Healthy breakfast

Iris

Opening the windows this morning and seeing blue skies gave me such a boost. Still a bit nippy at 11° C but my god have we missed that sun! 
Such fantastic weather asks for a health kick breakfast: oranges, kiwis and pears with a few leaves of fresh mint and a drizzle of acacia honey. Serve with low fat yoghurt. Yum!

Chinese dessert bite

Iris

Ingrediënten

1 tin lychees
1 sachet dessicated coconut
200 gr white chocolate

Melt the chocolate 'au bain marie'
Drain the lychees on kitchen paper.
Roll the lychees first through the melted chocolate and then through the dessicated coconut
Leave to cool.

Source: Simply You februari 2013. Carrefour magazine

Pancake day!

Who is making pancakes today?

If there is one recipe that bring me instantly back to my childhood, it's pancakes. With lots of sugar! I never understood why people want lemon juice on their pancakes. I want sweet, the sweeter the better.
This white chocolate with black pepper sauce is totally my cup of tea.
Sweet with a spicy twist. (who dares?)

White chocolate sauce with black pepper. 

Ingredients
200 ml creme fraîche
100 gr white chocolate (broken into small pieces)
fresh mint leaves
freshly grounded black pepper

Heat the creme fraîche in a small saucepan en sprinkle the freshly ground pepper in.
Take the pan off the hob and let the chocolate pieces melt into the creme fraiche.
Chop the mint leave.
Spoon the hot sauce over the pancakes.
Decorate with some mint leaves.

Tuck in!

Dim sum workshop winners!

What is Dim sum?

Dim sum is a selection of small plates and fingerfood that is usually eaten at lunchtime during weekends. You can find whole families sitting at round tables in restaurants eating dim sum. It is also often a 'ladies who lunch' thing during the week. In Hong Kong there are a lot of dim sum restaurants, but every city with a Chinatown will have them too.

What is the meaning of the word 'dim sum'?
Dim sum is the Cantonese pronunciation for the Mandarin word 'dian xin' that means 'little hearts'.   

What is the history of dim sum?
Dim sum originated during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) when they were served as small bites during breakfast. Later, when the opium dens had to close the tea houses became more important and started to serve dims sum too, as lunch or dinner. 

How does a dim sum restaurant looks like?
In dim sum restaurants you can see the dim sum displayed on trolleys that are wheeled through the restaurant. You make you choice of dim sum on a kind of bingo card with numbers and they serve you at your table. You can order as long as you are hungry.

What are wonton sheets?
They are made of egg, flour, salt, water and rolled into pasta like sheets. You can buy then in a round or square shape. There are two kinds: one to steam or boil and one to fry. You fill them with minced vegetables, meat or fish. You can find wonton sheets in the freezer and fridge section of the Chinese supermarket.

A while ago we held a dim sum workshop competition and Ann and Björn won it! Last weekend we met them in Chinatown, Antwerp, for a guided shopping tour in the Chinese supermarket and then off to the yummysister's kitchen for an afternoon of dim sum making.

Years ago Els lived in and travelled through China. She came back with notebooks scribbled full with recipes she got from people she met during her stay there. Els is passionate about Chinese cooking and the wok has prime position in her kitchen. She has a whole shelf with only Chinese cookbooks on.

Many family dinners have started with platters of dim sum. Once you have chopped and minced the ingredients they are not so difficult to make, check out her video.


Dim Sum - Els Debremaeker from filet-pur on Vimeo.

You can find more information on her dim sum workshops on Njamelicious.

Ann and Björn learned to make three dim sum: a steamed wonton with pak soi and mushrooms, a fried wonton with shrimp and chinese cabbage and a boiled one with minced chicken. 

The shopping part took longer than excepted, so much to see in Sun Wah supermarkt and Sint Anny food bakery. It was the weekend before Chinese New Year so we weren't the only ones in the shop, very busy. So much to see. There even is a whole aisle full with different kinds and brands of noodles. In the bakery we bought custard tarts and also red bean and sesame buns. Not the kind of cakes we are used to in Belgian cuisine, but very Chinese.

The photos of the afternoon are on our Facebook Page. We had great fun and hope Ann and Bjorn enjoyed it as much as we did!

Dumplings need dip sauces and here are two easy and tasty recipes:

Soy-sesame seeds dressing

2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 droplet of chili oil
1 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds

Mix all ingredients and serve in small bowls.

