Belgium - Day 6 - In Bruges

Side bar: We are back on terra firma as of this post, having made the loooong trip back home. Woke up around 4:30 AM Brussels time (+7 hours from Nashville) for the flight to London. Got to hang out at Heathrow for 4 hours, then the big plane to Chicago. We got lucky in Chicago and came home a few hours early, by getting standby on an earlier flight to Nashville.

We were literally handing our tickets to the gate agent when a couple came running up, having just got off the plane from Dublin. They hold us and give our seats to those two (who had booked them), leaving us fuming. Fortunately, there were exactly two more seats available on the flight, so we got to come home.

Well, well...day 6 in the lovely city of Bruges. Don't hold the movie (which I've never seen) against it.

Bruges is an absolutely spectacular medieval city which left us lost culturally, spatially, and habitat-ually. Read on for details.

We caught an 8 AM train from Brussels to Bruges with the intention of going on a bike tour. This is the same tour that Chatty and Heath (shout out!) tried to go on when they were here last year. We had signed up for the tour online the night before and glanced at the meeting spot. We knew it was "in the square" but I had intended to log on in the morning to get the exact location. Obviously, since I'm telling the story, I did not. Guilty as charged.

So, we wandered around the main square in town, looking for a bunch of people with bikes, besides the bunch of people that reside in the city with bikes. Nowhere to be found. We ended up asking in a bike shop where the meeting spot was, as the tour was supposed to begin, and it was exactly where we had been standing, in front of the belfry. As I found out the next day, the tour company had send me an email at 2 AM indicating that the tour would not be held. Too bad, so sad. However, at the time we assumed that they just didn't show (which they didn't), so we climbed the belfry tower (belfort in Dutch).

Apparently, playing bells, in a bell tower, is a big part of Belgian culture. There are a number of towns which have belfries dating from the middle ages, which have several dozen bells attached to a keyboard and to what is essentially a big player piano. A person can play the bells, which each town does a few times per week, but otherwise they have a machine play a different tune every 15 minutes. The big cylinder shown here has pins on the outside, which strike keys above the cylinder, which are wired to hammers that strike the bells. In Bruges, you can hear a particularly awful rendition of "Danny Boy" at 15 minutes past the hour. (It is actually 11 minutes past the hour...the old mechanical clock is not the most accurate.)

After all of that excitement, we wandered around until lunch time, when we finally got to eat some mussels! We went to a restaurant which was recommended by our new Belgian friends (see Amsterdam) for seafood and local fare. Dru ordered moules au bier (mussels in a beer sauce) and I got moules aphrodisiac, which was a spicy sauce with onions and chili peppers, among other things. Fantastic, though it is early in the season and some of the mussels were a bit small. And of course it all came with a big bowl of fries. Before (each pot is one serving)...


...and after...


Boo-yah!

After that we tried some postprandial chocolates, since we were on a mission to determine the best chocolatier in Belgium, and toured the De Halve Maan brewery, as part of our mission to determine the best brewery in Belgium. We went to a shop called Chocolate Line, which had some interesting flavors. We tried (among other things), Tea, Chili Pepper, and Lemongrass. Quite good, but the Saffron chocolate from Marcolini is the best so far.

Dru is chiming in: Yes, Marcolini, indeed the best so far! As for Bruges, it is beautiful and we should know - we traversed it several times throughout the day, between searching for the bike tour, the brewery, the chocolate shop, and art museum, back down to the train station to check what time the last train out was, and then a stroll through the park by one of the many canals. By then, it was time for dinner and we were excited to try another restaurant recomendation. Once we found the one we were looking for, we were dissapointed to find that it was closed on zonterdag (or whichever the word for Thursday is in Dutch) and we consulted the guidebook.

This is all leading up to a social gaffe OF EPIC PROPORTIONS. The stage is set - we are dressed for a 3 hour bike tour, sweaty and smelly from walking, sunburned, carrying a backpack. We arrive at De Karmelieat, knowing that it was a "gastronomic" (aka a rating of three euro signs in the guidebook) so we were expecting it to be a little fancy. However, the dinner that followed exceeded all standards for froo-froo, posh, fancy-pants, hoity toity, classy restaurants that we have ever known.

Where to even begin. The door man in a three piece suit ushered us in (and offered to take our back pack) to be greeted by the extremely suave maitre d' who offered us a cocktail and repose in the lounge. Of course, we declined, being quite hungry, which earned us a small frown for not following the formula. Beyond that though, the staff and service were impecable, despite our extreme hoi poloi-ness...i.e., it was such a nice joint that they wouldn't even raise an eyebrow at the sweaty couple in jeans.

