This morning I decided to make onion soup the belgium way (via SOS Pete), which I don't think is any different than the french way, but don't tell them that.
Step One - Get uien.
For this I went outside to the saturday farmers market in Hoboken, I ended up getting 10 onions for less than 0.50 euros. Go farmers markets.
Step Two - Chop Onions into thin slices. (snijd de uien in twee en dan fijne ringen)
I cried, alot.
Step Three - Caramelize (gekaramelliseerd)
I have never caramelized onions before, ive burnt yes, but never caramelized so this was an experiment. I ended up mixing half a bar of butter with my onions and just cooking them over medium-high heat for 10 minutes. It worked quite well I think.
Step Four - Take onions out of pan and boil water in pan.
I honestly don't know where exactly it says this in the book but I figured it made sense. The intention is to get all the caramel goodness out of the pan and into the water, which you then add into the pot with your onions.
Step Five - Add water and spices to pot (voeg de rest van het water toe, samen met de tijm, laurier en italian mix)
I pretty much spiced to taste and added some chicken stock to give it a base.
Step Six - Simmer for 30 (opkoken en 30 minuten zacht pruttelen)
You basically want to concentrate everything together into yummyness.
Step Seven - Cook bread and cheese in oven (leg een toast met kaas onder de grill)
I fucked up this step. The place I am at doesn't have an oven, it has a combi, a combination oven and microwave....hella weird. So when I put the bread in I accidentally nuked it instead of cooking it. So not ok. Once I figured out once I did wrong I cooked it just a little bit longer to harden it up a bit (soggy bread sucks) and added some salmon to create a yummy appetizer. I then made it the correct way.
After it simmered down it tasted quite good. And even better once you add the cheesy bread. I know it is an easy recipe but after translating it from Flemish I figured I would fuck it up. But apparently not. Go onion goodness! So making this again once I get back to the states.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
Christmas Highlights: Day 10
1) Watching the pope get tackled by a crazy lady, multiple times. For some reason BBC liked to repeat it over and over again for our viewing pleasure.
2) Marveling in the miracle of Dafalgan. I flemish drug that feels as if you overdosed on niacin, but it clears everything out and now I feel amazing.
3) Belgian Breakfast
So it was more of a brunch, but I asked a friend what people here eat in the morning other than bread with cheese on it. He told me it was pretty much that or bacon and eggs. Easy. But the part I wasn't excited about was how you make it. After frying the bacon (again in hella butter) you simply add the eggs and just cook them on top of the bacon sunny side up style. I am not a fan of runny eggs but it wasn't that bad, maybe because of the ample amounts of butter added. Add some bread, oj and champagne et voila! Breakfast/brunch is served.
4) Watching Home Alone in French. Classic.
2) Marveling in the miracle of Dafalgan. I flemish drug that feels as if you overdosed on niacin, but it clears everything out and now I feel amazing.
3) Belgian Breakfast
So it was more of a brunch, but I asked a friend what people here eat in the morning other than bread with cheese on it. He told me it was pretty much that or bacon and eggs. Easy. But the part I wasn't excited about was how you make it. After frying the bacon (again in hella butter) you simply add the eggs and just cook them on top of the bacon sunny side up style. I am not a fan of runny eggs but it wasn't that bad, maybe because of the ample amounts of butter added. Add some bread, oj and champagne et voila! Breakfast/brunch is served.
4) Watching Home Alone in French. Classic.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Erg Sick: Day 9
Yep, I am sick and I feel like shit.
I did nothing really but Skype with the parents and sleep today. It sucks.
I did end up leaving the house around 7 to go eat Christmas Eve Dinner with my friend and his mom. She made fondue...well I guess you don't really make fondue but she prepared it. Apparently they don't like turkey so they don't do the traditional American holiday dinner, which is fine by me.
I have never had hot oil fondue before but it is really good, the mother also made some wonderful dipping sauces and some belgian fries to go with the meat. I think there were 6 sauces in total, ranging from cocktail-esk to a curry mustard. I think when I get home I am going to try the same thing. Not the sauces but a hot oil fondue, it looks fairly simple and I do have a fondue pot. I wonder if you can do it with tofu...
I did nothing really but Skype with the parents and sleep today. It sucks.
