Last night we were invited for dinner at L’Invité. A charming restaurant at the Bloemgracht in Amsterdam where they serve dishes inspired by the French cuisine, but without additives.
Or at least no unnatural or unhealthy additives. For instance, when L’Invité’s chef, Richenel Dhoeki, uses oils these are the unsaturated types like rice or coconut oil. To sweeten a dish he depends on the ingredient’s natural sweetening capacities (like a ripe banana has) or uses Coconut Blossom sugar -also known as Gula Java- which is a natural and healthy substitute as it contains many nutrients and scores low on the glycemic index.
At most restaurants or take outs we don’t exactly know how much salt, sugar or extra fat is used in the preparation of the dishes. It is often forgotten that with the use and combination of certain ingredients, the natural flavour of these ingredients create the right balance between salty, sweet, sour or spicy.
The additives issue originates from the food industry (and the supermarkets) which is set to make profitable turnarounds and don’t much care about our health, even though it’s frequently communicated otherwise. It is up to our common sense to know ‘what’ we eat.
Like one of the table guests said: ‘I skip most sections in the supermarket, as I go straight to the fruit & vegetables. At least that looks the less tampered with.’ Yet we all know that’s not always the case either, but that’s a different discussion.
Let’s get back to our dinner at l’Invité. This are the dishes we’ve got served:
Starter
Foam of La Ratte potato with coalfish, sweet and sour broccoli, sliced pickles and sprinkled with Dutch shrimps
Main
Thinly sliced tenderloin on red cabbage, a jus of star anise, rosemary potato, and a mini tartar with a quail egg on top
Dessert
Banane Royale – mousse and bavarois of banana, banana chips, chocolate and almond
Curious? Go and have a taste for yourself:
L’Invité
Bloemgracht 47
Amsterdam
