In Belgium it’s sometimes said that the Bells of Rome bring the Easter Eggs. The story goes that the bells of every church leave for Rome on “Silent Saturday” or “Stille Zaterdag” in Dutch, before returning on Sunday with eggs… chocolate eggs hopefully. And what better place to find delicious chocolate eggs than the home to so many chocolate shops, Brussels?

Easter Sunday in Brussels sees egg hunts in Bruparck next to the Atomium and, just outside the city, in Les Pays des Castors, an animal park dedicated to beavers. Although remember to bring your boots if you want to hunt for eggs among these dentally endowed dam builders.

While in Brussels you’ll find the fifth largest church in the world in the city’s Basilique National du Sacre-Coeur where you can attend Easter Church services.

Why not make the most of the bank holiday weekend and explore a different city this Easter.

Photo 1 Wild daffodils up close by Amanda bh Slater

Photo 2 Basilique de Koekelberg by TP Holland

We recently came across a new blog Badaude which is quickly becoming one of our favourite reads to discover new places in Paris. As well as brilliant writing her posts take you on a little adventure making you feel as though you were visiting each place with her.

The latest in Badaude’s Paris Address Book posts details a visit to Hôtel du Nord which she has kindly let us share with you on Little Break Big Difference.

‘The most romantic walk in Paris might be up in the 11e arronidissement along the Canal Saint Martin. Wander across a couple of the arched bridges between Quai de Jemmapes and Quai de Valmy in the evening twilight and drop in at the Hotel du Nord for a Kir.

This bar/restaurant has the cachet of being the current coolest on the canal. The incredibly romantic classic Michel Carné movie was named after the hotel, which was renovated and reopened in 2005. Now it offers a daily changing modern French menu in a smoky-walled 1930s ambience.

Spellbound by the warm atmosphere, after hanging around for an apero, flicking through a book from the in-bar library, you might be tempted to stay for dinner.

One word of advice: Book. This restaurant is POPULAR. I visited on a freezing night in the middle of a financial crisis and both the dining room and the bar were HEAVING with the canal’s black-jeaned hipsters mixed with a sprinkling of cool tourists.

The menu is a bit of a mix: traditional/European/American-anglo, with an oriental twist. I started with old school fresh foie gras, perfectly cooked to melting point and layered with paper-thin slices of fried apple. My date’s chestnut ‘cappucino’ arrived in a Starbucks-sized mug complete with a head of delicate foam.

I went for the slightly adventurous Aiguilettes de canard (yes, that means ducks’ tongues) stuffed with wild mushrooms and roasted pleurotes (parsnips). The tongues were cooked to a delicate pink but over-salted, killing the delicate taste of the mushrooms. My date ordered a cheeseburger (she’s an American in Paris recovering from flu and needed comfort food). Again, the meat was perfectly cooked (as were the fries) but the bun was on the sloppy side and the dish had to be ‘deconstructed’ (ie – taken apart: she’s a  literature Major).

To read the rest of Badaude’s visit you can continue reading the rest of her post here.

Photo Hôtel du Nord by Coolman 7540

Food is probably one of the best things about traveling, so why not enjoy it during your trip to Lille and sample some typical dishes? First, it is important that you find the right place, and there is nothing better than an estaminet, the equivalent of a pub – a place where people gather, play games, have food and launch endless discussions.

My favourite estaminet in Lille is Chez la Vieille located in Rue de Gand in the heart of the Old Town. Chez la Vielle offers exactly what you should get in a estaminet: a warm, friendly, and relaxed atmosphere. The decoration is baroque and there are many things hanging on the walls: old advertising for beers and foods, vintage pictures, old pots, etc. You can spend quite a lot of time just looking around.

During you trip to Lille, you must get a beer as people from Northern France are beer lovers rather than wine connoisseurs. You can go for a Belgian beer, but why not try a local beer and go for a Ch’ti? Or even better, a picon bière – the picon is a caramel-flavoured bitter that goes with beer, making it a lot better and stronger.

This drink goes perfectly with the rich cuisine of Northern France: carbonnades frites (beef stewed with beer and gingerbread), potchevelch (a mix of cooked meats), or un welsh (a slice of bread with ham, melted cheese, and an egg on top). Or if you feel adventurous you can get any dish that mentions Maroilles, a very strong local cheese. After this, you can have a waffle, a coffee with a speculos biscuit, or speculos-flavoured ice cream. If after all this you are still hungry, I swear that something, somewhere, went wrong!

Photo: Boeuf Bourguignon by avlxyz

Brussels this December really is the place for the whole family to be.  While there is no doubting that the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park is great family fun, it pales in comparison with Winter Wonders in Brussels.

Taking place right in the heart of Brussels – the Place Sainte Catherine is almost an equivalent of Leicester Square in London – and lasting until the 3^rd of January 2010, it is not exaggeration to say that Winter Wonders alone merits a trip to Brussels.

