Ik ben er weer!
I'm back from a few welcome days off in Belgium. What a manic half term - I've not known anything like it for a few years. Literally 150+ past exam papers marked in three weeks, revision guides created, lower school exam papers written and the most horrendous chest infection I've had within living memory, which warranted four sleepless nights on the sofa bed and horrendous hallucinations. Anyhow, enough of that. Definitely on the mend, and Belgium was SPECTACULAR.
Een moment van nostalgie
I've always had a bit of a love affair with Belgium. I used to go regularly with my parents for New Year when I was in my teens to De Haan on the coast, when my brother and cousins would try ice-skating and I would eat waffles and chocolate mousse to my heart's content at my favourite restaurant the Mosselhuisje in nearby Wenduine.
The dunes at De Haan (Coq sur Mer en Francais)
My favourite Belgian restaurant - Musselhuisje in Wenduine
I even managed to unearth a couple of photos in the depths of Facebook from when I was fifteen and sixteen from one of the many Belgium trips. I'd like to say I looked massively different....
My brother, cousins and I on a day trip to Ypres c.2004 with what looks like a waffle on my lap... things don't change much clearly...
La Famille Flavelle eating New Year's Eve Dinner a year later in De Haan c. 2005
Anyhow, readers I digress. Though nostalgia was one of the reasons I enjoyed returning to Belgium this time, the biggest reason why this trip was noteworthy for me, was that it was the first time I'd been as a fully fledged drinking adult and like a child in a sweetie shop, I could not consume enough Belgium Beer in the two and a half days I was there. I must admit, though I like to think myself very well educated on all things real-ale based, I am a complete novice in all matters dubbel, tripel and ambrée.
So much beer... so little time!
A NEW BEER APP
My education was fast and furious, and undertaken with great gusto. It was also helped and made infinitely more enjoyable by a new app (courtesy of Gina Anderson - one of my three wonderful mother-in-laws and already an avid user)
Ladies, Gentlemen, Beeraholics and Connoisseurs of fine ale, I present to you for your delectation and enjoyment....
This is
effectively Facebook for beer lovers. Here are the basics you need to
know to convince yourself that this little app can enhance your beer
drinking life.
- You have a small profile page, with a username, a little about yourself and a cover photo which you can change (so here's mine)
- You search for the beer you're drinking, add a location, a comment (optional), a rating and a photo (also optional). So here is what I was drinking this time yesterday as an example:
- You can thus keep a list of what you've been drinking (here are my most recent beers... yes, I did arrive back in the UK 5pm yesterday evening):
- You can earn badges for drinking in different places, different types of beers and different times. Here are some of mine at the moment:
- You can see your friends' profiles and see what they're drinking. I currently only have one friend, Gina, who is currently on a once in a life time trip to Africa and hopes to be at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro on her fiftieth wearing her new apple watch in a couple of weeks. Watch this space! When you create your profile on Untappd (look into my eyes... you WILL download this app) do find me and be my friend.
- And lastly, like Netflix, the app is capable of recommending beers based on your drinking history and can even tell you where the nearest venue is that you can purchase said tipple. So for example, Levi made me drink this (yes, it was a hardship) lovely tripel called Slaapmutske at the Delirium Cafe (more on that later)....
- A few days later, we went back to Delirium and I said, "Hey Levi, that Slaapmutske was fricking awesome, I want to find something unusual and a bit like it. Google is just being rubbish for this..." And so, I just went on Untappd and looked up Slaapmutske and found the list of similar beers like so...
- I realised that I hadn't seen Tripel Kanunnik before and it had good reviews so minutes later I ended up with...
ANOTHER AMAZING BEER COURTESY OF AI*
* God Bless Artificial Intelligence - a very interesting programme I listened to on Radio 4 on this can be found here
So what are you waiting for? Its free! Its wonderful!
And can replace that little notebook I know some of you (you know who you are) carry around in the top inside pocket of your jacket.
BIER BIER BIER
So as I've said on here before, this is not a blog about my holidays. My holiday was great, thank you for asking and I had an epic time exploring Brussels and Ghent, but the point of my blog is to discuss beer, local businesses and foraging.
As a complete novice what have I learnt then in Belgium about its beer?
1. Firstly, there are so many to choose from. Like hundreds. And all the decent ones seem to be bottled. And bottle conditioned which gives them a fresh taste.
There are:
- Tripels which taste like apple
- Dubbels which taste like malty burnt toffee
- Krieks which are like sour cherry
- Ambrée style beers which are like English Pale Ales
- Blonds which are like Pils
- Witbier - wheat beers (not really my thing though)
- Stouts which are much sweeter than ours
- IPAs which are like weird English-Belgian beer hybrids
There are also ones which can only be called Trappist if they're made by monks. All this made my head hurt for a while, but then I just drank a few beers and it all seemed pointless worrying about...
