Fast Food Brussels

So, I went to Brussels last week! Which you would have known if you bothered to follow me on Instagram (or 'Instant-gram', as the Manbacon calls it). It ain't all fine-dining in fancy restaurants when I'm on holiday...sometimes I get to eat some fast food too. 

The interior at Exki in Porte de Namur

Exki is a Belgian chain in the vein of Pret a Manger/Itsu, and they seem to be everywhere in Brussels. We went to the branch in Porte de Namur, because we needed to calm down after a visit to the Dino Museum where we were surrounded by rowdy toddlers.

The food is precisely what you'd expect from such places - clean-looking, supposedly healthy sandwiches, pastas, noodle dishes, soups and drinks. Their staff are cheery and wholesome-looking, and the dining room upstairs was bright, airy, and warm, with a mix of Ikea-style and random 'vintage' furniture. All very clean, as you'd expect. It made me feel a little like I should have wiped my battered plimsolls on the mat before entering. They also provide complimentary Wifi, so you can grab a couple of drinks and while away an afternoon if you're so inclined.

Manbacon went for a roast chicken sandwich from the refrigerated section - probably not the best choice on a blustery cold Brussels afternoon. So it wasn't much of a surprise when he said he didn't think much of it. The single bite I made tasted rather...indistinct, and certainly didn't make me want to have more. In fact, I'd initially assumed the beige, insipid-tasting meat was some sort of turkey, until informed otherwise. My quiche, on the other hand, was pleasantly warm and had generous portions of bacon and ham in it. What else can I say about it? It was a salty warm quiche, I had no complains.

Exki (locations all around Brussels)

Bacon, ham and cheese quiche

Phillipa - roast chicken sandwich with a carrot and ginger emulsion, salad and olive oil dressing

Hector on De Brouckere

How could we resist the bright lights of Hector? It seemed so out of place, a fried chicken joint right beside our fancypants hotel. We'd been burning through episodes of Breaking Bad, and if you've seen it, you'll know that a fried chicken restaurant is almost a major character in the series. Part of us really, REALLY wanted to meet a Belgian Gus Fring and maybe uncover a major meth business. The other parts just wanted to sit in a warm place and indulge in some fried chicken.

Unfortunately, Gus didn't seem to be at work the day we were there. We relayed our orders to the two guys industriously frying up coated chicken pieces, then took a tray and slid it towards the cashier, stopping to help ourselves to drinks and sauces ('Samourai' and 'Andalouse'). The experience was reminiscent of school lunchtimes. 

No. 3 - Wings, chips and coleslaw

And the fried chicken? Not bad...but not up there with my current favourite fried chicken place - Chicken Inn on Rye Lane. The wings were juicy enough, although rather unevenly crispy. There certainly wasn't a pleasurable shattering of batter when I bit into it. Still, it's a stack of hot fried chicken and chips, so who am I to complain? Also a side of coleslaw and requisite limp lettuce leaf, for the, y'know, vitamins and that. No blue meth on the side. 

Hector (locations all around Brussels)

No. 4 - Chicken tenders, chips and coleslaw

Christmas Past

Happy New Year, kittens! It was a few weeks ago, but here are some photos from Christmas, when all I did was eat a lot and have marathon sessions of movie-and-TV-show-watching. 

A rather unfortunate gingerbread man fell into my coffee. 

We had homemade gingerbread biscuits for breakfast on Christmas morning, made with the recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I like my gingerbread really spicy, so I always add twice as much ginger to the recipe when making. 

Recently Made and Eaten

Some almost-neon popcorn sprouts - very sweet, almost artificial-sugar levels of sweetness, in fact. 

Half white/half wholemeal bread with cranberries and pistachios. 

Caraway seed cake topped with vanilla glaze and cornflowers - recipe coming soon (i.e. when I remember to post again).

Homemade pizza dough, topped with tomato paste, button mushrooms, jalapeno peppers, salami and cheddar cheese. 

Easy-Peasy Squidgy Loaf

Not exaggerating at all when I say this loaf is easy-peasy - once you've got the ingredients ready, all you really do is dump them all into a big bowl, give it a couple of stirs, then into a loaf tin and to the oven it goes. This is also, quite accidentally, perhaps the healthiest baked item to ever appear on this blog - no butter, no eggs, hardly any sugar, plenty of fibre. It makes me think of a homemade version of Soreen. That probably makes it sound like really boring, but well, it's not! It's packed full of flavour from the dried fruits, and goes especially well with butter. 