Sweet chili sauce
125 gr sugar
125 ml white rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic
2 red chilipepper (no seeds)
2 cm ginger (peeled)

Reduce the white wine vinegar with the sugar. Finely chop the garlic, chilipepper and ginger. Put the vinegar off the stove and add ginger, garlic and chili. Leave to cool.

Man man chi! (bon appetit!)

Merry Christmas!

Ladies and gentlemen we have a cover!

We received a very nice email in our inbox this morning: the cover of our book!

Brunch from the sisters' kitchen.

In the bookshops end of September.
Mega excited!

A few of my favourite things - Paris

Els

Next week we are going to Paris and I have been dreaming the whole week about my favorite Parisian things.

Rive gauche...dancing on the music from Joséphine Baker 

Two typical Parisiennes, fragile but also strong and feisty. Edith Piaf has fascinated me since I discovered her music in our parents' record collecion. When I saw Marion Cotillard playing her with such passion I was equally fascinated by this great actress and recently I saw her in this great movie with one of my favourite Belgian actors, Matthias Schoenaerts.

When I am in Paris I always look for delicacies in original packaging, Damann Tea house at Place des Vosges is one of those great shops. This groceries shop is on my list to visit.

No baguette tastes as good as a real French baguette and reviews about these two bakeries have made me very curious: Gontran Cherrier has also lived in China like I did and that makes me even extra curious about how he will use this experience in his baking. Cute baker too.
Du Pain et des Idées doesn't only have a great logo but also nice accompanying video.
This French Chef makes great cook books, his latest on Bistro cuisine is a great inspiration!

Nobody can say the word tarte tatin more endearing than Julia Childs, she lived in Paris for years and taught Americans all about French cuisine with her unique passion. This tarte tatin I made last year and was yummy!

I love books that are set in Paris, I really want to read this one about three American women who lived in Paris for a year before they became famous. If I had a time machine I would go back to Paris in the twenties. Joanne Harris has written a new sequel to Chocolat and the story starts with Viane who lives in Paris. This book is about Paris in the war years and reminds me of the great Robert Doisneau photos.

Café Labath

Els en Iris

This weekend we made a citytrip in Belgium, to our old university town, Ghent. We went to see a stunningly beautiful concert by Leonard Cohen, stayed in a grand hotel and discovered many new places. Soon much more but this great coffeehouse we wanted to give a separate post: Café Labath, a few steps from the city centre, but well worth a visit.
Years ago Iris drank her first latte macchiatto in a coffee shop at St Kilda Beach, Melbourne. High windows on a corner café, cosy terrace, menu with top class coffees, lazy breakfast, great choice of chocolate milk (white chocolate special!), everything at  Café Labath reminded of that Aussie coffeeshop experience. Except for the surfer dudes, but they are hard to find in Ghent.

The menu in Labath offers more than twenty different kinds of coffees and ice coffees. We had the 'Bunny' with our breakfast, a filter coffee made the old fashioned - aromatic way: pouring hot water over the coffee beans lets the flavours come free at an easy pace.The smell of freshly poured coffee will always remind us of sleepovers at grandma's.
Slow is good, they know their coffee at Labath.

The coffees are made by barista Valentine. Photographer Thomas Van de Water made a great video about her and Labath's coffee, see below.
Our friends live just around the corner of Café Labath and we passed it several times that day, every time there was such a relaxed vibe on the terrace. Happy coffee moments.

Café Labath - Valentine Wanders from filet-pur on Vimeo.

Café Labath
Oude Houtlei 1
9000 Gent
0476994281
Ma-Vr 8u-19u
Zat 9u-19u
Map

New places discovered

Iris

I left work on time, no train delays, perfect evening to write that long overdue blogpost. But first quickly mowing the grass. It only takes 15 minutes but due to all the July rain a job always postponed. Then quickly sweep upstairs and hey, why not, downstairs too, the evening sun gives energy.  In between a sneak peak on facebook, that's another ten minutes and then a the final chore of the day: bottle bank!

The clock says 11pm, that much for my good blogging intentions, so here we go, a quick overview of the places we discovered the last weeks. This year has been rather thin in the places discovery part, Working from home on our book (combined with full-time jobs for us both) left little time to play, but now we are ready to sit on a terrace when the sun shines, like normal people do... Camera always close at hand.

