Chocolate from Brussels!!!!

Well, well, well.... guess what?!  My husband will be taking me to Brussels this Spring! He goes there for business on regular basis so I heard about all those great food he has eaten there but this time I can get to eat mussels in Brussels with fries for real... can't wait!

In the meantime he has brought me a box of Belgium Chocolate from Brussels.  This one is by Corne Port-Royal (http://www.corneportroyal.com/en.htm) founded in 1932. Their website informs me that they have some twenty 'boutiques' (yes, boutiques, not shops!) within Belgium, continues in its tradition of authentic recipes that have remained unchanged for over a century and gourmet expertise.

The website also informs me that you use all senses to enjoy chocolate - sight, tough, hearing (huh..?), taste and smell. It says, 'The chocolate should look smooth and lustrous. A well-made chocolate should give as you bite into it. If a praline starts to melt in your hand before you've had the chance to put it in your mouth, that's a good sign: it indicates that it contains cocoa butter. And let it melt in your mouth, pressing the chocolate to your palate to release all its flavours.' Mmmmmmmm...

Gianduja with coffee praline, yummy!!!

A praline is made by caramelising sugar syrup, hazelnuts and almonds together before being ground to varying levels of fineness. This one is Gianduna, a mixture of finely-ground hazennuts and powered sugar to which chocolate is added. Gianduja comes from the Piedmont region of Italy.

I have also learnt that chocolates are best kept in a dry place, away from strong odours and at a temperature of between 15 - 18 degree, and not in the fridge. 

Wow, eating chocolate has moved to a new level after this....

I shall visit few chocolate 'boutiques' while we are there, tasting the real Belgian chocolate in Belgium, however I also want to have Belgian waffles, mussels with fries of course and Belgian beer!  I will tell you all about these when I come back....

That's all forks!

Having lunch again ....

Went to Amber Regent (http://www.amberregent.com) last Saturday for lunch. My husband and I were debating whether we go for Italian or Thai as we walked on Hope Street, then turning onto West Regent Street, Glasgow. I said to him,"I wonder if Amber Regent does any lunch menu...?". To be honest it is not obvious from outside but we found that they do offer lunch special, £9.95 for 2 courses. It is quite a good menu (http://www.amberregent.com/menu/amber-regent-lunch-menu.htm), catering for both seafood lovers and vegetarians by offering variety of choices even for lunch menu.
Naturally, we got to try it and we were very glad we did.

We were the first customers to arrive so quickly took this photo before the place gets busier...

As far as I can remember this restaurant has been here for many many years. The last time we were there was when we took Emily and Maria for Emily's 18 year old birthday for dinner, but I bet they don't remember that much.

Anyway, for starters you have 10 different choices and we both chose Hot & Sour Soup without meat.
It came with a basket of crispy prawn crackers and the soup was really delicious.

Hot & Sour Soup without meat

For main course, you get so many choices despite being lunch menu. I am just looking at their lunch menu online - 11 chicken dishes, 8 beef dishes, 1-2 pork dishes, 10 seafood dishes and 5 vegetables.  My husband had Prawn Dam Po (Chilli Sauce) (... or was it Prawn Szechuen Style?)  and I had Grilled Sole Beijing Style. All comes with fried rice (or noodle). Well, both were very delicious and I really liked the fish.

Photo did not turn out that well but they were really tasty...

Service was very good, very efficient and attentive. Oh yes, the restaurant also passed my toilet check!
I think downstairs must have been recently renovated as when you go down the steps, it suddenly becomes modern in semi dark blue lightening ... it was a bit like a maze or in fact like a labyrinth. I got nearly lost the way back to the restaurant. My husband said "just follow the arrow" and I did and got confused as the door I thought I walked through from the restaurant did not seem the same door to me. But he was right.  I just followed the arrow again and came back to the same door that I rejected earlier.  So I push the door and voila, I came back to the restaurant, Yey! (I must admit I was a bit worried, thinking what I would do if I got stuck in the corridor, imagining myself in the Twilight Zone!!!)

Anyway, according to their website, they are doing the special offer of 1/2 price main dishes every evening (but Wed - Fri you must order before 7pm and Saturday before 6.45pm). This is a great deal. You should look at their A La Carte menu ... so many choices. Just reading the menu, imaging what they would taste like make my mouth watering, Mmmmmm.

By the time we finished our meal, the place was full and so as our stomach but the portion was just right and we left the restaurant feeling really content.

