Exki, Brussels

My sister and I spent more time at Exki than what we would like to admit.

It was cold… It was drizzly… The shops were closed… Cathedrals were boring … Trust me, I could go on and on with the excuses.



Not to take a piss at it but hanging out at this café with its nifty supply of fresh baked goods and pastas sounded way better than braving the chills to visit Monsieur Mannekin Pis. And besides before 11AM, their delicous coffee (served with awesome carrot-extract chocolate) was going at 1 euro.

Yes, it’s a chain but tell me in your good conscience you wouldn’t like to hang out here more often?



Besides practicing the fine art of doing absolutely nothing on our vacation, we picked up a few goodies to while away our time.

A puckerish raspberry-pistachio tart , chocolate-slathered somezhing sandwiched with pear and cream, carrort cake with icing … and other breads and pastas that weren’t photogenic enough.



Things that reminded us, Where the heck is Spring?!

I have been here long enough to know that most cakes in Belgium aren’t OMFG but they were better than decent and I always had a lovely time in Exki.

L'Idiot du Village, Brussels

It was easy enough to get a table without reservation during lunch time but according to a Travel & Leisure article circa 1998 (yup, we're talking ‘the nineties’), L'Idiot du Village was the "hottest restaurant in town". This shoebox restaurant on Rue Notre-Seigneur sits only 35 pax and on a weekday, apart from us, serves lunch to dignified, well-suited-up professionals. Quite an odd observation.



Upping the quirkiness, the hand-written menu was wholly French and had to be roughly translated by our server. A cup of fresh olives accompanied us as we ermed and ahhed through the interesting-sounding menu options.



Frankly, I think both of us couldn't really tell what we were ordering, opting for the "prepare for the worst hope for the best" mentality.


rouget riede au chive, olives bonbon

Yang loved her Mediterranean rockfish, which was pan-fried then stuffed with olives, and accompanied by mashed cougette and chives. I can't describe it properly - nothing was truly surprising yet the entire ensemble was surprisingly good.


saint jacque polees aul laipin, licoide glaciale

Another tickling starter was the scallop and rabbit, which rested with the most interesting salad. I have never had such greens before - they looked as if they were covered with furry dew drops and tasted unpredictably crunchy.



As for the mains, every animal group was well-represented but we easily decided on canette de challans au sang pour deux.



Our server, Er, how do I say ... biiiig duh-uck...

Did you just say, big duck? YE, WE CAN!

The dish took a while to arrive and when I glanced into the open kitchen, the chef within glanced over and smiled as if to say, soon le biiiig duh-uck will be you. Soon enough, I found myself in good company of tender roasted duck, ever-so-slightly pink in the middle.

The “big duck” was served with "potatoes" done in two ways. I poked my way through the caramelized “potato”, surprised by its softness.

Hmm, funny Belgian potato, I thought to myself.

The roasted potatoes were more familiar but I suddenly realized the ‘soft potatoes’ were indeed daikon!



Never had a more beautiful apple tarte grazed our table. Apple tarts are usually very homely desserts but this looked so sophisticated with its apple silvers and slick sugar-glaze finish. I didn’t care for the cinnamon (yuck) ice cream but that just left me with more time with the tarte.



The vanilla ice cream and meringue with caramel sauce was a dessert that agrees on paper, in French and our bellies.



Finally we ended our meal with coffee and financiers (yes, we can!). True to the whimsical spirite of L'Idiot, the sugar cubes were suit-shaped! The frivolous things in life bring out the best in me.



A Royal Flush meal? Maybe =)

Aux Armes de Bruxelles, Brussels

Google restaurant guide for Brussels and chances are they will recommend Aux Armes de Bruxelles for traditional Belgian cuisine. The thing about eating at an institution is tradition comes at a price; and when one has been in the business since 1921, “exciting” is hardly the first word one would use to describe this institution.

Right in the heart of a tourist trap (think our Boat Quay), Aux Armes de Bruxelles clings onto its roots, serving up hearty bruxellois fare. Despite the vintage Art Nouveau interior and probably starched uniforms, the ambience was surprisingly relaxed and non-chi-chi.



A few round bread buns, better off filling up a bra, were left largely untouched till I needed something to soak up my beef stew.




Cold from the heavy drizzle and winds, the 3-course set lunch sounded like a good idea to build up some insulatation.



It is hard to fault the couple of croquettes. Both the cheese and chicken croquettes bore thin but sturdy deep-fried armours encasing rich oomphy insides.



