The Perfect Treacle Tart.

2009 was and still is a very busy year for us. A year filled with events, with family, with new projects. A year which is slowly coming to an end. Where we are looking forward to days filled with food, with drinks, with Christmas markets, with presents, with family. With sleep. Boy do I need to catch up on my sleep!

2010 will be a year where we will settle in. Enjoy our new apartment. Cook more. Get to know our neighbours, and be better friends. Entertain more. And on a personal level, get back in touch with my roots – which if not shared yet on the blog, are Romanian.

I miss Romanian food, I miss Romanian Christmas food. And as I was spoiled by my grandmother and then by my mother I want to bring that touch of magic back in my own family as well. There is one Romanian cookbook everyone owns, me included, which will be a good start for 2010. Maybe a recipe here and there, then more, all shared with you. What do you think?

In the meantime we’ll continue browsing the amazing food blogs out there, old and new, and get ready for a brilliant 2010. To close the year off, in search of perfection – always! – a treacle tart.

Too soon to wish you all a Merry Christmas?

Andreea

Tea Smoking on Saveur.

You might want to know we have not unpacked our kitchen boxes yet … so nothing exciting on our side. Except this: Saveur published my Tea Smoked Chicken Recipe as their ’Best of the Web’. Thank you! I can’t believe they actually chose this recipe as one of their best of the web. Thank you!

To all Saveur readers welcome to my blog, which has been a little quite lately due to our move but please have a look around, make yourself at home, enjoy. My blog is your blog.

Andreea

We moved!

… which really means that we can’t find anything and eat out/ have take away almost every day. All horrible IF there wasn’t so much physical work involved getting everything assembled, cleaned, moved etc …

But soon, it will be all back to normal and we’ll get the chance to try out our brand new, sparkly kitchen. Hope you haven’t given up on us.

In the meantime, the clear out! For whoever is interested, and lives in Brussels (Belgium) and up for it we give away tons of food and wine magazines: Olive, Delicious, Elle a table, Cuisine et Vin, Decanter, Elle Eten etc. Ranging from 2006 to present. First come, first served. Oh and the magazines have to go by Thursday this week (5/11).

A bientot,

Andreea.

1 Month To Go.

Right. You might have noticed September came. And went. I am pretty sure the same will be valid for October too.

We are moving into our new apartment at the end of the month so everything is as chaotic as could be. Although in all fairness we should not complain. Really! We even managed a short trip to Greece. So all good. All good.

How are you keeping up?

Delightful.

Just because we are busy with builders, plumbers and electricians doesn’t mean we don’t follow what is going on the food world, drooling over new recipes and even occasional trying some out.

It’s just that we don’t have so much time to cook, prep, take photos, and then eat. We usually just cook and eat. Which, I assume, everyone outside the food blogging world is pretty much doing every day.

Here are some new discoveries we made:

The Cookie Shop – I absolutely love the sound of the apple cake. And the blondie? Oh my.

The Cooking Photographer – the puff pastry plum tart? Delicious.

Bucatar Maniac – gotta read Romanian for that one, but some great photos.

Au fil de mes reves d’amour – great recipes, bringing Italy and France together.

J’S Kitchen- a lot of soft, fluffy, tasty bread. Although, in all fairness, we have not made bread in ages! I miss that …

Local Lemons – recipe after recipe of yum!

… now, any other food blogs we should look into?

Andreea xxx

Channel 4.

 

In the meantime … the chocolate bananas made it onto Channel 4.

Current Interests.

Eventually, our future kitchen…

June? Seriously. June?

A while ago Sid was asking if this is becoming a ‘one post a month’ kind of blog. I wish! It seems it is slowly becoming a ‘no post per month’ blog.

Why is that? Not because I suddenly lost my appetite. Nor is it because of a sudden loss of interest in (food) photography. It is more a case of real life becoming busier and well … more real … than ever before. Which means we get to eat to live, rather than live to eat. We get to eat out a lot more often than before. And the rest is taken up with: Contractors. Designers. Plumbers. Electricians. You name it.

Yes, we bought an apartment! Together! It’s gorgeous. But it’s also completely empty – imagine a lot of walls and nothing in between, above, on the ground. Multiply that by a lot of sq.m. and you have our very own Brussels apartment.

In between I am sure we’ll get to post here and there. And then there is some more news on the way. And maybe a review or the other. In the meantime though, please don’t give up on Glorious Food and Wine! Thanks

Andreea & Mark, the part-time builders.

Brasserie Le Macon

This post is like zillions of months late. I meant to write about this restaurant just after we went for the first time. No such luck. In the meantime we have eaten there several time and it would be selfish to keep this discovery just for ourselves.  So, here it is, almost a year later, our humble take on Brasserie Le Macon and its food.

The story so far
There is something slightly out of place when it comes to Brasserie Le Macon. Uccle is not exactly your hip and trendy commune. Restaurants in this commune tend to go for the classic, the traditional look. Where grandparents, parents and children have been going for generations and will continue to do so for generations to come. Places where neither the décor nor the food have changed since the 1960s. Which, in itself, if you are a traditionalist, is a great comfort.

First impressions
Then, every so often, a new restaurant opens in Uccle. Like Brasserie Le Macon. A modern combination of black, lime green and aluminum. Huge lampshades hanging low over the slick black tables. A padded lime green wall in the back. Modern art on the walls.

You have no idea how refreshing it was to see Brasserie Le Macon open in Uccle! 

The food
The menu perfectly reflects the brasserie style. Classics such as steak frites,  or croquettes are on offer together with a delicious sounding section ‘la cuisine de Mamy’  – my grandmothers dishes. Which only lists pure Belgian dishes such as vol au vent, waterzooi, stoemp etc.

All come at very decent  prices  with starters between 10euro-15euro, mains from  9euro-20euro and desserts from 5euro-7euro. I opted for the boulette a la Liegeoise with frites, Mark went for the more adventurous sounding rognons de veau jus Duvel (veal kidney in Duvel sauce).

Only minutes after our waiter took our order, the table next to us got their starters – which made me regret we didn’t order any: a gorgeous looking mozzarella-tomato salad and plump, crunchy coquettes. Next time.

Two Belgian beers later, and our food arrived. Frites in a cone (hmm… I wonder where have we seen that presentation before?), meat in little pots on the side. Delicious! Simple, but with all the flavors in the right place. Perfectly crunchy frites. Belgian comfort food at its best.

We paid 35euros for 2 beers and 2 mains.

Service with a smile
Going in, the restaurant was packed.  With so many tables booked we were not sure if reservations would have been a safer option. A very helpful maitre d’ however took care of us and found us a little table, for two. In no time we were seated, coats taken off and menus in hand. Efficient, yet very pleasant. Even a French joke was thrown in, which of course we didn’t get …

The verdict
Go again? We already did. When family came over for New Year, we went there for a comforting, rich dinner on a cold January night. And again just the two of us, for am id week dinner. And I can’t wait to go again.

Seriously, give it a try! And let us know what you think. 

Brasserie Le Macon: Rue Vanderkindere 354, 1180 Brussels, Tel: 02/346 46 52

Breakfast.

This is what I had for breakfast. On Sunday.

• coffee with milk
• freshly squeezed orange juice
• a pain au chocolat
• a croissant aux noix de pecan (pecan nuts)