The Occidental Belgian Beer Cafe
No posts in 2 months. Gee, what a one shot wonder. Since it's about time for the annual clean out of the wallet, I think I may go through my food receipts before biffing them. Something may spring up and remind me of something noteworthy.
Anyway ... The Occidental. 8 Vulcan Lane. 09-Nov-2005
I don't recall ever having had food here before. I do enjoy a nice Belgian beer though.
Lunchtime on a Wednesday. Busy but still lots of tables free. Noisy but not loud; still able to hold a conversation. Fast service.
I'm a big fan of De Post in Mt Eden, another Belgian Beer place with what appears to be exactly the same menu as The Occidental. That made it easy to order; Pot of Garlic and Celery Mussels with a Glass of Dark Beer please. My comrade in culinary cuisine had some Roast Chicken type thing with vegetables and rice, oh and a latte.
Whenever anyone orders coffee in a pub type setting I'm always reminded of The Young Ones episode where Vivian tells Rick that they are in a pub and "pubs don't do coffee". Maybe it's because we don't live in Britain or because it's not 1980 anymore but a lot of pubs round here actually do have big fat espresso machines on counters surrounded by bottles containing colored liquids. I'm not one to go into a pub for a coffee but I guess lots of people are.
A bowl of chips arrived as well, which may actually have been part of my order but I don't remember, I was too hungry to care.
I'm not actually a big fan of the humble mussel, more of a Bluff Oyster guy really, but a big pot of Garlic Mussels isn't something I can just let slide on by. At The Occidental your mussels arrive at the table in a big black pot, still in the shell. Discarding the shells into the pot lid as you make your way to the bottom of the pot becomes something of a balancing act since the body of the pot is a lot deeper than the lid.
I was a little surprised to find a couple of shells that didn't open during cooking. A good cook would have discarded those before they made it to the plate. I didn't actually have a plate and the pot on my table would be the same pot they were cooked in but I'd never had a closed shell at De Post before and getting two in one sitting was unexpected. I wasn't feeling ripped off or anything; you get so many of the little buggers I was unsure I'd be able to empty the pot.
Places like this make me sometimes wish I worked closer to the heart of the city.
For fanciers of good seafood, the $17 pot of mussels from The Occidental on Vulcan Lane gets my thumbs up.
Anyway ... The Occidental. 8 Vulcan Lane. 09-Nov-2005
I don't recall ever having had food here before. I do enjoy a nice Belgian beer though.
Lunchtime on a Wednesday. Busy but still lots of tables free. Noisy but not loud; still able to hold a conversation. Fast service.
I'm a big fan of De Post in Mt Eden, another Belgian Beer place with what appears to be exactly the same menu as The Occidental. That made it easy to order; Pot of Garlic and Celery Mussels with a Glass of Dark Beer please. My comrade in culinary cuisine had some Roast Chicken type thing with vegetables and rice, oh and a latte.
Whenever anyone orders coffee in a pub type setting I'm always reminded of The Young Ones episode where Vivian tells Rick that they are in a pub and "pubs don't do coffee". Maybe it's because we don't live in Britain or because it's not 1980 anymore but a lot of pubs round here actually do have big fat espresso machines on counters surrounded by bottles containing colored liquids. I'm not one to go into a pub for a coffee but I guess lots of people are.
A bowl of chips arrived as well, which may actually have been part of my order but I don't remember, I was too hungry to care.
I'm not actually a big fan of the humble mussel, more of a Bluff Oyster guy really, but a big pot of Garlic Mussels isn't something I can just let slide on by. At The Occidental your mussels arrive at the table in a big black pot, still in the shell. Discarding the shells into the pot lid as you make your way to the bottom of the pot becomes something of a balancing act since the body of the pot is a lot deeper than the lid.
I was a little surprised to find a couple of shells that didn't open during cooking. A good cook would have discarded those before they made it to the plate. I didn't actually have a plate and the pot on my table would be the same pot they were cooked in but I'd never had a closed shell at De Post before and getting two in one sitting was unexpected. I wasn't feeling ripped off or anything; you get so many of the little buggers I was unsure I'd be able to empty the pot.
Places like this make me sometimes wish I worked closer to the heart of the city.
For fanciers of good seafood, the $17 pot of mussels from The Occidental on Vulcan Lane gets my thumbs up.
posted by Nick at
4:27 PM
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