We were shown to a table and proceded to be waited on by a staff of no less than 9, including the sommelier and his assistant, our official waiter, another assistant, a young server, a man whose sole purpose was to describe the food after it was delivered, and a fromagier (but we will get to her in a second). We were given menus - the "ladies" menu did not have prices on it, which we did not even realize until conferring much later. For those of you unfamiliar, this is a largely antiquated practice of obscuring the cost of the meal, the premise being that the lady should order whatever she wants, regardless of the cost.

Now, as this whole process is going on, we are making mistakes left and right. Amuse bouche were given to us and I put down the menu to eat them - which signaled to the waiter that I as ready to order, even though I was not. This seems minor, but trust me, in the setting, it was mortifying. I pretty much had a perma-blush the entire time. But our embarrassment aside ... the food was fantastic. We elected the 3 course menu, which ended up somewhere around 7...a plated three part amuse bouche, as well as a shared plate of amuse, the appetizer, the entree, a cheese course, the desert, and mignardises and coffee. They also had a 5 and an 8 course menu, which presumably also grow proportionately. The food just kept on coming, always with long descriptions of many ingredients and components (there was foam invovled), and impecable service - new silveware, crumb wiping, saucing and re-saucing (half-way through the plate, the head waiter returned with more sauce), wine refilling (even if it was down a sip), and even a new napkin rolled out at Ben's place to cover the errant splatters. (Ben: I was enthusiasic about the meal.)

Now, given our predicament, obviously I did not want to pull out the camera to take pictures of this meal. However, when the cheese lady came out with her cart, another table asked if they could take a photo and I seized the opportunity. Unbelievable ... and delicious.

So, we wrapped up this experience around 10:30, walking out about 10:40. The trains back to Brussels left every half hour and we were a good walk from the station. Rather than run (as we were rather stuffed) we strolled and enjoyed Bruges at night - the lit up square, an accordian player, very content.

Until we got to the train station and saw that the last train had left at 10:58. There was no 11:30 train. Now for those astute readers, you noted that we did check this earlier in the day. Though no one admits to any fault in the situation ... we were trapped in Bruges for the night.

We walked back into town, hoping to find a hotel with a desk clerk still there at midnight. I offered to pretend to be pregnant, if that would help us find "a room at the inn". We did find a very nice hotel (very nice) and we are pretty sure the man gave us a discounted rate (and offered us toothbrushes). The room was beautiful and the bed was extremely comfortable. All in all, an evening of unanticipated luxury. And we are not complaining.

Tune in tomorrow for: A direct train Bruges to Ghent! More walking! Hanging cured pork legs! And dinner across the street from our apartment!

Belgium Day 5

We decided to spend the day in Brussels, in part so we could sleep in after the stormy night prior. We successfully navigated the Metro system (made all the more difficult by the fact that our map was outdated and construction had been completed - turning a “line” into a “loop”). However, we ruined our streak by promptly getting lost when we exited the station, entering a neighborhood which felt a bit sketchy. A very nice young man noticed our map and directed us in the way of the brewery, so chalk one up to Belgian friendliness!

The Cantillon Brewery was really interesting (and delicious!) and for more details see Ben’s previous post. I heartily second his recommendation to try the real type of beer - they are like the family drugstore that is struggling against a Wal-Mart. The true lambics are nothing like the thick sweet syrupy ones that the US is familiar with, they are refined and delicious!

So, after beer tasting for breakfast, we were ready for some lunch. And if you thought we had been eating well before, this is where it starts getting even better! We decided on a French place called L’Idiot du Village, on a tiny street near a cathedral. Wow. It was a tiny room with maybe 8 tables, funky classy décor (the chandelier was kind of antique metal, crystals, and blue Christmas lights), and not a tourist in sight. There of course were no English menus, and luckily the French we do know is mostly food words. We started with what has so far been my favorite dish of the trip - Fois Gras with vanilla and pepper sauce (seen here). Wow again! The sauce was full of vanilla (those are the whole vanilla beans on top) and sweet but savory, in a way that perfectly complimented the rich creaminess of the fois. It was almost like a crème brulee decided to jump the dessert ship and join the rest of the meal.

For entrees, I had Turbot (a white fish) covered in mix of fresh herbs (basil, cilantro, parsley, fennel) and tomatoes with a side of some sort of starch puree (potato and cauliflower? Turnip? Something with a large amount of butter in it at any rate!). Ben had a potage of rabbit, artichokes, and snails (yes he did have his escargot, big ones too). For dessert we had this fantastic concoction of merengue, gelee (ice cream), and caramel fleur de sal. Now, salted caramel is definitely in my top 10 flavors of all time list, and as you can see, the plate is covered in it. The sweet salty duality is second to none, kind of like kettle corn to the nth degree.