The inspiration for this came from baking buddy Yusuf, who has published the original recipe on his Snapguide thingo. It sounded so yummy and I was all proud of myself for getting a bag of coarse wheat bran to make it, then I got home and looked through the cupboard and realised I didn't have the essentials - stuff like self-raising flour, muscovado sugar and...oh yes, he also said 'bran flakes' not 'wheat bran'. Turns out I'm not very good at reading through something before jumping straight in. This is how accidents happen. 

Anyway, I was much too lazy to go back to the shops to get the right stuff - and doing things the 'right' way is so boring and I'm my own boss! - so I decided to make do. And it turned out pretty tasty if I say so myself. Just don't tell Yusuf. 

Squidgy Malt Loaf (inspired by Deco Reco's Raisin Malt Loaf)

Ingredients
300 ml milk*
200gms dried cranberries**
25gms candied ginger
150gms plain flour
pinch of baking powder
pinch of bicarbonate soda
100gms caster sugar***
50gms malt extract****
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
lemon zest and juice (optional)

Directions

- Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Grease and line a loaf tin.

- Into a large bowl, add the milk to the wheat bran and set aside for a few minutes so the bran soaks up some of the milk. Add  the cranberries and ginger to the mixture, before adding in the sugar. Add your spices and the malt extract, and finally, add the flour. Fold it all together with a wooden spoon. If using, add zest and juice of lemon now.

- Transfer the mixture to the loaf tin and smooth the top of the mixture down. Bake for 45 minutes, then switch the oven off and leave the loaf in the oven for another 30 minutes. Take it out and let it cool down, or slice and serve straightaway (with butter!).

Some notes

*The original recipe has whole milk in it but I used some rice milk, and you could probably even make do with water too if you haven't got any.

**The cranberries were soaked in hibiscus tea for about half an hour until they plumped up. Of course, I understand not everyone has easy access to multiple packs of dried hibiscus petals, in which case you can simply use just-boiled water or your favourite tea. I used hibiscus tea because I like the slight sourness it imparts.

***Optional - I've left it out on my next few attempts and the loaf has been fine, just not as sweet and a tiny bit less squidgy.

****Can be replaced with honey, or golden syrup or treacle or some other viscous syrupy item of your choice. 

Sweet Potato and Purple Potato Gratin

No need to adjust your colour calibration - some of the potatoes here are indeed purple. If you need to impress anyone, this dish will certainly do it. The contrasting colours and rosette-like appearance pack a punch when brought to the table in its baking dish, and it looks more complicated than it really is. In fact, if you have a mandolin, it can all be prepared in mere minutes. Just be careful not to slice your fingertips off - nobody wants bloody fingertips in their portion of gratin.

The dish was inspired by two events in close succession - the discovery that our local supermarket sold purple potatoes, as well as our recent purchase of Ottelenghi: The Cookbook from a secondhand bookstall in Greenwich Market. Ottolenghi's version calls for just orange sweet potatoes, but I decided we could possibly do one better. If you can't find purple potatoes, than 50% normal potatoes and 50% percent sweet potatoes, or even 100% sweet potatoes, would do just as welll. 

Sweet and Purple Potatoes Gratin 

(adapted from Danielle's Sweet Potato Gratin in Ottolenghi: The Cookbook)

Ingredients

about 750gms purple potatoes

about 750gms sweet potatoes

5 tbsp sage (roughly chopped), plus extra for garnish

6 garlic cloves (crushed)

2 tsp coarse sea salt

1/2 tsp black pepper (freshly ground)

250ml whipping cream

Directions

- Preheat oven to 200 degree C. Wash the potatoes but leave them unpeeled. Slice them into discs roughly 5mm thick.

- Mix the potatoes, sage, garlic, salt and pepper together in a large bowl. Arrange the potato slices in a medium-sized baking dish by taking stacks of them and packing them next to each other*. Any any remaining bits of garlic and sage from the bowl to the potatoes. Cover the dish with foil and roast for 45 minutes. 

- Remove the foil and pour the cream evenly over the potatoes. Roast, uncovered, for another 25 minutes. The cream should have thickened by the end of the cooking time. 

- Garnish the dish with sage, and serve immediately. 

*I arranged the potatoes by placing them first along the outer ring of the dish, then working inwards, to create the rosette shape. There's no need to be too precious about placing the different colours one of top of the other.

Bags Of Bagels

I blame Ai for this, I really do. If you follow her blog, you'll have noticed that she has been baking some rather delicious looking bagels over the past couple of months. Her photos of her glossy, nicely-shaped bagels brought on a rather inexplicable bout of industry in my kitchen - I simply had to make some bagels for myself!

There are plenty of recipes out there in Googleworld, so I won't write one down here. My friend Deco Reco  swears by Smitten Kitchen's recipe, which takes two or three days to prepare. I'm much to impatient for that, so I prefer to use this recipe from The Sophisticated Gourmet as a guideline for quantities and times, with the addition of a second proof after shaping the bagels. 

