We had been looking forward to going back to Laite again, because we had good memories of our first dinner there in 2010. It is located in Sappada, a mountain town in the far North East of Veneto in the … Continue reading Dining in Italy: Laite*
Aga is a new restaurant of chef couple Oliver Piras and Alessandra Del Favero, located inside a hotel near Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Dolomiti. We decided to give it a try because Oliver Piras has been awarded chef emergente (upcoming chef) … Continue reading Dining in Italy: Aga
In Italy a distinction is made between ristoranti, more formal restaurants, and trattorie, more informal restaurants with rustic food like grandma used to prepare it. The Gambero Rosso guide awards 1, 2 or 3 forks (forchette) to the best restaurants, … Continue reading Dining in Italy: Pretzhof
Daalder is located on Lindengracht in the Jordaan neighborhood in Amsterdam. It has nice outside seating, perfect for dinner on a (rare) warm summer night. Inside the tables are small and a bit close together. Daalder doesn’t have a menu. … Continue reading Dining in Amsterdam: Daalder
I use two rules for distinguishing a good Italian restaurant from a tourist trap. The rule in Italy is that the menu should have local dishes from the region (e.g. spaghetti alla carbonara is a good sign in Rome but … Continue reading Dining in Amsterdam: Eatmosfera
Restaurant Aqua of chef Sven Elverfeld is the 3 Michelin star restaurant located in the Ritz-Carlton in Autostadt, the Volkswagen theme park in Wolfsburg, in the middle of Germany near Hannover. It is listed as #33 on the World’s 50 … Continue reading Dining in Germany: Aqua***
One of our favorite restaurants is the Librije, three Michelin star restaurant in Zwolle (Netherlands) of Jonnie and Térèse Boer (no relation). Less than a year ago, sister restaurant Librije’s Zusje (“zusje” means little sister) opened in the Waldorf Astoria … Continue reading Dining in Amsterdam: Librije’s Zusje**
Inter Scaldes is a restaurant with manoir (hotel) that has had two Michelin stars since 1984. The current chef Jannis Brevet has been the chef since 2001. The name refers to its location between the Oosterschelde and Westerschelde near the village of … Continue reading Dining in the Netherlands: Inter Scaldes**
Etxebarri is a restaurant unlike any other restaurant I’ve ever eaten at before. It located in the Atxondo valley in the Basque country between San Sebastian and Bilbao. Etxebarri is an “asador”, a grill restaurant that cooks on a wood-fired … Continue reading Dining in Spain: Etxebarri*
The Basque city of San Sebastián boasts one of the highest densities of Michelin stars in the world. We went there for a few days to try the local cuisine, and one of the highlights of our trip was our … Continue reading Dining in Spain: Martín Berasategui***
In 2010 we ‘discovered’ Piazza Duomo of chef Enrico Crippa in Alba, at that time still relatively unknown (although it already had two Michelin stars), thanks to the Gambero Rosso guide, in which it already had tre forchette. We liked it … Continue reading Dining in Italy: Piazza Duomo***
The next stop with tre forchette in our culinary tour is Casa Vissani, by lake Colbara on the road between Orvieto and Todi in Umbria. Because the restaurant is located outside a town, it is very convenient that it also … Continue reading Dining in Italy: Vissani**
Reale is the restaurant of chef Niko Romito and his sister Cristiana in the mountain town of Castel di Sangro in Abruzzo. I had been curious about this restaurant with tre forchette from Gambero Rosso for a while, but it was always … Continue reading Dining in Italy: Reale***
The next stop in our culinary Italy tour is the beach town of Roseto degli Abruzzi, on the Adriatic coast in the region of Abruzzo. There are only 15 trattorie in all of Italy with a tre gamberi (3 ‘shrimp’) … Continue reading Dining in Italy: Vecchia Marina
Is there a good reason to go to Torriana, a small village half an hour inland from the Adriatic beach town of Rimini? Yes there is, and it is chef Piergiorgio Parini of Il Povero Diavolo. It is not the … Continue reading Dining in Italy: Povero Diavolo*
Our favorite restaurant guide for Italy is that of “Gambero Rosso”. It is available as a book, but also as a handy app. The best restaurants are awarded one, two, or three forchette (forks), and the best trattorie are awarded … Continue reading Dining in Italy: Locanda al Gambero Rosso
Enrico Bartolini is one of the rising stars in the Italian restaurant scene. For his restaurant, located in the Devero hotel by the autostrada just outside of Milano, he recently received his second Michelin star and his third fork (forchetta) … Continue reading Dining in Italy: Devero**
This is the third review of Librije on my blog, which is not a surprise as it has become a tradition for us to celebrate our wedding anniversary there every year (starting with our 3rd anniversary). We started this tradition … Continue reading Dining in the Netherlands: Librije*** (2014)
