…taste!

another one bites the dust. and again it is in alphen aan den rijn. of all places.

now, i grew up here and remember the time, when it still was a small village. it still is actually. mentally. but physically it has grown and houses some pretty darn surprising places, food-wise that is… i already wrote about Alfred’s Diner, about Buuren, about El Caballo…

i have this beautiful group of friends, who all like to cook and eat and we do so as regularly as possible. so every year, when all of our kids have the fairy-light parade to finish the week-long holiday game just before they go back to school, we go and have a nice bite in the meantime… next year, we planned to have the kids do a quest for us after the parade (so we won’t have to leave the restaurant in a hurry )!

so, we try to find something new nearby, as we have to watch the kids at the end of the parade, of course… this year we barely made it! because we went to Smaak (taste and boy, do they have a lot of that!) and had been dining for almost 4 hours, before realising we really had to leave and watch the kids go by… of course, it was amazingly ‘gezellig’, but that is our own accomplishment and perfectly logical, by the way… but the atmosphere in the restaurant, the waitresses and especially the cook Ronald, who just shows he loves what he does, do the trick! we had the most amazing dinner…

they combined well-known dishes with more daring ones, making it a feast for both the tastebuds as well as for our eyes… and they made some amazing choices in wines as well: a (to me) unknown italian winehouse Astoria, located just south of the Dolomites… we had some beautiful spumante with the dessert… anyway, restaurant-wise, fortunately this small town starts to act more and more like a city (now hope the mentality follows suit ) !

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…a good neighbour

is better than a distant friend.

well, that’s what we say in holland anyway… and we generally have a lot of neighbours, more than for example people in new-zealand or norway and when we visit Buuren (neighbours) restaurant, every time we realise how true this proverb is!

we knew about the background of the chefs and although we do think they should keep the originality of the beginning of their opening, it is still a treat to go there.

we started with a lovely amuse, mousse of asparagus and salmon eggs. then a threesome of sucking lamb, shoulder with dutch asparagus, lamb broth with fried broadbean and a lambburger with tomatochutney… i had a softly cooked veal loin with mesclun salad, moutarde de Meaux, Reypenaer cheese and a shellfish cream…

for the main course reina chose seabass with lemon thyme and a pie of gnocchi, asparagus and mushrooms with a white wine sauce. i had a fried porc-rack, asparagus , pommes chateau and a Aceto Balsamico sauce with butter and egg.

for desserts, reina chose (as she is crazy about) creme brulee of red fruit, mint and yoghurt with mango sorbet. i was going crazy with a daring threesome: timbal of asparagus with Amarene cherries and mascarponemousse, pear fried in brown and sugar and white port with melted Gorgonzola and thirdly a milkshake of asparagus, truffel, goat cheese and sherry…

we love our neighbours!!!

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…dinner with Alfred…

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A creative and surprising cuisine in a small town. Alfred’s Diner is absolutely fabulous.

When we were there a year ago, it made such an impression on everyone on that dinner. Food was impecable, plates presentations were outstanding. As we were talking about unforgetable desserts, this restaurant came to our minds again, so we went to dinner last friday on their last table available.

What an atmosfere! Flowers, beautiful music, wonderful scents coming from the kitchen. The plates were marvelous one after the other. But again, the dessert will be remembered… almond panacotta with vanilla ice-cream and white chocolat brownie… well from the presentation on… you just eat with your eyes, but the minute you taste it… absolutely heavenly. Even the coffee and tea are so beautifully presented, with dishes, bonbons… and of course, high quality coffee and tea.

We’ll come back to this place, special dinners, special moments and unforgetable food.

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