I did end up leaving the house around 7 to go eat Christmas Eve Dinner with my friend and his mom. She made fondue...well I guess you don't really make fondue but she prepared it. Apparently they don't like turkey so they don't do the traditional American holiday dinner, which is fine by me.
I have never had hot oil fondue before but it is really good, the mother also made some wonderful dipping sauces and some belgian fries to go with the meat. I think there were 6 sauces in total, ranging from cocktail-esk to a curry mustard. I think when I get home I am going to try the same thing. Not the sauces but a hot oil fondue, it looks fairly simple and I do have a fondue pot. I wonder if you can do it with tofu...
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
The River Schelde: Day 8
Today is another day wherein I did nothing but eat and drink. Oh well, I am on vacation no?
It started by visiting the yacht club bar as I did a couple of days ago. It is south of the city in Hoboken, and is a nice little local bar. Several of the patrons remembered be from my last visit and I was seated at the bar for another brief tour of Belgium beer. This time I took pictures...yet I didn't decide to take pictures until after I had a Mystic Kreik, a Tongarlo and an Orval (another trappist beer). Oh well, this beer blog is turning more into a drunk blog. In order to defend myself I must make it known that these aren't week american beers, no sir, most of the beers I have been drinking contain 8-9% alcohol. Unlike the 4.2% bud light I am used too.
Afterwards we went to get another beverage at this cafe/restaurant on the river called Zuikerrui, or Sugar (i think thats zhqt it means at least). It is a three story building composed mostly of glass and is very fancy looking. Food followed shortly after drinks and I then decided to go home, I haven't been feeling that well so I want to get as much sleep as possible.
It started by visiting the yacht club bar as I did a couple of days ago. It is south of the city in Hoboken, and is a nice little local bar. Several of the patrons remembered be from my last visit and I was seated at the bar for another brief tour of Belgium beer. This time I took pictures...yet I didn't decide to take pictures until after I had a Mystic Kreik, a Tongarlo and an Orval (another trappist beer). Oh well, this beer blog is turning more into a drunk blog. In order to defend myself I must make it known that these aren't week american beers, no sir, most of the beers I have been drinking contain 8-9% alcohol. Unlike the 4.2% bud light I am used too.
Afterwards we went to get another beverage at this cafe/restaurant on the river called Zuikerrui, or Sugar (i think thats zhqt it means at least). It is a three story building composed mostly of glass and is very fancy looking. Food followed shortly after drinks and I then decided to go home, I haven't been feeling that well so I want to get as much sleep as possible.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Diamonds Diamonds Diamonds: Day 7
As many of you know, Antwerp has a long association with diamonds. The industry is the cities second most important trade, after its giant ass port that I hope to visit later. Apparently 80% of all "rough" diamonds and 50% of all cut diamonds in the world are handled in Antwerp. Crazy huh?
So with this in mind I decided to visit the Diamond Museum here in Antwerp, a 4 story museum that follows Antwerps 500 year history with the mineral. I honestly wasn't that excited because I am not a big jewery person but the museum was amazing. Instead of just saying "Hey, here be diamonds!", the museum had a personal human story for each piece of jewery slowly giving the industry more...um soul or meaning. Don't know how to describe it, but for someone like me who likes stories it was alot more interesting than just giving me the name and the date created.
Afterwards, of course, I had more beer. I think the people here drink more beer than water...you know I actually haven't seen anyone drink water, heh, my kind of people.
As what I usually do, I asked some of the bar patrons what kind of beer to drink. They suggested the following; Chimay Triple, Kapittel Blond, and....um...gosh darn it. I need to start writing these things down. I think perhaps once I find out what beers I have had I am going to have an entry for each beer. I might have to taste each one again though....oh well. I do remember that I really liked the Chimay, another Trappist. Like I said before they are kind of a bubbly cider, but not.
So with this in mind I decided to visit the Diamond Museum here in Antwerp, a 4 story museum that follows Antwerps 500 year history with the mineral. I honestly wasn't that excited because I am not a big jewery person but the museum was amazing. Instead of just saying "Hey, here be diamonds!", the museum had a personal human story for each piece of jewery slowly giving the industry more...um soul or meaning. Don't know how to describe it, but for someone like me who likes stories it was alot more interesting than just giving me the name and the date created.
