Gentse Feesten

The festival of Gent started yesterday and will be ongoing until the 29th. I was there yesterday, as Gent is one of my favourite cities in Belgium and wanted to see how it looked like with its biggest party. It was great! The streets were crowded with people and a lot was going on (for free!): concerts, theatre, parades, individual performances, the shops were all open, lots of places to eat and drink, boat trips... you can really spend there a great day. Try to pass by there if you can!

Lake Genval

In middle June, the cycling subcommittee organized a trip to Lake Genval. It is located around 25km away from Brussels, so a group of us brave trainees decided to endeavour the task of cycling 50km in one day, with city bikes, between woods and secondary lanes. It was tiring, but a lot of fun! We took our food to pic-nic at the lake and saw some amazing natural landscapes on our way there. It's a great idea for a day trip (with or without bikes) from Brussels. This was the way we took:

Amadeo

  

Last week I have been to Amadeo, a restaurant that rightfully identifies itself as "the place for ribs". Indeed, located in central Brussels, between Bourse and De Brouckère, this is a place that cannot pass unseen, although mingled with all the Asian restaurants existing in the street where it is located. Once you see the entrance with this big cow, the light disclaimers and the whole rouge atmosphere, you will be prompted to get it. If you're a fan of food and like that your stomach leaves the restaurants you go to well stuffed, the concept of "à volonté" (which means “as much as you like”: extra spare ribs, potatoes, salad and accompanying sauces really can be ordered without any limit, for just 15,95€) will also appeal to your taste.

The house's red wine, present in every table and perfect to go along with all the meat you're about to eat. With the advantage that you don't have to order and pay for the whole bottle: in the end, the staff will see how much of it did you drink and calculate the price to pay based on that.

The first amount of ribs that you get! Then each supplement is about half the size of this. We were two and only were able to eat this first piece and one supplement (shared by the two)! But the staff told us the official record is a guy who ate 15 (!!!) supplements. You also have this potato jacket cooked with a very nice special herb butter sauce and salad. The ribs also have their own special barbecue sauce.

Not only the ribs are amazing (and you're allowed to eat with your hands for once!), but the space of the restaurant is magnificent, mixing Flemish and Oriental styles. It used to be an old theatre and now it's... Amadeo! The space is huge (there are many more rooms than the one you see when you enter), so it's also perfect for a group dinner. They also serve more plates than just the ribs, so lots of options to please all the visitors. The staff is really friendly and the food came super quickly. They also have restaurants in Ghent (two actually) and in Antwerp. Definitely a must-stop if you're in Belgium and want to eat well for a decent price (open for dinner only)!

Amadeo

Sint-Katelijnestraat 26 - 28
1000 Brussels
+32 (0)2-502 51 37

 ives@mail-box.be

http://www.amadeusspareribrestaurant.be/E/brussel/info.html

Rock Werchter

Last week I was for a day in the Rock Werchter festival, one of the biggest music festivals in Europe. It is located in Werchter, a village close to Leuven and the festival-goers could use the trains and the bus that would go from Leuven to the festival site (and back) for free. We arrived shortly after the doors had opened and had the chance of touring around when it was still not so crowded. It was a great summer day and lots of people kept on coming (the organization estimated an attendance of around 85.000 visitors per day). Despite that, I thought everything worked very well for a festival with such a high number of participants (there were never queues to go to the toilets, to order drinks, to drink water, to buy merchandise, to withdraw money), so the organization deserves to be congratulated. At some point we found out that there was a recycling stand that allowed you to exchange 20 plastic bottles or cups for 1 coupon that was worthy a free drink... and as when the concerts were finished and people were moving from one stage to the other there were TONS of bottles and cups lying around, we were able to grab 12 coupons (=12 drinks for free!), which would had otherwise costed us 30 euros. So we ended up spending nothing on drinks the whole day and night! As for food, even though the selection around was also huge (but festival pricey), you could also bring your own sandwiches, so that was something one could also save some money on. This incentive on recycling really worked, as in the end there were no bottles or cups lying around on the grass! We saw plenty of good concerts on that day (the line-up was perfect to allow you to move between the 3 stages and see everything you wanted), stayed until the very end and finished our night waiting with other music-lovers in Leuven's train station for the first morning train to Brussels. In the middle of all this, I was even spotted out by Elle Belgium and ended up being featured in their street style article related to the 3rd day of the festival!

Nutella

Sometime ago, Nutella Belgium had an application that allowed you to make your own label for your Nutella jar. They would then send two of them to you by mail for free. I have, of course, made mine and have since then been eating some (little!) Mariana/Nutella spoons for dessert, from time to time.

Thai Rainbow

Recently I had the chance of visiting the Thai Rainbow restaurant, located in the lovely Place de Sainte-Catherine. It was a lovely soirée, with the sun coming down in the end of a warm day and the mood to eat a great meal was set as we arrived and found ourselves this welcoming entrance.

Prawn wafers and the menu

Mai Tai cocktails: with and without alcohol

We decided to go for the Menu Rainbow, which includes a selection of starters, main courses and desserts and allows you to taste a little bit of everything (especially convenient if you find all the descriptions so delicious and you can't make up your mind for just one thing!).

The starters: TOD MAN PLAA (curry and lemongrass Fish cakes), SPRING ROLL (roll filled with rice vermicelli, chicken and vegetables), DIM SIM (steamed chicken, porc or seafood dumpling served with a sweet soy sauce) and VERMICELLI SALAD (rice vermicelli dipped in an homemade dressing made of lemon juice, with fresh cutted chillies, vegetables and chicken)

The main courses: MASSAMAN LAMB CURRY (tender sliced lamb simmered in a rich and sweet sauce), KOONG CURRY (shrimps and jackfruit orange curry with coconut milk), KAI HIMMAPHAN (stir-fried diced chicken with cashew nuts, onions and paprika) with PAD PHAK (stir-fried vegetables mix) and JASMINE RICE as side dishes

Jasmin cake

Sorbet

The whole meal was really tasty, as every food had its own special flavor and you could change between them as you moved from one plate to the other. We were served very quickly and the staff was quite friendly! Very well made Thai cuisine and a place to visit if you're in Brussels and into this type of food.

Thai Rainbow

Place de Sainte-Catherine 15

1000 Bruxelles

+32 (0) 2 217 90 12

contact@thairainbowbrussels.com

http://www.thairainbowbrussels.com/

La Cage Dorée (2013)

La Cage Dorée is a movie by the Portuguese director Ruben Alves, that tells the story of a Portuguese family living in France. It is a very humorous movie, mixing the French with some Portuguese expressions and counting with all the clichés from our people and, in particular, from the emigrant community. It counts with the participation of some famous Portuguese actors and I thought it made a very accurate portrait of who we are. Right now in Brussels it is on in Actor's Studio on the weekends and I really recommend that you go there and watch it!