De Lindeboom
Labels: eating out
Monday, October 08, 2007
De Lindeboom (English translation; The Linden Tree) did not fail us on Saturday night.
And because it was a celebratory night out, we opted for a four course dinner (waistline be damned) and Hubs picked a fine bottle of wine from the restaurant's private collection. Sonny-boy chose his beloved combination of chicken nuggets and Belgian fries served with home-made mayonaise. A word on the mayonaise - it is heavenly. I've tried to replicate it at home but with no success. I know they add dijon mustard in it but there's this missing X ingredient I can't seem to place. I guess you don't go to cooking school for nothing.
So here's a run down of what we had. I would have quoted the menu off their website but it hasn't been updated yet - they still have the summer selection.
Appetizer
Consisted of two thin slices of raw Japanese tuna steaks marinated in oil and coated with sesame seed, a creamy dipping sauce with hints of wasabi and a fresh garden salad topped with diced mangos and river crayfish.
Warm Starter
Normally one would have a salad at this junction of a four course meal but we thought we'd live dangerously and opt for a warm fish plate instead:
European Pikeperch filet on a bed of tomato and cheese risotto with saffron sauce and steamed mussels.
I very almost went to heaven. I love seafood.
Entree
The kitchen gods answered my prayers. There was game. Well, only wild boar since it's not truly game season just yet. But still.
The entree was rather hearty, rustic almost. It was made up of two succulent filets of wild boar topped with a muscovado sauce containing raisins and baby onions, served with courgette, brussel sprouts, mashed potato and pickled red cabbage. As a finishing touch, it was garnished with strips of deep fried sweet potatoes.
Now it was Hubs' turn to attain Nirvana. He loves meat.
Dessert
Hubs had the cheese platter. It came with some salad greens, grapes and grained bread. There were six varieties of cheeses in all to be eaten in a certain order to really savour the experience. The cheeses went from mellow, to medium to oh-my-chianti heavy and then back to medium again.
I had the other option which, like the appetizer, came in three sections. Starting from right to left : a pure cocoa mousse topped with strawberries and a sprig of mint, a scoop of home-made vanilla ice-cream on a wavy, arty-farty wafer biscuit and lastly, a slice of warm pinapple poached in a Marsala (or some other dessert wine, I couldn't really tell) and cinnamon sauce.
If I hadn't been transported to heaven by the warm starter, I was most certainly there by now.
The staff took their time with the dinner service and there was a good fifteen to twenty minute wait in between courses. This was to be expected for course and that's when we get to chat, people watch or just enjoy the moment together in silence. Sonny-boy was entertaining as usual - he's got quite an imagination and kept us in stitches. Our very own stand-up comic. He's at the age where kids are still very innocent but savvy enough to make jokes or just be witty. However, he's been catching me by surprise lately with sudden bursts of maturity - sort of like a sneak preview of the man he's going to grow up to be in years to come. Then I get a bit sad but that's for another day.
So.
I'm sorry I don't have food pics of the evening. I can't seem to bring myself to whip out the camera when we go to the nicer places. For one thing, I find it embarrassing, an ettiquette faux pas of sorts (I don't know how the other food bloggers do it but kudos to them for pulling it off). Secondly, some establishments don't like it if you take food photos so I prefer to err on the side of caution. In any case, I hope the descriptions were good enough for you to imagine what it was like.
Here's a little something you don't need to use your imagination over - what I wore for dinner:
The Dutchess of Cookalot whipped this up at 1:29 pm
: October 08, 2007 9:57 pm : October 08, 2007 10:15 pmrachel: Thanks:) It's been a while since waisted skirts were back in fashion.
dm: You think so? Thank you! I was trying my best to do justice to the chef.
I'm digging deep in the recesses of my brain trying to figure out who I know has the initials dm but I'm coming out empty. If it's not too much trouble, would you care to let me know? If not here then an email would also suffice.