Forestine Ambrosia from Brasserie Caracole - A dubbel
XX Bitter from Brouwerij De Ranke - a hoppy IPA drank near the Manneken Pis
The Manneken Pis - a small widdling statue in Brussels - unfathomably popular with tourists and while we were there, kind enough to cover up his nakedness
Orval from Brasserie Orval - Tasty English-Belgian hybrid beer
Charles Quint Tripel - from Brouwerij Haacht Brasserie - a strong pale ale drunk in Ghent
2. They're very strong. Most Belgian beers seem to be above 6%. A lot of it is 8% and some of it is 10%. Enjoy but don't go mad or you might suddenly get allergic to sun and noise as I did on day 2 when we visited Ghent.
Quintine Ambree 8.5% from Brasserie Ellezelloise
Bit worse for wear in sunny Ghent
Beautiful Ghent
Saint-Monon au Miel 8.5% from Brasserie Saint-Monon
3. There are lots of good places to drink in Brussels and Ghent
In Brussels my recommendations are:
The Delirium Cafe
In this bar there are over 2000 beers available. Its dark dingy, vibrant and exciting. Though would avoid in the evenings - too busy and full of tourists drinking crappy draught Leffe - this place is totally wasted on them.
Le Beer Circus
Le Beer Circus is bright and bustling - again had an impressive beer selection. Some guy won a ten euro bet because I could have a chat to him in french - De rien, monsieur - shame you didn't buy me another beer with your winnings...
Poechenellekelde near the widdling statue
This bar is full of strange mannequins hanging from the ceiling but nice outside area, lots of beer and perfect for people watching (its unbelievable how many selfies some people can take in front of the manneken pis).
La Porte Noire
This bar is new I gather to the city. It is in a medieval cellar, you can see all the beers in the fridge and the staff are enormously helpful.
Cafe de Markten
Located round the back of St. Catherine's Church in Central Brussels, this modern cafe has an excellent outside seating area with nice views of the church and a very nicely kept and decently priced Orval.
Meanwhile in nearby Ghent my recommendations are:
T' Galgenhuis
This pub used to be where they hanged people in Ghent. Now it is a very charming little pub on the edge of a bustling square with some very nice Keizer Karolus Tripel on offer.
Het Waterhuis aan de Bierkant
This charming bar has an excellent outside area by the river - you can watch the boats go by as you sup on one of their excellent choice of ales. Nice mix of tourists and locals.
Gentse Gruut Stadsbrouwerij
This brewery is a little off the beaten track near the university. It is very friendly, has WiFi and some amazing beers brewed on site, which are all the more special as they are flavoured with local herbs such as ground ivy. A definite must-visit.
And sadly, on that note I must say au revoir and tot ziens to Belgium. I leave you now with a photo of my waffle from Thursday, on which I will pleasantly ruminate upon next time I'm teaching year 10 before lunch.
In other news...
Levi's mum and her wife, Gina, came to visit last weekend from Canada on their way to Africa. We had a very nice time playing the tourist. On Saturday, it was brilliantly sunny and we all walked by the river from Topsham to Cockwood near the estuary. We stopped at old favourites like the Bridge Inn (which Gina calls affectionately 'The Queen Pub') and the Turf Hotel for some pints and lunch. I managed to sneek in a bit of foraging (the plastic bag just happened to be in the bottom of my handbag... honest!) and I got a small quantity of elderflowers with which to make cordial.
On the Sunday, we had a very pleasant trip to Shaldon and Teignmouth. We had an excellent high tea at Carole's Cupcakes which I have been dying to try for ages.
And so, finally I finish this blog post (2 hours later... God Bless Half Term) with a recipe for Elderflower Cordial.
Most elderflower cordials call upon you to use citric acid. I don't know about you, but I'm not sure what that is and where to get it. So being me, I googled a recipe for elderflower cordial without it and found a good one here.
Ye olde recipy for a cordialle of fresheste elderfloo'er
You will require:
- some elderflowers (say ten decent sized heads)
- 900g sugar
- 2 lemons
- 600 ml water
1. First wash the elderflowers and pop in a container like so:
2. Next boil 600ml of water and gradually disolve the sugar into it to make a syrup. While you're doing this, grate the skin of the lemons into a bowl and cut the lemons into slices and place on top of the elderflower in the container.
3. Place the boiling syrup on top of the elderflower lemon mixture, give it a good stir and leave covered for 24 hours.
4,. Finally, strain through a muslin and bottle. I've frozen some in the freezer for later in the year and have a nice couple of glass bottles for drinking now, preferably with gin and a bit of rose lemonade. The summer hols can't come soon enough.
This will hopefully be me in six weeks time. I will post again soon. In the meantime, do download Untappd and do find me as a friend. I look forward to seeing you on there soon. Tootlepip, mes amis!