Stuffed and happy, we toured the cathedral and made our way back up to the chocolate shops. Of course we needed to sample another one to compare, right? We made our difficult selection and headed over to the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate. This was tiny and marginally lame, but you get free samples, so who am I to complain? We also learned how to make chocolate molds from a delightful French man.

By then it was raining and cold again, so what do we do? Duck into a bar and have a beer, of course! I embraced my new-found love of lambic and got the house brewed raspberry. Yum!

Home for warmth and a nap, and then a late dinner. We were excited to have moules and frites at the bar down the street, but once we got there and decided what sauce to have - we were told that they had no mussels. No mussels in Brussels! Either the season was over or had not started yet, we were a little unclear, but at any rate, we had to settle for their other fare. Ben had some chicken and fries, I tried a local dish called Stoemp. What came was a giant mound of green mashed potatoes, flanked with sausages, and topped with bacon. Ok! The potatoes had been pureed with some sort of vegetable (broccoli maybe) so that makes it healthy, right?

Tomorrow - you must go to Bruges!

The Brewery Post

So we have visited two breweries/brasseries/brouwerijen (depending on where you live) this week. First:

Brouwerij De Halve Maan

A quick history: The "Half Moon" is the only brewery remaining in the city of Brugge. There has been a brewery on the site (which is right in the middle of the city center) since the 16th century, and the building was bought around 1850 by the Maes family. The business was purchased and shut down "by a big brewery" in the '90s and reopened as De Halve Maan in 2005 by the same family. Today, they brew under the brand Bruges Zot.

We visited the brewery and pub on Thursday afternoon and took a tour. I was pleased with the presentation, because it focused very superficially on the actual brewing process (which I already know something about). Instead, we toured the building, going all the way up to the roof for a panoramic view of the city, and the discussion focused on the history of the company, the building, and the historical brewing process. The building is actually a series of buildings, which continuously expanded as the business grew through the 1900s, and they are full of turn of the century brewing equipment...open air fermenters, a copper cooling pan, and a really interesting copper heat exchanger.

Here is a picture of the heat exchanger. It is constructed of a LOT of copper pipes, about 2 inches in diameter, stacked together. This is really just for exposed surface area...these are really "half moon" pipes. That's also why the whole thing is wavy...more surface area in the same height. The hot beer is (literally) poured in the top, which is open, and it then dribbles down and out a pipe, into a pan at the bottom. All that copper surface area radiates heat like mad.

Additionally, there are fittings on the side for water pipe (one is at the very bottom of the picture). There are additional sealed pipes inside that cold water flows through, picking up even more heat off the beer. This is a really neat piece of old technology, even though it must have cost a fortune to build, because it is exactly the same principle used in every brewery today from my back porch up to the big boys.

About the beer...

The beer was fantastic! They make three varieties here: Bruges Zot Blonde, Bruges Zot Brown (a dubbel), and a dark trippel called Straffe Hendrik. The blonde was light bodied, creamy, a touch hoppy, and had very faint aromas of orange and cardamom. (I'm cheating a little in naming that...they told us in the tour that orange peel and cardamom are in the recipe, but you can still taste it.)

The brown however, wow. It was my favorite beer of the trip until the next day in Ghent, when I had a beer made in that city. The brown is slightly higher alcohol, at 7.5%. (Note that I haven't seen a beer here under about 5.5%. The Belgians aren't scared to kick their beer up a notch.) It is much more complex, without some of the sweetness associated with the blonde. That is pretty remarkable...it is difficult to make a strong beer dry, simply because you are starting with and expect to end with more sugar.

Brewery Cantillon

The day before our visit to Brugge, we went to visit Brewery Cantillon, which is the last brewery remaining in the city of Brussels. Cantillon is also a family business, run by the sixth generation of the same family. They brew a much more traditional beer, but one which very few people outside of Belgium have probably ever had, and which is unfortunately dying off.

Cantillon brews lambic (lam-bik), gueze (gooz), kriek (creek), framboise (fram-bwoz) and a number of variations of those biers (beers). All of these are actually based on lambic, by blending and adding other ingredients. Lambic is a sour, flat beer, based on the way it is produced. I know that doesn't sound too appetizing, but it is quite good.