Here is our summer list:

La Piola

I ate the best pasta ever in a small trattoria in Lucca: plastic chairs outside and inside tables full with Italian families, children running around, with la mamma at the head of the table: tortellini with sage never tasted better. The freshest pasta straight from pasta heaven and a simple but wonderfully aromatic sage and butter sauce, this is what real food taste like, simple and pure. In La Piola on Place Chatelain, the eurocrat area in Brussels, you can find the real Italy.
There are two La Piola restaurants on the Place Chatelain, one with only pasta and the other with pasta and fish recipes. I went to the last one with some friends on a breezy August evening. The waitress could have come straight out of a Fellini movie, reading the blackboard with Italian drama. The menu offers antipasti, primi, secondi and dolci but we weren't so hungry and only choose one dish and that was no problemo.
I took a secondi with swordfish and courgette, spigola in crostadi zucchini. As it is with a secondi: no pasta only fish, but really tasty! La Piola is the kind of restaurant that doesn't seem to give in to Belgian menu taste but goes for the real thing - we like!
Thank you Ailsa with the lovely green dress for bringing us here!

La Piola Pesce

Rue Américaine 90

1050 Brussel

Map

Brasserie Van Loock

Brasserie Van Loock is a wellknown bistro close to one of Antwerp's train stations, Berchem. From there you walk through Antwerp's prettiest art deco street (Cogels-Osy Lei) to the Dageraadsplaats square.
It's a very lively square full with restaurants and bars and in the middle children playing on the basketball field under a star filled sky (not giving away what this is, you have to see it for yourself). I had a friend over from London who wanted to eat something typical Belgian, but also bistro like. Brasserie Van Loock was the right choice. 'Stoofvlees with frites' beef stewed in trappiste beer with fries and mayonaise, even I enjoyed it and normally only my mum makes the best stoofvlees for me!Nice to see at the end of the evening that there was still enough money in the purse for a nightcap at the winebar on the corner!

Brasserie Van Loock

Dageraadplaats 10-11

Antwerpen

Map

Chez Lucia 

Sometimes all you need to make a bunch of foodies happy on a Tuesday evening is big plates of fried scampi that keep on appearing from a kitchen in a brown café somewhere behind the North station in Brussels. Chez Lucia has one of those magical kitchens. Fingerfood in the true sense of the word, beer and wine glasses full with greasy finger prints were the signs of a great evening amongst blogger friends. 

Anniek, excellent choice! There is no café browner than Lucia's.  

Chez Lucia

Antwerpsesteenweg 222

1000 Brussel (Noordwijk)

Map

Albert Heijn

A few weeks ago I finally discovered the new Albert Heijn supermarket on the Groenplaats in Antwerp. We no longer need to jump on the train to Holland for 'hopjes vlaai' and 'stroopwafels', now they are only a tram ride away.Yummysis Els is only allowed to visit when I hold her purse, far too many goodies to put in the shopping basket. If I ever see her with an Alberth Heijn shop card it's straight to the Betty Ford clinic!

Albert Heijn

Groenplaats

2000 Antwerpen

Map

Cafe Bazaar

Cafe Bazaar, close to our other local the Stanny, is one of those bars with a perfect corner terrace. This was the first sunshine our new sunglasses saw since we bought them in Italy - but that's a story from our book, so shhh, don't give away yet!

Eetcafé Bazaar 

Lange Leemstraat 443

2018 Berchem

Map

De Flamingo
Taking a photo at 2am with you smartphone is never a good idea, but who doesn't know the 'ah, just one more' two beers and two wine, please!
The Flamingo is the latest bar adventure of the Brussels Terence Conran, Frédéric Nicolay. The kind of bar where you can sit for hours drinking coffee and reading the papers and where you go for one happy hour drink after work and stay until the early hours.

Flamingo

Lakensestraat 171-177

1000 Brussel

Map

Skybar Antwerpen

Drinking cocktails at great height was possible this summer in Antwerp's pop-up bar of the Lindner Hotel. Overlooking the back of Central station with a martini in your hand felt great. Lots of bling bling though on the 12th floor.

Skybar -Hotel Lindner

Lange Kievitstraat 125

2000 Antwerpen

Map

PS follow us on Instagram to get a first peek of our photos!