Belgian cuisine is held in high regard, second only - if not equal -
to French, and the country also offers a wide range of ethnic food
Food
Southern Belgian cuisine is not unlike traditional French, retaining the
fondness for rich sauces and ingredients that the latter has to some
extent lost of late. In Flanders the food is more akin to that of
Holland, with many interesting traditional dishes. Pork, beef, game,
fish and seafood, especially mussels, are staple items, often cooked
with butter, cream and herbs, or sometimes beer. Soups, too, are common:
hearty affairs, especially in the south and the Ardennes , a region also
renowned for its smoked ham and pâté.
In most parts of Belgium you'll start the day in routine Continental
fashion with a cup of coffee and a roll or croissant. Later in the day,
the most obvious snack is a portion of frites - served everywhere in
Belgium from friture stalls, with just salt or mayonnaise, or, as in
Holland, with more exotic dressings. Other street stalls, especially in
the north, sell various sausages, and everywhere there are stands
selling waffles ( gaufres ), piping hot with jam and honey. There are
also the usual burger joints, including the Belgian Quick chain, and
Panos, which specializes in bakery products.
Many bars do meals, at least at lunchtimes, and a host of cafés serve
basic dishes - omelettes, steak or mussels with chips (virtually the
Belgian national dish). The distinction between the two is, however,
becoming increasingly blurred with café/bars often the most fashionable
place to be, especially in the city. You can expect to pay about ¬5 for
an omelette; anything more substantial will cost F8-13, though most
places have a dish of the day for ¬10-12.00. Though they serve very
similar food, restaurants are more expensive, and sometimes only open in
the evening. A main course will rarely cost under ¬8.50, with ¬12.50
being a more usual price.
Belgium is also renowned for its chocolate . The big Belgian
chocolatiers, Godiva and Leonidas, have shops in all the main towns and
cities, and their pralines and truffles are almost worth the trip alone.
Of the two, Leonidas is the cheaper; reckon on spending ¬12.50 or so for
500g of their chocolates.
Drink
The price of food in Belgium is compensated for by the low cost of
drinking , especially if you like beer , which is always good and comes
in numerous varieties. Ask for a bière in a bar and you'll be served a
half-litre glass of whatever the bar has on tap. The most common Belgian
brands are Stella Artois, Jupiler and Maes. There are also any number of
speciality beers , usually served by the bottle but occasionally on
draught. The most famous is perhaps lambic , the generic title for beer
brewed in the Brussels area which is fermented by contact with the yeast
in the air. A blend of old and young lambic beers is known as gueuze , a
cidery concoction sold in all Brussels bars. There's also kriek-lambic
with cherries added - and faro , given a distinctive and refreshing
flavour by adding candy sugar. Try also some of the strong ales brewed
by the country's five Trappist monasteries; the most widely available
being Chimay, brewed in Hainaut. Bar prices don't vary greatly: in
Belgium you'll pay around ¬1.50 for a glass of beer. In the swankiest
places, you'll pay around ¬3.50 for beers like Duvel and Chimay.
French wines are the most commonly drunk, although Luxembourg is a wine
producer, and its white and sparkling wines, produced along the north
bank of the Moselle, are very drinkable: in the shops they go for around
¬6-9 a bottle of sparkling stuff, ¬6 for ordinary white wine. In
restaurants they'll cost two or three times as much.
There's no national Belgian spirit , but all the usual kinds are widely
available, at about ¬1.50 a glass in a bar. You will also find Dutch-style
jenever in most bars in the north.
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