This is because there is both fun for the children and fun for the adults.

Undoubtedly, children tend to enjoy ice skating more than adults: with the onset of middle age and the associated weight gain, many adults seem to take the pain of falling over a lot worse than their offspring do. But there is no doubt that children will enjoy skating on the ice-rink temporarily erected under the large ferris wheel at the end of the market.

Meanwhile, adults can enjoy the Christmas market: part of the mammoth Winter Wonders is that there are 240 wooden chalets placed all around this event where Christmas presents can be bought and mulled wine can be sipped.

With the event also including street entertainment, fun rides and live music, it really is worth a visit to Brussels just for Winter Wonders. Make sure you do.

Photo Little Break

On the last weekend in November a group of sleepy bloggers meet at our usual meeting place under the clock at St Pancras for our final Little Break of the year to the Christmas market in Brussels.

After a leisurely breakfast on the Eurostar we arrived in St Pancras and headed to Planet Chocolate for a morning of learning about the history and process of making chocolate (surprisingly simple it seems) as well as tasting plenty of chocolate and drinking some yummy hot chocolate to warm us up from the terrible weather outside.

Leaving with arms full of chocolate and our lovely goody bags we ventured outside again where we found the weather had brightened up – much to every ones relief!

A quick stroll later and we arrived at the Belga Queen for lunch. Its reputation as one of the best restaurants did not disappoint as we entered the beautiful building which used to be an old bank.

The food was lovely – especially the dessert, but due to our set meal choice it was probably not the best that the Belga Queen produces. We did see some impressive sea food platters though on mountains of ice topped with various shellfish that looked amazing.

The afternoon was then spent wandering round the Christmas market. Brussels Christmas market consists of hundred of little wooden sheds selling mostly food and drink as well as a variety of gifts where you can find something a bit different for your Christmas gifts.

Heading back to the Eurostar was a bit of an energetic experience as the Metro broken down for a while which meant a bit of a, lets describe it as a ‘jog’ to the check-in desks!

All was well and everyone quickly settled into their seats to enjoy a glass of champagne before dinner as we sped back towards London.

A big thank you to everyone who joined us on our last little break of the year! Dominic and Shimrit from Chocablog, Sian and Christina from Domestic Sluttery, Camilla from Hygge Nook, Caroline and Simon from Patchwork Harmony, Katie from What Katie Does, Lynne from Tea For Joy, Amanda from The Womens Room, Pippa from Pippa Jameson Interiors, Margarita from Chocolate Creative, Nicki from The Cherry Closet, and Alice from Raspberry.

The lovely David from David the Designer who joined us on our Little Break in Brussels recently ran a competition to give one of his lucky readers the chance to win a pair of Eurostar tickets so they could take their own little break.

Mike (Reed Words) who won the competition has kindly shared the details of his Little Break with David and us which as well as enchanting you, might also inspire you to take a Little Break of your own.

Ah, Paris. City of joie de vivre, esprit de corps, and that certain je ne sais quoi. After I won David’s competition, and secured my two free Eurostar tickets, David asked if I’d write a post or two reporting back from my travels. So here I am. If you’re one of those for whom holiday snaps and anecdotes produce instant narcolepsy, it’s probably best you stop here.

Montmartre isn’t far from the Gare du Nord, so we walked it, and arrived among the steep, cobbled avenues and the endless flights of steps feeling happy but hungry. In Montmartre, you can’t throw a pain au chocolat without hitting a charming little bistro, so we went into the first one we stopped outside: Le Progres, it was called.

We squeezed either side of a tiny table just inside the door, and soon enough were presented with two great-looking plates: chicken and chips for Wendy, which of course sounds better as poulet au frites, and a huge slice of roast salmon for me.

Alongside this splendid bit of fish were two odd-looking discs that I took for mushrooms. I love my food, and am always keen to try something new, so popped one of these peculiar-looking things into my mouth.

It was not a mushroom.

Whatever it was, it was the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten. It was like chewing on a slice of ripe, aged dog turd. At least, that was the first image that came to mind as my tastebuds howled in protest and searched desperately for the exit.

Eventually I swallowed the damn thing, my vision started to clear, and over Wendy’s shoulder I saw three middle-aged French women convulsed with laughter at my tortured expressions. One was even reduced to holding her napkin over her eyes, to soak up the tears. Every time they started to calm down, one of them would glance over at me, and they’d be in hysterics again.

I have a theory these jolly femmes go regularly to Le Progres, to watch idiot Englishmen like me eat whole slices of what I now know to be Andouille: boiled and roasted tripe sausage.

The English waiter explained what it was, and that ‘it’s not very popular with foreigners.’ Indeed. Still, it was an excuse for another beer to wash it all down. And the rest of the food was fantastic.

