Sugar cane is a massive, bamboo-like grass of genus "Saccharum", tribe "Andropogonaeae", and family "Poaceae". Scientists call it photosynthetically efficient, in that it creates sucrose from sunlight, air, and water better than just about any other plant on earth. The only ones that come close are sugar maple and sugar beet; not coincidentally, those are precisely the two plants that compete directly with cane in the world sugar market.

Glen's 30th B-day party at 't Archief

http://www.tarchief.be/

Limited places

€ 50,00/pers

Yes indeed it is not a free dinner!!

This money will be donated to 't Archief

Dinner and dance on the 5th of July 2008

Start 20:00h

Welcome cocktail and snacks

Glen's Shut-up-and-eat-menu!!

Wines and drinks all-in.

Beer and spirits all night long.

Those who can't come for dinner are welcome from 22:00h on!!

00:00h

Launch of the Sputnik

from the Belgians Big Apple "Antwerp"

Resident DJ Flavour Lemon

from the westcoast "Bridges"
Guest DJ Monte Carlo

bringing all time Disco and '80s

Please confirm via email
glen@swaffou.com

Glen & Bianca

Glen,I sure wish I could be there to celebrate since I was in Georgetown Hospital working the night you were born. I held you that first day--and took ice cream to your mother! Happy Birthday! I might see you in late September (wedding in Boom).Beste, Dave (David Freitag)

Come see my red '58 Cadillac and enjoy a back to the 50's diner

From 21/6/2008 till 19/9/2008

at 't Archief

Frans Reyniersstraat 17-19 Hombeek (Mechelen)

http://www.tarchief.be/

Chef Mario Ramaekers

Entertainer Glen Ramaekers

50's party 6/9/2008 in open air in coöperation with

Café de Bruinvis

Saké cocktails

As for cocktail, sake goes very well with fruits juice with moderate acidity
cranberry, grape fruit, orange, etc

clear flavor sake(typically ginjo) 1/3
cranberry Juice 1/3
orange juice 1/3
clear syrop sugar
a dash of lemon juice
Mint leaf as garnish

KRISTANČIČ - MOVIA MIRKO IN ALEŠ

On bio living a whole conversation with Ales, winemaker of Movia Slovenia.
talking about sex and winemaking, the growth of the vines is all about sex.
Cleansing the body starts waking up, brushing your theet and scraping of your thongue.
He took my arm grabed my elebow put my underarm upward, talking the size of my elebow-joint with his fingers and said 1,8liters!!
I went ?.?.???
Ok explain.
Yeah! just like me 1,8 l of water after you brush your theet and before you eat.
Than your body is ready for whatever, alcohol, drugs, bad food, ...
Drinking water cleanses the body, its important in the morning, it gives your body positive energy to start with. Than we started tasting his wines.
I was kind of waisted, night before was heavy on the beers.
But no sweat there was only 1 guy I wanted to taste wines on.
And yeah, I drunk every drop of wine Ales poored it was sumptous and made me sober.

Wooooow! All delicate, aromatic but with lots of finesse.

Talking about the bio market in Turin I asked about Combal Zero.

Off coarse I've been there!!

But we are no astronauts, No?
Fantastic, he's a close friend of Petrini (Slow Food) and share his point of view and comments wine has to be there to, or had to be there in years ago, not many winemakers really understand the way of nature.

Similar winemakers are our speciality at SWAFFOU!! Important messages to be brought out.

It's not about all technical sheets and stuff, it's authenticity, the seriousness of product, place, ...

When a belgian journalist went to visit Reinhardt Lowenstein in the mosel and asked R for a technical sheet of his wines. The journalist received 7 pages ... on the history of the vineyard.

The journalist said this is not what i asked!? R didn't say much and send him away.

It's almost Buddhistic, the journalist didn't understand a thing, how much more technical can it be than understanding the soil, the place.

It's about understanding.

In the past I went to visit Claude Courtois (Cheverny) who shared more or less the same philosophy as Ales, Claude said not to spit out the wines cause they’re all sulfite free, total natural wines, local wild yeasts, no additions.
I did the test tasted, everything, over 12 wines and his home made port and even whiskey.
And as he said we weren’t drunk.
Maybe we all where equally drunk so we’d wouldn’t notice the drunkness from eachother, thats possible to?!
Natural wines don’t mess with mess you up and dont give you headaches thats a fact.
Note: Claude Works with old Yquem presses and uses and old potstill with woodfire to heat up the kettle, amazing view.
Ooh yeah, he also told us that every day he kisses Madonnas ass, …
He introduced us to Madonna,

his cow!!

Claude: Winemaking is not monoculture it’s multiculture or at least was a multi-culture, farm, winemaking, the pond.
It’s all about nature, the place, the micro climate. Rows of grapes mixed Gewurztramir, sauvignon, cab franc, freaux, syrah (wich is forbidden in the Loire, he had big trouble with the INAO, they went to court on this ones).