Afterwards, of course, I had more beer. I think the people here drink more beer than water...you know I actually haven't seen anyone drink water, heh, my kind of people.
As what I usually do, I asked some of the bar patrons what kind of beer to drink. They suggested the following; Chimay Triple, Kapittel Blond, and....um...gosh darn it. I need to start writing these things down. I think perhaps once I find out what beers I have had I am going to have an entry for each beer. I might have to taste each one again though....oh well. I do remember that I really liked the Chimay, another Trappist. Like I said before they are kind of a bubbly cider, but not.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Lazy Monday: Day 6
As the title implies, I did nothing really other than relax and try to get warm. It is bloody cold here.
I took a little walk around in the morning and then got lunch at the Hussenhuis, this historic 16th century warehouse where they have avant-garde art exhibits every once and a while. The cafe (aka bar) I have been to several times with my host as it is only a block away. There I decided to go a tad french and get a croque madame. I ended up staying for 4-5 hours as I just read my book and drank.
There I had a Grimbergen Dark, the bartender told me that sometimes people like to put a little syrup in it so i figured why not. The resulting cherry flavor mixed with the dark heavy beer was surprisingly good. It tasted like some kind of fruit juice though...even though it was like 9% alcoholic.
Afterwards I decided to go back to my favorite and have a Duvel. If I didn't mention it before it is a locally produced beer whose name means devil. And devil it is, it gets you trashed. It is a wonderful beer to sip on however so I just cradled it for an hour or so.
I took a little walk around in the morning and then got lunch at the Hussenhuis, this historic 16th century warehouse where they have avant-garde art exhibits every once and a while. The cafe (aka bar) I have been to several times with my host as it is only a block away. There I decided to go a tad french and get a croque madame. I ended up staying for 4-5 hours as I just read my book and drank.
There I had a Grimbergen Dark, the bartender told me that sometimes people like to put a little syrup in it so i figured why not. The resulting cherry flavor mixed with the dark heavy beer was surprisingly good. It tasted like some kind of fruit juice though...even though it was like 9% alcoholic.
Afterwards I decided to go back to my favorite and have a Duvel. If I didn't mention it before it is a locally produced beer whose name means devil. And devil it is, it gets you trashed. It is a wonderful beer to sip on however so I just cradled it for an hour or so.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Bier!: Day 5
I have never had so much beer in my life. Wait, thats a lie. Hehe rugby...whoops.
My belgian friend took me to a small little local family bar on the banks of the river here. It was one of those bars where everyone knows your name...literally.
So after being introduced to everyone as the american, I settled into the serious bussiness of belgian beer drinking. At 1pm in the afternoon. The great thing about small bars like this is that everyone has some comment to make, and as I drank beer after beer they filled me in on details and small facts about each one. Unfortuantly, I can barely remember the beers I drank much less any details. But I will try my best.
Duvel
Mystic Kriek
Cavar (sp)
and...some other ones that i cant remember
I also had some traditional belgian bar food. Yummy cheese dipped in mustard, and these fried meat things made from pork. It was as if someone put meat into a food processor untill it had the same texture as melted cheese and then decided to fry it. It was sickeningly good.
The bar patrons joked that I was eating and drinking myself down the menu. It was true I guess.
After that bar we went to another...and then another...and then another. I think I passed out around 10pm. It was a good day.
My belgian friend took me to a small little local family bar on the banks of the river here. It was one of those bars where everyone knows your name...literally.
So after being introduced to everyone as the american, I settled into the serious bussiness of belgian beer drinking. At 1pm in the afternoon. The great thing about small bars like this is that everyone has some comment to make, and as I drank beer after beer they filled me in on details and small facts about each one. Unfortuantly, I can barely remember the beers I drank much less any details. But I will try my best.
Duvel
Mystic Kriek
Cavar (sp)
and...some other ones that i cant remember
I also had some traditional belgian bar food. Yummy cheese dipped in mustard, and these fried meat things made from pork. It was as if someone put meat into a food processor untill it had the same texture as melted cheese and then decided to fry it. It was sickeningly good.
The bar patrons joked that I was eating and drinking myself down the menu. It was true I guess.
