Les Petits Plaisirs: Kasteel Rouge

My general approach to gastronomic exploits include the statement from "When Harry met Sally" - I'll have what she's having. I was looking around the tables in an outdoor cafe, when I spotted quite a few glasses of reddish drink in a snappy tall glass. This turned out to Kasteel Rouge, made by a Belgian family-run brewery since 1826. It has a nice flavour of dark cherries to the base of ale, without sugary sweetness that makes other beers taste like lemonade.

I have to say, I don't like cherry flavour in anything and generally, shudder at the idea of fruit-flavoured beer, but this works well as a refreshing mid-afternoon aperitif.

Kasteel Rouge

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Carbonnade Flamande

Flemish beef stew, or carbonnades flamandes, is the national dish of Belgium. Hearty and satisfying, this recipe takes less than two hours to prepare, and is nice enough to serve for a sit-down family meal. Add a crisp green salad, roasted potatoes, and a bottle of wine for a spectacular feast worthy of an upscale auberge du terroir on a chilly evening.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour, 65 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds beef, cut into 2-inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 cups sliced onions (4 medium)
• 1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 12-oz bottle dark beer
• 1/4 cup -1 cup beef stock
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl, toss together the beef, flour, salt, and pepper. In a large saucepan over high heat, brown the beef in the canola oil and butter. Carefully watch the beef to make sure it doesn’t burn, but give it enough time to develop a nice, rich brown color – the caramelized sugars will greatly enhance the stew’s flavor.
2. Add the onions, garlic, brown sugar, and herbs to the beef and stir thoroughly. The onions will pick up a bit of the browned bits in the bottom of the pan. Stir in the beer and add enough beef stock to cover the beef in the pan. Cover the stew, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 1 ½ hour, until the beef is tender. 
3. Remove from the heat and stir in the apple cider vinegar.

Makes 6 servings

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Antwerp, Belgium

Grey heavy skies and piercing wind had met us in Antwerp and accompanied through the day that we spent there. But the weather could not take away from the harmony of the impression that the city makes - Antwerp radiates bourgeois affluence and prosperity in the ways only the Old World and old money can. Content dames in mink fur coats and their gentlemen strolling through the city's streets belong to the early 19th century more than to the age of Facebook. Streets of high-end department stores, fashion boutiques, and tea houses added to the dignified air of nobility.
The city's Central train station where we arrived (lavishly decorated with marble and limestone, painted in gold is a work of art and architecture in itself) let us into the city that pulsated with life. We went up Meir - the main shopping street to the House of Rubens - a palace-like residence and studio where Rubens worked and lived from 1616 until his death in 1640.

Inside the train station

Brabo fountain

The most striking area of the city is its historic centre that showers you with architectural masterpieces of the three side-by-side squares:

Grote Markt  (City Square) - with the Town Hall, Guild Houses and Brabo fountain. Brabo - a mythical hero, who according to an Antwerp Legend, fought the giant Antigoon. Antigoon demanded a high toll for each ship that wanted to enter the city. If the ship's crew did not want to pay the toll, their hands were cut off. The hero Brabo fought the giant, cut its hand and head and threw the hand in the river. The fountain's statue depicts Brabo throwing the giant's hand in the river Scheldt and symbolizes the free passage through the river.

Groenplaats (The Green place) - is a square surrounded by cafes which offers a beautiful view of the Cathedral of our Lady. 
 
Finally, Handschoenmarkt in front of the Cathedral gives you a breathtaking close-up on the intricate lace of the Cathedral's architecture.

Groenplaats with a view of the Cathedral

The Brabo legend comes up once again at Steen  - the city's 800 year-old castle. It was built in the 12c and altered numerous times. It mostly served as a jail till 1862 when it became a museum. Currently, it hosts a maritime museum.

Brabo at Steen

Entrance to the Steen Castle

A broad walkway along the Scheldt river gives a great view of the marina that must be very popular in summer. The street that runs alongside the river has quite a few interesting architectural pieces, including MAS museum. 

Historically, the city went through waves of economic booms, mainly thanks to its changing position as a primary port. Today, it is the centre of diamond industry, fashion, and entertainment. The Diamond District stores' windows threatened to become my main attraction for the day, but the rest of the group didn't share my enthusiasm. So the Big Nomad went off on a photographic tour of the city while the Little Nomads and I visited the Diamond Museum.

Antwerp is the last Flandres destination this year. It added a different note to the number of well-preserved Flemish medieval cities we visited. All of them are striking and distinct, but unlike others, Antwerp is also full of life.

