When you enter the restaurant, your nostrils will immediately flare from the olfactory memory of old-style torrefaction shops, such as the Algerian Coffee Shop in
Charming Ethiopian-born co-owner Haile Leoul Abebe has a permanent smile on his face. As well he might have. Despite being a fairly new kid on the block, (they have just celebrated their first birthday) Kokob is enjoying huge success, blessed by an early visit from President Barroso and his team, as proudly displayed on their website. “Kokob” means “Star” in Amharic, and after the rave reviews they have had in the
A covered terrace at the back of the restaurant transports you temporarily into the atmosphere of an East African hotel lobby in the 1930s, where you would not be surprised to see the ghost of Lawrence Durrell in his white suit and panama hat. This sheltered spot is the ideal place to down a Belgian beer or some real coffee after an afternoon’s Christmas shopping in the trendy boutiques of the rue du Midi, and peruse one of the collection of picture books on Ethiopia. The restaurant is composed of separate spaces – bar, terrace, main dining room, function room – where afternoon tea or coffee, sundowners (as we used to call them in the colonies), lunch or dinner can be enjoyed, as well as private parties and public events. Kokob also act as a cultural centre for recitals of traditional music, storytelling or promotions. Events are advertised on their website or you can join their mailing list to keep abreast of what’s coming up. They also do outside catering.
Despite the trendy location and modern décor, Kokob does not compromise on authentic Ethiopian style. Wat is the most popular dish. No that’s not a question, wat is the name of a stew made from vegetables, pulses or meat such as lamb, beef or chicken, generously seasoned with a hot chilli sauce called berbéré. There are also fish dishes and a selection of salads. The “menu découverte” or “discovery menu”, ranging from 18 to 25 euros a head depending on how hungry you are, is the nearest thing to a typical Ethiopian meal, consisting of a selection of prepared dishes served on a tray of spongey millet pancakes called injera which serve the purpose of both plate and cutlery.
Thanks to the influence of the early Coptic Christians who did not eat meat, vegetarians are easily catered for, with a vast selection of veggie dishes on offer, including spinach with mushrooms, lentils, split peas, ratatouille, ayeb (cottage cheese), to accompany the meat dishes such as diced chicken with spinach, minced beef spiced up with berbéré, and diced lamb in a creamy yogurt sauce. All the dishes are extremely tasty, and surprisingly mild - apart from the berbéré, nothing will blow your head off. An extra bowl of rolled injera strips is provided for you to break up and use them to scoop up the food on the tray. It’s a convivial and fun way of eating in a couple or a group, and apparently the typically Ethiopian way to do it is to feed each other with the mouthfuls of filled pancake. The mad, romantic fools! If you don’t fancy other people’s fingers, or even your own, cutlery can be provided on request.
Sticking on the same continent, we chose to drink a South African Nederburg Shiraz at a most reasonable 15 euros. After the meal, we were enveloped in burnt-coffee smelling steam, as the freshly-roasted beans were waved over the table like incense. If you are one of the poor unfortunates who can’t drink coffee, you can inhale it for maximum effect. The roasted coffee beans are then taken away and ground to produce a light coffee with a delicate flavour that will not keep you tossing and turning all night. Alternatively, you can sip an Ethiopian herbal tea flavoured with ginger and cinnamon. There are no desserts on the menu, but the coffee is served with a piece of homemade cake to sweeten your dreams.
Kokob is really something new and different, and serves tasty food in a warm and friendly atmosphere. Discreet Ethiopian background music is soon drowned out by the chatter of diners, as the place is invariably full by about
A gold medal for
How to get there: Kokob
Sources: Daphne’s Dinner
Ingredients (makes 15 servings)
Turkey
1 (14 to 16-pound) whole turkey, fresh or frozen (thawed)
As needed salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 medium onions, chopped
16 ounces jellied cranberry sauce
1/3 cup light brown sugar
Dressing
3 cups herb-seasoned stuffing mix
2 cups mixed dried fruit, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
2/3 cup onion, chopped
1 cup whole cranberry sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 1/2 cups turkey broth or reduced-sodium chicken bouillon
Vegetable cooking spray
Turkey’s recipe
Remove giblet (discard liver), neck and any visible fat from turkey; reserve for stock. Rinse turkey with cold running water and drain well. Blot dry with paper towels.
Season inside and outside of turkey with salt and pepper.
Tie drumsticks together and twist wing tips behind the back.
Place turkey, breast side up, on a wire roasting rack (sprayed with non-stick cooking spray) in shallow pan. Cover loosely with foil.
Roast turkey in a preheated 325 degree F oven about 2 1/2 hours, basting with pan juices.
Meanwhile, in a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat and cook onions with salt and pepper, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes or until very soft. (If onions begin to brown, lower heat.)
Stir in cranberry sauce and sugar; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes.
Remove foil and pour glaze over bird.
Continue to roast 1 hour.
