Easter eggs!!

Victoria asked for some more chocolate pictures and since it will be Easter in a couple of weeks time we were happy to buy ourselves a small selection of chocolate Easter eggs for blogging purposes.

I'm not entirely sure which flavours we bought, but the one on top was some sort of yummy dark chocolate with chocolaty filling flavour... The greenish one in front has pistachio filling (and if you look carefully you can see half a pistachio stuck in the side). The one on the right (in the picture above, left in the picture below) is a chocolate truffle egg, the dark one with the red dots (above at the back) is probably the forest fruit (or was it raspberry?) flavoured one.

I think the one in front (in the picture below) is mocha flavoured. 

We're planning to go back to the shop after Easter to get some more, hopefully they'll still have some and hopefully they'll be in the discount corner by then...

gezellige plek onder de zon!

after a couple of uber busy weeks, J and I decided to take the opportunity of a Saturday afternoon with nothing planned to have a bit of time of much needed R and R... we chanced upon this cool/quiet little cafe literally 5 minutes from the main fashion street of Antwerp

which was right next to a small town square, when suddenly a whole procession appeared!

with giants! (and a large dog which might be easily confused for a horse in the picture)

and we had a yum-yum lunch of tapas - anchovy thingamajigs and sundried tomato dingalings amongst the assortment on our plate!

(and yes, this IS the 3rd entry for today - i am just filled with enthusiasm to write and take pictures today for some reason!)

time for some good eatin'

J came home with some yummy greens during the week...(yes, they are on a plate on our clothes drying rack....but it was the quickest way to get a picture of them in the glorious spring sunshine!)

and it sure is a lot more work than heading to the local hawker centre and nonchalantly saying to the macik at the satay/mee rebus shop, 'Auntie, one gado-gado'....

and the things missing were only cabbage (buying a head of cabbage to make gado gado is a bit silly) and tempeh (which i could have bought, but unsure what else to use the rest of the half kilo block for)  

and the secret of a sort-of-almost-there-satay-sauce? fry some crushed nuts, have a half decent jar of sambal in the fridge........and peanut butter!!!

it was pretty good...and i'm glad that it was a good appropriation of a (singaporean) local standard....now on to chilli crab and chicken rice - which by the way if you didn't know have these solutions....we can get them here, and they rock our world!

and there's the business of getting money back!

and after you've had your beers, don't forget to bring it back to your local supermarket - because when you pay for them, there's a little bit (approx 10 euro cents per bottle) so you bring it back...for recycling!

yum yum beer yummy yum_redux

So the IDEA was to give a quick run-down of my favourite beers in Belgium, since our first year here is around the corner, but as things happened, I ran out of time and just posted the 'group photo' of beers as an intro..

the backstory to this entry has been bubbling at the back of my head for quite some time now; I distinctly remember my first draft Belgian beer experience back in my Uni days in Perth, where I picked up my first freshly-scrubbed-glass of knife-sliced-head Belgian beer from the tap...and it's since been a constant part of my beer palate..

 

The beers I am showing below are by no means the only ones available; imagine my (happy) suprise when I saw that the beer section in the supermarket around the corner from our place has a (actually small) selection of 20 Belgian beers; that's excluding the Carlsbergs, the Guinesses and other foreign beers.. 

Also, I won't be giving 'hints of almond and chocolate'-type reviews...just what I like about each of them

so, in no particular order..

1) Duvel

this one is strong!  and it's got the reputation of being the beer that 2 bottles are enough for a night out...I almost never buy this now, mainly because I've since discovered other tastier brews; but it's nice with a burn-a-hole-in-your-tummy curry..

2) Leffe Bruin

This is my number 1 favourite beer!  It's dark, it's sweet, it's malty, it's heaven-in-a-glass!  and the best thing is; it's 70 euro cents per bottle (as are the other beers on this list actually..you only pay 1euro at the supermarket when its a triple beer or stronger)...

this was the beer that kick started my interest in Belgian beers...and those who are in the know, Oosters near China Square was where I got my occasional fix - and on tap no less!

3) Westmalle Dubbel

Trappist beers are strong: you can just about see that its 7% in the picture...this one is a new favourite of mine...sort of like the Leffe Bruin, but more kick...  

its a bit posh, but I actually pick out the beers that I feel like drinking when the mood is right (there are obviously more such guidelines; like 'summer beers' [like Hoegaarden] and fruit beers as a digestive)
4) Stella Artois

Ah yes, the Tiger beer of Belgium - a local once told me that it had the infamous reputation of the morning-after-headache-beer; and more interestingly, its brewed in Leuven: a University town!!  (probably testament to its enduring popularity with student types)..

I have to say (quite honestly) I only get this when I (sheepishly) feel like having a Tiger beer...
5) De Koninck

This is my new favourite; its an amber beer; so its got a darker colour than a pils (tiger, carlsber, stella, heineken) but its still got a light/refreshing taste..  What's more, it's a local brew (as in from Antwerp), so it's even more attractive to me! When the locals order it in a pub, they ask for a 'Bolleke' which is the half spherical glass which this is served in...

yum yum..

(i was even ambitious enough to want to do a day by day review of each beer, writing as I was sipping one of each of these...but as you can imagine, it was a bit hard to do this..so this is a sort of summary post)

Look out for the next yum yum review!  maybe salty snacks, or sweet stuff that goes on bread, or the weird and wonderful world of vegetables!

yum yum beer yummy yum

wow what a week!

Just a word; the pictures from this entry are of some great flowers we received from J`s dad when he came over for a visit ..

and as the title of this entry suggests - it´s been a really intense week for us!!


I´ve been busy with a bunch of things all leading up to this weekend; more details of that here.
Also, J´s been super-duper-ultra busy with her recent week of internships at a primary school here in Antwerp.

and if anyone was wondering- we are coming out of winter here in Europe! we`ve been enjoying 12° to 15° days, and the weather is clearing up. Before long, it should be time to stow away the winter jackets and start sporting shorts-slippers-ensembles!

The reason for this sort-of-email-type-entry is that we`ll be soon be at our 1st year anniversary year here in Europe, and I was thinking to get you our friends and family in Singapore to send us your requests for `European´ things that you might want to see on the blog - a Belgian Chinatown, local McDonald´s offers, cheese, etc...

tell us what you might find interesting to see - we´d love to hear from you!

you can email me at keefecordeiro@gmail.com on what you think yah?

hope to hear from you!!

Graaaargh!

So we hopped into the car with J's family, and we went into Brussels to visit the Natural Sciences Museum; and boy do they have some cool dinosaurs!

i was awestruck-gobsmacked! (it is in part that I have always liked dinosaur-abilia, and part that we had just watched Jurassic Park II on TV the night before)

i was flung back into my (heady) He-Man days when I saw this display...this video says it all

there were obviously a whole host of other exhibits; but i was transfixed on the awesome-awesomeness of the dinos!

Highly highly recommended for anyone who likes dinosaurs/natural science/dinosaurs!

http://www.naturalsciences.be/