I started writing this post while flying from Washington D.C. to Denver making use of free WifFi (Yay!). We're almost ready to land so I will have to finish it once we are home.
We flew from Brussels to Washington, D.C. Stayed overnight and finished the journey to Albuquerque today. As is usual we are in the post-international flight arrival zombie phase so I will keep this short. I have already started putting together my after trip postmortem analysis. But as there was a final flurry of Foodie activity over the last few days of the trip, let's take a
One of our last meals with the VEFS was at Valor for chocolate and churros though I had something a bit more substantial, a tosta with iberico ham. It was quite good as the bread was not over toasted making it easier to eat. The churros, as always, were great.
On our last night, I took the two young Vikings back out on the waterfront where they had a last gelato
And I convinced them to stop at a place I'd wanted to try El Rancho des Patatas basically a frites place
They weren't bad. They came with a choice of sauces. 3.1 & 3.2, with their long Netherlandish legacy thought serving the frites on a wooden plate with cut-outs for the sauces and wooden skewers to eat the frites with was weird. All in all it was good.
Our first night in Brussels, Wife and I discover that our Airbnb is in a neighborhood that is dominated by a wide variety of ethnic groups. Looking for a place to eat, not a Belgian place was to be found. Moroccan, Turkish, Syrian, Italian, and so on. Just no Belgian. We ended up deciding on on Turkish Doner Kebap.
It was quite good. It is served in the Western European style with lots of veg and sauces which we, honestly, prefer to the austere 'authentic' style in Turkiye. You will notice I even had Ayran and Chay with it.
de-I at Brussels Eldership Away Base
This Airbnb was noteworthy for having...
Absolutely the most ginger root of any Airbnb ever stayed at
For breakfast, I just got a few things from a local neighborhood bakery.
The lighter colored items were savory. The cylinder had a sausage in it. The flat had cheese. They were just Okay. But the dark ones were great. On top is a pain raisin, and on the bottom is a pain au chocolate, and above is a very NON-Parisian pain au raisin. It was almost like a brioche with a very eggy dough that was both airy and flaky at the same time
The following day, the last day of our trip, with the weather not cooperating for photography, I suggested we make it a gastronomic day. I researched and found places in the old center of town that specialized in the local cuisine. And indulge we did.
Wife had garlic shrimp to start
I had a smoked salmon plate
It was GIGANTIC. I have never seen so much smoked salmon on a single serving. I ate it all.
Wife showing that there is even a Fotograficus Espouses Gastronomicus
Then Wife had the classic beef stewed in beer, Carbonade Flamande
While I had a Vol-a-Vent (chicken in a cream sauce over a puff pastry)