So much like what Ales was telling me, in order to make a wine we must not mix grapes from diverent parcels, we plant different grapes in the same parcel with the idea of bringing the grapes together only from the same parcel.
No parcel mixing!!

Puro
Talking to belgiums best foodies and some other winefreaks about Champagnes and stuff, we came to the conclusion that the perfect champagne or sparkle would be the one with the lies still in the bottle. A kind of RD (Bollinger) but degorging yourself on the moment you will drink it.
Interesting!!
Puro is that sparkle!! Slovenic Pinot noir, méthode traditionele without dégorment.
Ales: Turn the bottle upside down let the sediment go to the cork.
Open the bottle under water let the sediment out, lift the bottle out of the water and serve the perfect clear Rosé.

Why this way?? Not to add anything anymore, keep it pure.
Lot’s of sparkles add liquer de tirage, mix of liquor with or without sugar and even sulfites!! PUro is sulfite free, the soil gives natural sulfites wich the berries carry with them, all natural. So only natural sulfites get into the puro.
Nice dry, complex sparkle I love it.
If you like it more creamy than do it Puro-Jan.
Don’t let the lees out complety, it give the wine more texture and makes it slightly cloudy.
Not an easy technique.
I did it 4 times at Lotus Root.
It's great, presenting it, telling the story to the costumers.
It gives the sommelier purpose again.
Movia as Claudes wines need to be presented and praised by proffesionals!!

Tasted Veliko white
1999 magum
2001 at Tan (Crosscultural Living Brussels)
2004

http://chefskitchenblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/ales-from-movia-hits-lotus-root.html
http://chefskitchenblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/ale-kristani-movia.html
http://vinscourtois.free.fr/
http://www.movia.si/

SWAFFOOD

SWAFFOU launches SWAFFOOD

Savoury Wavering Food From Otherwordly Destinations

old and new contacts from the allmighty, great Luc (whatever!!) led us to some orientall interesting sh*t.

We started out with topnotch, artisan, small production

酒

saké

and moved on with other interesting stuff: make your own tofu, flavoured salt (yuzu, wasabi, ...), sojamilf ... milk!!

miso (different colours) yuzu juice , bonito flakes, old rice variaties, sake residu, wakame, tonburi...
and so much more

tonburi (also named: land, field or mountain caviar)

Tonburi is the dried seed of the summer cypress Kochia scoparia, a speciality of Akita prefecture in Japan.

After harvesting the cypress for its seeds, they are boiled and soaked in cold water for about a day. The outer skin is removed by rubbing it by hand.
The globules are 1-2 mm in diameter, glossy with a black-green color. It has a similar texture to caviar.
Often used as a garnish, it is used in Chinese medicine for urinary diseases and eye fatigue, among other things.

Find our sakélist soon on our site swaffou.com
Or mail me at glen@swaffou.com

Filipino national fish

Tribute to Bangus.

My childhood favourit especially Relleno. Hell Yeah!

I found an interesting article on bangus! Here goes:

Bangus, milkfish, is a silvery, fine-scaled favorite among Philippine fishes because of its sweet white flesh, and its fat belly which melts in the mouth.

Bangus is found on everyday and on festive Philippine tables, and is known as well in Taiwan (sibahi), Burma (nga tain), Thailand (Pla nuan chan thaleh), Vietnam (Ca mang), Hong Kong (Yuk sor), Indonesia (Bandeng), and Malaysia (Pisang-pisang).

Whereabouts

This same species is abundant on the Pacific Coast of the United States; its range extends also to the Red Sea, East Africa, Japan, Australia and Taiwan.

Characteristic

This fish has, however, a characteristic that bequeaths exclusivity, and had prevented wide popularity: it is boney, with many spines, which Filipinos have learned to pick out of the flesh on the plate, or to soften by cooking in vinegar so that they can be ignored.

Working it

Some two decades ago, however, an Iloilo housewife, wishing to spare her husband the trouble, undertook to debone it with tweezers.

Now her technique for removing the 38 branching spines (between the dorsal muscles), 14 along the lateral muscles, and 16 fine ones (along the ventral muscles) has caught on.

In the Iloilo markets, young boys chat and sing, barely glancing at their hands working the tweezers.

Boneless bangus of all sizes are found in markets, supermarkets and restaurants.

Bangus is hard to catch, since the adult fish decline bait and leap over nets. The technique for many years has been to catch the fry at sea and transport these for breeding sometimes a hundred miles distant.

An old account says they used to be captured in April, May, June, July, then placed in large water-filled jars (palayok) for conveyance to ponds.

Today,

advanced aquaculture techniques have enabled the mixing of sea and fresh water in the fish farms, the production of fry, and their speedy transfer to ponds, where they are fed mechanically then harvested, leaping and live, sorted for the market (anything short of perfection, even a few missing scales, is rejected), blast-frozen.

