Brussels

 
My daughter Jane and her husband Michael live in Brussels. Last weekend we visited them and they took us on a walking tour of downtown Brussels.

Many of the streets are closed to vehicle traffic and even on a chilly Friday (about 7°C) there were plenty of shoppers and quite a few tourists. My goal was to sample the food of Brussels—other members of our party were more interested in the shops and we visited a fair number of those on our tour.

The very first stop was a place that sold Belgian waffles. There are dozens of these shops with windows open to the street. It's the Brussels equivalent of Tim Horton's. The waffles were delicious and I would have eaten several except that I was saving up for even better things later on.

Brussels was officially founded in 979 by Charlemagne's grandson Lothar, although there had been a settlement on the site for several hundred years before Lothar build a fortress. The city prospered as a trading center in medieval times and much of the central part of the modern city dates from that era. The name of the city comes from an Old Flemish word Broekzele, which means marshland. The city was originally built on an island in the river Senne [History of Brussels].

Belgium is a relatively young country although it is named after the ancient Celtic tribe of the Belgae, one of the tribes defeated by Julius Caesar in his Gaul campaign (about 55 B.C.). Over the years the region has been controlled by German, French, Dutch, Austrian, Spanish, and British forces. It is still disputed territory although in the modern age the conflict is between the French speaking Walloons and the Flemish population that speaks Dutch. (The French are losing.)

Eventually we reached a delightful part of the city with narrow medieval streets filled with restaurants. Our goal was a fascinating restaurant called Chez Leon. The specialty is mussels and frites (French fries), a meal that can't be found anywhere else in the world as far as I know.

There are several varieties on mussels on the menu. Our party ordered mussels au gratin, mussels and curry, and mussels à la crème. Of course any meal of mussels and frites has to be accompanied by beer and there were many brands to choose from. The mussels were delicious, the frites were excellent, and the beer was wonderful.

Some of you may be curious about the price of such a meal. The mussels and frites were 22.50 € and that works out to about $33 in Canadian or American currency. This seems expensive but it's not out of line with many other prices in the local restaurants. I really don't know how the French and Belgians can afford to eat out so much. Their salaries don't seem to be higher than what we are used to in North America. I guess they just have different priorities.

There are very few McDonald's restaurants in Brussels (or Paris) and it's rare to see any of the other fast-food places we're used to in North America. The local population prefers a longer sit-down meal even if it's more expensive. It's a major cultural difference and one that I could easily adjust to. In fact, I did adjust to it when we lived in Europe from 1974-1978.

You can't walk very far in Brussels without encountering a chocolate shop. (We visited several.) Everyone has their favorite but I'm told that Neuhaus chocolate is widely believed to be the best Belgian chocolate. The Belgians are very proud of their chocolate. They think it's superior to Swiss chocolate. I'm not going to take sides on that one since I lived in Switzerland for many years and still have many friends there.

The shops are very popular. I was surprised to see so many Belgians buying chocolates since they are not cheap. This is another example of differing priorities. I guess they prefer a small amount of excellent chocolate to a cheaper Mars bar or M&M's.

I'm used to seeing chocolate shops but the really surprising shops were the ones that sell beer. We saw a dozen stores that specialized in beers with a huge emphasis on Belgian beers. These stores look like wine stores except that it's bottles of beer that are lined up on the shelves.

In many cases, the stores advertise 250 or 300 different brands of beer. We didn't have time to taste all of them but the ones I had were excellent. Thanks to all those Sandwalk readers, and Michael, who made recommendations. I won't reveal my current favorite because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. And also because there are still several hundred beers that I haven't (yet) tried. This is definitely a place where bloggers and talk.origins readers should get together for a Howlerfest.

After a long day we stopped at one of the Häagen-Dazs Cafés for chocolate fondue. We were served a plate full of small balls of ice cream of various flavors. These can be dipped in a creamy pot of rich chocolate. The ice cream was accompanied by a plate of fresh fruit and pieces of muffin that also went well with the hot chocolate. All in all it was an excellent way to end our delicious tour of Brussels.

---