Graduation dinner at Eendracht

This weekend we decided to take it a bit slower after a few pretty busy weekends recently. After a slow start on Saturday we cycled to the local market in the wind and on/off rain. We picked up some good cheese, cashew nuts, dates, chocolate and some old school music DVDs all for a good price.  The afternoon was spent chillaxing before a dinner date! We also had a very kewl skype chat with Brenainn (Justin’s brother) and Kirsten (Bren’s wife). Yay! Thanks guys, glad we could finally organise a chat! =)

Saturday night was dinner date night to celebrate graduation last week Friday. We had originally booked dinner for last week Friday night but changed it to this week Saturday because we went to the Pinkpop festival =) The restaurant we went to is called Eendracht. In English eendracht means unity, accord, harmony or union. An unusual name for a restaurant but makes sense since it is located on Eendrachtsweg. They certainly did create harmonious unions on the plate!

Eendracht is a small restaurant, seating 30 at the most, with very simple and rustic décor. The room is arranged so that you can watch the chef in action! Tables to seat 4 line one wall and couples are seated on the opposite side of the chef’s work counter. We sat at the original hand-made wooden counter (the chef and his grandfather made it together) in front of the chef and had an easy conversation with him throughout the evening. There is also a small outdoor section which seats about 12-20 and an upstairs room kitted out with its own kitchen which they use for hosting functions.

Of Dutch origins, chef Pepijn Schmeink, has been in the industry for 22 years although he looks like he is only about 35 years old. He has worked all over Holland and also spent 7 years in the States. He opened Eendracht 5 years ago, has been married for two years and is eagerly awaiting the arrival of their first child in August.

There are three seatings for dinner, 6pm, 7:30 and 9pm, to stagger the evening and give the chef time to prepare the meals. We chose the 7:30 seating. There are no menu’s at Eendracht, every evening is a surprise dinner! You can choose between a 4 or 6 course menu and if you want a wine pairing with your meal. They also have a good wine list to choose your own bottle from. We chose the 4 course menu accompanied by the wine pairing. The 6 course menu had rabbit as the main course which we chose not to have. The poor bunnies! But as Pepijn so kindly pointed out, they were already dead (we had been warned about the forwardness of the Dutch…). Chef Pepijn has many friends and contacts in the farming world and obtains all his ingredients fresh. However, this also means that he receives whatever is available and in season, one of the reasons for the surprise and variable menu. The portions are small, but you feel satisfied at the end of the evening and not like you have over-eaten, and are very well presented.

As an appetizer we were served a cold cucumber gazpacho with little shrimps on top in a creamy sauce accompanied by a sparkling white wine. There was also sour-dough bread on the table for dipping into olive oil, coarse salt and fine pepper. The first course was mackerel, smoked in the wood-burning oven in front of us, served with beetroot carpaccio on a bed of baby tomatoes and beetroot sorbet on top. This course was accompanied with a sparkling rosé wine. I can’t remember the names and grape varieties of all the wines we drank, but they were all of French origin.

The second course was a little lamb sausage on a roasted yellow pepper sauce, couscous and zucchini round on top of stringy lamb pieces served with some salad greens and a strip of roasted aubergine. The wine was a yummy light red of sorts.

The main course was a firm white flaky fish that I can’t remember the name of, on top of a creamy potato sauce and a creamy cauliflower sauce served with edible seaweed and some other things I can’t remember, lol. With the main course we had a very yummy white wine reminiscent of a Mulderbosch blanc fumé or wooded Chardonnay in taste and its deep butter yellow colour.

The fourth course was a small cheese platter of three different French cheeses, two cow’s milk and one goat’s milk, served with slices of walnut and cranberry bread, plum chutney and walnuts in a spicy honey. The pear cider was refreshing and complimented this course well!

The fifth and final course was a sweet dessert of strawberries marinated in something, a piece of white chocolate ‘pizza’ (white chocolate buttons on phyllo pastry drizzled with honey cooked in the wood oven) and rhubarb sorbet. Dessert was accompanied with a sweet white wine which tasted very much like a noble late harvest. Justin finished the meal with a cappuccino served in a cup with no handle, lol. To warm your hands in winter I guess.

Apart from sauces and sorbets which were pre-prepared, Chef Pepijn cooked and prepared everything fresh for each sitting. It was amazing watching him work. His work space is very organised but he is very also busy, he didn’t stop all evening. There are only two other staff, one waiter and one kitchen hand/waiter. Pepijn left after the last guests received their main meal and the two waiters handled the rest of the evening on their own. We left shortly after he did. What a lovely evening and exquisite food! Thank you for spoiling me boy boib!

Have a look at www.restauranteendracht.com for some pics of the restaurant and more info on Chef Pepijn.

Happy Father’s day to all the Dad’s today! Hope you’ve had a kewl day =) Justin’s cricket game today was in the Hague but got rained out after 15 overs. Justin bowled 6 overs and bowled someone out on his first ball =) Today marks the half-way point in the cricket season.

Not much planned for this week. There are some building alterations underway in Justin’s office this week so he will probably work from home some of the days. Bron has a second interview at Delft University on Tuesday and an informal meeting at Erasmus MC on Wednesday. Bron’s Mom is sending a parcel with a Dutch lady who lives in the village and is visiting Holland. Yay! Thanks Meeps!! So we will fetch the parcel from Haarlem on Saturday. Haarlem is near Amsterdam and looks like a kewl old town so we will do some exploring while we are there too.

Hope you have a good week!

x

PS: No pics from the week but these are of the assembly of our new Ikea units and the finished product =)

The pieces and assembly... 

...the finished product! 

Our apartment is looking way more tidy and organised now that all the boxes are finally gone! The plan is to get a kewl new flat screen TV to go on top of the cabinet at some point... Justin can't wait until his unemployed wife has a job!! Watch this space =)