I’m singing in the snow

Le fou chantant on ave de fre in uccle is well hidden from passers-by. It is set back from the street down a small path that could almost be a driveway for cars, but isn’t. to note at this point: it doesn’t offer parking for clients which, given its rather off the beaten track, is rather a disadvantage. I found it thanks to a fan of the establishment who hosted his birthday party there. He booked the entire restaurant so i cannot comment on usual lay out or clientele. It was the day of snow in brussels, dec 2011, and getting down the drive was perilous. But i digress.
The crazy singing man is so-called because the focus of the cozy room with its mezzanine is a grand piano, where an expert comes to sing old favourites (mainly french language). There are song books on the tables and diners are encouraged to sing along. Dinner and karaoke. A few great classics by the likes of the beatles and elvis have made the list, but otherwise you can go observe the massacre of Jean-Jacques Goldman, Johnny Halliday etc.
The food is based around a grill. The open fire heats BBQ style grill prangs and the meat is high quality. We started with oysters, then a plate of foie gras. Neither of these is really my favourite, but the pate was good, served with onion jam and bread.

Foie gras

The piece de resistance is the steak, however. They came round to ask how you want it cooked and I would advise against saying anything darker than saignant-bloody. This is the third grade after bleu and rouge. I had never even heard this first, i think it means raw!!
I took bloody and enjoyed all but the very centre of my very thick slab. Had i had a thinner piece i think I could have eaten it all. It came with caramelised witloof, which is one of my pet hates in Belgian cuisine, and the ubiquitous fries. The witloof was actually edible, with sauce. 3 different sauces were on the table, of which the pepper cream sauce was my favourite, but the bearnaise was ok too. The tartare was too much like garlic mayonnaise for me. The wine was a robust french offering that went well with the meat.

Singing started in the middle of the main course. Dancing started once we could safely stand after all that food and only paused when dessert arrived. By this point i was not at all hungry but tested it out of gourmandise. It was a chocolate mousse cake on a wafer base with a fruit coulis. delicious, and luckily small. But I shouldn’t have indulged!!
Since this was a private party i cannot comment on the price of a normal meal in the resto, though I have read mixed reviews on that front. However, if you are looking for a sing along grill, look no further! A great time was had by all…

Le Fou Chantant
Av. de Fré 176
1180 Uccle

Food: B
Atmosphere: A
Service: B
Price: ??
Languages: French, Dutch, English

Pizza at St Job

I work in Uccle, and the nearest concentration of restaurants is Place St Job. The cheap, favourite go-to place for a quick lunch is the Cabestan. This reliably serves cheap pasta – especially spaghetti bolognese at in two sizes. The small is usually enough for me, but the men prefer large. The spicy oil makes it seem tastier than it is
However, the Cabestan is small and crowded and, for a change, we tested Pasta Commedia last week. This place looks rather chic from the outside, with a spacious, well lit interior – plenty of natural light, and some lovely bars in the middle of the open space, I would not have picked it had work mates not informed me it was a good alternative. At lunchtime they offer any of the pizzas on their extensive menu for 7.50 euros! This is a great deal as some of them are almost 15 euros in the evening – half price pizza. The half price lunch doesn’t mean they hold back on the service, however. Our large group was seated and immediately hot squares of off-cut pizza dough arrived on the table, with a selection of black and green olives (not outstanding, but good enough) and fresh butter. They do have the annoying habit of pouring the water into glasses, which inevitably means that someone who wasn’t that thirsty has a full glass when someone else wants more and the bottle is empty so you have to order another – but in a smaller group that might be more manageable. So here is my pizza parma – a slightly too thick and chewy pizza base, but well dosed with tangy tomato, cheese, parma ham and fresh rocket (rucola).

We didn’t test dessert, but I may just have to pass by here again another time. Maybe to test their fresh pastas – which were not so cheap, and not a special deal at lunchtime. It’s fairly popular, but not packed, so you can just turn up. Their English is passable.
And if you don’t want pizza or pasta, then the frietkot on the square is also a good place for a snack!

