classe touriste

Life can be sweet, especially if you live in Antwerp and you swing by restaurant Het Gebaar owned by top-patissier Roger Van Damme. To set the mood, the restaurant looks like a gingerbread house found in the small botanical garden in the city centre of Antwerp. Van Damme takes deserts and sweet dishes to a new level and got rewarded for this with a first Michelin star in November 2010. This young chef has also a soft spot for Japan. It all began when he first visited Tokyo for a culinary get-together with ex-El Bulli chefs from around the world. Tokyoites can savour Van Damme’s creations in the Four Seasons Marunouchi in Ginza or buy his cakes at the Takase Bussan department stores in Japan. When in Antwerp, try his sweet version of tempura of orange while sipping from a glass of excellent wine. In the end, it’s all about living the sweet life, isn’t it.

Close your eyes and imagine Empress Dowager Cixi roaming the century old dwellings of the Summer Palace in Beijing, Wurthering Hights style. If you don’t fancy Chinese concubines, then stay anyway at the magical Aman at Summer Palace, one of the most charismatic hotels in Beijing. This 51 rooms hotel occupies the former dwellings of the Summer Palace and offers a secrets door to access this famous World Heritage Site when “normal” (read: ten thousands of gymnastic, eating, singing and partying Chinese) visitors are not allowed to enter the park. (more…)

During one of our recent visits to Copenhagen, we had the pleasure to dine at Paustian, one of the toprestaurants in the city. Chef Bo Bech has his ways and, more importantly, has also a clear vision of how food should taste. We were happy to read that he got nominated by Food & Wine as one of the twenty rising stars for 2009. Restaurant Paustian is really a must-try if yo visit Copenhagen and as F&W puts is cleverly “an excellent example of the New Nordic Cuisine.” If you want to know how it is like to eat at Paustian, check out this wonderful movie.

What is the strangest food you ever ate while traveling? Strange maybe for you but not for the locals who lick their fingers for a glass of brennevin and Icelandic rotten shark or plate of raw octopus just caught right out of the Med and slammed to death on the spiky rocks. For us, it all began with some percebes, or goose barnacles, in an empty restaurant on a beach near Sintra in Portugal. (more…)