The brasserie is known for their moules and frites but like the Manneken Pis, they were anti-climaxically smalllll – now please don’t think dirty. And we all know how mini mussels deprive one of briny succulence it so rightfully deserves. The freshly fried fries were good though.



The carbonnades de boeuf à la Gueuze (beef carbonnade) is perfect rainy day food. However it was half-gratifying as some chunks of the beef were heart-achingly tender but others threatened to leave sinewy bits in your teeth.



Yang loved her chocolate mousse which was pretty good though it was on the hole-lier than thou side. Then again, it is chocolate so I find it very very to resist. I have never ordered crème caramel but I tend to surprise myself on holidays. Smooth but shy of lusciously soft, I had no problems finishing it up but it is probably not a dessert I would go for again.



So there you have it. Our meal at Aux Armes de Bruxelles wasn’t tragically bad but I would only recommend it if you are seeking out a safe and potentially boring traditional Belgian meal.

Resto, New York City

It's a girl Her-mes!



This one is for you, sis. Er not the cupcake-crazy one... The Hermes-crazy one... So I'm now a proud aunt to my sister's orange baby. Last time I checked it it slept soundly next to my sister, loved the great outdoors when she took it out for walks and oh, its got its own raincoat. I think my sister's maternal instincts are really kicking in... Cliche as it sounds, I'll bet my sister probably thinks her life is complete.

Back to New York.

By now some would have noticed the absence of one quintessential item– the burger.

Although I had defected temporarily to Camp Gyro, the burger was my To Eat list, and I had listed places like Shake Shack, The Spotted Pig as notable burger-hunting spots.

I walked past the Shake Shack at Madison Garden but the queue was freakin’ long. I might understand the fuss to check out the fuss and would have queued if I had company; but alone, I had better things to do like er- ponder about The Meaning of My Existence on Earth.

OOOOM





Nope, I didn’t manage to garner a conclusion ... Err not very impressive I know but I’m on a holiday! Apart from thinking about how many ice cream scoops I should have (two, of course!), I really shouldn’t be taxing my mind too much.





We had deviled eggs on crispy pork toast. Hard boiled eggs and deep fried toast? This is breakfast food all vamped up! Haha of course something as delicious as this should break out of the breakfast-sunlight confines but I couldn’t help but think of the makeover that Frenchy did for Sandy in Grease.

We also had the grilled veal salad, which was ‘ok,’ paling in comparison to the crispy pig's ear salad, filled with chicory, tarbais beans, poached egg and deep fried ear crackers. Could I grab a bag of pig’s ears to munch on the flight home?



Moving onto our mains…



Robert’s steak and frites was presented to him in neat cuts that revealed a beautiful shade of pink that cosmetic companies would kill to replicate.


Looks like someone's prayers came true



From our friends down under (and I don’t mean Australia but under the sea), Philip had the Chatham cod and Paulina had the moule frites, a deep metal pot of smallish mussels that 7 of us couldn’t finish



I finally made a peace offering to the Burger faction with Resto’s burger. The mini celebrity was loaded with gruyere cheese, red onions, pickles and served with –what else?- frites.



The patty alone would have warranted a walkover unfortunately, but the untoasted and undressed bun created a loophole for the crown to slip through. The chunky fries were a few minutes off the optimum crisp-crunchiness but that didn’t stop me from finishing my share and Chervin’s.



Speaking of Chervin’s, his beef cheek carbonade was sensational. The beef cheeks were braised in beer and were so tender you could have feed it to a teething child. The frites, oh the frites! They lay at the bottom of the pot, like parched land waiting to be blessed by rain. And blessed they were. Coated in stickish caramelized gravy... We go together like ramma lamma lamma ka dinga da dinga dong

This doesn’t happen very often but the entrees and main courses had set such high standards that the desserts failed to live up to.



We had the chocolate bread pudding, whose sourdough chunks overwhelmed the mute chocolate flavour; and the liege waffle, a limp doughy object flicked with a pinch of icing sugar



The food at Resto isn’t revolutionary but most of it was great. 7 of us sat by the window savoring the cool spring breeze, dining, people-watching… basically enjoying the resto-f the night.

Resto
111 East 29th Street
Phone 212 685 5585

More at Brussels Sprouts

Guess what?

