Tuesday is Wine Night

.. And Wednesday starts with a bit of a sore head.

It was a little over a month ago, scrolling through my Twitter feed during another dull lunch break at work, that I spotted The Suffolk Kitchen declaring a table for two had become available for their monthly wine tasting dinner. Now, to give you a bit of background, me and my chap have been eyeing up various wine nights in the restaurants around Cheltenham for quite a while. However, we never seem to have enough pennies at the right time, or, for some reason, we stupidly manage to talk ourselves out of booking onto one, which we inevitably regret. Its true, we are FOMO's. We have a fear of missing out. And when we hear of how much fun people are having - about the tasty food and bountiful wines - we become green with envy, kicking ourselves for trying to be "responsible adults". But not this time. A quick phone call, and an average Tuesday excelled into being an impromptu dinner date night.

 With 'Old Wines vs. New Wines' as the theme, this seemed like a good introductory evening. A chilled glass of prosecco was handed to us as we were shown to our seats, and a menu/scorecard on our table, alongside some freshly baked bread, kept us amused whilst waiting for the restaurant to fill up. Simon, the owner, and Ranulf, the wine merchant, explained that during that particular week both the food and wine menu had been changed, and as a result they were using this night to showcase what was on offer. There are three courses, each having a choice of three different dishes (meat, fish or veggie) with the exception of dessert, which, thankfully - because I couldn't choose - is a sharing platter of all three. Then with each course there are two wines, in this instance, one brand new to the restaurant, and one that had been booted off of the list. 

A bit of banter between courses, a few Q&A's, and one to one chats at the table; we tasted, scored, and slurped our way through the night. The more we drank, the more critical we got, having to re-evaluate our earlier scores, debating over finish and flavours; clearly in those couple of hours we'd become wine connoisseurs. At the end, votes were counted, and unsurprisingly the New Wines reigned supreme; a bit of a win/win scenario for the two 'opponents' Simon and Ranulf.

It all seemed to go like clockwork, not once were we left waiting, and they definitely weren't shy on the wine.. So, naturally, after such an enjoyable evening - a steal at £35pp - we booked straight away for the next one. We won't be missing out again. Lesson learnt.

No Mussels in Brussels

Ah, Bruxelles.. The European Capital. Though I think that it maybe the fact that it is the home of Belgian chocolates, beers, mussels and chips, that makes it so appealing.

I've been to Brussels quite a few times now; all thanks to having a lovely Brother - who likes to have visitors - who lives there. Each time I come back feeling a heap happier, and equally heavier. Now, its been almost a month since we returned from our fleeting four day break, so, whilst there are still some uneaten choccies lurking in a rather empty looking box in the fridge, it doesn't seem too late to tell you about our Belgian finds. (Note: At time of publishing, the remaining chocs may have been consumed.)

I suppose a good place to start would be beer. Belgians bloody love it; you can't walk 5 minutes down any road without coming across at least one bar/pub, which inevitably means you must go in and sample their offerings. It has become a bit of a thing when we go over, to try not to have the same beer twice, or at least to try something we've not had before if its on the menu. With so much choice, from Trappist brews, Lambics, wheat beers, or even a cheeky fruit number, it's almost too easy to do. Needless to say, with their super strong alcohol content, you may be feeling very merry by the end of the day, particularly if you're not normally a beer drinker, like me. Which reminds me, another popular drink, and a definite must on a sunny day, is a 'Half and Half'; half a glass filled with prosecco/sparkling wine, then the other half topped up right to the brim with regular white wine. It baffles me why this hasn't caught on elsewhere.

As for food.. Where do I begin? Belgium is a foodie's heaven, and whilst there are plenty of fancy places to eat, it all still seems very traditional, and the 'divide' between the French and Flemish areas make this much more interesting. It's apparently a common saying that the food here combines the finesse of French Cuisine with the generous portions of the Germans!

I'd say that Belgium is quite meat and fish heavy (fussy vegetarians beware), and they really champion all the less popular, more unusual produce; i.e. grey shrimps, veal, horse, offal.. It's nose to tail eating. With this in mind, and after all the scandals that have occurred in the UK in the past 6 months, I made it my mission to scout out a good horse steak dinner. In fact, I ended up eating it twice as it was SO delicious; once cooked (rare of course, anything more than that is almost blasphemous to the Belgians) and the other raw; finely chopped into a steak tartare. Seriously, us brits don't know what we're missing out on. I'd love to see horse in the butchers.

In terms of fish, Moules Frites - mussels and chips to you and me - is arguably Belgium's national dish. Traditionally, mussels are only available during the months with an 'r' in, and whilst this isn't necessarily true, as you can find them on menus all year round, many still insist that they are bigger and better when eaten in the cooler months. Since we were visiting in June, we decided to stick by this 'old wives tale' and try other things. There's a bit of a fish bar trend around Brussels, particularly in St Catherines. People turn up during lunch, or after work, to these hybrid fishmongers/deli/restaurants/street-food places, where you can basically choose your fish, have it cooked in front of you, then stand at the bar (with a chilled glass of white) and eat it whilst chatting to pretty much anyone and everyone. A social eating experience. We went to Nordzee Mer Du Nord, which always has people spilling into the roads as it's so popular, and between three of us we tried their classic fish stew, shrimp croquettes, and tuna steaks. Oh, and a tiny bit of snail soup. Not much of a fan of those slow creatures..

