Gastronomiz food box - La Collection Christmas edition

It all began with beauty boxes, based on a simple concept: a fixed-price monthly subscription for a box containing a variety of surprise products that can change every time. One might like some products, while others might be totally useless. In the past year, several companies have started offering food boxes. As usual, Belgium was lagging behind and most companies would not bother delivering to Belgium because of the extra shipping charges. As of December 2012, there are three food boxes available in Belgium: Brussels-based FoodsterBox, as well as Gastronomiz and EatYourBox from France.

Someone special was looking for Christmas gift ideas for me. Gastronomiz had a special box on offer (La Collection Christmas) that was supposed to contain some premium products. Since the contents would be a surprise, I suggested this gift idea. Here's the box which I found quite classy:

Before opening the box,  I was relieved to see that nothing was dripping from it. My concern about food boxes in general was that any liquids/sauces might spill during the journey, especially during its last few kilometers (Bpost having destroyed a number of my parcels). Inside, everything was well packaged and the fragile items were covered in bubble wrap.

Here are the contents of the box, displayed on the black apron that was included inside. There was a booklet with recipes and explanations on each product.

Confiture framboise-violette (Raspberry-violet flower jam) by Fusion By Carla

Poudre de cèpes (cep mushrooms powder) by Jardins d'Eini
Already tried in scrambled eggs - excellent!

50cl of Kalios olive oil, made from Koroneiki olives in Peloponnese, Greece

Mon Noël 2012 parfum culinaire à saupoudrer (culinary perfume for sprinkling)

Gastronomiz claims that this alone costs €30, but I wouldn't spend more than €5 on it. Tried it in some warm milk, and it made an OK drink (it contains way too much cane sugar, so was rather sweet and difficult to mix with other sweet foods)

Ceramic knife by Le Couteau du Chef

Overall, the box was one nice gift. Thank you again, darling!

L'Horloge du Sud African restaurant - Brussels

L'Horloge du Sud is located at the junction of Rue du Trône and Chaussée de Wavre, not too far from the Matonge African neighborhood. I went there for a weekday lunch. 

Here are some photos of the restaurant. They have an upper floor where concerts and dance classes are organized.

Here's my lunch: some Pastelles to begin

Followed by Moambe à la volaille (chicken moambe)

Quite disappointing. Basically, they have pre-roasted chicken pieces that they simply cover with moambe/yassa/maafé gravy, depending on what one orders. 

Moelleux au chocolat

Mousse à l'orange

Friendly service, but the food was average.

L'Horloge du Sud Café Restaurant
141 rue du Trone, Brussels
http://www.horlogedusud.be/

Locanda 4 Cuochi - Verona, Italy

Locanda 4 Cuochi is a restaurant located about 1 minute walk from Verona's arena, serving Italian dishes with a modern twist. It is owned by four young cooks - the "4 Cuochi" - and during our visit we could see some of them working in the open-view kitchen.

Since all the normal tables had been reserved, we were offered two seating choices: the counter by the kitchen or the high tables by the windows. We picked the latter.

Bread and twists

Some colored pencils to draw on the paper plate mats. Very original, we found.

We decided to order four dishes and share a dessert. While waiting, we checked out the kitchen which was buzzing and even the waitresses were helping to plate.

Here's our lunch, beginning with a potatoes and chestnuts soup.

Artichokes arancini (rice balls) with tomato sauce

Fassona beef tartare with quail eggs, mustard and capers. Excellent!

Breaded turkey breast with panzanella

For dessert, we shared a Mascarpone & caffe (tiramisu)

Overall, a pleasant lunch with good food at reasonable prices and a nice cosy atmosphere. Although the restaurant was full and we were the only tourists present, service was friendly and one of the waitresses who spoke fluent English took good care of us. Since the Locanda has a limited menu, we were expecting the dishes to be well executed and we were not at all disappointed. At dinner time a reservation might be a good idea since the place is quite popular with locals.

Locanda 4 Cuochi
http://www.locanda4cuochi.it/

Verona day trip

Verona

Il Ridotto Restaurant - Venice, Italy

For our only dinner in Venice, the tricky part was to find a fine dining place that is open on Sunday evenings. We decided to try Il Ridotto and made a reservation 3 days before. The restaurant is about 5 minutes walk from Piazza San Marco.