Ever since a reader left me a comment about Brussels Sprouts, I have been meaning to make a second trip. Journey of Affirmation, perhaps? This time round, though I returned with a belly full of anticipation, I was quick to leave 'expectations' at the door. Thanks to the after-office peak hour jam, jimmy and I arrived thirty minutes late, only to find mum and dad half way through the sample platter. As I went through the menu, I wordlessly shoved down two frites, which could only be described as "limp blimp".

*Anticipation scuttles to join Expections*


Ta-dah!

Relegating all negative thoughts to a tiny secluded spot, we got down to business with the mussels. To make the most out of our visit, we had the highly recommended vin blanc (onion, parsley, celery, butter, white wine) and l' escargot (named after similar prepration methods as snails)

Before dinner, Jimmy earned himself a quzzical look from me when he asked if the restaurant served bread. "To soak up the sauce..." he explained. With the vin blanc, you might just be thinking the same. I thought the alcohol content was pretty high so all I had to do was ask for a wine glass and sieve.. VOILA! Madam, peut I présenter vin blanc 2007. HAHA.. I prefer the l' escargot, which was gratineed with garlic, wild herbs, butter, lemon sauce. More lemon sauce would have better balanced the overbearing garlic butter conoction but the dish was palatable as it was.



The mussels used were small (no bigger than my thumb) and they were good but nothing to shout about. The highlight for carb-loving me was the frites. -smirk-

When the mussels were served, we were told our frites would arrive a couple of minutes later because they were "still in the fryer..." With this, I perked up immediately. I could hardly resist when they finally arrived. Gingely, I selected one and in a defining moment, bit into the center. The frite gamely scorched the center of my tongue, pronouncing itself a winner. With a heave of relief, I was ready to
Welcome home, my forgive the inital frite faux pau.


Welcome home, my child.

I kept digging into the bottom of the Umbra bucket for my fvourite bits- those fried to death crisy nothings, which crackled a melodious tune as I bit into them.



In my opinion, the best part of an animal isn't the rib or belly but the cheeks. Unless your animal is anorexic, given the jaw exercise that any animal undertakes, the cheeks are designed to yield the most tender of meats.

At Brussel Sprouts, they were no exception. The braised beef cheeks disintegrated easily with a stab and a jab The beer aroma registered strongly, lending a bitter undertone to the otherwise insipid gravy. Interestingly enough, I had something similar to this in Brugge but Brussel Sprouts's version is by far the more memorable of the two. The accompanying pomme croquettes had a fine texture and thin well-breadcrumbed exterior. If like me you like my 'fried' crisp, fish them out before they turn mooshy in the gravy.



The glazed pork belly didn't sound or look all that exciting- it even reminded me of a dish created from a Tung Lok kitchen- but I gotta say, it was pretty darn amazing. The belly itself ceded defeat under the blunt cuts of the knife and the supple texture was absolutely praise-worthy. What the kitchen does with red cabbage is head-turningly good. Case in point: juniper berry honey & braised red cabbage where each shred was coated in a caramelized sweet tinge.



Overall, this visit to Brussel Sprouts helped salvage the previous experience. However, with my curiosity satisfied, I probably won't be making any dinner appoiments here... well, unless I'm in the mood for FRIED TO DEATH FRITES.. haha.. Here's an interesting article on Moules Et Frites from the New York Times.

Brussels Sprouts
80 Mohamed Sultan Road
#01-12 The Pier @ Robertson
Singapore 239013
Tel: +65 6887 4344
Open: Tuesdays to Thursdays: noon to 3pm, 5pm to midnight; Fridays: noon to 3pm, 5pm to 1am; Saturdays: noon to 1am; Sundays: noon to midnight; closed on Mondays

Brussel Sprouts

I keep forgetting to update my blog. My one week mid term break arrived and left like summer love.. not that it was much of a break anyway. sigh.

It's three in the afternoon, the weather's great- cloudy skies, with little sunshine peeking through and a touch of grim- and I'm tryin to finish reading up my quiz on Market Research... What a way to spend Sunday afternoon.. To think a year ago, I was jetsetting around Belgium, lieg-ing belgium waffles, ducking CHINESE chocolate vendors... I had a pretty good time in Belgium- without a breath of doubt, the food played a goliathic role in shaping my opinion.

I like Belgian food and it definitely agrees with me.. the chocolates, the liege waffles, the mussels and the FRITES FRITES FRITES.



Opened by Singapore's celebrity chef Emmanuel Stroobant himself, I had been meaning to try out Brussel Sprouts ever since I read about it in 8 Days magazine. Boy is that place hot! It wasn't packed with the air-kissing crowd but with yuppies, who wear TGIF badges proudly on their sleves.