They thus reach customers' tables only a few hours away from the water -- certainly more freshly and quickly than they could from any fish market.

Filipino gastronomy

Bangus is cherished by Filipinos in many forms and for various reasons.

Many remember:

-Fishpond picnics, where the fish are not scaled, just gutted, stuffed with tomatoes, onions, salt and black pepper, and thrown on coals till the flesh is soft and white, and the skin fragrantly charred.

-Sinigang: cooked in broth soured with tamarind or kamias, or guavas and with vegetables

-Paksiw: cooked in vinegar with eggplant and bittermelon (ampalaya)

-Blackbeans or bean cake

-Onions in a soy sauce-calamansi marinade

Although pond fish are not usually prepared kinilaw (briefly marinated in vinegar, ginger, chili, and other condiments) where bangus is available live and fresh, it is, as in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental.

-Chicaron: some restaurants have taken the silvery skin, dried and crisp-fried it into a kind of crackling

-For breakfast it may be split open, marinated in vinegar, salt and pepper, and fried crisp to go with garlic-fried rice.

-Tinapa: Sometimes it is available smoked golden, to eat with a salad of ripe tomatoes, onions and salted duck eggs.

-Bangus Relleno: Mostly at party tables, stuffed with its own flesh sauteed with vegetables and condiments, then fried golden brown.

- The belly is specially treasured for its melting tenderness, and is now luxuriantly marketed in belly-only packages, which has encouraged some restaurants to offer a constellation of "prime-cuts" (fried, grilled, sinigang, paksiw, etc.)

Young chefs to invent nouvelle delights:

-Al Porbe style: cooked Spanish style (with garlic) or wrapped in bean skin and steamed.

Availability

Bangus is now available to all who love it.

It can be small and inexpensive, or large and pricey; it is a constant in wet markets and supermarkets, and as an export product for Filipinos abroad and for non-Filipinos.

At the 1999 Anuga Food Fair in Cologne, where bangus bellies were cooked with ube, squash, seaweed or saluyot (Jews' mallow) noodles, foreigners asked: Where has this tasty fish been hiding?Where?

in the Filipino heart, of course, and in the food memories of many generations.

(Note: Doreen and I have worked together in various projects that promoted Philippine culture. When I left for the States and became involved in the importation and distribution of value-added bangus, I did not have to ask Doreen twice to work with me on a little compilation of bangus recipes.

Together with a very talented designer, Carminnie Doromal and working over the internet, we produced BANGUS DISCOVERY:

A Culinary Treasure from the Depths of Sarangani Bay for Alsons Aquaculture Corporation.Dr. Doreen Fernandez, PhD, chairperson of Ateneo's Department of Communication, writer par excellence and a foodie at heart passed on a few years back. She will be sorely missed.)

Breakfast

Dude, my breakfast!

English pancakes with maple syrup
(I bought the pancakes at delhaize, I was very pleased to find English muffins from the Hovis Label)

Chocolate chili espresso with cardamon
(i used a small home dried chili, better match than long ones, enough spicy to match up the cacao and coffee taste, instead of grinding it and mixing it with the coffee, I broke a piece of chili and let it macerate into the coffee with a spoon of ganache)

Having the spice-sensation, wich gave me a subtle I'm on fire feel, I started looking for refreshment.
I ate fresh Spagetti with tomatosauce (olive-oil, italian pelati with great acidity, chili (long big chili, its not to spicy but gives a nice spicy touch so ground peper isn'nt needed in this dish, rosemary and fresh basil to finish of)
Freshly grated parmigiani regiano.

The spagetti cleans the palate, takes the spice away of the coffee, great tastes

Ready for the next dish!!

English muffin, the one you open up with a fork.
2 slices of Fried turkey saucage in garlic oil, last minute green oignon in the pan.
My favourite hong kong style ketchup (garlic, ginger, sesame-oil, chive whites, soy)
How I love the taste of ginger and chives in the morning.
1 tiger shrimp tempura (2 doughs, second one moister to sprinkle it on the shrimp, my tempura technique needs more practise but I’m getting there)
Ice water and the right oil temperature does the trick!!
In the oil I just mashed the garlic and ate it togheter with the saucage.
Philippino like garlic!!
That garlic stays in my mouth, the fruits later on will takes this away.

Tzak tzak!!

Fresh milk, lichy, peach, papay soup

And (having the philipino manga in mind, no mango comes close to those!!) ripe Kent mango diced up in the skin

Finger licking good

It doesnt get any better than this.

In an hour I’m on my way for dim sum at Oriental Delight Antwerp with the whole 20 brainwashed staff from Oud Sluis.
Even with the kick ass wines I’m bringing to Oriental Delight.

It can't beat my breakfast!!
It almost as good as eating rice with Bangus relleno with bear hands in the rainforrest Mambukal Negros Occidental!!