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Brussels, Belgium - Day 1

The weekend trip to Brussels flew by so quickly that only now, 3 days after the trip, we had time to catch our breath. The city took me by surprise by its dynamic spirit, a mix of youthful energy and historic serenity, a combination of seemingly polar concepts (a monarch country that leads the European Union), and a general sense of spontaneity awaiting around the corner.

Alas, speaking of spontaneity, around the same corner we found crowds of tourists! Maybe it was an usually hot weather or the annual Brussels marathon that drew 7000 runners from 40 different countries, but Brussels was so crowded that the only place I've seen so busy was St. Marco's square in July.

Javier Marin's heads ensemble
on the museum's square

A Euro-star train took us from Lille to Brussels  in 35 minutes and we immediately set on our traditional route: a fine arts museum with a break in a museum's cafe. Brussels is said to be home to 80 museums and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts (Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique) combines 4 - The Museum of Antiquity, Fine Arts, Modern Arts, and Rene Magritte Museum. 

There is also a terrific exhibit of Lucas Cranach, which we didn't visit. We assumed it'd be a bit early to expose the Little Nomads to glorious illustrations of human body, as vivid as they are in Cranach's work.

Javier Marin's work seemed to be the accent of the season in Brussels: it was on display throughout the museum and in the city's square presented in various media - resin, plastic, and ... beautiful emerald bugs! The installation of the heads' sculptures on the main square was disarming - the same way the Louvre pyramid amid the classic palace buildings or the head sculpture by St. Eustace in Paris leave you at a loss. I tried to categorize and archive the heads in my brain catalog, but really... I couldn't - they don't fall into any familiar category.
A few days later a friend of mine commented on our trip photos - "The heads are brilliant! Frequently, I feel like this - when my world gets taken over by emotions and I feel like one of those red heads standing upside down." That's a magnificent interpretation!

The highlights of the Fine Arts museum:
- a comprehensive collection of the Flemish School: Bruegel, Bosch, Bouts, van Dyck.
- "Rubens Room", which houses more than 20 paintings by the artist.
- The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David.

Atomium
total height: 102m
diameter of the spheres: 18m

Having walked around the centre, we took a bus tour to the other side of town to see Atomium and mini-Europe.

Atomium - a structure, which was built temporarily for the 1958 World-expo, has become a visual symbol of Brussels. It represents an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times and corresponds to a cube centred on one of its points. Our of its 9 'balls' 5 are open to public and house various expositions. The upper sphere gives you the most beautiful top view of the city.

Mini-Europe - a miniature park represents all European Union countries on a scale of 1:25. Each country has built a pavilion, which is most representative of their nation. 300 models and sites in a quite unequaled craftsmanship were a thrill to the Little Nomads. Most of the sites have interactive features - mechanisms that trigger action and/or music - the Big Ben chimes, Finland has a person jumping into a lake right out of the sauna (wink-wink), Italy - gliding gondoliers, Spain - fighting bulls, etc.

Having walked in the park for a couple hours, we took the HH bus to the centre and had a nice leisurely walk to our hotel.

Mini-Brussels with the Eiffel Tower in the background

A heap of structures at mini-Europe

Information overload

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Ghent, Belgium

Graslei - undoubtedly the most beautiful street in Ghent

I had no expectations, no impressions, no emotional attachments as far as our day-trip to Ghent was concerned. Having visited it over the weekend, I cannot relay the amazement at the beauty of the city!

Once again, a less-than-an-hour train ride took us to the Ghent station. After the first unsuccessful attempt to reach the historic centre of the city by a tram in the wrong direction, we entered through a street that opened to a stunning view of the canal and cathedrals' skyline. It did take my breath away!!! While Bruges is celebrated as the gem of medieval Flanders architecture and has an established symbol of the most beautiful Flemish city, Ghent is frequently referred to as 'unsung' and is often overlooked by visitors on their Bruges -> Brussels trips. Maybe exactly for the reason of having no expectations and the town's dazzling personality, I have truly loved Ghent!

The historic centre is very compact and I found it easier to navigate than Bruges. It's not as overwhelming size-wise either, with most sites situated right on the canal or a few side streets -you could probably walk around it in two hours and see all major sights. Somehow, Ghent felt so much bolder and more forward, whereas Bruges was much softer and serene.

The star of Ghent shone brightly in the Middle Ages, when its population reached 65,000 people in 13th c. rivaling Paris only, making it the 2nd biggest town in Europe. Its location on the confluence of two rivers made trade an important part of the economy. The Counts of Flanders made Ghent their residential seat and built a castle there. The next few centuries saw shifting ownership over Ghent (Flemish, French, Spanish) up to the end of the . Today it is a major university centre with 250,000 inhabitants.

We walked the town what would have been quite leisurely had it not been for the oddest weather. On the photo below you will see a bright blue sky with no clouds. This would last for half an hour and it would get so hot and sunny that we'd take off our jackets. All of a sudden it'd start pouring, with heavy torrential-like rain which would stop in 10-15 minutes. After the 7th downpour and 7th desert-like sun, I stopped counting. We just took frequent rain breaks to stop at numerous cafes, chocolate shops, and restaurants to try a new beer (and warm chocolate milk for the Little Nomads made with REAL chocolate!) We skipped a visit to the oldest Brasserie in town with the image of Cambrinus still fresh in mind.
 

Castle of Counts built in 1180 was a seat to the Counts till the 14th c.

The Little Counts of Flandres

The Impression of the Day. Yes, I testify that Belgian mussels are much bigger, more succulent, and definitely tastier than their French counterpart (just like in Texas).

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Bruges, Belgium

Ever since watching "Im Brugge", I had listed Bruges as one of the top places to visit! The apparent discord between the harshness of the movie scenes and the beauty of Bruges made quite a profound effect on my impressionable soul!

Bruges is located mere 50 minutes (by train) from Lille. On the day we set off the weather was perfect - sunny and warm; the boys were in an excellent mood after a couple of freshly-baked croissants. We arrived early in the morning and headed straight to the info centre. Would I sound like an old lady by saying that times are really changing? - apparently, I could have downloaded a walking tour of Bruges on my iPhone. Oh well, we had to succumb to the traditional way of using a map and a sense of direction (or a lack thereof, in my case).

The town's history starts around 2000 years ago with a small Gallic-Roman settlement. Only in the 9th century, when the Normans had penetrated the territory and called it Bryghia (port, landing), the territory began to develop some significance as an international port connecting to the North Sea through a channel. The 15th century saw a growth spurt of the town - it prospered through trade and commerce: Middle-eastern spices, wines from Normandy, grain, Flemish cloth came through and was traded in Bruges. The Dukes of Burgundy made the town their main residence and it became the largest cultural centre north of the Alps. However, starting around 1500, the Zwin channel, which had given the city its prosperity, started silting.

The next 4 centures saw the demise of Bruges, which luckily, preserved the architecture, as for the lack of funds, no construction and development was done! Today, Bruges is the most representative town of the medieval Flemish architecture.

The tower leans 1.20cm
(or 82cm depending on the source you read)

Bruges is a city for endless walks, where narrow cobbled streets take you in twists and turns, stretching for a few miles off the area's centre.

As a must-do we climbed a winding 366-stair 83-meter-high Belfry tower, with the boys counting most the stairs on our way up. They say that on a good day you can see as far as 12-km away, but apparently, it was not a very good day as the view from the top was somewhat obstructed by partial renovation of the tower.

The Little Nomads and I took a pretty sketchy bus tour but this gave the Big Nomad an opportunity to roam the streets and take great photos, which I'm using in this blog.

We did lots of walking - it's hard to describe the line-ups of airy enchanting streets with neat houses, charming squares, and of course, the canal. The serenity of this place didn't cease to amaze me,  despite occasional groups of very loud Russian tourists. Overall, the number of tourists was not overwhelming and we enjoyed the freedom of roaming the streets without bumping onto other people or having to wait in line to get into any place. A pretty good chocolate museum gave the Little Nomads a well-deserved break from the streets. To wrap up the day, we took a boat tour. 

Cambrian King - the King of Beers

No trip is complete without visiting local restaurants. The kids had the usual Belgian fare -you've got to try French fries and mussels in Belgium that are larger than their French counterpart, decadent hot chocolate and Belgian waffles!

Cambrinus (Philipstockstraat 19), featuring 400 local beers, really depressed the Big Nomad - too little time to try all of them!!!

On the other hand, the same restaurant has a  buyer-beware picture of Cambrinus, the King of Beer - an oversized drunk, who obviously,  had way too much beer in his life.

In spite of this image glaring at me from the restaurant's walls, menu, and coasters, I had a Brugge Zot (a local blonde) and a glass of the restaurant-brewed Cambrian.

The menu features
over 400 types.

The Hotel where "In Bruges" was shot

The same hotel

Belgian Waffles for lunch

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