Melchior: the new hotspot in town.

We were supposed to go on a romantic getaway to Budapest last weekend, but our little monster got sick on Thursday and we could not get ourselves to leave her - so we stayed home. Budapest and the thermal baths will have to wait. But we did want to take a few hours for ourselves close to home, so we reserved a table for lunch at the new restaurant Melchior in my hometown Tienen. Such a beautiful restaurant it is, lots of brick, metal and wood. Warm, sexy and stylish, just what Tienen needed. We went for the lunch menu - 3 courses with some appetizers beforehand. It was all very tasty - flavours, creativity and quality were great. I cannot wait to go back and taste the full evening menu! Great cocktails too! Welcome Melchior!

Ristorante Rossi in Lovanio

This week I went on a girl date with Laura to go try the slow food kitchen of Felice Miluzzi, Rossi in Leuven. We sat on the terrace, and ordered the 3 course menu without even asking what we were going to eat. You could see in the atmosphere in the kitchen, the sounds and the smells, that we were in for a treat. We had a very herby aperol apero (I forgot the name - and no, it is not Spritz) and a lovely melon and beef tartar appetizer. 

Starter was an Italian gazpacho with cucumber sorbet, buffalo mozzarella, celery, tomato and basil. It was so full of flavour and refreshing on this nice summer evening. Then followed the pasta with a delicate fresh pesto sauce, green beans and green apple. Main course was a Pieterman fish with grilled and sautéed zucchini. The fish was baked to perfection and the zucchini was so full of aromas. I would love to have that recipe.

After dinner we wanted to go for a walk through the city, but at that exact moment the rain started to pour and made us stay at Felice's restaurant and share a tiramisu and a prosecco. And oh well, we did not mind too much.
 I was back in Italy once again. (This holiday keeps on giving)
It was a great evening, with good, honest food and good conversation.

Content

 I always like to check out new food and grocery shop concepts and when I heard about 'content', I really wanted to go check it out. So Tuesday after work I paid a visit to this new shop in Leuven. I already like the name 'content' - it's all about the ingredients and the quality and preferably without packaging.

It's fun to go with your nice bottle and take olive oil right from the barrel and choose your own seed mixes for tasty and healthy granola without having to buy 200gr of everything.

The only problem for me to shop like that is thinking of taking mason jars, linen baggies or boxes to store the things in, before you head for the store. Because let's be honest here, I cannot tell you how much money I have already spent on bags from supermarkets that I always have to buy again, because I never think about putting them back in my car. I do have a nice collection at home though. You name the supermarket, I got the bag (or 2 or 3)

Anyway, this is my problem. Back to the cooperative food store without packaging - I do like the fact that they have fruit and vegetables from farms in the neighbourhood. Produce that looks real again - an idea I am starting to find more and more important . It is just so pointless to keep throwing away tons and tons of perfectly good produce, just because they don't have the right size or colour. But I am afraid that it will take a while before people will demand normal things again from the supermarkets, we are so used to buying these identical, shiny apples and perfect carrots.

Also, if I see what it is in my garbage bag by the end of the week, it's mostly packaging that was unnecessary in the first place. Time to rethink and take this into consideration while I shop!

The school where Olivia will go to soon, tries to limit packaging too by forbidding bringing anything in disposable packaging: drinks, lunch and snacks have to be in reusable containers.

(I think I am gonna buy her these boc'n'rolls to store sandwiches - see photo, they are cute)

At least our kids will learn from the beginning to limit disposables. 

It is their future world. 

oh and at Content you can also enjoy a healthy lunch !  

I ate a nice endives soup on a cold afternoon.

*If you are in the mood for soup, you can find someheart-warming recipes here
**If you need some meal inspiration, find it here