Pasta Commedia
Avenue Jean et Pierre Carsoel, 3
1180 Uccle

Food: B
Atmosphere: B
Service: A
Price: A
Languages: French, Italian, English

Weighing anchor

Anyone following this blog will have gathered that I am a beer fan. So, when I discovered that you can eat (and drink) in the Anker brewery in Mechelen (where they make the very decent Gouden Carolus series of beers as well as specials like the Maneblusser – named after the nickname for the inhabitants of Mechelen), well, I was determined to test it. We booked for an evening meal on a saturday. By email worked well – I had a confirmation within half an hour. However, it was not overly busy and it may have been possible for 2 people to go without a booking (I wouldn’t recommend that for larger groups, however, as the room is not that big). There is a gift shop, where they stock all the beers (cheap!) as well as merchandise such as T-shirts, beer mats, chocolate with beer in (not tested.. !), and there is a hotel. The restaurant is on the ring of Mechelen, quite a walk from the station, but we visited the town first, so this wasn’t an issue. The Begijnhof isn’t as pretty as some Flemish begijnhof’s, but worth a wander, obviously.
The restaurant is on two floors and overlooks the brewery – so out the window you can see lots of bottles. I was disappointed that they didn’t have the full selection on tap (you may have more choice of beer on tap at the Ankertje in central Mechelen!).

We ordered the Mechelse koekoek (a small bird stewed in the Maneblusser beer) and the beef carbonnade (stoofvlees), a flemish specialty, this time with the Gouden Carolus Classic – a dark brown beer. We tested the Maneblusser (a nice fresh pils-like beer, but with more taste), the Classic (dark, malty) and the Christmas (a more spicy, clove and nut version of the classic). The food was good, but not outstanding. The beef stew wasn’t as good as some I’ve eaten, and the fries were certainly a disappointment. The Mechelse koekoek was better. The sauce had the fresh tang of the Maneblusser beer, and the croquet potatoes were herb flavoured and really delicious. I don’t eat endive, but my friend said they were good.

None of the desserts inspired us (the Sabayon flavoured with beer sounded intriguing, but had to be ordered for 2 people, and was 9 euros a serving!). This was almost as much as our main dish! In the end we opted for a cheese selection, which was in the menu of ‘snacks with beer’, but is a selection of Belgian cheeses by the hotel’s fromager… so we thought it would be nice. The Achelse blue mouldy cheese was a good blue. The mechelse was strong and had a bitter aftertaste that I found rather overpowering. There was also a local ‘brie’ and ‘camembert’ that were creamy and pleasant, but nothing special and then a harder cheese that I have forgotten the name of. This was served with excellent bread – a choice of dark brown bread that clearly contained rye flour, or a paler multi-grain bread. We couldn’t finish all the cheese and we shared the dish of 5 small slices between us. It is rich after beer-flavoured stews and potatoes! But it was tasty for 12 euros and a good match for the local beers, so I’d recommend it. I didn’t take a photo as we demolished the plate quite fast! Overall, I like this restaurant. I realise it’s a long way to go, but should you be visiting Mechelen (and you should), I can think of worse places to eat than this brewery!
Het Anker
Guido Gezellelaan 49
Mechelen (in the Begijnhof)

Food: B
Atmosphere: B
Service: B
Price: B
Languages: Flemish, English

Resto Days at the 830

RestoDays are here again. This time my kitchen is being replaced, so I cannot cook myself, so it seemed the ideal moment to have Sunday lunch. So I was looking for something not too far away, and something fairly traditional. I found le 830. It’s quite far out in Uccle on the Chaussee de Waterloo. I guess the tram 7 to near Bascule would be the easiest Stib connection. Or the 38 bus. I went by bike, but arrived rather damp. The ambiance is cosy – there is an open fire, large mirrors that increase the impression of space, but the walls are covered in drawings and caricatures that I think have been drawn by guests for the owner/chef. Some are very good! All are interesting. The location is old – as their website explains and all food is prepared fresh from natural ingredients.