Remove turkey from oven. Allow turkey to rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving.
Dressing’s recipe
In medium-size bowl combine stuffing mix, dried fruit, celery, onion, cranberry sauce, sage, thyme and turkey broth.
Coat a 2-quart oven-proof dish with non-stick vegetable cooking spray. Spoon dressing in dish and bake uncovered at 325 degrees F for 40 to 45 minutes.
Enjoy !
Tuesday the 21st of October, we’ll present Vinogusto along with lovelychart, doxys, whatsupin and adlogix during the next Betagroup meeting in Brussels.
For more information: linkedin group or google group.
Vinogusto is growing fast, let’s have a look at the statistics:
- Google Analytics: over 10.000 unique visitors/day (+100% in 3 months)
- Alexa traffic rank: 92.000 on a 3 months basis and 50.000 on a weekly basis (+80.000 positions in 3 months)
Our audience is spread over different geographic areas. The main markets are France (28%), Spain (20%), Belgium (15%), lThe Netherlands (12%) and the United States (5%).
We are looking forward the next update of theGoogle Trends for Website . If you want to know more, have a look at an analysis of the different web statistic tools (in Spanish).
Il Vesuvio is a bustling little family-run trattoria situated a stone’s throw from La Chasse. That’s a name that always makes me snigger, meaning “the hunt” but also “the flush”, as in loo. Tirer la chasse = to pull the chain. Anyway, it’s on the main drag of Avenue des Casernes but set back just enough that you don’t have to breathe in exhaust fumes with your food. The generous canopy will save you from sunstroke too.
There is a fine selection of pizzas at reasonable prices, but as it was a holiday weekend I felt flush (geddit?) and ordered the grilled sole, which came served with fries and a braised endive.
I have two criteria for judging Italian restaurants. Firstly, they must serve veal as well as pizza. And secondly, they must offer panna cotta on the dessert menu. Il Vesuvio did both. The panna cotta came with a choice of topping: I had mine with coffee liqueur. I can’t tell you. It was the most sublime, creamy, heavenly thing I have had in my mouth since Christmas. (Don’t ask) I would go back there just for the panna cotta.
The waiters are brisk, flirty and efficient in that way Italians are. My waiter must have been all of 17. And I think you all know how I like a young man. He had a cheeky grin, which widened still further when I told him the panna cotta was exquisite. “Home made, of course?” I added. He looked at me with arms outstretched: “Ma certamente, Signora! La mamma!”
Grilled sole doesn’t come cheap, and at 19 euros it accounted for two-thirds of my total bill. But the pizzas are pretty reasonable (10-12 euros) so you could count around 25 euros for a standard pizza-wine-dessert meal.
Unfortunately Il Vesuvio is not open for weekend lunch or Sunday evening. But on a warm weekday or Saturday evening, or even a cold one (the interior looked cosy and welcoming) it is worth a visit. Or if you are lucky enough to have a day off during the week. The pizzas looked and smelled great, and the place was packed with regulars, so probably a good idea to book on a Saturday night.
But do remember to save room for the panna cotta. A little taste of heaven.
Wines available: Villa Antinori, Santa Cristina, Five Roses,…
How to get there: Il Vesuvio
Source: Daphne’s Dinner
Some of your friends might use Vinogusto already. In a few clicks you can compare your Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo contacts with Vinogusto and find your friends already using Vinogusto or invite the others to join you.
Vinogusto.com went live in May 2007 and has over 3.000 registered users today. Lately, our wine community welcomes 15 new users daily. Besides, over 5.000 winelovers visit us daily and enjoy the reviews of 23.952 wines and 37.439 adresses.
Vinogusto, the 2.0 community for wine lovers, increases its capital by 200.000 euros.
The objective is to improve its functionality as social network in order to provide even more complete services to its users and clients. In the investment, wich will be effective March 25th, are participating multiple recognized web enterpreneurs, such as the founder of Meetic , Christophe Salanon; the founder of Toprural.com and partner of 11870.com, François Derbaix; the founder of Rentalia.com, Marta Esteve; and the Ebay Belgium member, Alexis Vandewyer.
This decision comes as an answer to the continuous and rapid growth in visits that Vinogusto has experienced over the last 4 months (400%) which resulted into a significant increase of users and clients of the sector, looking for presence and visibility on the Internet.
Vinogusto was created 9 months ago by the Belgians Marc Roisin & Laurent Mikolajczak with the purpose of offering wine lovers like themselves a place to share their passion in a one of its kind Web 2.0 environment.
Vinogusto is available in four languages (Spanish, French, English and Dutch), totalizes over 150.000 visits monthly today, offers information on more than 25.000 wines and 35.000 addresses with more than 45.000 users’comments, along with content on winetourism, wine and food pairing, etc…
All of this turned Vinogusto into the most important wine related social network in Europe and an important promotion space for the companies of the sector.
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