Reservations are a must here, since the place has about 24 seats and it was fully booked that evening. Each table had beautiful handmade Murano glasses of a distinct color.

And here's a table after it had been cleared. There are many mirrors to create the illusion of space, but the place is actually quite small, romantic and the area close to the kitchen seemed to be quite stuffy.

We ordered the "Menù di Terra e di Mare - leggero, bello, buono" with 4 courses. We asked the waiter what was included in the menu that evening and he responded that it would be up to the chef to decide. We also checked if the dessert would be something from the regular à la carte menu, and again were told that it's the chef who would decide. The waiter did ask us if there was anything we did not like, and we requested a seafood-only dinner without the Terra part, since Il Ridotto is mostly known for its seafood dishes.

Some words on our waiter (there was only one along with an assistant). With his beard and mustache and funny way of asking questions, he was quite a character. Some of the other diners seemed to be slightly puzzled by his approach, we found that he added some humor and local colour to the dining experience.

We were offered an amuse consisting of shrimps from the lagoon, potato cream, petal of tomato.

Two spoonfuls to whet our appetite. The shrimps were superb.

And some bread, which was a tad too hard. As in Italian restaurants that want to be 'gourmet' i.e. different from the trattorias, no olive oil was offered for dipping.

Piatti 1 - pan-fried scallops with lemongrass sauce, carrot puree, salad with a touch of balsamic, black tea powder.

Three good scallops and that's it. The balsamic in the salad did not match the lemongrass sauce at all, and we still do not get the point of the ground tea powder, besides maybe as a way to decorate our plate.

Piatti 2 - Tubetti risotto style with fresh cuttlefish and Go fish from lagoon.

Excellent, the highlight of our dinner and we could have had a second plate each! The gravy was delicious and we wiped our plates with the bread.

Piatti 3 - Gallinella di mare, potatoes, tomato sauce, black olives, capers, fresh oregano

A classic Italian dish that was fine. I guess we could have bought this from any good osteria.

Some petits fours served before dessert. 

Only the round truffles were nice. The rest did not deserve their place on our dinner table and should have been kept by the chef for coffee the next day...

Dessert: chocolate cake, nocciola (hazelnut) gelato, zucca (pumpkin), vanilla cream

The saltiness of the pumpkin matched the cake and gelato very well. The cake, however, was disappointing (too hard, nothing special) as was the vanilla cream (can't help wonder if this was not some cheap ready-made sauce that had been warmed up?).

Did this supposedly gourmet restaurant live up to its expectations ? No. Only the amuse and pasta dish were memorable, so basically the rest (three of four courses) was just average cuisine. Here's my advice if you visit Il Ridotto: do not trust the chef's inspiration for the menu and order à la carte.

Il Ridotto Restaurant
Campo SS. Filippo e Giacomo, Venezia
http://www.ilridotto.com

48 hours in Venice

We spent 48 hours in Venice on 9-10 December. We were at first worried about the acqua alta, which had left two thirds of Venice under water in November. Our trip turned out to be perfect. It was a bit chilly but the sun was shining. The positive side about a December Venice trip is that only a small fraction of summertime tourists was to be seen, hotels rates were much lower and the canals had no annoying smells.

San Giorgio Maggiore island as seen from Colonne di San Marco

Doorway arch of Basilica di San Marco

 
Scala dei Giganti, Palazzo Ducale (Giants stairway, Doge's Palace), flanked by Mars and Neptune

Campanile di San Marco bell tower

View from Ponte dell'Accademia

L'angelo della citta (The Angel of the City),  Peggy Guggenheim Collection: freedom, power or anxiety ?

View from our room in Hotel Bonvecchiati

Venetian masks

And a sweet discovery, Grom Gelato, which sells superb gelato and hot chocolates.

Three flavors on a cone: nocciola (hazelnut), marrons glacés (candied chestnut), crema come una volta (egg cream).

And some decadent cioccolata calda al bacio (hot chocolate with hazelnut chips)