Hot Chips & Silky Chocolate. The first and forever lasting memory I have of Belgium is this. Taking strolls in beautiful squares and along the canals in Bruges, and stumbling upon shop windows so lovingly decorated with overflowing chocolates & waffles. Restaurants and street vendors with hungry tourist and locals walking away with large cones of hot Frites draped in sauce. This is Belgium! Read on to find out more on what are the best foods that Belgium is known for.
The Most Popular Foods Belgium is known for
Belgian Fries or Frites
Belgium Frites are sooo crunchy and delicious, the best chips you will taste! You know why? They are double fried! No need to go to any fancy restaurants to eat these. The fry stands that you find everywhere in Belgium serve up these tasty chips and they will be the most delicious, crispy chips you will ever taste.
Fun fact! The term French Fries doesn’t mean the chips are from France. They are in fact from Belgium! The Americans discovered the tasty snack during World War 1 and called these (incorrectly) French Fries. This was mainly because the majority of people in Belgium speak French.
Another thing that blew my mind is the choice of sauces you can put on them. There is usually a sauce menu, a long one! There are around 20 different types to choose from and many are house-made sauces. If you want you can just stick to the classic combo of ketchup and mustard (although the locals prefer just mayo), but, if you feel like something different, try the Andalouse. It’s a tangy sauce with a hint of spice made with mayonnaise, tomato paste, pepper & lemon.
Moules-Frites
One of the most popular dishes in the whole of Belgium, is the perfect combo of steamed mussels paired with hot & crispy frites. The Moules are usually cooked in a classic French Marinière style which means simply steamed, with finely diced shallots, garlic, white wine, butter & parsley. Some recipes and restaurants also add a splash of cream, which gives them a more rich, luscious flavour.
I love mussels and this is a dish that you can easily recreate at home. Check out this recipe HERE.
Belgian Waffles
Another staple of the food scene is Belgium are waffles. Unlike in the US where waffles are generally eaten at breakfast, waffles in Belgium are more of a snack or a sweet treat. You will see food trucks that sells them everywhere on the streets of Belgium and the toppings combinations are endless, and yes, you can lather them with.. Belgian chocolate too. But, don’t be afraid of having a plain one either, they are just as good, because they are just done, well, perfectly!
In Belgium there are mainly 2 different types of waffles that you will find. The Liege waffle is made from a thicker batter with lots of granulated sugar over the top, and here in Australia this is what I generally find at the shops to buy. The Brussels waffle instead, is slightly different and has lighter, fluffier batter. The hardest decision will be just which one to have!
Belgian Chocolate
For any chocoholics like me out there, Belgium is chocolate HEAVEN and one of the foods that Belgium is most well known for. In smaller towns like Bruges, you will see a chocolate shop in pretty much every corner.
So what is it that makes Belgian Chocolate so special? It’s two things mainly: the ingredients and the way it’s made. The cacao components in Belgian Chocolate are grinded very, very fine. That makes the chocolate extremely smooth that it just melts in your mouth. The chocolate also has a high Cacao Butter content, usually 100% and as a result, you get a silkier, healthier chocolate, so surely it’s ok to have more then, right?
Fun fact! Traditional Chocolate Praline (which is known as a soft or liquid centre covered in a thin layer of chocolate) originated in Belgium. According to Neuhaus Chocolates, the tale is that in the 1850s a pharmacist, Jean Neuhaus, started covering medicines in a thin layer of chocolate to make the pills a bit easier to swallow. Needless to say his customers were very pleased!
Some of the most popular brands of chocolate include names like Côte D’Or & Godiva.
And to Drink? Belgium Beers!
It’s no secret that Belgium has some of the best beers in Europe. So if you like beers, Belgium HAS to be on your list of countries to visit. Walk in somewhere for a drink, and the beer menu will be pages and pages long. Trappist, Wheat, Abbey, Fruit beer varieties and the list goes on. Drinking beer anywhere in Belgium is serious business!
There are a lot different types of beers, some say over 1000! It’s home to over 200 breweries which is mind blowing for a relatively small country in Europe. So, It’s fair to say that Belgium leads in way in having the biggest varieties of craft beers in the world.
Even if you are not much of a beer drinker (like me), you can be pretty much guaranteed to find a beer in Belgium that will suit your taste. Don’t like strong beers? try a white beer, a bit sweet, a bit sour, with a lemony taste. Do you like fruity flavours? well there are several fruit beers. The most popular one is a cherry beer, Kriek, that is just delicious!
There are soo many other varieties. Some of the most popular beers to drink in Belgium include Tripel (a strong pale ale), Chimay (a popular Trappist beer), Delirium (look for the pink elephant on the bottle), and Hoegaarden, a white beer, which is widely sold in many countries worldwide.
Hope you enjoyed this post about What Foods is Belgium Known For!
