TIME OUT: Wine and Cheese

In this time of the year, when the days are getting shorter and the weather is getting colder, people in this side of the world tend to be less active and less outgoing.  HT wife confesses that she'd rather stay at home, be a couch potato, hide under a blanket and stay warm.  It ain't healthy though.

One night, friends of HT couple changed the gloomy season into something interesting and (healthy...ahem!).   We ended the daylight saving time with a blast...

A wine & cheese party!!!

Brie, goat cheese, blue cheese, etc.

Cheese wouldn't be as healthy as it looks without these..

Bottles of red wine from Australia, Italy, France, South Africa, Chile and of  course, from our very own...the Netherlands!

HT wife is not a wine connoisseur.  But she drinks 1 glass of red wine every night (she has a mindset that a glass of red helps to keep her doctor away. :D).  HT hubbie goes along with this healthy habit. 

As a tip from the connoisseurs, we drank the wines from the lightest to the strongest.  This is a good way to savor each drop from the bottle without overpowering each other.  I learn from a French friend who loves wine next to his wife, that when you take a sip of the wine, let it roll all over your tongue up to the back of it so it goes through all your sense of taste.  I saw a few of them looking at their glasses too, but I skipped that for my next wine and cheese *wink*.

This quiche made of pear with gorgonzola and walnutswas a good complement for the evening's event.  It was simply delicious!

to go with our dessert wine, we had smurf popsicles to go with it.  :)

We planned to do this every 6 months...to keep us warm at the start of our gloomy season and to celebrate the sunny beginning of the year.

'Till the next 6 months!  Cheers! (Proost!)

Thanks again for the wonderful evening guys (you know who you are!) 

Netherlands, Utrecht: De Goedheyd

Who would say no to save a few euros or dollars for a degustation?  Not us!  Restaurant week have been in the scene for quite sometime and for 27,50 euros for a 3-course meal, HT couple decided to try out for the first time the restaurant week here in the Netherlands.

After choosing from a number of restaurants, we decided to go to De Goedheyd.

When we arrived, we were informed that their restaurant week menu is a surprise menu unless we have dietary requirements.  Sínce we eat basically almost anything...here's the standard menu we got:

Starters/Voorgerecht: roasted beef on a bed of quinoa with truffle sauce

Main Course/Hoofdgerecht: Seabass in saffron sauce

Desserts/Nagerecht: (from left to right) Mango cheesecake, fruits(pineapple, strawberries and grapes) and mango sorbet

Overall, it was a good 3-course meal.  They provided a few pieces of fries on the side (excluded from the set menu) to fill you up. 

Will we go to this place again for another restaurant week offering?  Hmm, maybe.  I think it was not enough (maybe i was just hungry :D).  I also can't help but compare what was offered here and that in Singapore.(check out:Brasserie Wolf).  I just think Singapore takes restaurant week more seriously(I maybe biased :D) but I guess it's a factor as well of how the residents take part in the event.

PS: HT wife is (finally) busy with work.  So, i'm apologizing for having no updates for a long time.  Nevertheless, I am still around to share with you HT couple's love for food and the wonders of their travel with their hungry tummies.

Enjoy eating (Eet smakkelijk!)