After that bar we went to another...and then another...and then another. I think I passed out around 10pm. It was a good day.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Chocolate?: Day 4
Today was fairly simple.
It started at about 1pm as I walked through central antwerp to visit Rubens house. If you dont know, Ruben is this really famous painter from the 16th century and was pretty much amazing. A bunch of his paintings are on expo at the cathedral that I visited yesterday. many of the historical sites around antwerp are about him or revolve around him in some way.
Afterwards I got chocolet, and then got trashed on Stella. Like I said, pretty simple.
It started at about 1pm as I walked through central antwerp to visit Rubens house. If you dont know, Ruben is this really famous painter from the 16th century and was pretty much amazing. A bunch of his paintings are on expo at the cathedral that I visited yesterday. many of the historical sites around antwerp are about him or revolve around him in some way.
Afterwards I got chocolet, and then got trashed on Stella. Like I said, pretty simple.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Walking Tour of Antwerp: Day 3
The Belgium guide book I have gives an idea for "a good walk" in Antwerp that I tried to imitate today. It takes you throughout Oude Stad (old town) so I figured that it would also help me get aquatinted to the area of the city where I am staying.
The walking tour starts at the Grote Markt, which I believe I have mentioned before abet in a different name. The Grote Markt is the central of Oude Stad and I found out as I got lost several times throughout the city most roads will lead you to here if you are patient enough. All of the buildings here are from the 16th century or older and most of them guide houses that are emblazoned with gold via what I think is a Renaissance addition to the gothic style of the buildings.
The Steen is a short walk away and is this small little fortress along the river. It is quite quaint and I never would of imagined that it was used for centuries as a prison. The quaintness comes from being build in the 9th century....its more than 1,000 years old, its crazy to think about. The cross that you can see in the picture (not yet added) is also apparently where the prisoners had their final prayers before execution.
Next was the Vleeshuis, a gothic style butcher house from 1501. It has now become a music museum...which is funny because I think the name means like meat house or some such. It makes me laugh to think of what the translation would be. "Would you like to come to the meat house and listen to some music?" Heh. The building now serves to show the musical life of Antwerp and it was quite entertaining to go around and see the many bizarre instruments people played in the old days. For instance, they have this thing called a Serpent, it pretty much was a curved piece of wood with holes...the ancestor of the modern brass instruments. It is hilarious looking and people used to but snake/dragon faces on the end.
My walk ended with the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedral (the Cathedral of Our Lady). Like I mentioned earlier, it is HUGE! The north spire, the one with the clock on it, is 404 feet! It was originally built in 1352 and has a hilarious history of lootings and burnings that I won't bore you with. The cathedral now contains many works by Peter Paul Ruben who painted many religious works for the church. One in particular, The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, was painted for the high alter of the cathedral and so the sun's rays will illuminate Mary at noon.
That was not even one half of the walking tour the book gave but I think I will finish the rest later...maybe. Instead I went to t'Veurleste, a bar next to the cathedral, and had myself a Westmalle Trappist beer. It was really good, more like a cider than a beer, tart and bright.
The walking tour starts at the Grote Markt, which I believe I have mentioned before abet in a different name. The Grote Markt is the central of Oude Stad and I found out as I got lost several times throughout the city most roads will lead you to here if you are patient enough. All of the buildings here are from the 16th century or older and most of them guide houses that are emblazoned with gold via what I think is a Renaissance addition to the gothic style of the buildings.
The Steen is a short walk away and is this small little fortress along the river. It is quite quaint and I never would of imagined that it was used for centuries as a prison. The quaintness comes from being build in the 9th century....its more than 1,000 years old, its crazy to think about. The cross that you can see in the picture (not yet added) is also apparently where the prisoners had their final prayers before execution.
Next was the Vleeshuis, a gothic style butcher house from 1501. It has now become a music museum...which is funny because I think the name means like meat house or some such. It makes me laugh to think of what the translation would be. "Would you like to come to the meat house and listen to some music?" Heh. The building now serves to show the musical life of Antwerp and it was quite entertaining to go around and see the many bizarre instruments people played in the old days. For instance, they have this thing called a Serpent, it pretty much was a curved piece of wood with holes...the ancestor of the modern brass instruments. It is hilarious looking and people used to but snake/dragon faces on the end.
