Thursday, November 07, 2013

Belgian Food Porn

Today (er, yesterday? Tomorrow? Honestly I am not sure what time it is right now) I arrived in Brussels, Belgium to visit my friend JR from college. He's been living in Brussels for a year now doing investment research for some big fancy pants international firm, so I figured it was time to come say "bonjour." After all, when you know someone who lives in Brussels, YOU VISIT THEM, FOOL.

I took the red eye from DC, but hit the ground running with the sight-seeing since there is a lot to do and not a lot time during my visit. JR took me on a walking tour of the city, visiting the Grand Place, Royal Palace and a bunch of other places, but let's be honest. You don't really want to hear about that.

You want to hear about the food.

Because Brussels is a food-lover's haven. This place is carb central. Everything delicious is a specialty here--waffles, chocolate, beer, and frites (i.e. french fries). While we visited a lot of historical sites on my first day, my priority was sampling some of Brussels' delicious food. And we started the trip off right with waffles and a tour of the city's best chocolate shops.

First, the waffles! I did my research before arriving and read on the internet that the best waffles in Brussels are found in a cafe called Maison Dandoy. As it turns out, the locals agree with the internet and JR had been planning to take me to Maison Dandoy for waffles as well. Waffle kismet!

Maison Dandoy is actually a famous biscuit (aka cookie) shop also known for a crisp ginger cookie called speculoos. These are particularly popular at Christmas when they are sold in Santa shapes.

Speculoos! Tiny pieces of the cookies are also a popular topping/filling for Belgian chocolates and truffles. 

Maison Dandoy's main store features a tea shop on the second floor with amazing waffles. Real Belgian waffles (not the kind you get a The Waffle House) come in two varieties. The first, the Liege waffle, is generally round and is a dense, sweet, yeasty waffle. Think of it as similar to a dense yeast doughnut. The other authentic Belgian waffle is the Brussels style, which is square, thinner, crispy, and has large pockets. Both are big and both are delicious.

I couldn't decide which to try, so JR and I split one of each at Maison Dandoy. And he prefers them with ice cream and chocolate sauce, so when in Rome.....

First, the Liege waffle:

And now the Brussels waffle:


Both were absolutely delicious, but personally, I prefer the Liege style. I just like denser baked goods. But trust me, both were soooo good.

Waffle-gasm.

After lunching on waffles and visiting some historic sites of the city (more on that later), it was time to eat some chocolate. Belgium is world famous for its chocolate, which it began producing in the 1600s when it was under Spanish control. Belgium also had access to high-quality cocoa beans from it's African colony, the Belgian Congo. The best Belgian chocolates are produced by hand and are known for their premium ingredients and use of traditional manufacturing methods. 

Across from the Mannekin Pis (a famous statue of a little boy peeing. *eye roll*) we found our first chocolate shops. Mary and Planete Chocolat. Mary had more fancy vibe than Planete, but I actually preferred the chocolate at the later. 

The display at Mary.

The exterior of Planete Chocolat.

Truffle tower at Planate.

Inside the Planete's chocolate hazelnut truffle.

A note about typical Belgian chocolates. Much like waffles, there are two main varieties of chocolates. What we consider a "chocolate," are called pralines. They are soft filled chocolates with either butter cream, fruit creams, almond and nut pastes. The fine chocolatiers are also known for using unusual flavors with their chocolate. We sampled pralines that included curry, pepper, lemongrass, basil, saffron, ginger, and tea. Of course, we also tried many that used more traditional flavors like fruits, caramel, sea salt, and hazelnut and pistachio.

The second type of Belgian chocolate is the traditional truffle. They are typically round, filled with ganache (sometimes mixed with other flavors) and have a solid or powdered chocolate shell. They're bigger, richer, and slightly more expensive than pralines.

Our next few shops were located off the Grand Place and up the hill to the ritzier part of town called the Grand Sablom. We visited one of JR's favorites, Galler, and then the three story flagship store of Pierre Marcolini. It was like a Gucci store for chocolate. So fancy. So pretty. And so decadent.

 The exterior of Marcolini's three story store.

 Marcolini's praline spread.

Our custom box! We usually only tried two chocolates from each store, but at Marcolini we made an exception and went whole hog.

We continued with a stop at a French chocolate shop, Patrick Roger, and then visited some of the most famous Belgian chocolatiers: Leonidas, Neuhas, and Wittamer

 A coconut cream filled truffle at Leonidas.

By the time we got to Neuhaus, our eighth chocolate shop, JR was about done.

In total, we visited eight chocolate shops and sampled something like 24 flavors of pralines of truffles. Even splitting them all--that's a lot of chocolate. Thankfully, the chocolates are not as large as you find here in America (typical, right?) and are actually reasonably priced. Well, some of the boxes at the nicer shops will run you about 25 euro (about $32), but if you are looking for a small chocolate fix you can get quite a few pieces for about 2 or 3 euro. And some of the shops have cafes with pastries and sandwiches available.

So that about covers Belgian's waffle and chocolate scene! All over the city there are waffles and chocolates available at smaller and cheaper shops and stands, but I was willing to splurge a bit on the truly authentic and delicious. After all, why come all the way to Brussels and not enjoy the best the city has to offer?

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