I wasn't about to muscle (you KNEW that was coming, didn't you?) my way in so we headed off to Cappadocia for dinner instead. However, after calculating the odds of ever returning to this highly inaccessible place, we decided to visit Brussel Sprouts. Thanks to the never-diminshing crowd, we had to sit by the bar, which wasn't all that bad since the bartenders were rather friendly. Unfortunately the place suffered from poor accoustics and I found myself shouting, straining to hear myself over the crowd. Since we already had dinner, we decided to get the all inclusive platter. Yea, something light.


Hand-cut fries, parmesan cheese croquette, grey prawn croquettes, meatloaf with gerkin dressing, Brussel Sprout eggs.

On any given day, this platter would have been 'gawd's gift'. You just cannot go wrong with fried stuff! It is almost incomprehensible for anything deep fried to taste bad.. I mean, it may taste bad as in sinful but SIN (let's face it) is delectable.

The fries, tough and all, was a sob story in the making. I was surpised because Brussel Sprouts offers free flow of fries with every pot of mussels and judging by the number of pots churned out and high turnover rate, one would naturally expect crisp freshly made fries. Instead, the fries here tasted like they have been grazing the kitchen bench for too long... Sorry folks, but even McDonald's has wayyy better fries.

The battered and deep fried mussels suffered from a similar fate- rubbery, limp... Not a pretty picture. I don't mean to get all Gordon Ramsey here but if a Belgian restaurant screws up mussels and fries...



The parmesan cheese croquette was well-breaded and broke away to reveal gummy-ish lympathic insides, which failed to elicit a word of praise from us. The grey prawn croqutte, IN MY OPINION, was a disaster. Reminicent of lobster bisque, the orange gumbo within was fishy and rubbed me up the wrong way. It was an ugly moment.

On any given day, thou shall not venture near meatloaf. My failure to habour any goodwill towards anything that looks SO drastically different from its original pre-handled state produced an inertia but after the disappointing croquettes, there was pretty much nothing left to gush over.. and boiled eggs weren't exactly exciting to begin with. The meatloaf was mildly gratifying, liven up by the aromatic threads of onion and was good with or without the gerkin dressing.

Though I didn't have the mussels or entrees, the sample platter was enough to draw my attention eslewhere.

Belgium

belgium. part two.

food-wise, i had an enriching time in belgium aka i hardly went hungry.. but i will only go through the more memorable dishes.

our first meal at "boat quay" was supposedly quintessentially belgian. we shared everything to make the most out of variety- mussels in white wine, accompanied by frites (fries); medium rare steak; scampis (prawns) in olive oil. i like the seafoody contrast with something saltish.. but don't forget, i love my ruffles potato chips with vanilla ice cream.. i know pairing mussels and fries is such a chalk and cheese combination but it strangely works! though aizhen thought the white wine was on the thin-side, i had no complains as this was my first time with belgian food so there wasn't any basis for comparision.

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another notable meal was at brugge where we had the canarda l'orange (breast of duck), fried scampi in garlic and flemish beef stew. i enjoyed the duck tremendously.. though the duck was thickly cut, skilled culinary skills retained its tender and juicy texture.. the fried scampis were delightful with a good crunch and the garlic olive oil dressing made for good frites dipping. the flemish beef stew was supposedly the restaurant's claim to fame and special because it was stewed with beer. however tasty, it was a little uninspiring and the taste beer did not pull through.. in fact, eating it made me miss homemade ox-tail stew.

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our best meal was a recommendation from yvonne's tutor- restaurant vincent along rue de dominicans. to be honest, there was a good deal of relief when i found myself staring into a french menu as this could only mean that they catered to locals and regulars.. but it wasn't difficult to decide as our waiter recommended a baked mussel dish and scampi croquettes. i didn't try the baked mussels which with a layer of melted cheese, looked terribly inviting but i enjoyed the scampi croquette which was creamy on the inside and thinly crisp on the ouside. i think there's a very fine line between tasty and incredibly good croquettes and this definitely qualified as 'incredibly good.'

dessert was involuntarily suggested by our waiter and we had their signature crepe vincent and vanilla ice cream with belgian chocolate on the side. the crepe was amazingly delicious- the texture was dead on and the pineapple rings & almond flakes gave a tropical twist but the beauty of it cremebrulee-like laquer surface which constrasted marvellously with the soft crepe beneath.

if you thought lunch was over, think again. having used up all my tummy space for the fresh baguettes and frites, i had to decline.. but aizhen and yvonne gamely shared a steak, flavoured by green peppercorn and by the looks of, was thoroughly enjoyed by the duo.