My husband loves Chinese food. In fact he could eat it every day if he has a choice. Maybe we go back there for dinner one evening, taking advantage of the special offer. And I now know that I just need to remember that I follow the arrow from the labyrinth.

That's all forks!

Lunch at Arisaig in Glasgow

My older daughter Emily is very good at finding deals and is always lucky. In fact she is also the sort of person who wins something often if she buys lottery, scratch cards or enter into prize draws. Not a huge win but she is happy with small wins and feels content. Good luck always seems to follow her and she has a good karma.

So she received an additional discount from an on-line website for discount restaurant vouchers. She phoned me and asked if we want to try Arisaig Bar & Restaurant (http://arisaigrestaurant.co.uk) in Merchant Square, Glasgow. The name of the restaurant seems to come from  a small village in the West Coast of Scotland of the same name and serves Scottish food. We checked their menu on website, which sounded nice and booked a table for 2. The online deal was for £9.95 per person for 2 course meal with a glass of wine and Emily had additional discount to put toward this, so definitely a good deal.  We booked a table for 4 for Sunday lunch the other day for Emily, her boyfriend Craig, my husband and me. The restaurant does 2 course lunch menu anyway but the choices of menus between our online deal and their lunch menu are almost the same.

My husband and I arrived at the restaurant, which is inside of the lovely indoor courtyard of the Merchant Square building. A pub across the other side of the courtyard was showing Andy Murray playing against Novak Djokovic at Grand Slam final on a big screen. Emily and Craig were late so we were watching this.  By the time we found out that Andy Murray lost, we were seated at the table, studying the menu. Emily was driving and she nearly hit a car or a car nearly hit her car as she was trying to park. Being so stressed and running out of time they had to take her car to an expensive multi-story car park to park, despite it was Sunday and free on-street parking in the city centre. She normally has good karma but she did not have car-ma on that day!

For starters, Craig who loves haggis ordered Haggis Fritters with onion gravy. Unfortunately he had some mouth ulcer and could not eat much of this dish, shame....

Haggis Fritters with Onion Gravy

Emily had Smoked Brie & Red Onion Tart served with roast tomato and balsamic vinegar dressing. I tried the bit of the tart, which did have smokey flavour.

Smoked Brie & Red Onion Tart

My husband and I had Homemade Fishcakes served with green leaves and tartar sauce, which was nice.

Homemade Fishcakes

For main course, my husband had Breaded Haddock with chips and tartar sauce. It would come with mushy peas but he asked the restaurant to serve without it. Chips were really chunky and big.

Breaded Haddock with Chips minus mushy peas

I tried Vegetarian Bean Burger with salad, chips and spicy fruit slaw from the normal lunch menu. I found the burger (made of mixed beans and vegetables) was rather dry so I put fruit slaw and onion chutney (?) that came on the plate onto the burger to give some softer texture and flavour. Ciabatta roll was nice. Again it came with big chunky chips. I just wanted to try something different, otherwise I would have had salmon from the menu, but I was happy with my choice as we eat salmon at home quite often anyway.

Vegetarian Bean Burger with chips and spicy fruit slaw

Craig ordered Haggis & Clapshot with mustard cream sauce. It looked really nice but again unfortunately he could hardly finish it because of his mouth ulcer. Shame...

Haggis & Clapshot with mustard cream sauce.

Emily had Shetland Mussels tossed in a cider and smoked cheese sauce. It would come with smoked bacon in the sauce but she asked it to be without. The restaurant had no problem accommodating her request. There were a lot of big mussels. I tried one and was very nice and so as the sauce.

Shetland Mussels with cider and smoked cheese sauce

Overall we did have a nice lunch and good value for money. I also thought service was good and attentive. I think it would have much more lovely and lively atmosphere at night, with lots of restaurants within the courtyard being busy and filled with many diners. We saw Italian and Spanish tapas restaurants in the courtyard. Perhaps we would look out for other on-line deals to see if we could go there too.  ..... You probably notice by now that we would not have eaten out this often had we not used all these on-line deals....

That's all forks!

p.s.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. The restaurant passed my toilet check. My husband jokingly suggests I do a blog for toilet checks but I said no.... who want to see pictures of food along with pictures of toilets!  No thanks, I say.  But seriously, I would be weary of eating anything at a restaurant that can't even pay attention to cleanliness of toilets.... would you agree?