Jessenhofke Bruin

It is sometimes hard to explain to people what we get out of living in another country. If you had asked us two years ago, what European country we would most like to live in, I don't think Belgium would have made the top 5, maybe not the top ten. For us, Belgium seems to be a good starter country for an expat experience. It is quite cosmopolitan, so language is less of an issue than in some countries. The people are genuinely friendly and accomodating. And there is the food and beer that I speak about frequently. So when we have vistors, as we do now with my in-laws in town, it can be difficult to relate what this experience is like. I think however, it is as much about experiencing the differences. Moving to another country removes the ability to rely upon routine. It forces you to not be in your comfort zone, to try new things and to push your boundaries. Unlike a vacation visit, there is no safety net of a plane ticket home. In this experience we have to make this home. We have to create new routines that align more readily with our new environment. These are not better routines, they are different. I think what we get out of this most is expanding our experiences and our ability to deal with the differences that they present.

Enough deep thoughts, this is a beer blog after all. Tonight's trial is the Jessenhofke Bruin. After the excellent experience with this beer's sibling, She who must be obeyed purchased the Bruin so I could give it a go. I was very much looking forward to it after the blonde but as so often happens, the sibling does not live up to the level of its predecessor. This Bruin is heavy on the caramel and malt without much hop to balance the beer. It has a very pronounced grain flavor, almost as though there were some unfermented wort mixed in with the beer. It is interesting but not inspiring. Three Drunk Monks.

Living La Vida Ex-Pat

I have travelled globally for quite a number of years, both for business and pleasure. That global experience helped me to understand some of what to expect but it is not the same as living here. Brief visits, living in hotels and eating in restaurants does not prepare you for the day to day. Particularly when you move to a culture that does not share your native language. I was speaking to another American expat the other day and we commiserated about the energy that the small stuff can take. I have mentioned it here before, but the minutia of daily life is what can exhaust you. Figuring out how to dispose of garbage or operate the parking meters amount to small victories but often take a significant amount of energy to deal with. Being functionally illiterate does not make any of this easier. Those small victories however, are what keep you going. When you do figure things out, you feel pretty good about it and you begin to feel like you are beginning to assimilate.

My in-laws arrive for a visit tomorrow and we are really looking forward to showing them around. I don’t think however, that they will get a real feel for how different our life is here. We will take them around and they will see some of our daily routine, but the fact is, because we have figured things out, I think much of how we have changed will be invisible to them. And that is probably a good thing.

She Who Must Be Obeyed thinks she has a sense of humor

She who must be obeyed decided it might be funny to bring home some Jupiler while I was working in Wiesbaden. She brought home the normal Jupiler Red (5.5%) and the 3.3% Jupiler Blue. Jupiler is the Budweiser of Belgium. It is the working class beer that you can see littering the dashboards of most workvans in this country. These are not interesting beers, these are drinking beers. At 75 cents each, they are cheaper than a diet coke Coca Cola Light. Interestingly, they are better than any Bud or Bud Light. They actually taste like a watery version of heineken. Two Drunk Monks based solely on the fact that they could be worse!!!

Bruges

There are times as an expat, when you forget that you are living in a foreign country. This weekend was not one of those times.

With the weather reported to be beautiful, we decided to venture out to Bruges (Or Brugge in Flemish). Everyone always asks us if we have been there, so we decided to check that box and spend the weekend. The weather was as reported and the weekend started out just fine. A nice hour and a half from home and we were entering the medieval town. This is when the illusion that you are home begins to unravel. Bruges is an old city. A very old city. A city that predates any form of modern transportation. Consequently the streets are very narrow. That's not too bad though. We have lived here long enough to know how to cope with the traffic patterns that this situation creates. What is different is the number of completely oblivious tourists flooding the streets. They are everywhere, most with an apparent death wish as they back into traffic whilst trying to take a particularly artistic photo of their unfortunate looking spouse.

