3/24/05 Antwerp

"Today we walked around Antwerp with Elka and Haseem and some friends/family. We all went to the Peter Paul Rubens house/museum. Man, did that guy know how to live. His house was like a mini castle. His paintings are mostly religous and have all sorts of great symbolism in them, especially in the Vrouwekathedral, where he has three tri-fold paintings. In one of the, each of the three paintings depicts jesus being carried in a different way. The first is in the whom by Mary, the third is as a baby by a prophet, and the middle and largest one of the three, he is being carried off off of the cross to be buried; in this one in a red robe is St. Christopher helping to lower Jesus' body. We came to find that 'Christopher' means 'the carrier of Christ.'

Dinner: I, as I'm sure everyone else does when they're going to another country, had somewhat of a preconceived idea as to what a great restaurant would be like on the inside. We'd sit in a large room with with some stuffy mait're d or some small country-like house and sit in wicker chairs eating eggs from the back coop. Well, the only thing about this that came into play tonight was the small part. Otherwise, it blew my expectations out of the water.

I had asked the receptionist at our hotel to make us a reservation and when I called the restaurant to confirm it, the nice woman confirmed it for 'between 8:15 and 8:30'. I've never had a reservation that was a window of time.

We walked into Gin Fish at 8:30pm, and the front door opens into a small vestibule with a door on either side of it. The one to the left leads to a small kitchen with a small counter full of people and seems to be very modern with a marble counter and stainless everything else. The door to the right, however, leads to a comfy living room setting with 8 plush chairs all around a long coffee table. It was a 'country living room' with large beams and a wooden spiral staircase with steps so old that you could swear they were from the French Revolution. The hostess, who turned out to be the chef's wife, greeted us as though we were guests in her house. She explained that our table was not yet ready, but we could sit and have an 'appertif'. The cozy room had a small bar at the far end of it and a tall cigar case next to it. We sat in two of the plush chairs and ordered drinks. With them came a plate of kalamata olives, parmesan crisps as thin as paper, and house cured salami with incredible thick marbling. 'If this is a sign of things to come', I thought, 'then I'm in for a treat.'

Some time passed, and the entire kitchen, which had glass walls so you could see in from the bar area, emptied at once. I assumed it was our turn, but the hostess only let two other couples in - then, ten minutes later, another partyof 4. I was starting to think that she had forgotten about us when she told us to enter. The others already had wine and the chef was plating their first course in the open kitchen. The whole seating area, to my surprise, was only 14 seats in total. Behind the line was one cook, one waitress, and the chef, who was wearing nothing but a gray t-shirt, jeans, and an apron.

The waitress poured us some wine and sliced us some whole grain bread off of a huge loaf. She put a small dish of fleur de sel, a small grinder with white pepper in it, and a large slab of the richest butter I've ever had in front of us.

Half-way through my slice of butter-smeared bread, the chef came over and shook our hands to greet us. He then explained the menu to us, reassuring us that he could change anything we didn't like. That wouldn't be nessesary. After speaking with us, he went back to plating the second course for the people who sat down before us. It was then that I realized why they have a staggered seating. It was so the chef is cooking/plating no more than 6 plates at a time. It made me jealous that at Farallon we have 10+ picks of 25 entrees/night and this guy does 4 picks of 6 per night. I envied his attention to detail and the time he had for it. He also never broke a sweat or seemed frazzled in any way. Must be nice.

With much anticipation, our first course arrived. Littleneck clams with steamed scallops, sweated leeks, and garlic. Although I think i prefer the flavor of seared scallops, these added a really nice textural contrast to the clams. The leek broth was perfectly seasoned and just begging that buttered whole-grain bread for a swim.

After polishing that off, we moved on to the second course. White and green asparagus, poached egg, shaved parm, and shaved white truffle. This white truffle was the size of a large egg and the chef was not stingy. On top of that he drizzled EVO. Glorious. I have never realized white asparagus' superiority over green until tonight, when I had them side by side. Fatter, sweeter, and much more texturally appealing.

The third course was a fish that I'm pretty sure he called 'brill'. I may be wrong, but he said it similar to turbot, and that it was. Not dense like halibut but not flakey like sole. He steamed it with a poached potato plank. He took the liquid from the fish's steaming tray and added it to the pot with buttered soy beans, from which he used the liquid as a sauce. These looked and tasted like fava beans, but Megan said they were soy, and she's a vegetarian who eats shit like that, so I'm gonna go with her on this one. It was all topped with some inch-long cut chives.

One of the best parts of this meal, was as we began to dig into our third course, the chef rolled out an ice cream machine churning fresh vanilla, cream, sugar, and eggs. Something about watching your dessert being made while you eat your dinner is very satisfying. It was topped with strawberries that the cook was slicing while the chef was plating our fish. Very fresh. The cook scooped the ice cream straight from the machine, concocting a huge perfect quenelle with one flick of the wrist. As we were scraping our bowls, he opened the ice cream machine, whipped out another quenelle, and put it on our plates followed by more strawberries. It was just beacuse he saw we were enjoying it, and there was plenty.

I think that was one of my favorite parts about this meal. Whenever our wine glass got low, the waitress just filled it up again. There was no set portion of anything - it was just 'eat and drink unitl you're done'. Granted, the evening was quite expensive, but that's just what it was, an evening - not a meal."