Lambic is produced by using wild yeast and bacteria in the air, rather than inoculating with a single known strain like modern brewers. After the boil, the beer is poured into an enormous copper pan in the attic of the building, which is exposed to open air. The pan is about 20 feet on a side, and about 8 or 12 inches deep. Leaving the proto-beer there overnight allows it to cool, as well as collect yeast from the air. After several hours like this, the beer is put into oak casks for up to 3 years to ferment. The beer is flat because these casks are not completely sealed...carbon dioxide slowly leaks out through the wood.

At Cantillon, we took a tour of the old building before sampling the wares. This was a really cool way of touring, because they just gave us a booklet explaining the process and set us loose. Really. They sent us down the hall and we got to poke around where ever we wanted. Here is a picture of Dru, hanging out with one of their two big copper brew kettles. From here we checked out their grain storage, old equipment, and wandered around the cellar (see the picture of me, above, with barrels of lambic).

After the tour, we sampled the gueze and the kriek. Gueze is a blend of 1, 2, and 3 year old lambic. Because it has the young beer, there is sugar going into the bottle, which is fermented, which carbonates the beer as it ages in the cellar. It was incredible...it tasted like a dry, sour white wine. The sourness is a bit of a kick when you first taste the beer, but it really grows on you.

Kriek is lambic which has sat on macerated cherries for several months before bottling. There are many other variations, using other fruit like grapes or strawberries, all of which have their own names. The kriek was not sweet like you would expect, because the sugar from the fruit was fermented as well. It was still a sour drink, but the essence of the cheries was quite prominent. Not my particular cup of tea, but Dru was a big fan.

A dying breed

These beers are dying off due to commercial imitators. As brewing technology advanced and the process became more commercialized, people looked for ways to produce more beer faster. However, Belgium does not protect the formula or production method of lambic beers, like you would for a certain variety of wine, cheese, or meat.

A lot of brewers today who produce these beers will simply add sugar and cherry flavor to a modern non-sour beer, rather than taking the risks of wild yeast inoculation and waiting for years before bottling. This means that most people know kriek as a very sweet, sugary, fruity drink, rather than a dry, sour one. I would encourage anyone to seek out and try a gueze or kriek, but you should make sure that it is a sour, traditionally produced lambic beer. While there are a few others out there, I cannot name another brewer besides Cantillon. The good news though, is that they are distributed across the United States, so it should be possible to find it.

That is all I have for now on beer and brewers...was it enough? I will leave you with a picture of Happy-Ben in the courtyard at De Halve Maan, drinking Bruges Zot brown.

Belgium 2009 - Day 4 (More Amsterdam, which is not in Belgium)

Well, after a pleasant nap before dinner, we are again awake at a late hour and blogging on!

We awoke to Day 4 after fitful sleeping due to the wrath of nature that rained down on Amsterdam (perhaps storms of biblical proportions on a modern day Gomorrah?). In any event, we were sleepy and the weather had cooled off considerably. We headed down to have continental breakfast included in the hotel price. Of note, they had single serving Nutella for your toast, or for my toast as was the case.

We headed out to catch the tram to the Rijksmuseum, which although undergoing reconstruction, had a portion of its fantastic collection on display. Among many fascinating and beautiful objects d'arts were a huge model ship, dollhouses, amazing silver and pottery pieces, and paintings from the region. This means some absolutely stunning still lifes, Hals, Ver Meers, and Rembrants. I was saying to Ben that I remember reading about these artists in my art history texts and thinking how exotic and far these museums were in the world - and here I am getting the opportunity to actually see them in person. I can't describe the feeling, Here is a picture of the outside of the museum, and as you can see it is misty, gloomy, and gross outside.

We attempted to go to FOAM, the "fotographie" something of Amsterdam, but alas, it was closed between exhibits. There was however, a small but wonderful exhibit they had set up across the street in the city archives. The FOAM folks had brought 4 photographers from New York to "see" Amsterdam through their eyes, and this exhibit was the result. All four had a distinct and very different take on what could have been cliche themes - water, people, night - but truly elevated their vision to capture the Amsterdam hidden from everyday visitors, evoking stillness, loneliness, and mystery in a city that is superficially none of those.

Art nerdiness aside, we had had about enough of the cold mist that turned into a gusty downpour every time we ventured outside. We were cold, wet, and cranky ... but nothing that a big steaming plate of noodles couldn't fix! We ducked into a chain we were familiar with from London - Wagamama. As you can see, I was certainly happy with my ramen!

