Raclette Party – on Valentine’s Day | 14th Feb 2009

Raclette Party – on Valentine’s Day 14th Feb 2009

I think, we (Meera & Myself) are blessed with luck for food this month. The week before we were wishing that it WOULD be great if someone treats us every weekend. And this week the saga continued.
Yannick De Backer” my colleague invited a few us for dinner the following Saturday on the 14th Feb 2009. And you are absolutely right, I NEVER said NO ;-)

The venue was pre-decided by the host and was at his beautiful little apartment. He wanted a view about the variety of drink & food that everyone would prefer the previous day. I was open to any food & any fruit juice as I don’t drink alcohol and was ready to taste authentic Belgian Food. It was decided to be “Raclette” cheese meal for the dinner for 5.

“Raclette” – A typical mountainous dish ate widely in Alps/mountainous region. The dish is a native of Switzerland, Wallonia and France and normally accompanied with wine or hot beverages like tea or coffee during the breakfast.
I think that’s more than enough for an introduction to the main course meal. Well let me kindle your taste buds a little with a bit of garnishing about the rest on the items and the way it was served.

We arrived at his apartment at around 19:00 accompanied by Michelle Sandford and Damien Geeraets who generously picked us on the way to Yannick’s crib.

The usual start of with the drink where I was still stuck to the Grape Juice and Meera to Orange and rest of the folks toasted with Champagne. Michelle just spotted of the curiosity in my eyes about champagne and you know what, I took a sip from her glass when she offered and indeed it tasted good and not bad at all.
ah ! ahem :-)

We moved on with the main course, it was served in an electric table-top grill with small pans, known as coupelles, to heat slices of raclette cheese in. We had 2 varieties of cheese on the table and indeed the Goat cheese was excellent which I liked better than the Cow cheese and I still feel the taste lingering in my mind. The melted cheese on hot boiled potatoes & bread with freshly ground pepper and salt to taste. Served along with pickled Onion & Gherkin and a mixed platter of Ham Salami. How could I miss the mention the rich salad with raisins, corn, cucumber & green veggies? Awesome ! is the only word I can think of right now.

I have heard Michelle say, she usually spends the entire Sunday afternoon having lunch with her beloved Damien and his parents which takes about 3 – 4 hrs and a nap after that. Well! I would ask the same question to myself like you are asking yourself now. How on earth can people sit and eat for 4 hrs ! OMG. Well, Today I understood it ALL, How you enjoy your entire meal and relish each and every morsel of food you eat.

During the meal, I enjoyed the way Michelle tried to keep us entertained with the puzzles for Meera & Myself to guess the difference between French & Dutch when Damien & Yannick spoke and of course there were a lot of other topics which we discussed on the table.By now Michelle was already sleepy and she demanded a cup of coffee.And guess what? it was already 21:45 and we still had our last course of the meal to complete.

Finally the third course was ready and yummy as usual with bold & bright strawberry and the dusky husky vanilla based chocolate with a tint of coffee cakes. The list is not over, Ice Cream sorry sorry , ICE CREAM’S he just offered 4 flavours Mango , Vanilla , Strawberry and Chocolate.

Guess , what was the time was by now ? Half past ten. The duration was just 3.5 hrs for the entire dinner. Just praying the melted cheese slices that I ate should go away invisible instead of adding some extra pounds.;-/

Ok with this I will stop cause I can hear what you are thinking and can smell your stomach burn ;-).

More Info :-
http://www.food-worldwide.com/article/40/Raclette.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette