Lili and I are self-professed Francophiles. Our unabashed love for the place even figures in our awe-inspiringly ambitious and alliterative blog title. But as you, dear reader, may have noticed, we also harbor a deep, almost obsessive love for Belgium. Not only is it our favorite beer nation but also because the food there is just as incredible. We have already written here about our travels there for the 2017 Bruges Beer Festival and more recently, about our visit to our favorite brewery in the world, Cantillon, when it recently opened its doors for a public brew day. Clearly our travels have been beer-focused, though we have always managed to stick to the glutton’s Belgian food pyramid that for us consists mainly of waffles, fries and chocolates.
Eating in Belgium goes far beyond these tempting and shockingly delicious street foods and sweets. As featured in Michael Jackson The Beer Hunter TV series, also the subject of a Biencuits blog post, Belgium’s chefs have developed an entire cuisine in which people cook with beer and pair food with beer as well. Beer is integral and fully incorporated into this cuisine. It is foundational. In Belgium, one does not have to choose between eating well and drinking well. In fact, just like in any wine-growing region, the two compliment each other undeniably well.
The common conception of beer food in the US in general includes fried foods, burgers and barbeque. While all can be delicious when done well, Belgian chefs have used their amazing beer not only to pair with ‘comfort’ foods, but instead to use beer at the same skill level that French chefs use wine. Beer is not an afterthought. It is an integral ingredient and component.
Lili and I have been fortunate enough to visit three amazing beer-focused restaurants in Brussels that were so delicious they did not make us miss wine for a minute. While they are different, we would unreservedly recommend them all for your next trip to Brussels. And there should be always another visit to Brussels, which for us is one of the world’s greatest cities.
Nüetnigenough is an intimate restaurant located a short walk from Grand Place. Along with Cantillon, it should be a stop on every Brussels beergrimage. Even the mantle is covered with bottles of good beer! Their beer menu alone is worth the stop as they have lambics/gueuzes from some of our favorites like Cantillon, 3 Fonteinen and Tilquin as well as other styles from De Struisse and Verzet. Their black pudding with gueuze was an amazing appetizer and delight for any blood sausage fan. The beautiful Jambonneau Dijonnaise was good enough that Lili and I have ordered it twice, while it is more than large enough for two people to share. Its almost sweet flavor worked nicely with a 3 Fonteinen Oude Kriek.
While Nüetnigenough has been a standby for us in Brussels, on our last visit we made new discoveries in the world of beer-based cuisine. Restobieres is a somewhat cluttered and cozy restaurant that has an old-school appeal that included sprinkled parsley as a plate decoration. Yet considering the deep tradition there, Belgium old school is an amazing thing, especially in places that serve affordable prix fixe menus paired with an amazing beer menu, like at Restobieres. The plate of cured ham for my appetizer matched any charcuterie I have had in Spain or France. Lili’s celeriac soup also was flavor-packed, warming and an overall auspicious beginning for the meal. For beer, they even had a Boon lambic on tap that was just tart enough but went well with food. Seeing duck on the menu, I could not help myself, especially when I saw that it was cooked in a cherry sauce and kriek beer. For our beer pairing with the main course, we had a Giradin Black Label Gueuze, which did not bring a full-on funk but was deliciously tart and did not overpower the food. Lili had what she proclaimed the softest and greatest meatballs of her life. They served these wonders with fries just to make sure that Lili would ascend to Belgian heaven. For the dessert course I had a passion fruit mousse, while Lili had Brussels style waffles (made with a liquid batter) topped with delicious strawberries.
The next day, we took a long walk out to the Ixelles neighborhood to dine at Les Brassins. While Restobieres is in a lively neighborhood, Les Brassins is located in a quieter, residential neighborhood. Despite its modest appearance they more than delivered on the quality of their food. I had a classic dish beer-based Belgian dish, carbonnade flamande, which is stew with beef, beautifully caramelized onions and a Belgian dubbel or strong dark ale. Previously we had enjoyed the dish from one of the fry stands in Bruges. At Les Brassins, the stew’s flavor was naturally sweet, rich and deep. It was without a doubt the greatest beer based stew I had ever tried. Since I cannot deny drinking Cantillon when available, I ordered their Organic kriek beer that went well with the stew. Hooked on meatballs after Restobieres, Lili ordered them cooked in flavorful tomato sauce. The acidity from the tomatoes did drown out some of the other more subtle flavors, so she preferred the meatballs from Restobieres. We each had a side of fries which were perfectly cooked. Beyond delicious food, Les Brassins has an amazing collection of beer signs and advertisements, some of which came from defunct Brussels breweries. Though its decor is not as welcoming as Nüetnigenough, Les Brassins has a clean comfortable feel compared to the slightly cluttered but homey feel of Restobieres.
For a beer hunter and food lover, a visit to any of these restaurants is a dream come true. It is not only that these foods can go with beer, but that that many of the dishes described above were cooked with beer and likely conceived with beer in mind. In each restaurant the staff was knowledgable and spoke English well. Especially at Nüetnigenough, waiters can not only recommend a beer based on the different dishes that interest you but also depending on what you like. They know that the proper beer elevates their food to another level entirely. After visiting these restaurants, you will realize that most chefs have too long focused on wine, even outside wine-growing regions. By visiting these restaurants you realize that beer just as well as wine can be an ingredient and accompaniment to world class food.
No comments:
Post a Comment