Gent: Day 18

On a whim I went to gent with my newfound diplomatic envoy. The experience only lasted a few hours before I had to catch the train back to Antwerp , but it was quite entertaining. I mostly ran around the town trying to take in as much as possible while at the same time trying not to lose any limbs to frostbite.
The most memorable part of the visit was trying to get to the train. What I was told would be a 15 min walk turned into an hour long trek. It wasn't the most amusing walk but I had good company and how many people can say they walked down 200 year old streets on the bank of a canal while it was snowing. I would of enjoyed it more however if I wasn't freezing.
(Picture is of the Cathedral in Gent)

Diplomatic Brussels: Day 17 (New Years Day)

During the new year celebrations I met a couple of diplomats visiting from Brussels. They invited me to come up later that afternoon and...well...who can say 'maybe' (the apparent diplomatic way of saying no) too persuasive diplomats?

Later that afternoon I was given a brief tour of Brussels, starting at the decorated town hall and ending near the Royal Palace. It was getting dark and cold so it wasn't that extensive, but it will do untill I can return later this week.

Before we went on a tour of the bars I dropped off my day-bag at one of their assigned apartments and dear fucking lord...can I be a diplomat? I never knew how well off diplomats were until today. From what I heard most of their work is dining and drinking at fancy parties while getting free housing and a modest salary. True they have to get a masters, go to specialty schools and don't get much opinion on where they are going. But...dam it sounds amazing, and as I heard more and more about the work diplomats do throughout the evening I vowed to look into becoming one. Well at least until I heard that the American diplomats were a bunch of stuck-up boring assholes. Oh well.

Uiensoep: Day 11

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.