We decided to call it a day and hopped back on the return train to Brussels. We arrived to find sunshine and made it back "home". Before dinner, we decided to get a beer at a place right near our apartment called Bier Circus - turns out they had food too, and we sat down for dinner. I'll let Ben take over, as this is his realm of beer and pig parts:

Bier Circus

Ben: mmmmm...pig parts. Bier Circus had no hop clowns or malt acrobats, but it did have an extensive menu of Belgian beers. By extensive, I mean that the food menu was three pages and the beer list was about 30 pages. Each beer had lengthy descriptions in Dutch, which were no help at all. Dru says that her descriptions were in French...still no help. We each started with a selection picked mainly on the strength of its name: Celtic Angel for Dru and Kwak for me. See the previous beer post for a picture of the exciting glassware that came with Kwak (quack!).

For dinner, Dru selected meatballs with a pear and apple sauce. I had a "pig's knuckle" with a mustard cream sauce and we shared a basket of frites. Both of these dishes, and just about everything on the menu had some variety of beer in the recipe. The meatballs were "very good" but Dru is tired of typing for now, so that's all we will say. The pig knuckle on the other hand...wow. Imagine the lower leg of a pig, covered in mustard sauce, with token vegetables.

As you can see, that is exactly what I got...ankle on the right, leg bones on the left, whole thing about the size of my head.

I (somehow) have never experienced this particular part of the porcine anatomy, though *most* other parts have passed my lips. The meat is similar in color and texture to a ham, but much more tender and succulent, without the injected salty/smoky flavor that a store-bought ham has. The sauce was peppery and creamy and a perfect complement.

With dinner, we had two more beers: V Cense for Dru and Belgoo Luppo for me.

For desert, we elected to go with a chocolate mousse made with Chimay beer, a stout from Hofbrouwerijke, and espresso.

Tomorrow: more beer! And the day after that (tomorrow for us) is a visit to Bruges. To quote Dru: Is this country great or what?

Beer and Shellfish

Well, I'm using the term "shellfish" very loosely here, because I'm talking about escargot...snails for the non-gastronomically inclined.

As we were walking around Brussels on our first afternoon here, we ran across this little gem:


That's right...snails from a truck. Well, Dru thinks that tacos from the taco truck near our house is sketchy, so snails from this run down little trailer sounds like a "no-can-do, monsieur." However, in retrospect (and since I had some snails at lunch today), I'm thinking that I will try out the escargots if we see another street vendor like this.

I'm a little curious how it is served...covered in sugar a la gaufre (Belgian waffles from a truck)? Probably not. In a paper cone with mayonnaise, like frittes (French--or rather Belgian--fries)? I guess I will just have to get some and report back.

Dru says: You are just asking for a case of salmonella if you do that.

And the beer


I promised to dedicate a post to liquid bread a few days ago, and here it is. Thesis: Belgium knows what it is doing when it comes to beer. Evidence: There are hundreds of breweries in the country (I've seen numbers between 100 and 300), for a population of about 10 million people. By comparison, the US has about the same number of breweries (excluding brewpubs and restaurants), for a population approaching 300 million. Further, in the US, about 5 of those breweries are extreme outliers from the pack, in terms of production and sales. While there are leading brands here, a much wider variety is available anywhere you go.

Over the last few days, I've made an effort to not drink the same beer twice. Here is a quick list of beers that we have had:

• Grimbergen
• Chimay Blue
• Rochefort
• Cantillion Labic
• Cantillion Gueze
• Morte Subite Framboise
• Morte Subite Kriek
• Westmalle Dubel
• Duvel
• Ramee
• Serafin Celtic Angel
• Kwak
• Belgoo Luppo
• V Cense
• Hofbrouwerijke Hofblues

...and there are probably others that I haven't written down. I list this not as proof of addiction, but rather as evidence of the extreme variety available. We will talk about the Beer Circus in another post, but besides that one meal, we haven't gone to any "beer specialty" places. Rather, every bar, restaurant, and brasserie is a beer specialist.

Another interesting point about advertising and consumption here: each bar has a "house" beer, with a sign out on the street. This is analogous to a bar serving primarily Bud or Miller products in the US, except that there are probably a dozen "inexpensive" brands that have bought house status: Maes, Palm, Stella Artois, etc. (Yes, I just did that...Stella is piss. And I apologize to all of you back home who have succumbed to a good advertising campaign, but honestly--try a real beer.)

Now the one drawback. I hate to criticize beer culture here, but the one thing that I have found is that variety of styles is lacking. Every single brewery offers a Belgian Ale, with a few others brewing lambic, gueze, kriek, and variations. I think there is a slight movement to "hop up" the beer, like American brewers have done since the early '90s, but it is not widespread. Having said that, all of the beers are distinct from each other.

