Veronica and Sue were really impressed with the interior of the Roue d’Or (The golden wheel) restaurant where I took them. This restaurant is a very ‘local’ affaire. By this I mean that you rarely find tourists eating there. Most patrons are locals or businessmen, discussing shop over lunch. From what I’ve been told, Belgium is the only country in Europe where so much business is done over lunch.
The interior of La Roue d'Or.
This photo was taken at the end of our meal,
when most of the patrons had already left.
This photo was taken at the end of our meal,
when most of the patrons had already left.
We were given a corner table near the kitchen and Veronica and Sue seemed to like the aroma’s that came floating out of the kitchen. Our waiter was a somewhat elderly man, with grey-streaked hair and a neatly trimmed moustache. While we were studying the menu card (we were all given the English version) we ordered and sipped a glass of Champagne. I had some trouble recognizing the typical Belgian dishes in their English translation. Moreover, the translation wasn’t always correct. In vain I looked for the ‘Waterzooi op Gentse wijze’ but failed to find it. We started our meal with one starter which we shared: ‘rillettes de canard’ and warm toast. It came on a rectangular plate in three neatly presented portions. We were each given a small plate and a knife. Six slices of burning hot toast were served on a separate plate. Sue, who had awful memories of some pork rillettes that she once had in France, bravely tried some of the duck version and found it to be much nicer than the pork.
Next we ordered:
Veronica: ‘rable de lièvre Arlequin’ = hare filet with two sauces, a light and creamy pepper sauce and a dark venison sauce. It came with a half pear stuffed with cranberries and a celeriac mash.
Next we ordered:
Veronica: ‘rable de lièvre Arlequin’ = hare filet with two sauces, a light and creamy pepper sauce and a dark venison sauce. It came with a half pear stuffed with cranberries and a celeriac mash.
Sue: the dish that on the English menu card was listed as ‘chicken stew’, and turned out to be the famous ‘Waterzooi’ that I had been looking for = boiled and de-skinned chicken pieces in a creamy soup containing carrots, leaks and boiled potatoes.
Me: ‘saucisse de campagne et stoemp’ = potato and carrot mash with sausages. It turned out to be huge … and by huge I mean really huge. The plate that was put in front of me contained a quantity that usually my mother and I share over Saturday lunch.
We had the house wine with it; a nice and dark red, and some sparkling water. By the time we had finished our meal, half of the other patrons had left, and the restaurant was much quieter. We didn’t have any dessert or coffee, as I wanted to take my friends to a different place for that.When we left, I foolishly forgot the plastic bag containing the tea towel and the book, my friends’ gifts. Luckily Veronica was more vigilant and picked it up. I would have felt really bad if I had lost it as it really means a lot to me.
8 comments:
It sounds like you had a lovely time and a great lunch. I'm looking forward to dessert and coffee!!
Isn't it annoying when you get badly translated menus? We were once given one in a restaurant in the Auvergne where one dish was listed in English as "young cow's laughter in his grandmothers blue". We could barely stop laughing for long enough to make a choice but we gave this particular dish a wide berth - goodness knows what it really was!
We always do better with the French menu and an occasional sneaky look at our well-used food dictionary.
Oh Jean, that's funny.
Martine, you couldn't finish that tiny plate of sausages and mash? Let me help you.
I recognize your mash potatoes and sausages meal at La Roue d'Or since that's what I had in June. I will always remember "stoemp." It is a beautiful restaurant and great atmospher. Okay, where are the photos of the dessert??? Veronica and Sue will have a lot to talk about when they return home.
I can assure all Martine's blog readers that my dish was utterly delicious and perfectly cooked.
Veronica
Jean,
It just occurred to me that your "cow's laughter" was, in fact, "ris de veau" a.k.a. sweetbread. I can't figure out yet what could be the "grandmothers blue."
It may refer to the sauce in which it was prepared and that could be blue cheese known down there as Bleu d'Auvergne. In any case, sweetbread is absolutely delicious and I'm craving it right now!
That's what you get with machine translation! Artificial intelligence is not for tomorrow.
As a translator, I'm sure Martine will appreciate that. May be she has a guess about the grandmother's blue. LOL
Jean, The 'laughing young cow' was probably a 'souris de veau grand-mère', 'souris' not meaning 'mouse' and nothing to do with 'sourire' (laughing) in this case but 'knuckle or shank'. 'Grand-mère' probably means that it was prepared from an old/traditional recipe. The 'blue' is a bit of a mystery and the only explanation I can come up with is that the sauce contained some kind of blue cheese. All in all not a bad recipe, if you ask me ... but I would have been very suspicious too.
Carolyn, The photo doesn't do the dish justice. There was certainly 400-500 gr. (half a kilo) of mash and the sausages each had a length of at least 15 cm. Sorry you weren't there to help me. You would have liked it.
Bob, I'm glad you enjoyed the restaurant. It is a great place, isn't it? Veronica and Sue thought so too. And dessert may not be what you expect!
Veronica, So glad you liked it. We'll go there again the next time you're in Brussels. :)
Hello Martine,
I posted a comment earlier following yours and it disappeared!!
Here is, more or less, what I said: Your interpretation (pun intended) of the "young cow's laughter" was interesting. However, having had to deal more than once with machine translation, I think a machine would have translated "souris" [smile in Robert-Collins] as "mouse" rather than laughter which is the translation for "ris" in same Robert-Collins. That is why I think it is "ris de veau".
As for the grandmother part of it you are right. I think the blue part will remain a mystery, unless the sauce was made with Bleu d'Auvergne. Why not?
Hi Chm, I've looked up several recipes of 'souris d'agneau' and 'souris de veau' and they all show photos of a knuckle or a shank. However, if the 'blue' refers to blue cheese, the 'ris de veau' is a much more plausible option. I suggest that Jean invites us to that restaurant and then we'll give it a try - if it's still on the menu, of course ... as I don't think that it was very popular, considering ... :)
P.S. Blogger is behaving strangely these days. But at least it works!
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