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 We successfully navigated the Metro system (made all the more difficult by the fact that our map was outdated and construction had been completed - turning a “line” into a “loop”).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!