Culinary Delights

On Saturday night, Todd and I ventured to a nearby village called Riethoven, which is about a 20 minute drive south of Eindhoven. Our reason for heading that way was to go to a dinner at a lovely place called Restaurant Vandeijck.  A friend from the IWCE, Kelly, invited us along to a dinner with a large group of women from the club and their partners.

Here's a shot of the group that I stole from my friend Jessica's blog:

The restaurant opened not too long ago, and is located in an old renovated farmhouse.  The place was very cool, and the food was fun and interesting.  I took quite a few shots of the food because the presentation was pretty great.

Before we sat down, we were treated to this quirky looking thing which was basically a chunk of wood with twisting silver sticks poking out of it.  On the end of the sticks were various oddities, including a marshmallow that had a savory flavor.  

The restaurant is pretty fancy, so even though our meal was officially 3 courses, there were small amuse bouches in between most of the courses.  This was the first one:

Soy and pumpkin flavored jellies.

Next up was our appetizers. I went with the lobster:

And Todd had the duck:

The green sponge looking things actually tasted like peanut butter.

Both were quite good, although I must say that many items on my plate were a tad hard to identify.  But that didn't make them any less delicious.

After appetizers, the main course was served.  I chose the halibut:

And Todd had the pork:

This course was definitely the favorite for each of us.  For dessert, they served us a homemade "candy bar" of sorts.  The actual candy bar in the Netherlands is called "Bros", and there are 3 varieties.  So, the Dutch version of the menu said we were eating "bros bros bros".

The dessert was delicious too.  What a great meal!  Todd and I never choose to do dinners like these on our own, so it is quite fun to try something new.  And the restaurant does have an amazing looking patio, so we may have to go back just to sit outside.

Before I sign off, I wanted to share about a fun group that I've joined.  It's called the Wine Talk Group, and we meet once a month to taste and discuss wine.  We had our first meeting a couple of weeks ago, and I have been meaning to share.

I had originally thought that the group would just be a bunch of people sitting around talking about wine, which it absolutely is, but our host is actually a wine connoisseur and an official wine taster.  So I got a lot more information than I had bargained for!  It was really fun to learn about wine from an expert.  For our first meeting, everyone brought along a bottle of wine to share, and then Luciana, the host, had a few extras. That means that at the end of the night, we had tasted this many bottles:

It was amazing how tasting and thinking and hearing about wines really helps you to understand them more.  The biggest point I took away from the night about wine is that it is very personal.  Everyone will enjoy different wines, and even the really good expensive wines are not enjoyed by all.  It's OK to have an opinion that's purely personal rather than feeling as though you should like something because it's more expensive or from a certain vineyard or something.  Good advice!

Here's a shot of the ladies in the group:

I look forward to next month's meeting!

And to end this post - a fun shot of the deer in our neighboring park.

Just because they're cute.

Oh!  And I forgot to mention an update on our heat.  They are currently working to fix the issue.  They are rerouting our pipes so that the ones that are leaking below the floor are no longer used.  So, we didn't have to dig up the floor, but the house is looking crazy right now with all of this pipe business. Fingers crossed that they can finish today and then we'll be all set!