We are also going to write about our visit to the Cantillion brewery, but good day to you, for now.

Belgium (and Amsterdam) - Day 3

Dru here, all caffeinated from an after dinner espresso, and eager to get caught up on our days. I am sure Ben will have something to add as well.

So, the day started with us waking up early to allow plenty of time to walk to the train station, buy tickets, find the platform, and be on our way to Amsterdam. Needless to say, we stopped for pastries, could not find the ticket sellers, got stuck in a long line for international travel, and missed our train. Luckily, there was another in an hour and we consoled ourselves with cappuccino and croissants. No worries.

Three hours later, we arrive in Amsterdam amid many, many other tourists. We make our way to the tourist office (getting only marginally lost), secure hotel reservations, and head out to see the city. We attempted to go to the Old Church (Oulde Kerk) on the way to the hotel but ended up at the New Church (Niew Kerk) instead. Still beautiful, but apparently something about the latitudes and longitudes up here are throwing off our normally decent sense of direction.

We stopped at a cafe for a quick lunch, which turned into quite a long lunch - we ordered sandwiches with smoked salmon (a club with salmon, basil, tomatoes - very tasty combo!) but the restaurant was out of smoked salmon. They declined to tell us this until half an hour later, when our waiter assured us that someone had gone out to buy more. This would have been fine, but there were a few highly annoying American families on either side of us, with bratty children and loud voices. (Ben note: "NOOOOO. You're ruining it Bobby!!! Just tear it off!!!! WAAAAAAA!") It is fairly obvious why Europeans find Americans odious.

We spent a few hours at the Van Gogh museum, which is a wonderful collection of 200 of Van Gogh's paintings arranged chronologically. It is fascinating to learn facts (he only became a painter after failing at being a banker) and see the progression of his talents. Truly a treat.

A short nap in an adjoining park and we were ready to find some beer. Obviously. Here is Ben enjoying a Duvel canal-side. Ahh, Amsterdam!

For dinner, we found a little square with several food offerings. We decided to go with tapas (again? yes! The menu had Gallician Octopus which had been sold out the night before). It was a beautiful night and we really wanted to sit outside, however, two men were in front of us. They were quite jovial and invited us to join them, so we decided to make some new friends. Now, we never did exactly get their names, but somehow the two of them and the delightful threesome next to us had a fantastic, hilarious, and leisurely dinner over the next three hours. The two were an English man and his Dutch/ Indonesian son-in-law who worked together selling flowers in Holland. These two were a trip - already three sheets to the wind, cracking jokes, impersonating everyone from Jean Claude Van Damme to Jim Carey, and prone to breaking into song together - sometimes the same song, sometimes ... not.

The tapas were wonderful, crusty bread, the aforementioned octopus (comparable to what I had in Spain), grilled squid bites with a ton of garlic, and albondigas (meat balls for you non-Spanish speakers) in a spiced sauce with peas. A rioja to drink and crema catalana for dessert. Oh, and all served by a waiter who looked and sounded like Hank Azaria in the Birdcage. All together, a very enjoyable meal - the likes of which can probably only happen in Amsterdam.

Ben's Note: Our new buddies also made friends with the waiter--he insisted on calling him "amigo!" and on requesting a new "tennedor" every time he dropped his fork, which was often. The waiter was very clear on the point that he was Castillian, not Catalan, so he couldn't pronounce half the stuff on the menu. But it was still tasty.

As we were paying our check, the winds started to pick up ominously. Within minutes, there was a torrential downpour, thunder so loud it made the church bells ring, and alarmingly close lightning. We were completely soaked after the 5 minute run back to the hotel. (oh, and I forgot to mention the ridiculous stairs that one has to climb to make it to the 4th floor). The storms continued as we tried to sleep, bringing cooler weather for the days to come.

Tomorrow: a Dutch history lesson, noodles, noodles, and more noodles!

Belgium 2009 - Day 2

Ok, we are falling way behind, but we’re now back from Amsterdam (more on that to come) and I’m ready to talk about Day 2 in Brussels: Bozar, a business idea, chocolate and conveyor belts. Epic once again…I’m trying to edit heavily, but we just get too excited about the food.

Bozar

The day started off with a walk through the Parc de Bruxelles down to the royal palace…we thought we would just pop in for a tour, but that wasn’t happening. The park is somewhat like Central Park, shrunk down to about two by three blocks in size, with a little European flair with fountains, a theater (du Parc, of course) and long straight walking paths. So it was actually nothing like Central Park, but still a nice place with kids playing and couples lounging on the grass in the afternoon.