She who must be obeyed had planned ahead however, and booked parking with the hotel in the center of the city. As we approached the hotel however, we could see no evidence of parking. Just a very narrow gate through a wall leading to the front desk. She hopped out and I took a drive down the block to wait for her to tell me where to park. I should have known however, it was through the narrow gate. To say I circled the block to get back does not really do justice to the meandering trip I took to get back to the hotel. A trip that included me squeezing down a narrow alley where I needed to get out of the car and move a bike before being able to make it through. It was so tight, that three tourists took photos of me emerging from the alley. Presumably to show the police how this American moron got stuck in the alley. Having cleared that obstacle, I found myself back at the gate of doom. As I began to squeeze in, I heard the unmistakable sound of gate on front bumper. Just a scratch, but enough to put me in a mood for much of the day. In retrospect, I think it is pretty safe to say that the purchase of a 520 sedan was not the best idea for Belgium. If it is not too wide, as in this instance; it is too long, as can be seen by my garage.

Bruges is a very pretty city. The canals are scenic, there are many pubs and restaurants. It is a really nice place to wander. The downside are the sheer quantities of people. This was a sunny weekend in March and the place was mobbed. I would hate to see what it is like during the summer months. It must be bedlam. I am not a person who gets energized by being in big crowds. I have come to accept a certain amount of jostling and lack of personal space because you can't get away from it here. What really drives me nuts however, is the abrupt stopping to take a photo or look in a shop window. Is it so hard to step to the side before you bring the line of people behind you to a screeching halt? Which brings me to another pet peeve, cameras where the viewfinder is the screen on the back. These cameras have turned everyone into snapshot zombies. Arms outstretched, peering into their camera and oblivious to the world around them. A world that includes automobiles, bicycles, horse drawn carriages and other pedestrians. Glad to have that off my chest.

Today we were up early. My theory is that the churchbells ring to ensure all the tourists are up in time to maximize their commercial activities. So in that spirit, we wandered around the city for the morning, enjoying the relatively open sidewalks. Around lunch we decided to flirt with the gate of doom and leave Bruges to head to Oostende on the North Sea. It is about 30 minutes away from Bruges, so we thought we would check it out to see if we should bother with it for next summer. It reminded me of the Eastern Shore of Maryland with better restaurants. I think I can pass.

As far as a food and beverage weekend, it was a bit of a mixed bag. Food was generally quite good. I had an excellent Coq au Vin in Brugge at Oude Burg 22. Unfortunately, we also had a not so great experience at a restaurant in Oostende. The beers however, did not dissappoint. We started out with the Brugge Tripel which I have had before.

We Then moved on a Brugse Zot Bruin at the De Torre restaurant where we also had some Belgian cheese (Essentially like Gouda) sprinkled with celery salt. This bruin is very light and clean. She who must be obeyed said it was "fizzy". There is a little sweetness and a dried fruit flavor on the palate. At little raisin and plum. Definitely a refreshing beer after a couple of hours walking. Three and a Half Drunk Monks!

The next up was an Omer from Brouwerj Bockor. The Omer is very crisp with a strong alcohol bite. It is an 8% blonde ale with some hop backbone and residual sweetness. I like this one a lot. It has a few levels of flavor to it while at the same time staying crisp and refreshing. Four Drunk Monks!!

I feel almost bad reviewing this beer, because I know most people will never find it. While we were enjoying the Omer, I noticed this beer on their menu and it was one I had never heard of. They only had it in a 750ml bottle however, so I had to talk She Who Must Be Obeyed into sharing it with me. Being the trooper that she is, she agreed and we ordered it and I have to say I am glad we did. The Jessenhofke is an organic unfiltered wheat beer. I was a little worried that it would be a hippee beer with pachouli overtones, but oh was I worng. There is a lot going on in this glass. toffee, caramel, hops, a creamy mouthfeel. The Jessenhofke is serious stuff. Their label says "drink matig, doch regelmatig" which means drink moderately but regularly. Seems like a good idea to me. Four and a Half Drunk Monks!!!!

