NYC Tastes

Our final morning in Brussels, we packed our bags and headed out for one last beer-centric stop to In De Verzekering tegen de Grote Dorst, which translates to The Insurance of Great Thirst.  This cozy little pub is the last remaining cafe in the town of Eizeringen and only open on Sunday's. The little building looks like something from a fairy tale, with exposed wooden ceilings, tiled floors and a delightful mix of church goers and beer geeks, all chatting over bottles of lambic.  Grote Dorst has one of the largest selections of kriek and gueuze in the entire world with fantastic bottles like Bokkereyder Wijngaard brewed with Muscat and Riesling grapes and the Toots Tribute a dry, funky gueuze I absolutely fell in love with that Sunday morning. It's hard to just order one bottle when faced with such an incredible  list, so we stayed for a few vintage 3 Fontenien's. A super dusty bottle of 50 Degrees North- 4 Degrees East. And another round of wonderf...

Day 3 in Brussels we woke up bright and early for a trip to my favorite place in the entire world, 3 Fonteinen's Lambik-O-droom.   This beautiful brewery located in the town of Beersel creates the most exceptional gueze in all of Brussels (in my humble opinion). We arrived right at 10:30 AM for the Saturday morning tour which takes guests through the history of the brewery, barrel room and bottling facilities. Since I had already been to Lambic-O-droom before, I hung out in the tasting room while my friends explored, and enjoyed a solitary bottle of Oude Geuze Vintage 2012, one of my favorite geuze's of all time. Followed by an Oude Geuze Vintage 2008 and 3 Fonteinen's incredible geuze cheese paired with mustard and apricot preserves.  I was really hoping to bring some of this fabulous cheese back to NYC, but it was already sold out by mid-day.  We spent the rest of the afternoon making our way through the extensive bottle list, sharin...

Our third evening in Brussels we reserved for our fine dining portion of the trip with a reservation at Le Rabassier, a small 18 seat spot by Chef and Owner Christophe Durieux.  Chef Durieux cooks and preps all of the food for the restaurant while his wife Eve Renaud acts as front of the house, waitress and sommelier.  Rabassier loosely translates in French to 'a man with a passion for truffles' which is quite fitting as a meal at this restaurant felt like an homage to the great fungi. Le Rabassier offers three different tasting menus; three course, four course, or five course with extra black truffles and an a la carte.  We decided upon the four course menu and a lovely bottle of Sancerre, then settled in for three and a half hours of an absolutely exquisite evening of food. Amuse Bouche- Parmesan Foam with shaved black truffle Amuse Bouche- Black Olive & Foie Gras 1st Course- Roasted Scallop with daikon, ...

Our third day in Brussels was easily my favorite day of the entire trip. I woke up without a touch of illness in sight and was beyond ready to spend the day eating and drinking our way through two incredible places- the first stop De Heeren Van Liedekercke. This restaurant and bar is in the town of Denderleeuw, a 30 minute train ride followed by a 30 minute walk from Brussels.  We were a bit worried as it poured almost all afternoon but somehow we missed the sheets of rain both coming and going.  Luck was definitely on our side at this cozy tavern. Gueuze happens to be my favorite style of beer so after holding off the past few days I was ready to dive right in with a full on gueuze lunch starting with a funky Mort Subite (brewed at the restaurant from the day before) and the flagship Oude Geuze from Drie Fonteinen. These gueuzes couldn't be more different; the Mort Subite was malty and sweet while the Drie was bright with fresh lemons.  A re...

After our tea we trekked across Brussels to Cantillon.  I won't get into the details about this amazing brewery again but here's a little recap from the last trip . When the doors opened that familiar funky barnyard smell greeted us as we wedged into a small seat by the heater with a bottle of Cantillon Carignan; a lambic brewed with Carignan grapes. This was simply lovely; a bright ruby body with the subtle aroma of fruit and oak and a soft, juicy grape flavor that was tart but tannic like a red wine. We were quietly enjoying this beautiful lambic when we heard our names being called and turned to see some old beer friends from NYC enjoying their own bottles!  We ended up grabbing a table together and started to work our way through the bottle list in the short hour that was left.  Of course we didn't get too far but we all planned to return later in the week to finish what we had begun. We bought some beer to take with us on the way home- two huge magn...

Day two in Brussels I woke up finally feeling a little better but far from healthy.  Being that I usually bounce right back from things this was quite shocking and I started  to think I just may feel this way forever.  As I began to  nosedive into this terrible reality I created Mr. T made an extremely rational observation that pulled me back- maybe my stomach pains were being intensified by hunger pains. I hadn't eaten a thing since that night in Paris so this made a little too much sense. I immediately ran outside and grabbed one of the safest and greatest food items in the world- the classic Belgian Waffle. Light and fluffy with that caramelized sugar coating outside and some fresh strawberries on top.  This was exactly what the doctor ordered!  I finally felt okay enough to leave the apartment for more than just a block or two. We had planned to take the train out to De Heeran Van Liedekercke for a leisurely beer lunch that day but obviously I wa...

After our lovely little meal at Septime and a stop at Brewberry I felt like I could continue on with our plans for Valentines evening with dinner and drinks at La Fine Mousse. Unfortunately there was really no great way to get there from Brewery so we decided to make the hour long walk...which is the stupidest thing you can do when you've been having stomach pains all day. An hour later we had finally made it to La Fine and even with the delightful array of craft beers on tap and fantastic bartenders I knew things were about to be officially over.  We cancelled our reservations for dinner, hopped on the subway back to our hotel area and then finally, after a full day of saying "Mind over matter- you can do it!" my stomach said "I'LL SHOW YOU" and it certainly did.  It was awful- the only slight solace I had was that now whatever was making me sick just HAD to be out of my system; I had nothing left inside.  Maybe I would wake up the next day and feel f...

Autumn is easily my favorite season of the year.  I love escaping NYC for a long hike in the woods to smell the crisp clean autumn air and check out the gorgeous leaves.  I usually head to Saratoga for a few days to soak in the season at it's gorgeous state park.  It also has a little downtown area with some cute bars and restaurants like The Merry Monk. This lively little place isn't much to look at but what it lacks in decor it most certainly makes up for in the area of food and drink; specifically their Moules Frites. Big bowls of steaming hot mussels in just about any flavor; Provencal with garlic, tomato and fried basil; Americana with bacon, blue cheese and shallots; Thai with red curry and coconut milk and of course the Classic a la Marienere with butter, white wine and garlic.   Of course mussels always need frites like these long, skinny house cut fries served with a choice of dipping sauces including a creamy pesto mayo and a spicy...