From there we tried to go over to the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts (Bozar, get it?). One might think that the entrance to the royal art museums would be prominent, or have a sign or something. Instead, we set up a pattern that would follow us for the rest of the day, wherein we got continuously lost, wandering back and forth in front of the door, trying to find the museum. Several times we walked for (literally) an hour to get a few blocks down the street.

Here is a picture of the main hall in the museum…swanky, huh? By the way, that globe down on the floor, way at the other end is made of bugs. Real bugs. Thousands and thousands of beetles and moths. Gross, huh?

Here’s the business

After several hours of appreciating Belgian arts and culture, it was lunch time. We wanted to get to the Plaza du Petit Sablon, so we decided to walk in completely the wrong direction. (Incidentally, Google Map that puppy to see how dumb we are.) Down that way we saw a neat little café called Ciabata Mania. I would post a picture, but the only one we took has soup and crumbs everywhere, with half-eaten sandwiches in the background. The space was light and airy, friendly hipsters behind the counter and at all of the tables, and carousel music remixed as Euro-techno.

I think a place like this would do great in the US, and I’m thinking of downtown Nashville or a college district here. The menu was essentially soup, pre-composed pannini sandwiches, and espresso drinks. The sandwiches hit the grill for a few minutes when you order and they bring it out to you. The food was hot, fresh, and delicious, it comes out quickly, and you really can’t screw it up. We split a bowl of tomato soup and a pannini with mortadella, provolone, pesto, and tomato.

Chocolate (eventually)

So, appetites satisfied, we made our ill-advised way down the hill in search of a park and church. We ended up in the uber-touristy part of town. Realizing the error of our way, we consulted a map (should have done that to start, right?) and headed back up the big hill. By sheer luck, we wandered through a square housing two of the most highly recommended chocolatiers in the city, plus Godiva. In we went to Pierre Marcolini, where Dru spent a good thirty minutes perusing the offerings. Eventually we ended up with six selections, plus two macarons (high pressure up-sell by Dru).

Here is a picture of four of the six…we went to town on two of the chocolates before we remembered to document. We ended up with Violet, Safron, Almond, (hot) Pepper, Four Spice, and Cardamom. The last four are in the picture, in clockwise order. I’m going to let Dru wax poetic about chocolate now:

So, I like chocolate and usually I don’t discriminate between some M&Ms and a fine truffle. Both delicious, both fix the craving. But take it from me, these Belgians? They know what they are doing. These tiny morsels of delicious literally start to melt the second you pick them up. Biting into them, they disintegrate even more - making the ones we had a tad difficult to share. Share we did, after an excruciating decision making process. The flavors we got - exquisite. The Violet had subtle nuances of raspberry, the Almond was a marzipan morsel with a hint of pistachio. The cardamom had coffee undertones for a sultry spicy experience and the Pepper was a veritable bloom of flavor on your tongue. Needless to say, a return trip is in order! Back to Ben:

We wanted to take the chocolate to a park called the Petit Sablon, by a plaza called the Grand Sablon. The church was visible from the chocolate shops, as in we were already in the plaza. Did we pay attention? No, of course not. Instead, we walked a half mile in the wrong direction, to the Palais de Justice. We ate our macaroons (chocolate and coffee) to fortify us for the return journey, and set off. Finally! We arrived at the park, took a seat, and enjoyed on one of the most expensive foods (by weight) that I’ve ever had.

…and conveyor belts.

So eventually we went to dinner. We had a nice long walk (not lost this time) to work up an appetite. Dru: Ok, really it was like, half a mile. (Ben: that’s a long enough walk, ok?) We were excited to try the “trendy tapas” bar we read about in the guidebook - as we like tapas and especially like foods that come around on conveyor belts! Here is a garlic, white bean, roasted pepper, and olive tapenade crostini trundling by:


…. And the after picture 19 plates later! Basically you sit at a bar, drinks are self serve, and several small plates of finger food rotate before your eyes. The plates are color coded, so you know if you are getting veggies, fishies, porkies, meaties, cheesies, sweeties, or garlicies. Highlights included the lamb ribs with rosemary, chorizo wrapped in puff pastry, bacalao with a sabayon, fuet, lentils with apple compote, manchego with chestnut puree, and churros with dark chocolate sauce. Add 4 Spanish beers and we were some happy tapas-filled campers!

We rounded the night off with a few beers at a neighborhood bar near our apartment, and ended up closing the place. Duvel for Ben and Bergen-something Abbey beer for Dru. Delicious nightcap. As an added bonus, we’ve picked that bar for moules and frites some night when we are feeling a bit lazier.