Tipping

Belgium is not a tipping culture. Typically in Belgium, you just leave a few coins of round up, seldom more than 5%. As an American, it is hard not to feel like a cheapskate when you don't tip. At the same time, it is kind of nice. There is no assumption of addition and when you are away from the tourist areas. Often the servers are surprised when you leave a tip and are genuinely appreciative. In the US it would always bother me that no matter how crappy the service, you were expected to give a tip. Here, service is generally not so great, but the upside is that you do not have to tip.

Just a Little Off the Top

Just finished getting my hair cut. Not typically a noteworthy achievement except in the context of being an expat in a non-English speaking country. My first few forays into personal grooming did not go very well. I learned a couple of important lessons. The first is that you should not get your hair cut in Walloonia. The French do not necessarily embrace the English language and as my French is elementary at best, that is not a good combination. The second thing I learned is that no matter how bad your haircut is, it is Europe and it would have to be astoundingly bad to look more conspicuous than many of the other guys walking around.

Lately I have been going to an old school barber shop near my garage box. Aside from the photos of guys with very modern Euro hairstyles, the place is straight out of the 50's. Except in a very Flemish sort of way. Retro barber chairs, a bunch of old Flemish guys hanging around talking about voetbal, not an English magazine in sight. But is has something that is like gold, a barber who speaks excellent English. The benefit of this is obvious. I can go in, ask for a trim because I have a business meeting in Germany next week, and I dont leave looking like one of the Pet Shop Boys. It could be quicker, the barber is quite a talker which slows the whole process down, but he does a good job and it is only 9 euros.

Being the Lenten season, She who must be obeyed picked up a seasonal offering from Leffe. Depending on your language it is either their Lentebiere or Leffe de Printemps. This is an Amber with a significant amount of caramel sweetness. There is a light hop background but not enough and it is has a fairly thin mouthfeel. At 6.6% it is not a very strong beer but it is pretty easy to drink. Three Drunk Monks!

It's An Old Church

Some friends came into Brussels on Sunday. Not specifically to see us. They had to be here for business. Nonetheless it was good to see them. It is interesting that when you are showing someone else around, you see the city a little differently than you do when you are by yourself. In our case, it made us realize that we are not very good tour guides. After the third or fourth time responding to a question with, "It's an old church", our friends also realized that we suck as tour guides. We could however, tell them all they wanted to know about the various restaurants and bars. So maybe we make better food critics than tour guides.

Brussels is a good town for showing people around. Even if you are not a particularly good tour guide. There are lots things to see and plenty of interesting places to eat or just sit outside with a drink catching up. So we had a good time showing our friends around and it was a good warm-up for when the in-laws arrive in two weeks.

The last beers from the Durbuy visit were unfortunately a bit of a disappointment. They are three offerings from Durboyse, a Blonde, a Tripel and a Brune. Of the three, the tripel was the best, but still pretty average. As a group, Three Drunk Monks.

BBQ Ribs and Belgian Beer

Spring is in the air, which means BBQ. We knew the weather was going to be great today, so we headed out to purchase a grill at the local Brico (Think Home depot but in a smaller, more euro version). We opted for a standard Weber kettle grill. This one is slightly larger than the one we had in the US. That was more by chance than by design. I actually wanted a smaller grill. Being expat, empty nesters and the modest scale of European grillables, I have a feeling that this one is a wee bit of overkill, but we shall see.

When we first were planning to move to Belgium, we had read an article that led us to believe that we would have to pay a tax every time we ran a grill to offset the CO2 emissions. It went so far as to claim that the grill police would fly over in helicopters with infrared cameras to catch miscreant BBQ enthusiasts. As you might suspect, that is green urban legend, Belgians grill.