My walk ended with the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedral (the Cathedral of Our Lady). Like I mentioned earlier, it is HUGE! The north spire, the one with the clock on it, is 404 feet! It was originally built in 1352 and has a hilarious history of lootings and burnings that I won't bore you with. The cathedral now contains many works by Peter Paul Ruben who painted many religious works for the church. One in particular, The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, was painted for the high alter of the cathedral and so the sun's rays will illuminate Mary at noon.
That was not even one half of the walking tour the book gave but I think I will finish the rest later...maybe. Instead I went to t'Veurleste, a bar next to the cathedral, and had myself a Westmalle Trappist beer. It was really good, more like a cider than a beer, tart and bright.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Snow and Worsten: Day 2
It snowed today, and it was beautiful.
As I had my tea I watched the snow fall on the city, slowly but heavily. I think it snowed about 4 inches as I perused my cookbook to see what I want to make today. Unfortunately, I indoctrinated the book to life with me as I spilled an entire cup of tea all over it. Oh well...I will blame it on the snow.
Decrypting the cookbook is a horribly long yet entertaining process. I do not have the slightest hint on how dutch works and even with a 'langenscheidt' trying to identify what the hell that one ingredient is takes like 15 min. For example, here are the first few steps in making 'hutsepot', which i think stands for stew:
1. Snijd de groenten in grote stukken. Zo koken ze niet los en blijven ze heel in de hutsepot.
2. Stoof de groenten 5 a 6 minuten aan in een grote pan.
3. Kruid met peper en zout en voeg tijm en laurier toe.
4. Voeg het water toe en laat even opkoken.
5. Leg het spek op de groenten en laat alles 45 minuten stoven onder deksel. Als je geen deksel op de pan zet, verdampt het water en kan de hutsepot aanbranden.
etc etc etc
Difficult huh? All I got out of the above was that i need a big pot, simmer the crap for 5/6 min, add spices, boil, and cook for 45 min. I think that is pretty much the gist of it all anyway. That however took like an hour to translate. Or at least it felt like it. Watching BBC doesn't help though.
Once my host got back from school we went to pick up all of the ingredients for 'hutsepot' and 'uiensoep'. Some of them we couldn't translate so we wandered around the store trying to figure out what 'raapjes' and 'preistengels' were. I don't remember which is which but one is leek and the other um...radish was it?
While we were out we took a brief walk around the snow covered town. Apparently it doesn't snow this early here, the weather i think is supposed to be like Seattle in nature so this was an unexpected treat. It showed, as the city was filled with young and old enjoying the snow via snowball fights, ice skating, or trying to warm up at one of the outside alcohol and/or food stands. Dear lord I love those. I almost got another waffle but decided not to.
The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal was stunning. It really is the biggest old building I have ever seen and the snow makes it look so majestic its unbelievable. Pictures do it no justice. It apparently used to be the biggest church structure in europe. But I think Russia took that title somewhat later.
Once I got back to the apt I decided to make myself a worst for lunch, following Huysentruyt's recipe in the book. It requires lard...lots of lard. I used about 5 tablespoons of butter instead. I then cooked the sausage over medium heat for about 10 minutes and voila! My first meat product in a hella long time! As I cut into it the buttery juices spilled out upon my plate. I would of been disgusted but it was one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten. Oh boy, I could feel myself getting fatter as I ate it.
Later that night I made the hutsepot. It went really well. It pretty much is a vegetable stew, like the one I make back at home, but with bacon. Yes bacon. You just throw a bunch of bacon into the pot with all of the vegetables. Its light on spices but heavy on the bacon. I personally found it lacking it flavor (that most likely is because my host forbade me from putting the other two onions in) but in general I found it satisfying. I think if I made it again I would add some white wine, I find that white wine in stews adds a very good flavor for some reason. Oh I forgot to mention, once the stew is cooked, you are supposed to add cooked sausage, or worsten. Yes...more buttery fatty goodness. I am so going to come back to the states a stone heavier...
