My Favourite Things

Whenever anything bothers me and I'm feeling unhappy, I try and think of nice things. Food related things. Food related things in Brussels.

I’d meant to send this last Wednesday. I even had a semi-finished draft ready to go on Monday evening. By lunchtime the following day, however, I was back in the hospital. After having three wisdom teeth removed the previous Wednesday, one extraction site had become inflamed. Food in the wound, the doctor told me. Another week of Ibuprofen, rinse with brackish water three times a day, and here’s a powerful sedative to help you sleep.

I’d been such a good patient too, restricting my post-surgery diet to mango sorbet, blueberry yoghurt, and banana-and-speculoos-paste smoothies. But after a week of mush, I’d really quite been looking forward to being able to eat solid food without wincing and so my mood dipped on returning home from the consultation. Things got worse on Wednesday morning. I woke up still woozy from the after-effects of the Tramadol I’d taken the previous night. True to the doctor’s words, I’d had a good night's sleep, but at the expense of feeling as if someone had smashed my brain with a mallet. So back to bed, and no more newsletter.

Because I’ve not really been able to eat the past fortnight, I’ve been thinking a lot about food. Not cooking it - I’ve been too strung out for that - but definitely eating. What I could be eating, and where I could be eating it. And the more I fantasised about chewing without provoking intense jaw pain, the more I thought about how food is probably the primary way in which I interact with Brussels these days. I’ve never been a great one for clubbing, my circle of friends is not large, and neither am I a member of  any social organisations. Basically, I don’t really go out much. But almost every single day I’m in some kind of supermarket or restaurant, thinking about what we need for dinner or where I could meet a friend for lunch. 

I’m also reminded of what a callow little gourmand I was when I first moved to Brussels, how limited my culinary experiences were, and how unadventurous my palate was. People who know me well might scoff at the idea that I’ve become more daring in what I eat. But it’s true. I had hummus for the first time here, and fresh avocado too. Raw filet Americain, shrimp croquettes, gelatinous pork knuckle cooked in mustard. Not things I was ever likely to come across, let alone consider eating, if I’d stayed in Carrigaline. 

So here, compiled from my sick bed as I convalesce, are a few of my favourite things about Brussels from 15 years of eating and drinking here. 

---

My Favourite Things

The bread slicer at the Delhaize, with the setting for thick and thin slices

A thick cuboid of salty butter, a cheap in-house brand

Those figure of eight pastries they sell at the Carrefour with the custard in the middle

Bastogne biscuits in every shop

Eating crunchy Speculoos paste straight of the jar, with a knife

A box of speculoos pastéis de nata from Forçado

A small slice of crackly cinnamon pain à la grecque from Dandoy’s

A large slice of frozen Greek cheese pie from Sani

A brick of a sandwich at Chou Sando

The packets of frozen parathas from Express Afro-Indian

The funky smell at the back of the Kam Yuen Supermarket

Sullen jars of Lao Gan Ma peanuts in chili oil from Kam Yuen Supermarket

The Kam Yuen Supermarket, basically

Watching the chef string out chewy noodles at Au Bon Bol

Adding some chili oil to my bowl of noodle soup at a sticky table upstairs at Au Bon Bol

Smoked Swet Fumado on everything

Fermenthings hot sauce on the tip of a spoon

Sweating over the nduja pizza at La Pizza è Bella

Picking up a six pack of chinotto from the Italian deli on the Kartuizenstraat

A bottle of fancy vermouth from Life Is Beautiful that's meant to last the month but is drunk by the end of the week

A bag of tarralini from Mangia Sempre before a Sunday Union St-Gilloise game

Eating Zoey’s leftover marinara crusts at Nona

Sharing the red (pepper?) dip at the Markten

Going back for seconds at the thali place in the Ravenstein gallery

Ordering a plate of crystalline aged comté sat at the window seat in La Fruitire, and eating it by myself

A portion of sweet potato fries from Baogo

Fried plantains and Guinness at Le Vieux Mila

A little bowl of malted barley to chew on at Moeder Lambic

The window nook at Le Coq with a cold €2 Stella

A meringuey half litre of Zenne Pils down the back of the Brasserie de la Senne taproom

A zingy bottle of Zinnebir on the terrace at Bar Eliza (RIP), on a Friday after the school run 

Pre-match weeknight beers upstairs at BBP Port Sud after they’ve finished brewing 

Cask-poured Stouterik from a tankard at Gist

A quiet Orval in the hotel bar of the Esperance

A Friday night Cornet at In Den Hemel

A tumbler of Girardin and a slab of faux gras sitting at the bar in the Lord Byron

Lambic jugs the size of your torso at Á La Becasse

Lambic jugs the size of your fist at Les Brasseur

The meatball pistolet at Pistolet original

The Americain pistolet at Pistolet original, with a bottle of Cantillon Chouke

An illicit mitraillette when you shouldn’t

Bratwurst and lager in the courtyard at Mule on the last Friday in September

Piglet sandwiches and Super Bock at the Flagey market on a Saturday 

A big greasy chunk of guanciale from the Jette Sunday market

Cantonese Chicken feet at Yi Chan

The ferrous whiff of chilled meat at the butcher’s shop between the abattoir and the canal

The smell of zwarte pens and caramelised onions from the sandwich shop on the vossenplein during the Sunday morning flea market

The smell outside of Gare du Midi after the Sunday market has been packed away

The smell of steaming bread in the morning on a street corner by the Kapellekerk station

The smell of charcoal and grilled meats at the Ribaucourt metro station

Sneaking in a bag of haribo to a screening at the Palace cinema

A bag of crisps and a beer in the Cinema Galeries foyer before a film

Sharing a portion mixte with the children, at the Mokafé

Dousing the cheese from the portion mixte in celery salt and mustard and leaving the salami to the children, at the Mokafé

Sitting in the back room with a draught chalice of Bush de Noel watching the children drink their hot chocolate, at the Mokafé

A little pot of mango sorbet from Blondeel’s chocolate factory, on a sunny day

A pain au chocolat from Maes on a Saturday morning

Tuesday night dessert night

---

Miscellaneous Notes

• Do comment on what your favourite food things are in Brussels - I’d be interested to see what I’m missing out on

• And do try and sing it to the melody. It doesn’t really scan, but it’s fun

• Bruzz have launched a new series of videos about bruine kroegen - Brussels’ last remaining brown bars. The first one focuses on the Petit Lion on Rue Haute. You can watch it here.

  ---