The most fun part, I think, is the shaping. Some people roll the dough into little cylindrical tubes, then join the ends neatly together (like so). I prefer to roll it into a ball, then poke a flour-covered finger through the middle, and twirl it around my finger a few times to enlarge the hole (scroll down to about the middle). More fun than you imagine. 

So far, I've made bagels with rye flour, with 'farmhouse' flour (with added grains and seeds), with plain white bread flour, with cranberries and walnuts, with caraway seeds, sesame seeds, sea salt, and even fancy grey sea salt. Whatever the flavour, they've all tasted wonderful fresh out of the oven, with butter melting through it. I also like them with some mascarpone and honey, for when I'm being all hedonistic. They've all been a lot chewier than the shop-bought versions, and you get the satisfaction of people looking all impressed and stuff when they find out you've made your own bagels. There's a good reason to make your own bagels if ever you needed one. 

La Table de Anges

Last night in Paris, and we were hoping for a great meal with end the trip with a bang. Trouble was, we'd left it until pretty late in the evening, and so decided an amble down Rue des Martyrs might turn up something. First impressions weren't too promising though, as most of the shops were shut. Just as we were about to give up and get a kebab from one of the many kebabs shops on Boulevard Clichy, we spotted a welcoming glow from La Table des Anges. Upon entering, we were greeted with a hearty 'Bonsoir!' and asked if we had a reservation. The place was heaving, and for a moment I thought we might have to resume our search for food. Fotunately, the friendly waiter asked us to wait, and in a couple of minutes, we were ushered to a little table between two large, boisterous groups. 

Complimentary plate of shaved ham

So, you're probably used to getting complimentary baskets of bread from restaurants. Well, this place went one better, and presented us with free ham! I don't even know even words to express how awesome that is, especially when it's freshly shaved, paper-thin, fluffy and just the right amount of salty. I didn't think to ask what kind of jambon it was, but there was a whole hunk of it in the corner of the restaurant, sitting on top of an industrial-looking meat-shaver machine (I don't actually know what those machines are called?). 

White asparagus and salad

We didn't have to wait to long for our starters to arrive. Manbacon's white asparagus was simply steamed, and topped with a fresh salad. The creamy-yellow spears were buttery soft, and a far cry from the limp disappointments you get in those supermarket tins. A great example of 'less is more' when it comes to good, fresh produce. 

My lobster bisque was surprisingly large - that bowl in the picture was as big as my face, and filled to the brim. In some poncy restaurants that would have been a rather pricey main course. Anyway, not a bad thing, since I was starving. The soup itself had a velvety texture, accompanied by a lovely marine taste from the shellfish. Like eating sea velvet. And then, of course, a generous parcel of ravioli at the bottom, plump and covered in a beautifully thin, almost translucent dough. I took my time with the soup so I could savour the taste as long as possible. 

Lobster bisque with crayfish ravioli

Alas, it wasn't a bottomless bowl of soup, so I eventually finished it rather than have it go cold. Because we'd had such a good experience with duck the night before, we both decided to chance it and ordered the duck again.

Magret de canard with potatoes and warm salad

The friendly waiter had asked how we wanted our duck cooked, to which we both replied 'pink'. Because overcooked duck is a culinary sin. If last night's dish was good, this was mindblowing! It came perfectly pink and juicy, with lightly seared skin and a (un)healthy layer of fat inbetween. Perfectly cooked duck like this is the reason I find it impossible for me to go vego. The dish came with a light, warm salad of shredded courgettes, carrots and mushrooms, which reminded me of those shredded salads you get in banh mi and Vietnamese noodle dishes. The only bit I didn't enjoy were the potatoes - just a bit too dry, and nowhere as fantastic as the dauphinoise I enjoyed the night before. 

No dessert, as even my dessert stomach was filled. However, the friendly barman did charm us into having a digestif, and chose a light, apple flavoured liqueur for me to try. Manbacon reckoned it was 'too girly' for his tastebuds (he had cognac instead), but I enjoyed it. Fully sated, we managed to exchange a few words in broken French and English with the lovely staff, and promised we would return the next time we were in Paris. Soon, I hope...

