Travelsmartplanet

Michelin listed Ghent restaurant t’Pakhuis (www.pakhuis.be) takes the concept of farm right to table so seriously that they bought the farm – in Bresse, France. So now they breed and serve famous and flavourful Bresse chickens, guinea fowl, Hampshire down lambs, and Bayeux pigs. From home in Belgium, they get special tomatoes, their herbs, and even “lost and forgotten” vegetables

Located in a former ironworks factory with painted cast-iron pillars and a soaring wrought-iron balcony now filled with light from the huge roof skylight, the noisy chattering happy diners, both inside and out might be enjoying the beers and fancy cocktails at the bar or on the large terrace. In keeping with it’s slick metallic theme, it has the coolest bathroom lock I’ve ever encountered and I challenge you to try to turn on the tap without having to ask!

And the food – my liver screamed for mercy but my mouth was bathed in smiles. Though you could start with  a lighter lobster soup or beef carpaccio, if you dare, the foie gras plate had the most generous hunk of silky foie we have ever encountered accompanied by sage apple cream and dates. Had I stopped there, it would have been a perfect dinner.

But yet we ventured on to the grilled duck breast in pea cream with baby veggies and mashies that were so smoothly whipped that they could have been served for a dessert sorbet. The asparagus risotto with lemon butter was so yummy, it alone could turn me into a vegetarian.

We could have ended the meal with a locally favorite flavor, gingerbread, in cheesecake with vanilla sauce or gone lightly with some sorbets, but we took it to the max with a silky creme brûlée. Sigh.

Tags: apple, asparagus, balcony, bar, Bayeux, beef, beer, breast, Bresse, butter, Carpaccio, cheesecake, chicken, cocktail, cream, creme, date, dessert, diner, dinner, duck, factory, farm, foie, food, fowl, France, Ghent, gingerbread, gras, guinea, Hampshire, iron, lamb, lemon, liver, lobster, mashies, Michelin, pea, pig, pillar, Restaurant, risotto, sage, skylight, sorbet, soup, t'Pakhuis, terrace, tomato, vanilla, vegetable, vegetarian, veggies, wrought

You have to admire their moxie. Contortionists are being placed inside suitcases which are then placed inside the cargo hold of buses in Spain. They then have the opportunity to go through any and all of your luggage and help themselves to whatever they want, while you are enjoying the scenic rides between popular tourist destinations. By the time you have reached the end of your journey, they (and their booty) are back inside their suitcase, ready to be plucked off the bus by an accomplice.

Tags: booty, bus, cargo, contortionist, destination, journey, luggage, scenic, Spain, suitcase, Switzerland, tourist

On Saturday Sept 10th, My husband and I will be on Radio Centre-Ville’s Centre-Ville Consumer show with Beta Wayne.

Tune to 102.3  between 12:30 p.m.  and 1 p.m. and you’ll hear about our experiences in Holland and Flanders, Belgium in May. It will be the full half hour of conversation between us.

www.radiocentreville.com

Tags: Belgium, Beta Wayne, Centre Ville Consumer, Flanders, Holland

Antwerps’s diamond cutters are world famous. Marcel Tolkowsky (an engineer by profession but from a family of diamond cutters) is celebrated as the father of the round brilliant diamond cut (called the American Standard, American Ideal Cut, Tolkowsky cut or Tolkowsky Brilliant), using an optimal number of facets to achieve maximum brilliance.

He set the diamond cutting benchmark in North America and his technique is still used today. In 1919 he derived it from mathematical calculations that considered both brilliance and fire of the stone. Learn this and more sparkling info at the Diamond Museum ( www.awdc.be/diamond-museum-province-antwerp ) in Antwerp, Belgium

Diamonds are not only white gemstones; Fancy colored ones (which you can see at the Diamond Museum in Antwerp) can be cognac colored or like whiskey, or even pink from Australia.

In the the 17 ^th century, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, the son of an Antwerp, Belgium engraver, traveled to Persia and India. He was lucky enough to get to see the large gemstones in the treasure houses of the Indian rulers and was smart enough (or rich enough) to bring some of the world’s most famous diamonds home as souvenirs – including the Koh-I-Noor and the Blue Hope. He sold them to kings – like Louis the XIV of France. We learned all about him at the Diamond Museum (www.antwerp-tourist-guide.com/antwerp-diamond.html)

At the Diamond Museum ( www.antwerp-tourist-guide.com/antwerp-diamond.html ) in Antwerp, Belgium you will learn that diamonds first came from India in the 16th century, and that situation lasted right up until the 18th.

Who would expect to find a hidden elegant café in the Antwerp train station? Behind the magnificent facade of the old station (built by Leopold II in 1895), facing the tracks go to your extreme left hand corner. Inside the doors of the fancy looking café you will find sandwiches and 5 kinds of croque monsieur (variations on grilled cheese) without fancy prices.

You can buy real diamond jewelry right in the central train station in Antwerp, Belgium. The most important world diamond trade center is just right outside its doors.

In Antwerp, when you walk through the world diamond center which sports four diamond exchanges (and 2 police stations), you will see men walking with their briefcases attached to them with chains.