A great way to get to know the wines of an area is to visit the area, visit wineries, taste the wines, talk to the winemakers, eat at local restaurants, and order local wines with your meal. It is even … Continue reading German Wine
There are only two restaurants in the Netherlands with three Michelin stars. De Librije has had its third star since 2004, De Leest acquired it recently. De Leest is situated in the village of Vaassen, near the town of Apeldoorn … Continue reading Dining in the Netherlands: De Leest***
Vendôme is the restaurant of chef Joachim Wissler, with 3 Michelin stars, awarded best restaurant in Germany and #10 on the list of the 50 best restaurants in the world. The restaurant is located in Schloss Bensberg, a very stylish … Continue reading Dining in Germany: Vendôme***
The Schanz family runs a hotel, winery and restaurant in the town of Piesport in the Mosel region of Germany. The young chef Thomas Schanz recently received his first Michelin star. Besides à la carte there is a 6-course chef … Continue reading Dining in Germany: Schanz*
Grand Restaurant Karel V is part of Grand Hotel Karel V and is housed in a former monastery from the 14th century in Utrecht. The restaurant used to have a Michelin star, but Michelin has recently taken that star away … Continue reading Dining in the Netherlands: Karel V
Nieuwe Niedorp is a small village ‘in the middle of nowhere’, less than an hour north of Amsterdam in the province of North Holland. Who would have known that there is such a nice restaurant out there, Red Chilli. They … Continue reading Dining in the Netherlands: Red Chilli
There are not many female chefs with Michelin stars. Probably the best known in the Netherlands is Margo Reuten. Together with maître and sommelier Petro Kools she runs Da Vinci in Maasbracht in the south of the Netherlands in the province of Limburg. I’ve been curious about this restaurant for a while, and last night we finally went there. We arrived in style in a 1958 Rolls Royce, a hobby of the hotel we stayed at. We were welcomed by Petro and notice that Margo wasn’t around. Later we found out that for personal reasons she’s away from the restaurant for quite some time. Chefs have an important role in their kitchens, and we usually notice it when the chef isn’t there. That also seemed to be the case this time. Continue reading “Dining in the Netherlands: Da Vinci**”
After eating at Bord’eau in July I wrote “I wonder when chef Richard van Oostenbrugge will get his well-deserved second star. We’ll be back!” in my blog post about that wonderful dinner. I didn’t have to wonder for long, as Bord’eau has indeed just received its second Michelin star. Van Oostenbrugge was also announced by Gault Millau as “Chef of the Year 2014”. All of this calls for a celebration, or a good excuse to go eat there again 🙂 Continue reading “Dining in Amsterdam: Bord’eau**”
Chef Ron Blaauw gave up his restaurant with two Michelin stars (at which I never dined) and replaced it with a “gastrobar”, which after its first year received a single Michelin star. Ron Blaauw wanted to create a more accessible restaurant, and I think he has succeeded. At Ron Gastrobar you can order as many dishes as you like for 15 euros (about US$ 20) each. They are of an intermediate portion size: not as big as a main course, but not a small bite either. Three or four dishes are enough for a meal. The term “gastrobar” also means that there are a lot of tables and quite close together. The restaurant is a bit like a “grand café”. I was curious about this new restaurant, and so I went to check it out. (Photos taken with my iPhone in bad lighting conditions.) Continue reading “Dining in Amsterdam: Ron Gastrobar*”
We thought we’d ‘celebrate’ not being able to use my kitchen (see my previous post to read why) by going out to eat at Vermeer, a one Michelin star restaurant in the Barbizon hotel across the street from Central … Continue reading Dining in Amsterdam: Vermeer*
After our camping adventure with simple but tasty food our trip to Australia ended on a gourmet note with a visit to Hentley Farm in the Barossa Valley. Hentley Farm is a winery that showcases its wines in a gourmet restaurant. The restaurant is open for lunch Thursday – Sunday and for dinner Saturday. We had the Discovery menu with paired wines for AUD 210. The menu took us about 4 hours, so it is quite substantial for lunch. There is also a smaller Du Jour menu. All the wines are from Hentley Farm. Continue reading “Dining in Australia: Hentley Farm, Barossa Valley”
Thanks to the wonders of scheduled posts, new recipes are posted on a regular basis while I am actually travelling through the Australian Outback in a camper van with very limited internet access and an even more limited kitchen. Even though it’s even more sparsely populated around here than in the South-Western USA that we were touring last year, the supermarkets here are well-stocked and so we’ve not been lacking in terms of nice food. Continue reading “Cooking in the Outback”