After we gorged ourselves on stew and sausage (and I had a quick power nap), we ventured out into the snow-globey wonderland to meet my hosts english friend at a bar called Popi. Here I had my first taste of belgium beer. Well belgium beer that wasn't stella, which is like bud here. Oh so good though. Anyway I had a DeKoninck, the locally produced beer and a....oh dam...I cannot remember anymore. Regardless the un-named beer and the DeKoninck were wonderful. The DeKoninck in particular was a darkish beer but it wasn't bitter. It was very flavorful and smooth, aka amazing. I will try to remember some more details later.
In addition, after listening to my complaints that my host doesn't have an oven (horrible huh), my new friend decided to give us the keys to his flat for christmas week while he is visiting family in England. Yay! Now I can actually cook deserts and quiche and some kind of meat product for christmas dinner! Yay! Oh my...I just realized that this will be the first holiday dinner where I am going to be in charge...I hope I don't fuck up.
As I had my tea I watched the snow fall on the city, slowly but heavily. I think it snowed about 4 inches as I perused my cookbook to see what I want to make today. Unfortunately, I indoctrinated the book to life with me as I spilled an entire cup of tea all over it. Oh well...I will blame it on the snow.
Decrypting the cookbook is a horribly long yet entertaining process. I do not have the slightest hint on how dutch works and even with a 'langenscheidt' trying to identify what the hell that one ingredient is takes like 15 min. For example, here are the first few steps in making 'hutsepot', which i think stands for stew:
1. Snijd de groenten in grote stukken. Zo koken ze niet los en blijven ze heel in de hutsepot.
2. Stoof de groenten 5 a 6 minuten aan in een grote pan.
3. Kruid met peper en zout en voeg tijm en laurier toe.
4. Voeg het water toe en laat even opkoken.
5. Leg het spek op de groenten en laat alles 45 minuten stoven onder deksel. Als je geen deksel op de pan zet, verdampt het water en kan de hutsepot aanbranden.
etc etc etc
Difficult huh? All I got out of the above was that i need a big pot, simmer the crap for 5/6 min, add spices, boil, and cook for 45 min. I think that is pretty much the gist of it all anyway. That however took like an hour to translate. Or at least it felt like it. Watching BBC doesn't help though.
Once my host got back from school we went to pick up all of the ingredients for 'hutsepot' and 'uiensoep'. Some of them we couldn't translate so we wandered around the store trying to figure out what 'raapjes' and 'preistengels' were. I don't remember which is which but one is leek and the other um...radish was it?
While we were out we took a brief walk around the snow covered town. Apparently it doesn't snow this early here, the weather i think is supposed to be like Seattle in nature so this was an unexpected treat. It showed, as the city was filled with young and old enjoying the snow via snowball fights, ice skating, or trying to warm up at one of the outside alcohol and/or food stands. Dear lord I love those. I almost got another waffle but decided not to.
The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal was stunning. It really is the biggest old building I have ever seen and the snow makes it look so majestic its unbelievable. Pictures do it no justice. It apparently used to be the biggest church structure in europe. But I think Russia took that title somewhat later.
Once I got back to the apt I decided to make myself a worst for lunch, following Huysentruyt's recipe in the book. It requires lard...lots of lard. I used about 5 tablespoons of butter instead. I then cooked the sausage over medium heat for about 10 minutes and voila! My first meat product in a hella long time! As I cut into it the buttery juices spilled out upon my plate. I would of been disgusted but it was one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten. Oh boy, I could feel myself getting fatter as I ate it.
Later that night I made the hutsepot. It went really well. It pretty much is a vegetable stew, like the one I make back at home, but with bacon. Yes bacon. You just throw a bunch of bacon into the pot with all of the vegetables. Its light on spices but heavy on the bacon. I personally found it lacking it flavor (that most likely is because my host forbade me from putting the other two onions in) but in general I found it satisfying. I think if I made it again I would add some white wine, I find that white wine in stews adds a very good flavor for some reason. Oh I forgot to mention, once the stew is cooked, you are supposed to add cooked sausage, or worsten. Yes...more buttery fatty goodness. I am so going to come back to the states a stone heavier...
