Category: TRAVEL

We have all been to Bruges before, but we were really late booking it this year so we couldn’t find a hotel. So we decided to drive to Brussel and stay there for the night instead. It is good to be late sometimes, so you get to see new things, right?! 😉

If you’re planning on going to Brussels, please don’t do like we did and drive there. It took us forever to drive through the city because in every crossing you have traffic coming from two ways at the same time. There is only one word to describe this: chaos. Or perhaps two, the second being: roadrage. Once we had found the hotel, we parked the car there and walked instead.

We found lots of nice restaurants around the Grand’ Palace, but most of them was fully booked on a Saturday night. It took us a little while to find somewhere to eat because of this, but we learnt how many good restaurants Brussels have. We were really hungry after a whole day outside in the cold and were delighted when we found the restaurant Steak Frit that had a table availiable.

They had a very sparse menu, but one of the things on their is aged Irish steak with pommes frites, sauce and salad, and you could have seconds and even thirds, so most people (including us) would go for this. The two boys and I chose the steak while Anna had the salmon instead.

The restaurant was on two floors and decorated in black and white. When we sat down, the menues was already on the table, folded into the napkin. Three of us chose the steak and it arrived nice and rare with a bowl of sauce each, and Anna received the salmon with bearnaise sauce.  The choice of sides were either french fries or potato mash with leeks, and a waiter came around with big bowls of both mash and fries and asked us what we wanted. We could have either or both, and they came around with seconds as well. We also received some nice bread and nibbles before the meal and a big bowl of salad with two dressings. 

I love bearnaise sauce and has to have it with steak. It didn’t come with it but was served with the salmon so I asked for some and got a big bowl free of charge.  We had beers and coca-cola before dinner, as we were all very thirsty, then water and a bottle of red with the food and all in all it only cost €56 per couple. A bargain, we thought, especially the boys who had a second helping of both steak and fries. 🙂

We met up with Ian’s friend Paul after dinner, who lives in Brussels since a few months back. We went to the first bar we could find and had a beer before we realised how tired and full we were and went back to the hotel.

Paul had given us tips on what to do and where to go the following morning, so after breakfast in a café we went to Sablon where there is plenty of antique shops and a few chocolateries.

We went to Pierre Marcolini and had a look. They had the cutest Santa bellies with boots on in chocolate, but they didn’t go on sale until the 6th December, so I had to settle for a Saint Nicolaus instead.

A few minutes from Sablon is the Palais de Justice (courts of justice) and great views over the city. You could see several chrches and the atomium, a monument shaped like an atom from one of the world exhibitions.

The Palais the Justice was covered in scaffolding so it didn’t look as beautiful as it normally does, but travelling with two solicitors it was a must-see. 🙂 Just a few minutes away from here is a big shopping street, Avenue Louise, so we went to have a look, but of course everything was closed on a Sunday morning (and probably the whole day).

Both my parents and I really enjoy food and cooking, so our first stop on Saturday was the food market on Vaci utca.

In the market hall they had lots of meat (including chicken heads, pig’s trotters, pig’s ears, big blocks of lard etc.), seasonal vegetables, lots of Hungarian sausages (the biggest brand is called Pick) and of course paprika powder. I also found saffron really cheap!

On the Saturday we made sure to eat our lunch outside and found a nice café on a square. There were mainly tourists eating  there, but despite that it was a nice place. Dad enjoyed an Hungarian platter, while mum and I had regular baguettes. Afterwards we treated ourselves to amazing caramel sundaes! 🙂

For dinner on Saturday we went to Central Kavehaz on Karolyi Mihaly utca, an old style café and restaurant. The interior was amazing in grand old style and a band were playing classical music throughout the evening. The menu was Hungarian with French influences, so to start dad chose the Goulasch soup, mother had smoked trout and I chose a platter with their own cured ham, bacon and paté. The ham was excellent but the paté was only liver and I like mine mixed with other flavours, this one was a bit too ‘livery’ for me, but otherwise good.

For main course we all had different things again. Dad had duck breast with red cabbage and potato dumplings and said the duck was cooked to perfection, pink inside and crispy on the outside. Mum chose pike-perch with mashed potatoes and interesting spinach crisps, that were really nice. I had forest mushroom ravioli with spinach and ricotta with an amazing velouté. One of the best pasta dishes I’ve ever had. The ravioli wasn’t the neatest ones I have ever seen, but the taste was amazing. The mushrooms really came through and was supplemented well by the spinach and ricotta, but the veluoté was what made it so classy. Subtle in sweet flavour, silky smooth and enhanced the other flavours.

On the menu they only had three desserts and they didn’t seem to exciting, but then we discovered the pastry counter we could choose desserts from. Mum had a raspberry mousse cake, I chose the passionfruit and coconut cake (not knowing it was coconut in it), I am not a fan of coconut, but it went well with the passionfruit. Mum’s rasberry mousse was even nice but dad was the winner with his lime, mango and vanilla pudding.

We could see one chef working the whole time from our table, but the music drowned out the noise from the kitchen which was good. The waiter also misunderstood when I ordered the starters because the band (although they were excellent musicians) played so loud it was difficult to hear each other, but the quality of the food definitely made up for that blunder.

All restaurants only had Hungarian wines in the wine list, and to be honest we didn’t know much about white and red Hungarian wines. At the Central Kavehaz we tried a dry riesling which was really really good, so will try to see if I can find it outside of Hungary. With our desserts we of course had a glass of the local Tokaji.

The following evening we went to another restaurant recommended by Spotted by locals. Gerlöczy restaurant was just off the main centre (on the street with the same name), and looked very cosy and bohemian from the outside. This restaurant was also a grand café style place, but a bit more run down than Central Kavehaz. The bar was on the ground floor as well as the smoking section, whereas non smoking was upstairs where it was slightly less cosy. We only had two courses this evening, as it felt like we were constantly eating. Mum and I decided on the guinea fowl with mash potatoes and it was very rich in flavours. The mash was nice and glossy with lots of butter in it, and there was herb butter wrapped in the quinea fowl that was then wrapped in parma ham, so the butter was all nice and melted and contributed to the juicy meat. The plate looked simple, but the food was delicious. Dad had steak with peppercorn sauce and fried potatoes, he though it was really good, but a tad too much pepper in the sauce and not enough potatoes. For dessert mum and I chose the same again, a pear tarte, even though my mum really wanted an apfel strudel, but they were all out. The tarte came on its own with only a little raspberry coulis, but it would have been nicer with custard or icecream. The pastry was nice and soft though. Dad chose the creme brulee which I thought was too runny but dad liked it.

 

It was easy to find Goulasch soup, dad had this one our first evening when we just walked into the first restaurant we saw. We were dying of hunger and really tired because (both) our flights were delayed. It wasn’t as easy to find langos, but they sold them on the Margrethe island. 🙂

At the airport they had a good selection of the Tokaji wines, which was great as we only had hand luggage and therefore couldn’t buy it anywhere else. The left one is 5 puttonyos and the right one was just a really cheap (€6) one to try.

I also bought a few different Pick sausages, paprika powder, saffron and some biscuits. No point shopping for other things than food, as the selection of shops was quite poor.