Restaurant Treeswijkhoeve in Waalre was the perfect choice for long, boozy lunch. One of the few restaurants open on a Sunday for the whole afternoon, and with a Michelin star to their name, they provided the perfect place to relax and not have to cook on the day after a Supperclub.
But none of us were quite prepared for what was to come during the four hours that we were there. Chef-owner Dick Middelweerd personally served plate after plate of exciting food, matching classical flavors with contemporary style and presentation. He passionately described every dish and it was clear that he loved what he was doing and was so proud of his creations that he needed to tell us about them in person… I know he isn’t the only chef to do this, but it seems he’s already been doing it for some 19 years.
We went for the Menu Alliance; a 5 course tasting menu which in the end became 9 courses counting extra desserts and cheese. Particular highlights were an amuse of reconstructed peanut with shitaki mushroom and a wasabi pea, Sea bass tartar with hoisin and puffed rice; but the venison en croute stole the show for me at least.
Above are amuses. From left to right; Banana bread (delicious; spicy and slightly warm), the reconstructed peanut with wasabi and shitaki mushrooms, mackerel tartar with hering roe and a frozen pastile of lettuce (very surprising, no one thought it would be frozen but everyone kept the surprise to themselves 
), finally the partridge bitterball with burnt and fresh mustard, wonderfully hot and gamey; i’m afraid i put the whole lot in my mouth in one go.
Next came the sea bass tartare in a kind of cannelloni made from hoisin jelly, this was served with puffed rice; the whole dish provided exquisite taste, texture and color, a real show stopper that brought a smile to everyone’s face.
Sticking with the fishy theme, the next dish was lobster and pumpkin, served with Jerusalem artichoke cream and enoki mushrooms and black quinoa. This was the one week dish of the day, everyone thought the lobster was a little tough (possible because my lobster from the night before was so tender), and I personally didn’t think the pumpkin cake was very nice. My wife passed on the lobster and instead received veal sweetbreads with artichoke spring onions which was very nice and smelled great.
The final starter was roast cod in a kind of ethereal fishy froth, very light but with a great flavor. My wife again didn’t have fish, instead had hare loin, quails eggs, wonderful late season mushrooms.
And then the main event; venison loin en croute, served with venison feather blade steak, courgette and onion rings, sprouts filled with apple, caramelized date, potato croquette and the must unctuous rich meaty sauce.
Desserts were a haze of coconut bomb filled with passion fruit, meringue with gingerbread and condensed milk ice-cream which I wrote on Twitter was “deliciousmazing”, an arrangement of chocolate and praline and coffee, ultra smooth ice-cream again, food delirium was approaching.
Somehow we found the strength for port and cheese, I can’t tell you what I had but it was well aged and strong and good. The port finished me off, no one had room for coffee, we were all full in the fullest sense of the word. Great lunch. Great, great, great.