After we gorged ourselves on stew and sausage (and I had a quick power nap), we ventured out into the snow-globey wonderland to meet my hosts english friend at a bar called Popi. Here I had my first taste of belgium beer. Well belgium beer that wasn't stella, which is like bud here. Oh so good though. Anyway I had a DeKoninck, the locally produced beer and a....oh dam...I cannot remember anymore. Regardless the un-named beer and the DeKoninck were wonderful. The DeKoninck in particular was a darkish beer but it wasn't bitter. It was very flavorful and smooth, aka amazing. I will try to remember some more details later.
In addition, after listening to my complaints that my host doesn't have an oven (horrible huh), my new friend decided to give us the keys to his flat for christmas week while he is visiting family in England. Yay! Now I can actually cook deserts and quiche and some kind of meat product for christmas dinner! Yay! Oh my...I just realized that this will be the first holiday dinner where I am going to be in charge...I hope I don't fuck up.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Brussels: Day 1
Well that was quite a long plane ride.
My first glimpse of the country was our landing and of fields and farmhouses as the sun was rising this morning. The airport is literally in the middle of farmland. The air traffic control tower is surrounded by 4 farmhouses and their respective fields. Quaint.
After meeting my host at the airport we headed directly into the city in order to get some well needed coffee. We went to this little place off of the Grand Place (fyi: most cities in Belgium are built around a central market, or grand place. This is often located near the cathedral or Town Hall), it was a cute little modern cafe that was apparently all organic or some such. They claimed to be "green" so whatever that would mean. Regardless the coffee was warm and my pain au chocolate was good. It however was a shocking thrust back into the land of bad coffee...aka europe.
Afterwards I saw a pissing boy (he is famous if you didnt know, for peeing...i know I dont get it either), some paintings by Magritte at the Royal Museum of Arts, a adorable hidden alleyway restaurant (the food was eh though), and the Winter Festival....dear lord...it was hilarious and had the best carousel in the entire world.
I wish we had more festivals that had full bar booths, hot chocolate and alcohol booths, waffles and alcohol booths, belgian frites and alcohol booths, and Santas with dinosaurs (not in a booth but still entertaining). So amazing.
My first glimpse of the country was our landing and of fields and farmhouses as the sun was rising this morning. The airport is literally in the middle of farmland. The air traffic control tower is surrounded by 4 farmhouses and their respective fields. Quaint.
After meeting my host at the airport we headed directly into the city in order to get some well needed coffee. We went to this little place off of the Grand Place (fyi: most cities in Belgium are built around a central market, or grand place. This is often located near the cathedral or Town Hall), it was a cute little modern cafe that was apparently all organic or some such. They claimed to be "green" so whatever that would mean. Regardless the coffee was warm and my pain au chocolate was good. It however was a shocking thrust back into the land of bad coffee...aka europe.
Afterwards I saw a pissing boy (he is famous if you didnt know, for peeing...i know I dont get it either), some paintings by Magritte at the Royal Museum of Arts, a adorable hidden alleyway restaurant (the food was eh though), and the Winter Festival....dear lord...it was hilarious and had the best carousel in the entire world.
I wish we had more festivals that had full bar booths, hot chocolate and alcohol booths, waffles and alcohol booths, belgian frites and alcohol booths, and Santas with dinosaurs (not in a booth but still entertaining). So amazing.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Airplane: Day 0
I am about to begin my three week tour of Belgium. Three weeks....dam. That is a long time to be a tourist. I think it will be fine though, instead of getting a quick glimpse of the country I will be able to dive more into the day to day life of the belgian people. Having a home base in Antwerp will help.
In order to satisfy my ADD I have decided that since I love food, I should try and cook a belgish/flemish recipe everyday I am there. And if thats not possible at least discover a new beer. I think the country has like 300 os it shouldn't be that hard. Unfortunately the place I will be staying has no oven. So half the things I would want to make will be impossible. Oh well. Maybe I will meet someone who will let me kidnap their kitchen.
So yea...thats the plan.
Enjoy!
In order to satisfy my ADD I have decided that since I love food, I should try and cook a belgish/flemish recipe everyday I am there. And if thats not possible at least discover a new beer. I think the country has like 300 os it shouldn't be that hard. Unfortunately the place I will be staying has no oven. So half the things I would want to make will be impossible. Oh well. Maybe I will meet someone who will let me kidnap their kitchen.
So yea...thats the plan.
Enjoy!
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