With a little money left in my wallet, and three days before I was set to depart from Holland, I vowed to go somewhere I had not been. Belgium. I awoke early, fed fifty euro in change into the ticket machine (they do not take bills) and off I went to Bruges, Belgium. This is a story about FOOD. When in Bruges eat and drink. There is not much else to do, except perhaps see women make lace, or nuns perambulate around a lovely nunnery. Bruges is gorgeous; the entire old center is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and most of the old buildings remain intact. I have included some pictures of the city in this post.
Course 1: Chocolates
My gastronomic adventures started off in reverse nutritional order. First course was to sample scrumptious chocolates. I had many, each from a different chocolatier (a chocolate shop.) Bruges has more chocolate shops than West Virginia has mountains. My favorite was a violet-flavored chocolate.
Course 2: Cake
At 11 a.m., I greedily sampled a big piece of sour-cherry-cream cake, enfolded in a pastry.
Course 3: Beer
Beer has been brewed in Belgium since the Middle Ages. According to my tour guide, Belgium makes around 750 varieties of beer. Belgium is particulary known for its Trappist beers. (Trappists are a Roman Catholic religious order of contemplative monks.) This beer must be made in a monastery by monks (this sounds ironic to me!) Only seven breweries meet these qualifications; six are in Belgium and one is in the Netherlands.
The brewery I toured was lovely. Tables were set out in the sunshine where individuals sipped beer and speared cheese and sausage with toothpicks. From the ground level one could see steam leaving steel cylinders. The steam comes from the hops, which smells like cooked broccoli. Hops ( a word I did not know before my year in Europe) are the flowers of the hop plant. These buds are used to flavor beer, giving it a bitter punch. Hops were first cultivated in Bavaria the 8th century. The plants, which are related to nettles, could sting the hands and were often difficult to gather, especially for children in older times. However, hops-gathering was a big profession, even in America, during the Great Depression. Today, America still produces the second largest quantity of hops behind Germany.
At first I am skeptical about this tour—I don’t even really like the taste of beer (though I do like this hops smell!) However, I am soon won over by the guide’s aplomb and humor. And by the beer. It is beer you want to savor. Smell it for ten seconds before you drink, says the guide, put your finger into the beer and put it on your hand and smell it to see if it has a metallic taste—if it does, it could have been canned beer, or the water used to brew it could have had a metallic taste. This beer does not taste like metal. It has a meaty, nutty taste. The beer is served in a broom-shaped glass, with a narrow opening to trap the smell inside. If you have a cold do not bother to drink a good beer, asserts the guide. Smell is inextricably bound to taste, she exclaims.
Facts: More beer varieties are made in Belgium than anywhere. Ninety-percent of all bottles in Belgium and Holland are returned to the original brewery. According to the guide, most people buy their beer by the case and receive between a five and seven euro refund for returning the bottles.
Course 4: Dinner
Mussels are a local specialty, so I had to have them--everyone else was. The thing was, most people were SPLITTING a pot of mussels. I ate my own. The mussels were seasoned with white wine. When I finished snapping open the mettalic blue shell of the last one, I looked like a tranquilized animal: stunned and smiling. My mussels were accompanied by a plate of delicious fries “frites.” These are usually made with local potatoes and are a cut thicker than American fries. They are known as “the slowest fast food,” in these parts and people leisurely savor each one, usually served in a paper cone. My fries came on a plate, with mustard. Frite shops are popular here, as they are in Holland.
It is difficult to describe how full I was when I left Belgium. One could be fat and happy in that country, I am convinced (though one could bike off the pounds touring the gorgeous country.) Belgium intrigues me because of its linguistic diversity (Dutch, French and German are spoken there) and its cultural vibrancy. I love the handcrafted lace and the old stone. Oh, and the beer and chocolates. Did I mention the chocolates?
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