Sunday Brunch

Pancakes, crispy bacons, sliced tomatoes, scrambled eggs, fresh pineapples, fried potatoes, bunch of bananas, fresh OJ

Some friends from Paris came to Brussels for a weekend vacation
so mon mari & I invited them to come over for brunch.

Our pancakes are made from Derek Jeter's Buttermilk Pancakes recipe.
This is the best pancake recipe which guarantees delicious fluffy pancakes.

Ellis Burger

Gourmet Burger?!
Pleasssee....
Never had a more tasteless burger.
Enough said.

Raclette

Melted cheese on potatoes,
with cold meats and pickled cucumbers,
what's not to love about Raclette?

Carrot Soup

Carrot soup with fried ginger is one of the soup we make often in winter.
We got a bag of shredded carrots on discount from the supermarket.
It's not as good as fresh carrot because all the juice is gone.

Quick Hamburger Restuarant

Quick Hamburger Restaurant in Brussels

Mon ami had the Super Bacon and I got the King Fish

Super Bacon

King Fish

Maxi Fries

Quick's menu

Quick is the most popular fast food restaurant, even more common than Mcdonald's, in Belgium.
Mon ami & I hardly ever visit Quick because we prefer Macdonald's.
To do a movie date, we decided to go to Quick which is nearby the cinema
after watching Dark Knight Rises.

Ok...
I don't understand why it's more popular than McDonald's...
The buns were dry and my fish filet was dry and tasted fishy.
I like fishy taste but it's not a good kind of fishiness.
Mon ami's Super Bacon is dry too.

FYI: Do you know that one has to pay for ketchup and other condiments in Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxenbourg (a.k.a BeNeLux)?

So we pay 1 euro for 2 little containers of ketchup to dip our stingy quantity of Maxi fries.
The Maxi fries' boxes are flat and cut in really narrow towards the bottom.
But that's fine since they aren't good fries, there's no point to eat many of them Quick's fries.
  
I'm reserving my comments on Dark Knight Rises.
I won't diss Chris Nolan.

Seafood in Ostende

The restaurant offers little shrimps for appetizer.

Wah! I hope I can finish this big piece of plaice!

A salmon plate but the salmon is obscured by the thick sauce.

 We went on a day trip to the beach in Ostend, on the Belgium coast
to enjoy the sun and for a dip in the sea. (Not me though... It's too cold for me, the North Sea!)

For dinner, we went to Restaurant Adelientje whose specialties are seafood from the North Sea.
It's a small and lovely place and less pricey than than restaurants in this busy seaside town. 
Mon ami & I had the plaice that is in season which is delicious.
Our plaices had eggs in them.
I love fish eggs :)
Antonin, our friend had the salmon with ostendaise sauce.

Kugelhopf

From time to time, mon ami will make one of his favorite bake goods, Kugelhopf.
It's one of his comfort food because his mother was from Alsace.
A Kugelhopf is quite similar to an italian Pandoro or Panettone.
The 3 being sweet yeast breads.
It makes a good breakfast on a lazy sunday morning.

Galettes

I love the taste of buckwheat.
Readymade galettes can be bought in supermarkets in France
so mon ami and I brought some back with us.

With these readymade galettes, one can easily make galettes with different fillings-
basically 3 cheeses, smoked salmon, ham, eggs.

We sort of regret not getting some crepes for dessert.

Homemade Burgers

Other than burgers from MacDonald's or Quick,
there aren't much choices for burgers in Brussels.
But I think we make a decent burger at home
using fresh ingredients, homemade mayonnaise and organic beef.

Mamma Roma Pizza

Yes, it's kinda blurry but it's crowded!

Mon ami and I were out in Ixelles to run some errants around lunch time.

There are plenty of italian restaurants in Ixelles

but we just wanted to have a quick bite.

Mama Roma was crowded so we thought it might be good.

And the 2 slices & a can of soda lunch menu for 7.50 euros is a decent deal.

I don't like red as a color theme in restaurants 

because most of the time, they are awful, dimly-lit and with glossy surfaces.

Mama Roma pulled off the red theme well.

Their pizzas are warm and freshly made.

I don't dig their ciabatta-like pizza dough.

It's slightly too greasy and chewy.

D.I.Y. Bun Bo Nuong

Hey, can't keep going to restaurants for my Bun Bo Nuong fix.
It looks like a simple enough dish to make at home.
There are quite a few components to gather
but nonetheless, it is actually quite easy to make.
We bought ready made, frozen Cha Gio (spring rolls) to make it a Bun Cha Gio Bo Nuong
There's a good recipe. There are many on the internet.

Carbonnade Flamande

Antonin made a big pot of Carbonnade Flamande to share.
Carbonnade Flamande is a traditional Belgium beef stew.
His main ingredients are cubed beef, bacon, onions and carrots.
Kwak, a belgian amber beer is used for the stew, it also adds spice and sugar to it.
Spiced bread is used to thicken the stew.

Mon ami and I made a potato gratin to go with the Carbonnade Flamande.

Risotto ai Fungi Porcini & Asparagus

For dinner, Francoise made asparagus & homemade mayonnaise.

Her mayonnaise is awesome. Her secret is to beat the egg whites until fluffy and add them to the mix last.

Antonin made Risotto ai Fungi Porcini, with the porcini that he collected from the Alps.