:: Day 1 - Brussels ::

It was a very last minute decision that we had to pack our luggages and heading somewhere for the Bank Holiday weekend. We got our Eurostar tickets just 2 days before the departure and the hotel booked just 1 day before as far as I could remember!

So, it was 0500 in the morning that we woke up on Friday in order to catch the 0610 Eurostar to Brussels. We were at the departure hall less than 30 minutes before boarding that made us so worried that we might be late. When we got there, we were not late afterall as the 0610 train was cancelled due to some technical issues! So, the train was late! Not a very good start in the morning but all we could do was to check-in and waited at the lounge for the later train!

It took slightly more than 2 hours to reach the Gare du Midi in Brussels. We first made our way to the hotel before started our adventures in Brussels - The City of Chocolate, La Ville de Chocolat. We were not far from the La Grand Place, The Grand Place. It’s probably about 10-15 minutes walk. As we both are very organised tourists, we already got our “to-do” list sorted before we stepped our feet in Brussels.

We first visited Manneken Pis (little man wee). On the way there, we did a brief stop at a shop just to ‘check’ some items. Apparently, this store that sells G-star and Diesel garments were visited by Demi Moore and her husband Aston Kusher some months ago. Well, let’s skip the shopping bit but switch back to the Manneken Pis. On that day, this little sculpture of the naked boy that urinating into the fountain was dressed in Ukraine traditional custome. It’s not really original. I prefer the original way it has been.

After that, we made our way to the stunning La Grand Place. It’s stunning, so stunning that you just have to take a few snaps. There are some cafes and restaurants at Le Grand Place. One of them is recommended in the travel book for Belgian/French cuisine. It was lunch time and we were both hungry. So, without wasting much time, we were at ‘t Kelderke. It didn’t take us long to choose what we wanted. We both opted for Mussels & Chips, Moules & Frites - the classic dish! (Yum! Thinking of it now makes me so hungry)

I ordered Moules à la Provençale as for Arnaud, he had the classic Moules Marinieres. Ah, not to forget, the well-known Belgian beer.

After waiting patiently for about 25 minutes, two big portions of mussels finally arrived, of course with 2 portions of chips! Our faces filled with joy as we knew the journey of enjoying good food was about to begin! We took our time to enjoy our food as well as the view around us, it was just magnificent! This is what I call life

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping - window shopping. Basically, we started with Galerie St-Huberts, then to Saint Catherine and the Treasury, also not to forget Saint Géry and Sablons where some nice designers shops can be found.

As the evening grew near, it was time to think of what’s for dinner and where. As we had shortlisted the good and recommended restaurants to dine, it didn’t take us long to decide. Before that, we thought it would be a good idea to chill a little at one of the cafes/brasseries for aperitif. This time, I tried the flavoured beer, it’s Raspberries Beer. Slightly sweet and easy to drink, love it! Arnaud opted for Duvel, it’s too heavy for my liking.

We final decision of restaurant was Comme Chez Soi. This is the best restaurant in Brussels. It has been awarded with 2 Michelin stars. We were lucky to be able to book a table at the very last minute as it’s usually fully booked and booking has to be done 2 or 3 months in advance. What a total indulgence to end the first day in Brussels! Stay tune for part 2!

Following from the post last week, I made an Indian dish called Saag Aloo - Spinach and potatoes.

This is a Northern Indian vegetarian dish that tastes really good and very easy to make. Not only that, it’s healthy too. I like the combination of spinach and potatoes with the hints of spices.

Now let’s see how to make this dish. I have made this dish to suit my own taste. This recipe makes 2.

Ingredients:
2 shallots (sliced)
1 red onion (chopped)
1 chili
250-300g spinach
5 - 6 potatoes (diced or quartered)
some cumin seeds
some tumeric powder
1.5 tbsp of tomato puree (you can substitute this with fresh chopped totmatoes)
1.5 tbsp of olive oil
salt to taste

Please note: Potatoes have to be boiled before the whole cooking process. I choose to pan-fry the potatoes as I like the cripsy layer on the surface once they are pan-friend.

Method:
1. Add oil to the pan and throw in some cumin seeds.
2. Once the cumin seeds start to pop, add in the shallots, chopped onions and chili.
3. Cook them until fragrant.
4. Add in some tumeric powder. Followed by tomato puree and pinch of salt.
5. Give a good stir for about 5 minutes.
6. Then, add in spinach and stir for about 2-3 minutes.
7. Finally, add in the boiled/pan-fried potatoes. Mix well.
8. It’s now ready to be served.

Happy cooking!

Another week has gone by! Strange enough, there’s no rain (a good start as I thought the sunny weather would last only for a weekend!). Weather has been reasonably good so far. Hopefully, it’s gonna be better.

In my last post, I mentioned about PYO and that I bought some vegs from the farm. Guess what’s on the menu? (Hints: the raw ingredients are potatoes, spinach, and onions).

Well, I will keep this in suspense for now. Will reveal later! Till then, have a lovely weekend!

The temperamental weather in the UK has finally brought the sun back to indicate that summer is here. It seems that summer in this country starts later than anywhere else, probably not lasting for a long time. The weather seems bizarre lately as for the past few weeks, torrential rain brought floods to the Northern and Western part of the country. Now that the rain is gone, the weather was glorious on Saturday and Sunday! Brought the temperature to the highest record so far at 29/30 degrees Celsius.

I read an article in The Guardian newspaper a few weeks ago about the great outdoors ideas and it’s where I learned about PYO - Pick Your Own. I got really excited about this and I thought it was something new that I’ve never done in my life, which I should really try doing it once! Arnaud and I thought it was a great idea and that we should be outdoor since the weather was going to be great!

A list of top 100 PYO farms were listed in this special article, covered each region in the UK. I was happy to see quite a number of the farms that are located just outside of London, which is not far from where I am.

Before I started to pick one, I did some research to see where they are and what they offer. I finally chose Garsons Farm, located in Esher, Surrey. Garsons Farm has been awarded the best PYO 2006/2007, and has more than 100 acres of fruits and vegetables to offer!

As soon as we reached there, there was a sign showing the starting point of the route to pick your own. As different crops are planted in different locations, it’s advisable for all the PYO-ers to drive from one location to another. That’s what we did, else it would be too far to walk!

We started off picking some raspberries. Then, some blackcurrants. Moving on to strawberries, my favourite!! We were a bit disappointed as there were not many left to be picked. As we continued, I saw signs of potatoes, courgettes, spinach, carrots, beetroots, blueberries, more strawberries, apples.. etc.

It was very interesting to see some potatoes being freshly dug. I love this idea. I couldn’t wait but started to collect the already dug potatoes (freshly from the ground) and put them into my carrier bag! We then moved on to carrots. We had to use digging fork to harvest our baby carrots, the experience was amazing as could never get any carrots fresher than these! Just beside where carrots were planted, there were spinach. Then, the next to it were courgettes!

Since we didn’t pick a lot of strawberries earlier, we went frenzy picking more juicy and big strawberries. Couldn’t believe that we picked more than 2kg of strawberries that didn’t cost even £8. Just before we left, we couldn’t resist but kept looking at the red apple trees that lined up so neatly not too far from strawberries field. We decided to take some of them home with us!

After spending more than 3 hours at the farm under the sun, we were happy to go home with our hand-picked fruits and vegetables.