To christen the Grill, we are doing ribs and potato salad. I love slow cooking ribs. They are the perfect food for a weber. A dry-rub, a little bit of charcoal and some patience and you can have juicy, succulent ribs. My Rib Rub is pretty simple:

4 Parts Chili Powder (I like Penzeys)
1 Part Garlic Powder
1Part Ground Cumin
1.5 Parts Onion Powder
.5 Parts Oregano

I don’t add salt to my rub. I like to rub the ribs and let them sit for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. When you add salt, you draw the moisture out, which is missing the point. I also don’t add any brown sugar. That just burns and leaves a bad taste. I will lightly salt the ribs before I put them on the grill with Kosher salt. The key to ribs is to put them on the grill and leave them alone. The more you fiddle with them, the worse they will be.

She who must be obeyed has a limited culinary repertoire, but potato salad is in it. She makes a really good one. I could do with a little less celery, but otherwise it is really tasty. Her sauce is essentially Mayo + Dijon mustard and some chili powder. Simple, but really tasty.

Ours is a split household on the BBQ Sauce front. She who must be obeyed likes a traditional ketchup based sauce like the Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce. I on the other hand prefer either no sauce or something with a Vinegar backbone. BBQ sauce in Belgium however is a mystery. She who must be obeyed found a spicy Jack Daniels BBQ sauce in what appears to be a steak sauce bottle. Clearly they do not apply sauce like Americans.

Packaging is something that we have really noticed in Belgium. Everything is packaged smaller here. Paper towels are smaller, jars of condiments are smaller. Things like razors have fewer in a pack. Toothpaste, Deodorant, shampoo are all packaged in line with TSA guidelines whether you are traveling or not. Sam’s club Mongo packaging would simply not compute here. Obviously space is at a premium. Our European “full-size” refrigerator is only slightly larger than the dorm fridge we bought the Sun Devil her freshman year. This fits with the European lifestyle of daily shopping, but it is an adjustment. If we do Thanksgiving here this year, I have no idea what we will do.

For the beer review of the evening, we have a Lupulus from Les 3 Fourquets. According to their website, Lupulus got its name from the latin for hops humulus lupulus, or little wolf. This is a turbid, hoppy beer with quite a lot of herbal and fruity notes to it. Most noticeable is it’s almost creamy mouthfeel. A tasty, crisp offering. I give it Three and a Half Drunk Monks!

Missing Spring Break

The Sun Devil started Spring Break today. She is heading back to Maryland to visit friends and see her mom. I think it is a little funny that while most people are racing for warmer weather, she is leaving the heat to head back to chilly MD. I originally was supposed to be in the US for a meeting this week but that got canceled, so I am not going to get to see her. Pretty bummed out about that, but will try to get back there in April (and maybe enjoy some warm Arizona weather).

Here in Belgium we are beginning to see some signs of Spring. Things are looking a little bit more green and the afternoons are starting to get warmer. There is also a dramatically longer day. You forget how far north we are in Belgium until you can measure the difference in amount of light each day in minutes. a couple of weeks ago, I would leave for work in the dark and come home in the dark. My hours haven't changed but the light certainly has.

So in a spring mood, I opened a Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA. I am a big fan of the hoppy astringency of an IPA and this is an interesting take. It is not like many super hopped IPA's that are made in the US. This is more mild and lightly hopped. It is clean and very drinkable. Definitely better than your average beer but as far as IPA's go, there are others I would reach for first. Three and a Helf Drunk Monks!!

Pancake Day

So we just finished up Pancake Day. An event we never celebrated in the US, but for some reason did here. It seems a little odd to be having a beer after pancakes. Reminds me of college. So on to the review.

Next up from Durbuy is a cold glass of dissappointment. The Sainte Amour Dubbel is the house beer from the store that we purchased the rest of the beers from. This is a very dark reddish brown beer that comes in a really attractive stoneware bottle. I should have known from all of the packaging that the beer would not live up to it. It actually tastes thin, bitter and a little harsh, like Ann Coulter. Two and Half Drunk Monks!!

