Butlers Town House Hotel | Dublin

Sometimes it's nicer to stay in a hotel with a unique style than a new and modern one.

We went to Dublin for a long weekend and stayed in the Butlers Town House , which is a boutique hotel with a very charming atmosphere and a Victorian style.

The service is very good and the rooms are clean. This is important, but the food as well!

We only had breakfast there as we went out for dinner.

Enjoy the pictures! More from the trip is coming.

Traditional Irish breakfast with black and white pudding (made with pork blood)!

Poached haddock (super super healthy, where are the carbs?!)

Broccoli with a bit of Thai curry paste

I had a long weekend in Ireland and dieting has started again lol The fish and chips were great! :D

Today I wokked all my ingredients, first the chicken and then the broccoli. To make the broccoli a bit more yummy, I added green Thai curry paste. Note that it's spicy! At least, for me it's spicy! :p

Instagram

No DSLR today! But an Iphone and Instagram :D This image was captured when I was walking in Amsterdam and suddenly a group of Italian speaking marines (well... they look like marines) was walking really close behind us.

I grabbed my phone and they smiled! :D

Bulgogi

It's Monday and that means we will have to eat healthy again.. yeah... we try! :D

I prepared bulgogi last night, it's a Korean dish with thin sliced beef (most of the time it's beef).

Ingredients:

- tender beef, about 500 to 600 grams, sliced very thin. You can freeze the beef for a bit to make it easier to slice.

- 2 cloves of garlic

- about 10 medium sized mushrooms

- spring onion

- sesame oil (about 3 tea spoons)

- light soy sauce, 2 or 3 table spoons

- honey, 4 tabele spoons

- roasted sesame seed (additional)

- and some black pepper

You also need lettuce, kimchi and Korean rice. I didn't eat rice tonight to keep the carbs low ;).

Place the ingredients in a big bowl and marinade over night.

Heat your grill and grill the beef with mushrooms etc. for a minute or 2.

(I have been told) How to eat this:

Make a small package with the lettuce, beef, kimchi and rice and eat this in one bite!

Enjoy!

Banana & Nutella wrap

It's still weekend and dieting always starts on Mondays haha so... We eat a wrap with a banana and Nutella! (It even has fruit!)

It normally goes very well in a crepe, but hey, it's Sunday and you're lazy!

Ingredients:

- wrap

- banana

- as much Nutella as you want

Spread the Nutella in the wrap and cut the banana in parts. Lay the parts on 2/3rd of the wrap, not in the middle and roll it up from the short side. Cut it in half diagonally.

Now comes the trick! Heat the wrap for 30 seconds in a microwave to make it even more yummier!

Enjoy!

Hate it or love it, durian crushed ice

Hate it or love it right? It was so warm in Melaka (Malaysia), we couldn't resist to eat something refreshing and what's better than with durian taste?! haha

Tofu pancakes

As you might know, tofu has really good nutritions, high in protein and low in carbs. The one I used has 10,5 grams protein (some has 20 grams!), 1 grams carbs and 6,5 grams of fat per 100 gram.

If you would like to make these tofu pancakes, you have to mash the tofu first and mix it with 2 eggs in a bowl, add a bit of flour to make it a bit thicker.

Add basil, salt and pepper for the taste.

Heat your non-sticking pan with olive oil (healthy!) and use a big spoon to make the small pancakes untill they're golden brown.

Bon appetit!

Mussel time!

In The Netherlands we say it's mussel time, when there's an R in the month, that means now!

A friend advised me to use the following ingredients, I normally just buy a bag of (mussel)vegetables and add them to the mussels...

- onion

- thai basel

- red pepper

- a bit of coconut milk

Salt and pepper is not needed.

Before you cook them in a large pan or wok, rinse the mussels with water, remove the mussels which are already open (!).

Heat the pan or wok and create a layer of mussels, add half of the ingredients then add the rest of the mussels and the last ingredients on top.

Cover the pan or wok for about 7 minutes on high heat and when all the mussels are opened, it's done!

Bon appetit!

Bruschetta

There are different kind of toppings you can put on, but this bruschetta is served with tomato, garlic, oregano (fresh is better, by dried oregano is also fine), olive oil and sea salt. That's it.

All you need are a few slices of baguette to grill, which I have spread with aioli first. Then slice the tomato (2 or 3) in small parts like above and remove the inside.

Chop 1 or 2 cloves of garlic into really small parts and when the baguette is done, gently move the tomatoes to the baguette.

Top it off with garlic, oregano, olive oil and sea salt.

BON APPETIT!

ps: thanks to my brother in law (he's Italian! ;)) who taught me this, I only changed the recipe with the aioli spread.

Low calorie hamburger

YES! It is true! A low calorie hamburger! The only thing is, you might want to eat 10 (maybe 20?) of them. lol

If you have noticed my profile, I have added a new lens, the EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM. I only have this lens for a few hours now and it's real fun! I LOVE IT!

(if you were wondering, the hamburger is made with ground beef, cheddar cheese, mini tomato, a piece of lettuce and bread :p, and too much ketchup, it came out too fast. :/)

Congee

This should be congee but the kind of congee I eat does not look like this! haha

It was a restaurant at the beach (Tioman) and we almost ate there every day, we also made friends with the co-owner and on the day we left, he made real congee for us!

And as dessert, a cat who is doing some kind of exercise... :/

Sipadan Water Village

This is actually the village behind the fancy water village, really crazy to see the difference so close.

Chicken with chili flakes

I eat quite a lot of chicken for my protein (at least 20 grams of protein per 100 gram). You know, I need to maintain my muscles ;)

Tonight I used a wok to wok (is this a verb?) the chicken, it's easy and fast. I added pepper, salt and spring onion to the dish and added chili flakes in the end for a little bit of a spicy taste.

Well.. bon appetit!

De Ysbreeker - Review

We had one of those rare summer days this weekend and we decided to eat out. So, we went to De Ysbreeker in Amsterdam. It was so crowded! But we managed to get a seat outside in the lovely sun.

Although it was very busy, we did not feel like they weren't paying any attention to us. The drinks and food came at the right time.

I had the pumpkin soup and a paella with lobster, the lobster was very soft and juicy (not the dry one eww).

We didn't order a dessert as we went to Pisa IJs near Amsterdam Rai for a real gelato! I swear, these guys make the best gelato in the whole area (maybe even in the whole country), if you know any better, let me know!

Buddha's delight

I do eat a lot of meat, but now and then, a vegetarian dish is not bad! Especially a dish like the buddha's delight.

Main ingredients are:

- Dried black mushrooms

- Dried bean curd skins

And a nice recipe can be found here. It even has it's own Wiki!

Home made Protein bars - no bake

These home made protein bars do not have the chemical taste like the one you buy in stores!

Ingredients:

100 grams Rolled oats

100 grams Organic peanut butter

200 grams Whey protein

20 grams Honey

150 ml Skimmed milk

30 grams Raisins (optional)

Mix the dry ingredients together, melt the peanut butter with milk and honey in the microwave for a minute and mix with the dry ingredients.

Roll the dough into a ball. Place it in a lined baking tray or pan of about 9" x 9" (20cm x 20cm).

Flatten the dough evenly and let it set in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours. Cut into 10 bars.

Nutrition facts per bar (60 grams):

Protein: 20 grams

Carbs: 12 grams

Fat: 6,8 grams

Pavilion - Kuala Lumpur

Edited in Lightroom and Focalpoint2 for the tilt shift effect.

Pasta with mushroom cream sauce and real Parmigiano Reggiano

A nice article about this famous "king of cheese" on Wiki, the Parmigiano-Reggiano, don't buy the fake stuff!