De Oesterput (oyster pitt) is very well known by a few in Belgium. It’s in Blankenberge, a popular seashore town along the Belgian coast. It’s a typical family holiday place, not fancy like Knokke… just a place where the hard working commoner family goes on holiday since the early 50ties.
I know my parents went there since I was a baby. Every year. Again and again. Probably that’s why, when I grew up I only very rarely visited the place again. However, last year when my wife and I returned to Belgium for a family visit, we also took a trip to the Belgian coast. (68km of North Sea coastline: yup… that’s Belgium… a HUGE country -grin-)
Blankenberge, West-Flanders.
Anyway, we had lunch at the Oesterput with some great seafood: Dutch Zeeland flat oysters which are definitely the best in the world, unfortunately also the most expensive;
Zeeuwse platte Oesters. The best in the world. Because of these little animals I’ll forgive the Dutchies for being Dutch!
Fish soup with rouille. We both loved it. Wonderful dish.
And another speciality from Flanders: Garnaalkroketten -> think gray shrimp croquettes, dipped in egg-white and bread crumbs, then deep fried in oil. I’ll post the recipe in a future cooking post but just forget about cooking this in Asia, as there sadly is no way to buy those North Sea grey shrimps here!
A Classic with Capital C in Flanders’ cuisine.
If you want the real stuff: catch a flight to Belgium to enjoy them. Just don’t tell me, as I would turn green and have a tantrum out of jealousy!
Behind the windows in the back are 4 large basins where they keep life lobsters and oysters. It used to be an open space but due to health and safety reasons they had to separate the basins from the restaurant with those windows. People call that progress but I preferred the charm from before!
Website of this place: http://www.oesterput.com/
Although they announce 4 languages on their home page, English and German is still unavailable. Sorry for that. If you want to read, you’ll have to stick to Dutch or French!
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