Saturday, August 28, 2010

Sasha's Kitchen On The Road: Belgian Food & Beer



After our time in Paris, we continued on to Belgium, home of fabulous beer, chocolate, seafood, frites and waffles. This was a culinary paradise and we did our best to take in as much of the belgian food as possible.

Our first stop was for some waffles. They were delicious, but I'm afraid that the waffles we had may not be the most traditional Belgian waffles of all time and a bit touristy. They were still good though. A traditional belgian waffle (and yes! I have a recipe I've used to make my own Belgian waffles on this blog) is a waffle that is topped with some powdered sugar.  A bit more touristy and you have chocolate, whipped cream, fruit - the whole nine yards.  They were delicious, although a bit on the heavy side for breakfast.


Next up - chocolate. Belgium is world famous for its chocolatiers. We tried two of the more famous ones - Neuhaus and Galler. Both were delicious and I have some great pictures of the Neuhaus chocolates below from their lovely chocolate shop in Brussels. We bought some in the store and brought home several boxes. Such lovely flavors - I even had one with violet. Their pralines were out of this world, as Neuhaus supposably invented the praline.










Belgium is also famous for its frites (Belgian French fries) with spicy mayo.  We went to one of the best fry stands in Belgium to try them out. They had pretty much any type of mayo or other topping that you could imagine (all unhealthy, of course).  We had ours with the traditional spicy mayo. This may have been my favorite Belgian specialty of all - they were delicious. 







Time for some beer to wash it all down. It would be quite easy to write a discourse on Belgian beer. We had many different types of beer while visiting Belgium. There are quite a few varieties of brews that are native to Belgium, including the trappist beers and abbey beers, both of which are brewed in conjunction with monasteries. In addition the lambic beers are traditional to belgium. Below are some photos of a few of the beers we tasted at two fabulous Belgian bars in Brussels - La Mort Subite and Delirium. The beers pictured below include  Lambic Kriek (cherry), Maes (a pilsner), Orval (a trappist beer), Belgian Cookie Beer - but that's just a sampling. Not pictured: Delirium Tremens and Kwak.

 





Finally - a trip to Belgium isn't complete without some Belgian style moules - or mussels. I can't say we tried the best ones in Brussels but the ones I had were quite good at Aux Armes De Bruxelles (sorry no pictures).

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2 comments:

  1. The chocolate and banana waffles look yummyyyy, I LOVE chocolate, specially the ones that look like bananas if they have the same filling I'm thinking of, it's the first time for me to know that Belgium is chocolate famous country.

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  2. OMG look that chocolate.Its so yummy .Most tourists know about famous belgium chocolate like Belgian chocolate truffles and gourmet belgian chocolate. Belgium may be known as the Capital of Europe but some consider the nation the Capital of White beer as well.The best thing about belgium is that you will always miss belgium if you are food addict. Belgians have been making the world's best chocolate for well over a century and locals simply regard good chocolate as an everyday part of like. By the way don't eat chocolate that much you will gain weight!



    Best beer bars in brussels

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