housed in this building, and the rooms (it functions as a hotel) start at 350Euros per night for the cheapest room during high season.

The entrance to the Brasserie. It was a lovely setting, in the garden of the Chateau grounds.

The view from our table - these photos were taken at around 3pm after we had finished our meal. When we arrived around 1pm, the place was absolutely packed with not a single available table.

The waiter started us off on some cheese and wholegrain biscuits. These were great with our wines.

I had a 2003 Rose which cost E4.50.

The Brasserie has a set meal for 2 courses for 28 Euros. Not a bad deal at all, with most of the mains going for above 30 Euros. The husband had the smoked salmon with iceberg lettuce and avruga cream. Not too bad but not very spectacular either.

I had the tagliatelle with pesto. Decent, but nothing to shout about. The servings were very substantial though - I was quite surprised that they were so generous.

Both of us had the Duck Confit for our main course. This was absolutely outstanding.

First, the fries: They were golden brown and crisp on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. They also came with generous shavings of fresh parmesan. These were the best fries ever.

The duck confit was excellent as well - the skin was crispy, and the meat soft and tender and wholesome and flavourful. It was also not too fatty nor oily.

Unfortunately we were too stuffed for dessert. But the meal was one of the most substantial ones we had in France. If you google CLC, most of the reviews of the restaurant are excellent. If you're strapped for cash, I suppose the Brasserie is a good Plan B. They allow reservations via their website, which they subsequently confirm over email. Check out their website to see when they're open, because the opening times for the restaurant and brasserie vary.

Chateau Les Crayeres

64 Boulevard Henry Vasnier, 51100 Reims, France

http://www.lescrayeres.com/uk.html

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France: Rue Cler, Paris

We were not at all in the mood for anything terribly adventurous after emerging jetlagged, tired, sleepy and extremely worn out from our horribly uncomfortable flight on our first day in Paris, and the rail strike greeting us as the first piece of news upon arrival on Charles De Gaulle did not make things any better. All we really wanted was a nice lunch at a decently-priced place where we could order things that we knew with our limited French vocabulary. Our trusty Rick Steves guidebook recommended a street called Rue Cler, near the Ecole Militaire Metro stop, which had lots of cafes and market stalls. So off we went to Rue Cler. It's one of Paris' nicest market streets, with lots of food on offer.

First stop for lunch at Cafe du Marche, the corner of Rue du champ du Mars and Rue Cler. We arrived there just before noon, and the place filled up very quickly.

Nothing like a nice Bordeaux red to cheer us up. I can't remember how much this was, but it was definitely less than 5 Euros.

The husband had the entrecote with potatoes (around 12-14 Euros), which made him a very very happy man.

I had the duck confit for around the same price. The duck confit was crisp, not too oily and extremely tasty.

Our lunch - we were literally packed shoulder to shoulder.

Nothing like a freshly brewed coffee to perk you up

By the time we were done around 1pm, there were people standing around waiting for tables.

We decided to explore the rest of the street to check out the food displays.

One of the delis with an amazing display. Sadly, we didn't buy anything since we were staying in a hotel and not an apartment. There were so many yummy things for sale - terrines, cheeses, seafood, sausages, smoked meats, grilled meats...sigh.

But we did manage to have space for dessert - crepes from a roadside stall!

We had the nutella with banana.

Extremely yummy : )

France: Place du Marche St Catherine in the Marais

Place du Marche St Catherine in the Marais district (3rd/4th A - closest Metro station is St Paul) is a beautiful little square that is surrounded by eateries. It's really pleasant in the evenings when there are buskers in the square and when there are lots of people sitting outdoors around the restaurants.


We ate at one of the restaurants/cafes facing the square on the right hand side entering from the main road. Unfortunately it's been more than a month since we were there and I can't recall the name now. But the food was pretty good. We had a foie gras with poached egg (8 Euros) as a starter.

It was lovely with the bread.

I had the moules frites for 14 Euros.

The mussels were tender, succulent and fresh.

The husband had the entrecote. Decent, but not terribly exciting.