It was also nice to reflect that I could honestly claim to have made three local women very happy within less than two hours of arriving.

This is just one of Mike’s wonderful adventures in Paris and you can read the full story from part one here on David’s blog followed by part two here and you can check out more of Mike’s photos on Flickr here.

The last our our delicious recipes from Eurostar’s Pastry and Dessert Masterclass at Chef Martial during their 15th Birthday celebrations in Paris a couple of weeks ago. If you give it a go let us know how you get on!

Ingredients

Butter: 200grs

Sugar: 180 grs

Almond powder: 200 grs

6 eggs

Corn flour: 80grs

1 pinch of salt

Pistachio paste: 40 grs

Leave the butter to soften (ambient temperature). Whip together butter, pistachio paste and sugar until the mixture becomes white and homogeneous. Add almond powder and eggs one by one while whipping to lighten the dough. Add corn delicately, salt and Grand Marnier. Butter the mold, cover with a sheet of buttered cooking paper and pour the dough. Cook in the oven at 180° during 40 minutes. Un-mold when cooled down.

Photo Macro Pistachios by Payhere

Another lovely recipe for you to try last weekend from Chef Martial during Eurostar’s 15th Birthday in Paris.

Ingredients

6 egg yolks

Sugar: 120 grs

Mascarpone cheese: 1 soup spoon

Flour: 120 grs

Baking powder: 3 grs

Soft butter: 80 grs

Lemon paste: 40 grs

Lemon zest: 1

Beat the egg yolks with sugar and lemon paste until white, then add soft butter and mascarpone cheese. Add the grated zest, then flour and baking powder delicately. Pour the dough in individual wood baskets filled with cooking paper and cook in the oven 15 minutes at 180°, then 15 minutes at 150°.

Serves 6 people

Photo Not Bad Lemon Cake by Cowbite

Another lovely recipe for you to try last weekend from Chef Martial during Eurostar’s 15th Birthday in Paris.

Ingredients

Biscuit

Chocolate (66%): 200 grs

Butter: 150 grs

Sugar: 135 grs

Maizena: 10 grs

6 eggs (middle size)

Wheat flour: 80 grs

Powdered chocolate: 1 soup spoon

Ganache

Fresh liquid cream: 230 grs

Chocolate: 150 grs

Butter: 70 grs

Butter for molds

Sliced almonds

Ganache

Boil the liquid cream, pour on the chopped chocolate while stirring. Add diced cold butter. Spread over a plate (2cm thickness) and leave in the freezer. Shape disks of 2 cm diameter and keep in the freezer.

Biscuit

Melt chocolate slowly in a boiling water bath. Add the butter, stir well. Whip whole eggs and sugar together until it becomes like a firm mousse (the mixture will make a kind of ribbon). Add warm chocolate, and powders (maizena, flour and chocolate) and stir delicately.

Butter each mold and sprinkle with almonds. Keep them in the fridge while whisking up each cake. Fill each mold up to the three quarters, add in each one a disk of frozen “ganache” and keep in the fridge 15 minutes”. Cook in the oven at 210° during 8 minutes. Then turn each cake out and serve immediately.

Photo Chocolate Ganache for Marcel Desaulniers by Foooooey

During our Birthday weekend in Paris we attended a cooking class at Chef Martial where we had a Pastry and Dessert masterclass, where we learnt to make 4 different desserts including; individual chocolate cake with melting heart, Lemon cake,  Pistachio ‘Pain de Genes’ and Mango and Coconut in Tiramisu style.

So you can try them your self we thought we’d share the recipies with you here on Little Break Big Difference starting with the Mango and Coconut Tiramisu Style. Let us know how you get on!

Ingredients:

Mango: 850 grs (500grs prepared)

Coconut cream (sweet): 140 grs

Italian Biscuits: 16 pieces

Madcarpone: 250 grs

Coconut milk: 140 grs (8 soup spoons)

Petit Suisse (Cottage cheese): 120 grs

Grated coconut: 50 grs

Sugar: 100 g

Water: 6 cl

Rum: 3 soup spoons

1 Lemon

spice bread

Boil the water with the sugar and the zest of the lemon cut into thin slices during 4 minutes. Add the 3 soup spoons of Rum and place sugar syrup on side to get cold.

Cut the biscuits and place in the pastry cutter in the shape of a disk (3 biscuits per person). Spoon the sugar syrup over the biscuits allowing them to soak up the juice. Peel, and slice the mango.

Mix well coconut milk, cottage cheese, mascarpone and coconut cream in order to obtain a creamy texture, add grated coconut. At the bottom of each bowl, place 3 biscuits soaked in syrup. Place the mango on top and cover with the coconut cream. To finish lightly cover with spice bread and serve cold.

Serves 8 people

Photo Mango by hojusaram