La Table de Anges

66 Rue des Martyrs

75009, Paris

France

Chez Pommette

On our third night in Paris, Manbacon and I decided to try out Chez Pommette, a little restaurant we'd seen the day before while exploring Montmartre. The red exterior and handwritten menu on blackboards made the place seem warm and inviting. However, a glance through the window showed only two people (a rather stern-faced middle-aged couple) in the restaurant, even though it was dinner time and other eateries nearby were packed. A bad meal at home is unpleasant but easily brushed off, but a bad meal on holiday, when you have so little time to try out all that a city has to offer, can feel devastating. I wasted stomach space on this? Still, it was getting late, and we were starving, so we entered with a little bit of trepidation...and received a warm welcome from the only waiter in the place, who told us to seat ourselves wherever we wanted. 

Carrot veloute (it's what fancy people call soup)

I was craving duck, but a perusal of the menu showed no such meat on offer...until the waiter set the specials board down, and there it was, the magic word - canard. 

We started with the carrot veloute - thick, rich and velvety, a world apart from lacklustre Tetrapack supermarket soups. It was intensely moreish, and went very nicely with the complimentary basket of crusty baguette slices on the side. I was trying very hard not to lick the bowl when I got to the bottom!

Duck breast with potato dauphinoise

Next up, the main event - a glistening magret de canard served with a rectangle of potato dauphinoise. We asked for the duck to be served pink, and it came out beautifully so, with the skin seared til crispy and a little layer of fat beneath it. It came with a sauce made with some little dark berries - not quite sure what they were exactly, juniper or sloe, maybe - the tartness of the berries helped lift the meatiness of the duck breast. Oh, and I'm pretty sure dauphinoise is my favourite way of eating potatoes (yes, even more than chips). This particular example was especially memorable, with the potatoes sliced thinly and evenly coated  with creamy goodness. We'd be eating them every other day if I wasn't so lazy. 

Ile flottante 

We were both completely stuffed, but there was dessert to be had. I love ile flottante, and it's easy enough to make, but it's just never really occurred to me to make it at home for a fancy dessert. Anyway, this version was slightly marred by the ratio of meringue to custard. Too big a blob of meringue (also a bit too toothachingly sweet), sitting in a sad, shadow little pool of custard. More iceberg in a puddle than the delicate floating islands they are meant to be. Please sir...I want some more (custard). 

Still, that wasn't enough to destroy what was overall a very enjoyable meal. One more thing - our little tip seemed to please the waiter inordinately. He smiled and waved to us so enthusiastically as we were walking out that I thought his hand might start a hurricane all on it's own. For a moment there, I thought I might have  accidentally left him a €50 note. Maybe he's just always this happy when customers leave the restaurant? Will you let me know if you happen to eat there too?

Chez Pommette

86 Rue Lepic

75018 Paris

France

Edible Paris

Burger and Lobster

Burger or lobster? With only two (well, three actually - the lobster also comes in the form of a lobster roll) items on the menu, even the most indecisive diner should take no more than 10 minutes to decide on their dinner. You'll probably spend at least that much time waiting in line anyway (the Soho branch only takes reservations for groups of 6 or more, and we only had 4 in our party that night). 

Once in, we were greeted by a supermodel-attractive hostess, who pointed us to a bar staffed by more frighteningly-attractive people. We ordered some cocktails and waited for a table. In contrast to the succinct  food menu, the drinks menu offered a positively novel-like two pages of beer, wine and cocktails. I didn't write down what we got though, and as it was a few weeks ago, I can't actually remember. It was peachy and pretty strong though. Anyway, when you go to a place called 'Burger and Lobster', you're hardly likely to be there for the drinks, are you?

And there you have it, the main event. If you're wondering why there are no photos of the burgers, it's because none of us ordered it. Three of us ordered the grilled lobster, and one had a pizza before coming to join us so spent the whole dinner drinking beer. In fact, on the way to our table, we had a sneaky peek at the other diners, and couldn't see one burger in the whole dining room. I guess the answer to my opening question would have to be a resounding 'LOBSTER!' that night. 

While our party opted for the messy delight of a whole lobster, quite a number of diners seemed to prefer the neater option of a lobster roll, with the meat conveniently picked out and mixed with mayo, then placed in a bun. Our lobsters came on a huge platter, with a heap of salad on the side, as well as hot chips and a garlicky butter sauce perfect for dunking the lobster in. And the lobster itself? Perhaps surprisingly (I wasn't hoping for much given it was only £20 for a lobster and sides), it was delightfully sweet and succulent, with a wonderful firmness to it. The other guys did well by finishing up everything on their plate, but I let the side down as usual by leaving half of my chips and a bit of the salad. No dessert for me, obviously...

However, if you feel like you have some room left for dessert after devouring the monster from the depths, hail one of the (obviously goodlooking) waiters and ask them for some ice cream. We didn't have any, but the couple beside us seemed to be more than pleased with theirs. 

Burger and Lobster

36 Dean Street

Soho, London

W1D 4PS