Now, the Belgian folk sure have a sweet tooth; tarts, biscuits, waffles, etc, etc.. Even as a massive cake obsessive, for me, it really is all about the chocolate. It is seriously NOTHING like the 'Belgian Chocolate' you get over here. Artisan chocolatiers, such as Marcolini, Wittamer, Blondeel, create the most beautiful flavour combinations, which pair perfectly with their intense cocoa casings. If it wasn't for the knowledge that I'd be the size of a house, I'd quite happily scoff them all day. As mentioned earlier, we brought back quite a stash to keep us going, and they're in now short supply... There has been talk of a Eurostar chocolate/beer dash if we really get desperate.

Places I'd recommend:

Food (Around St Catherine's)

Chez Henri, Vlaamsesteenweg 113-115 - Posh nosh but not overpriced

Viva M'Bomba, rue de Flandre 17 - Horse and lots of offal

La Pre Sale, rue de Flandre 20 - Great traditional Moules Frites

Royal Brasserie, rue de Flandre - Vlaamsesteenweg 103 - Trendy Belgian restaurant that never disappoints

Drink

Le Cirio, rue de la Bourse 18-20 - Old fashioned and authentic bar, despite being so close to the Grand Place

Au Daringman, rue de Flandre 37 - Tiny bar with friendly staff, and amazing cheap eats at lunchtimes

Laboureur, rue de Flandre 108 - Seems to be my brothers favourite haunt, good for people watching

Monk, Sainte-Catherine 42 - Recently revamped bar, classic but quirky, and now offering charcuterie.

Hortense Spirits, rue des Sablons 7 - Underground cocktail bar with a very short menu but a vast array of spirits

L'Archiduc, rue Antoine Dansaert 6 - Retro jazz and cocktail bar

Other

Frederic Blondeel, Quai au Briques 24 - Chocolate shop/tea room but a MUST for hot chocolate - particularly the one with lemongrass and chilli - YUM.

Maison Dandoy, rue Charles Buls 14 - Supposedly the best place for waffles. Go for a liege style one, plain and simple.

Pierre Marcolini, Place du Grand Sablon 39 - Luxurious chocolates and patisserie. Take away, or stand at little tables and devour in store.

Neuhaus Outlet Store, Postweg 2, Vlezenbeek - A little tram ride out of Brussels gets you to the Neuhaus Factory Shop, where it's pretty much all you can eat chocolates and mega discounted products. Go with some restraint or you'll leave feeling a bit sick.

Summer Sun

With those glorious rays finally reaching us in little ol' England, it's time to get nostalgic with the PYO's.

I remember spending many summers visiting 'Pick Your Own' farms when I was young; clutching a punnet, being taught what to look for, frantically running away from bees, pricking my fingers on sharp spikes of some of the plants (those naughty gooseberries are particularly bad for this), searching for those perfectly plump fruits.. And more often than not, shoving the juiciest ones into my mouth before they even reach the basket. But shh, don't tell anyone that.

On Sunday, I went to Primrose Vale PYO & Farm Shop (on the Shurdington Road, Cheltenham) with my eyes on the strawberry prize. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. Because of the colder start to the year and the delay of Spring/Summer, I'd read that this year's strawbs were going to be notably bigger and sweeter, and you betcha, they sure are.

After scouring the fields for the fattest, richest red ones, I paid for my heaving punnet and headed on over to Westonbirt for a picnic in the Arboretum. With the sun beaming; pure bliss.

Wake up/Shake up

I'm a bit behind on the updates as per usual, but this time I have an excuse. Illness has stripped me of all motivation for the past few months, so I've not actually been doing any painting outside of work lately. Instead of being plagued with guilt, I've decided to make a few changes.

• Firstly, I've got another painting that I'm yet to share, which completes a commission for a family friend. Since doing this, I've been in the process of getting edition prints made of my little Polaroids. As always, money seems to be a bit of an issue, but fingers crossed I can get them signed, numbered, framed, and up for sale.
• I purchased a somewhat swanky lomography camera, which takes pictures like this:

I've almost finished my first film, which I'm dying to get it developed.. It's pretty odd not having a proper viewfinder, not being able to tell what I'm shooting at or anything, so I have no idea how they will turn out. All being well, I should have some new and exciting photos to paint from. I'll keep you posted on their success/failure.

• After months of being badgered (and years of good food), I've finally decided to start writing about my foodie experiences. I'm forever cooking, baking, going out for food, reading about food, talking about food, taking photos of food, etc etc.. Oh, and the same for drinks.. Wine, cocktails, wine, cocktails, wine.. So as of now, I'm going to start sharing my foodie finds outside of Facebook/Twitter. I've got quite a stash of things to blog about, especially as I've not long come back from Brussels; the home of beer, chocolates and frites! So keep an eye out for that. But for now, as it's a Sunday..

Sunday Roast at The Kingham Plough



No doubt I'll make a few changes to the layout of this, but I'll sign out with my new ambition.

Lucienne Simpson - On Art / On Food