So that’s the story

Up next: two days in Amsterdam, crazy international friends, plus malt clowns and hop jugglers.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, Dru with a plastic cow:

Belgium 2009 - Day 1

This is our first post ever, so forgive me for making it an epic one. As most people know, we are traveling to Belgium for a week. Several of our friends have asked us why and been skeptical...see below for the answers. Anyways, I hope you enjoy. If Dru and I also enjoy the posting, we will continue to write about food & travel--we hope you like it as much as we do!

5/23 2:30 PM - We have arrived in Brussels after a long night and day in the air...BNA to ORD to LHR to BRU. Layovers were reasonable, but we've spent a long time on confusing airport trains in Chicago and London.

We took the train into the city and walked about 10 minutes to get to our apartment, which is a 5th floor walk up, with stairs like a ladder. Dru gave me a hard time for being out of breath when we opened the door, even though Miss Marathon was winded too. We took a nap and then headed out for a beer (obviously).

7:00 PM - Nowhere to go

Problem #1: We got in on a Saturday afternoon and our place is in the middle of the EU district...everything in the neighborhood is built around the government workers. Imagine Washington on a weekend without tourists. We were a little concerned going to the apartment, because it was like a ghost town. This is in the middle of a big city, and we saw maybe half a dozen cars drive by after we left the train station.

So, we walk out of the apartment, wander up the street and find nothing. There are a few Italian and Asian places, but everything is closed. Past a university and down what appears to be a main fashion/shopping street, very much like Via del Condotti below the Spanish Steps in Rome. Completely closed up, on a Saturday evening!

Problem #2: We eventually realize that cafes and restaurants here don't have big signs out front to advertise. You just have to know that they are there. We got lucky by seeing a few chairs out on a sidewalk with a menu, so we popped in to a place called Belga Queen. Which of course expects reservations. Belga Queen has loud Euro music playing in a bar that could best be described as "modern chic" and one of the bartenders looked like he was in Autobahn, with the other nihilists. Yeah, we were a little out of place with our jeans, sweaty shirts, and harsh American accents.

But that was cool

...because they had beer. Lots and lots of beer. Belgian beer. And no American Pisswater or Pisswater Light in sight. Belgians love their beer and I love Belgium for that. Before I wax poetic about beer's wonderful qualities, I will commit to a post or three in the future dedicated to the beer here. Anyways, here is Dru's brew:

Eventually we got a seat at the oyster bar, which made me appreciate Dru's somewhat-limited-though-extensive-compared-to-me grasp of French. She understood that they were asking for her "nom" when they stuck us in the bar. If I was alone, I would still be sitting there, trying new beers.

The food was outstanding. We split a half dozen oysters (fine de claires), which tasted intensely of the sea with a lot of minerals, like a very dry white wine.

Here, I need to dedicate a paragraph to the butter. Oh yeah. European butter is absolutely delicious. Full of fat, really salty, creamy, and they put it on the best bread around. Except for desert (see below), the bread and butter might have been the highlight of the meal.

Next up, Dru had Open Ravioli with Crab. Dru says: Essentially big sheets of thin perfectly chewy pasta layered with fresh crab and a light truffle cream sauce. Very delicious!

I had Eels with Green Sauce (anguilles au vert), supposedly a Brussels specialty (which I had never heard of before reading the guide book). I'll tell you what...they are also delicious. I wasn't sure what to expect, but they came as four sections of eel, maybe 3 inches long, stewed in the green sauce. The eel was cleaned with the spine left in, and you just pull the meat off (the other bones are so small and soft that they were not a problem). The sauce was salty and made with herbs, cream, and I think a little spinach. It was very different than the eel that you would get at a sushi restaurant, and much better (if that is possible).

Finally, desert was noir des iles. It was layers of dark chocolate mousse, light chocolate mousse, and coffee-chocolate mouse, covered with chocolate ganache.

Dru says: I really appreciated that this ganache was soft and the perfect covering to the light, airy mousse. Too often ganache is hardened and that makes breaking into it difficult, but this was a delightful complement to the dessert. It was accompanied by pieces of Belgian chocolate, raspberry sauce, and creme anglaise. yum.

One other note...the dish came with mint, currants on the stem and a little orange fruit wrapped in dried petals (like a tomatillo). The fruit had a waxy skin and a flavor that was a cross between blueberries, green apple, and a pear. It is in the picture to the left, on top of the chocolate...let us know if you recognize it.

That is all for now, since it is time for another beer and Dru is giving me the hairy eyeball. I'll be back later with snails, more beer, and goodies from day 2.