The resto days menu started with wild boar terrine, served with onion jam and some cranberries. In fact we also received an appetiser of black and white boudin (cold) and fresh bread.. but I didn’t photograph that. It was not bad, but I’m not a real boudin fan. The terrine was good – there was a lot of it. One slice would have been enough for me! I couldn’t tell it was boar – but it would certainly have needed to be high quality pork to give so much taste. The onion jam was excellent and married well with the flavours.

I checked later and found that this was entitled Filet de bar, puree Alexandre et coulis de potiron. So we have a filet of perch served with Alexander potatoes (this is mash with endive and onion caramelised on top) and a pumpkin sauce. The fish was excellent. Cooked to a crunchy skin and piping hot. This is the firs time I have managed to ingest endive. I really hate the bitter aftertaste of this adored Belgian vegetable, but with caramelised surface and sweet onion to offset the taste, it went well with the creamy mashed potatoes and was quite edible! I made the mistake of eating a particularly large piece last, however, and really regretted that. Luckily I could eat a parsley leaf to take away the after taste!
The pumpkin sauce didn’t have a strong flavour, but added colour to the presentation. The whole dish was a pleasure, but I did wonder if a stronger sauce would have added even more!

The dessert took a long time coming – in fact the table nearby complained as they had ordered one for their daughter along with their coffees and they were waiting to leave! But it is clearly cooked fresh. I took a photo having taken a spoonful to show how the raspberry heart fell out of the fondant chocolate case. This was a beautiful dessert. Thankfully small, as we were very full by this point, not too sweet (especially the chocolate part), and deliciously decadent. I would go back just for another one of these!

So the menu was good, how about the service? It was not the best, but not the worst. Each table in this restaurant has a small stand with a button to press for service (and to cancel the call). This was not necessary for the restodays menu. Each dish came a good 20 minutes after the previous one, which is fine when you need time for the previous one to settle and leave space to appreciate the next. After dessert, however, the restaurant was getting empty and no one came back to check on us at all! I ended up ringing the bell to get coffees (truly lovely decaf, most unusual!), and the girl appeared immediately. No bad feelings that I had rung at all.
The water and beer we had had with dinner were pricy (4 euros and 4.50 respectively), but this still brought our dinner up to less than the usual 29 euros for 3 course menu of the month (which was very similar to the resto days menu, but hey!).
A place to recommend if you are in the area – quality food, prepared fresh and a nice place to sit on a cold autumn day!

Le 830 (watch out it plays a video! and is generally a very poor website)
Chaussee de Waterloo 830
1180 Uccle

Food: A-
Atmosphere: B
Service: B
Price: B during resto days!
Languages: French

Ethiopian Coffee in the Marolles

On a particularly hot and humid Sunday as I was showing a few tourists around the Marolles area, we noticed this charming little cafe that I don’t remember seeing before. Since one of my friends was in caffeine withdrawal and I know Ethiopian coffee is powerful, we stopped in. The cafe is small but pretty, and sells a few Ethiopian fair trade goods. They make fair trade tea and coffee also. We were disappointed with the black tea which had a strange earthy taste. The coffee was not quite as strong as we had hoped, and no coffee making ceremony. I tried a Baobab juice drink, which was not particularly tasty, but certainly refreshing and apparently very good for me! The food looked good, and the cafe had cards for some of my favourite Ethiopian eateries (see other posts). I think it would be worth another try at a moment when we wanted to spend a little longer lounging! The toilets had interesting lights (that weren’t very bright, both of us were looking for the light switch as we went in, before realising the were already on!). Overall our experience was not the best, but not the worst cafe in the Marolles. So take that for what it’s worth

Aksum
Rue Haute / Hoogstraat 140
Brussels

Food: n/a (we only tasted the drinks!)
Atmosphere: B
Service: A
Price: B
Languages: French, English