Le Chameleux: Lunch in Belgium

Le Chameleux

One thing I love about Luxembourg is its strategic location, where it's just a not-long drive to several other European countries. France obviously, but also Germany, and one afternoon, we drove out to Belgium to meet another of AB's longtime good friend and his wife for lunch, together with their 9-year-old daughter. The family is currently based out of London, but had flown back to Europe for Christmas. They had missed each other once while we were in London in September, so a meet up this time round was imperative.

The choice of venue for lunch was at Le Chameleux, a charming French restaurant tucked in the middle of the woods. You know it's a remote location when even the address can't be detected on the car's TomTom. No matter, with some clever maneuvering we managed to get there on schedule without getting lost. (All credit to AB though, since I know nuts about navigating in this area I've never been).

First clue that the food was going to be excellent was when we stepped into this not-the-easiest-to-find establishment, and they were full house. WOW. Fortunately, we'd made reservations, and most of the other guests had not arrived yet, so service was pleasingly prompt and smooth.

Second clue that lunch would be awesome was that it had a grand total of 6 choices each for main course and desserts. I really like when a menu is kept simplistic - somehow it conveys that the owner/chef are truly good, based on the assumption that they have the confidence and focus on getting those few dishes really well done and are vouching that you will like any of the few selections they offer.

Their signature was la truite meunière, and a no-brainer order for me, being a huge fish fan (for food). I was definitely not disappointed - the fish came perfectly fried such that the skin was crispy golden while the flesh was tender and juicy, and in a perfect size that was just nice to fill you up together with the potatoes and salad. Do take note: that's declared with the caveat that you can be prudent with the gorgeous pomme de terre though. I have a terrible weakness for all things potatoes so I must say I was quite proud of myself that I didn't overdose on those tasty sautéed beauties. I love that it's a whole fish too - the flesh just fell right off the bones and was a such a pleasure to savour - suffice to say I devoured every morsel off the bone. Meoow. Yumm.

Truite meunière: perfection on a plate

I even found space to order dessert, although I have no idea what possessed me to choose the dame blanche. It sounded innocent enough when described by the server: Vanilla and chocolate ice cream served with chocolate sauce and chantilly cream. Who knew that the actual thing was a monster of a sundae?! I completely ignored the cream, nibbled on the waffle biscuit, and just dug at most of the chocolate ice-cream, then left the rest to melt into a mess in the glass. :p Thankfully the rest of the group was busy catching up over their respective desserts (crepes Grand-Marnier and sorbet framboise et citron), and barely noticed. A double espresso also helped prevent a post lunch coma, such that I could enjoy the scenic drive back without dosing off. Heh.

Monster of a Dame Blanche

It sounds like the food was the star for me, but really, it was rather enjoyable to chat with the family who are also fluent in English other than French. Even the little girl, given her education in London, was conversant and reminded me a little of myself so we had some fun dialogues on favourite colours and erm, homework. Hahaha.

All in all, a really pleasant afternoon outing, and a good reunion for AB. With their reluctance to travel to Asia in the near future, who knows when their next meeting will be? Bearing that in mind, we took a bunch of "we-fies" and photos before respectively rolling into our cars and parting ways.

One of the random shots on our way back