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i had belgian waffles at least twice in belgium.. mind you, there are two types of waffles found in belgium- 1. brussels waffel which is a symmetrically rectangular and slightly blander in taste, compared to 2. the liege waffle, which is roundish and sweeter. it is impossible to fault the belgian waffles as they taste sooo good and the luxurious aroma often hits you unsuspectedly, activating your saliva ducts and working your mind into a state of desire, even before you actually see one.

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belgium is undoubtedly the chocolate capital of the world and judging by the chocolatiers and chocolate houses that line their main street, i got the feeling that there was a religious zealor to preserving its existence. godiva, leonidas, neuhaus.. from nutella at breakfast to chocolate squares served with the bill, i nibbled on so much chocolate it honestly felt like being on an addiction. and andi, since you are reading this, i hope you enjoy the rest of the chocolates!

belgium. part one.

my trip to belgum would have been preferably less eventful, had i not lose my camera on the last day. yes, all pictures of our edible encounters, remarkable scenary and intersting shops we came across GONE. but more importantly, my sony camera was a birthday present from my parents and was quintessence of my being. and since i have not lost anything of such high material value before, i am feeling rather shitty about it.

i travelled with st nicks girls, aizhen and yvonne... and i must say, we packed qite a schedule for three days!

after arrival and two short rail/ bus rides, we checked into our hostel chab vincent van gogh, which was pretty impressive compared to my hostel in london. though only beds and blankets were provided, the three of us shared a small double-storey loft which i would like to think of as a mini budget villa. no strangers, no unnecessary noises, no awkward moments.. i could get used to this.

upon settling down, we visited La Grand-Place immediately. basically the place to see in brussels, La Grand-Place was a huge square surrounded by rich, ornate-looking buildings.. where cafes, pubs, chocolatiers, seafood restaurants and waffles shops lined her streets in glory of tourism.

we made a mistake of walking into this row of restaurants where proprietors shamelessly called out to you, stretching their asian vocabulary of ni hao and konichiwas.. basically, it was like singapore's boat quay. in fact, it was so glaringly inappropiate, i was actually frightened by one lady who kept gesturing to us despite the fact that we were already seated in her rival's restaurant! scary stuff.

after lunch, we wandered around town with navigation skills that would have put former geography teachers to shame. honestly, after visiting Le Sablon and the back alleys that ran through the more touristy areas, we were pretty much done with sight-seeing.

we had dinner at a casual eatery that didn't warrant much interest apart from the fact that we sat in there for a really long time, ordering main courses coffee and eventually supper.. because it was too darn cold out there. oddly enough, brussels felt colder, even by copenhagen standards.

day 2 saw us waking up at the crack of dawn to join a guided bus tour to gent and brugge. we spent only the morning at gent, visiting the Saint Bravo Cathedral and spent a better part of the day at brugge. with short architectureal infrastructure, bridges and stony roads, both towns were characteristically european, however, it felt a little unreal.. almost like i was walking on a universal studio movie set.

we only arrived back in brussels at around seven-ish and we immediately rushed over to Théâtre royal de la monnaie as aizhen and yvonne were eager to catch a contemporary dance performance Raga for the Rainy Season / A Love Supreme. we hadn't ourchased tickets yet and it was a good minutes before the show started where we eventually found our way to the crowded box office.

the extremely budget-conscience me was initially worried about ticket prices, this being the royal theatre and it seemed like a well-received performance.. to my surprise, our tickets only cost eight euros each.. pretty good deal huh? the amusing aspect was that our seats were foldable chairs lined up in front of the front row, making from front front row seats. well, better than being chucked at the back.

it was a performance, different to what i usually catch and frankly-speaking, a little too avant garde for my liking. perhaps this is very revealing of my character as i prefer the existence of formation and structure, instead of uncoordinated spontaniety.. an enlightening experiencen nonetheless.

day 3. if not for the ten am check out time and the untimely arrival of our housekeeper, i think we would have slept our weary butts through morning.. but we eventually packed up, left our baggages in a locker and made our way to the atomium and caught up with last minute chocolate shopping. day 3 wasn't exactly action packed because of the dip in temperature and i think we were all pretty much tempted to stay in a very very delightful restaurant called Vincent till departure.