Of course
the museums, history and culture of Belgium were the focus of our stay in
Bruges and Gent. But here’s the ever-present food:
For more
sweet photos from Belgium, click here
“Wow,
that’s it! Now we can talk!” The young family disappears into a chocolate shop.
Bruges boasts well over 50 chocolate specialty shops, selling huge Belgian pralines
and marzipan. In a week in Bruges, we ate our way through violet cream pralinés
and marzipan balls. In the end, our favorites were the candied orange slices
covered with dark chocolate.
In
addition, nearly every café produces rich Belgian waffles made with yeast and
lumps of half-molten sugar. Oh, sugar cubes, we comment, but the baker frowns:
This is pearl sugar, he insists. The Waffles are sold with different toppings
like cream, chocolate or warm cherry sauce.
Legend has
it that the Belgians invented Potato Fries during a particularly harsh
winter. In one village the people liked
to eat small fried fish, but as the river was covered with a thick layer of
ice, they cut potatoes into a similar shape and size and fried them instead.
We learn
that the Belgian fries are double-fried and thus, believe it or not, contain
less fat. “I recommend the ‘Sauce Toscana,’ a bit spicy, you will like it!” The
man with the thinning grey hair leans confidentially over the greasy refrigerated
counter, which holds an array of plastic buckets filled with mayonnaisy sauces.
“By the way, my wife is also German,” he adds, somewhat randomly. We decide, as
always, on the non-oily Piccalilli-Sauce, mustard pickles with a lot of
vinegar. In Belgium, after all, it’s the sauce rather than the fries that let
you gain weight.
