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.
Monday, December 21, 2009
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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