La Belgique Gourmande located on rue de la Colline (the street leading to the Grand place) is just one of the two thousands stores in the country selling chocolate. Wherever you may be in Brussels or Belgium you can be certain never to be far from one. Export numbers for these much in demand truffles and pralines amount around 200 000 tons yearly alone. PS: We do eat a lot of them ourselves as well 🙂
Handmade Belgian chocolate store
Close up on the pralines and truffles
Various kinds of chocolates
A Fountain of melted chocolate is seen just under the store sign
The Mitrailletteis a typical Belgian fast food snack that is serve in just about anyone of the small fries vending shops or restaurant commonly called friterie in French or Fritkot in Dutch.
It’s composed of half a baguette with inside some form of meat (there are countless variations such as sausages, pita, fish, chicken,..) though most basic version would be with hamburger meat. To this is added a bit of salad and tomatoes which is to be then submerged in fries and topped by one of about 15 different possible sauces available. Tonight’s combination seen above was a “Mitraillette mergues frites”.
Moules et Frites is a very typical Belgian dish composed of steamed mussels served with fries and a bit of mayonnaise. Usually always comes with a beer but alternatively some prefer wine to it.
Quick snapshot of last nights diner
Want to try and make them in the comfort of your own home ?
Here’s the recipe for Moules et Frites Marinières :
Chop a small stick of celery and an onion
Place in a saucepan with a 100 grams of butter
Cover and cook for about 10 minutes without allowing the vegetables to brown
Add 1 liter of cleaned mussels (change the water several times when washing them)
Salt lightly, add a pinch of ground pepper and the juice of half a lemon
Cover and cook for another 10 minutes
When all the mussels have opened place in a large salad bowl
Add some chopped parsley to the cooking stock and pour over the mussels
One of the many Belgian waffles shops in Brussels. Here located on rue de l’Étuve a few steps from the famous Manneken Pis statue. Recipe is below.
Attractive display of Belgian waffles with various toppings
The girl on the left is cooking a fresh batch using wafer irons
The one on the right now cutting them into even individual portions
Here another display showing prices
Want to try and make them in the comfort of your own home ?
Here’s the recipe for Belgian waffles:
In a mixing bowl put 250 grams of Flour with a spoonful of sugar, a large pinch of powdered vanilla, a small one of salt and eight egg yolks and mix it all together
Then slowly blend in half a liter of sweetened cream or fresh milk
Melt 250 grams of butter in a pan
Whip the eight egg whites until they are very stiff
Add the melted butter to the original mixture followed by the whipped egg whites
Lightly grease a waffle iron and heat
Fill one side with a good spoonful of the waffle mix and close the iron
Cook until it has a golden color
Serve with some icing sugar or the topping of your choice
