Valentine's Day in the Netherlands. What to do, what to do? We hadn't been out to any restaurants since we've been here. We hadn't really gone out much at all. So, we made reservations for dinner at a castle.

The castle, Kasteel Erenstein, is not far from our house. We had walked to it once with the dogs and noticed that it is now a hotel and restaurant, so we figured it might be a fun place to go eat. We got there last night at 7:00, parked the car, and walked across the bridge that goes over the moat (the moat!) and up to the restaurant.

From the minute the hostess took our coats, everything was perfect. We started with a glass of wine while when we sat down, which was really nice and helped dull the shock when the menus came and we discovered how much dinner in a castle goes for these days. We ended up ordering the special, a four course menu that sounded so good we barely even glanced at the other choices on the menu.

First, they brought out a plate with a small piece of smoked salmon rolled around some crème fraîche with a little dish of a saffron foam. Once we figured out which fork we were supposed to use, it was very nice. Next was our actual first course (the smoked salmon was just an "amuse bouche"). It was tuna on a bed of greens, a gratinée oyster, and a lemongrass mousse. Delicious. Our second course was sea bass with steamed spinach, langoustine, and a tiny exquisite cherry tomato that burst in our mouths. Amazing. Our main course, was veal with all sorts of stuff I couldn't even identify including something orangeish that was like a tiny bit of mashed potatoes with crunchy little somethings on top, and a fried ball of something on a bamboo spear that was balancing artfully across the plate. Absolutely incredible. So good I didn't realize I was eating brussel sprouts until Ben said something about them as he inspected something else on his plate and asked, "Are those turnips?". Hmm, they were turnips. There were bits of turnips and brussel sprouts on my plate (both of which I am not a fan of), and I had eaten them without realizing what they were because the food was just that good. So good. Incredible. Each course was better than the one before and it was all amazing. We expected a lot from dessert, a cake with a layer of chocolate mousse and a layer of vanilla rice, but it was merely "good". Luckily it was accompanied by a little bowl of coconut ice cream that tasted like heaven. Out of all the plates they brought out to us, not one went back with any bit of food on it.

Full and happy, we paid and walked out to the entrance where they had our coats waiting for us and then held the door open for us as we left our castle and crossed back over the moat. Needless to say, dinner in a castle definitely lived up to our expectations. And now we're headed off to Paris for the weekend. I don't know what we're going to do for Valentine's Day next year, but it will be hard to top this one.