Rader Ambre

Next beer up from the stockpiling in Durbuy is the Rader Ambre. This is a fortified beer at 10.5% from Distillerie Radermacher in the German speaking region of Belgium. The beer is fortified with a grain alcohol aged in an oak cask with some juniper. When I first sipped the beer, I thought there was something different. It has an almost nutty finish behind the grain and fruit. It is an interesting beer and I like it. It is a flavor however that could really divide people. Definitely worth a try though if you see it. Three and a Half Drunk Monks!!

Best Frites in Brussels?

Another beaustiful day (although very chilly), so She who must be obeyed suggested that we head into Brussels to try frites at a place that was billed as the best Frites in Belgium. So we hopped on the tram and headed to the Schuman stop to go to Maison Antoine.

Maison Antoine has been serving frites for 60 years, so I would think that they have it down. I ordered the grande cornet de frites avec mayonaise and a coca cola light. As you can see from the photo, they were golden gems of carbohydrate goodness topped with what my friend Kevin refers to as white death. They were delicious, if a bit messy. Eating frites from a paper cone without wearing mayo is an art form that I have not yet mastered, but as good as these were, I am willing to put in the time to gain that skill.

In the square where Maison Antoine sits, there was a Sunday market. This was quite a nice little market with at least four vendors with cheese, a fishmonger and several butchers and italian product stalls. We picked up some beignets brocoli to go with dinner. I think we will be back, between the frites and the market, probably a great way to spend a Sunday morning.

After our excursion to the market, we hopped back on the Metro to head into Brussels to find another frites shop that She who must be obeyed heard about to do a compare and contrast. After walking for an hour fruitlessly searching for the frites shop, we stopped at Le Roi des Belges, a little Brasserie to get a quick bite for lunch having worked off our fries. We both ordered tartin (open faced sandwiches). Hers was melted goat cheese and tomato, mine smoked salmon and rocket. They had a La Trappe as the beer of the month, so I tried that. It is a blonde ale and is quite similar to a Leffe, with a little more herbal note to it. Not bad, but certainly not much to write home about either. Three Drunk Monks.

Day in Durbuy

Durbuy bills itself as the smallest city in the world, having been given the title of a city in 1331. The sense of time in Europe is something that you cant help but think about. In the US, anything predating the revolutionary period is either a recreation or an archeological site. Here, you can step into buildings that have been in continuous use for a couple of hundred years before our archeological sites. A different perspective.

Durbuy is really a pretty little village city. It is touristy, but in a very Belgian sort of way. There are lots of cute little shops that may or may not be open and often with products that you may wonder what relationship to the medieval town they have.(case in point, Adam and Eve aprons.) The sidewalks are missing cobblestones making a severe ankle injury a constant threat, except when there is a dangerous blind corner, then there is no sidewalk and you have to walk in the street. And there are a number of restaurants.

We arrived fairly late in the morning and spent some time wandering around the city. There is a topiary park across the river from the Castle of the Counts of Ursel that opened for the season today, so we strolled around that for a little while. My guess is that the person responsible for tending the topiary is a bit of a perv, because a surprising number of the topiary were quite buxom. After a couple of hours of this we stopped at La Ferme Au Chene, a little restaurant and microbrewery which produces Marckloff a blonde ale.

The Marckloff arrived in a small tulip glass. It is a deep golden color with a very persistent head. It is quite hoppy with a crisp clean taste. It went quite well with the cheese and pate plate that I had for lunch. She who must be obeyed, critiqued it as , "this is the kind of beer I like". Which is probably why I am writing the beer blog. Four Drunk Monks!!!

We spent a little more time after lunch wandering the shops in town and found a shop with an excellent selection of beers that I have not previously tried. So I am fully stocked up for new blog fodder for this week. One of which, I opened for dinner.

The Barbar is a product of Lefebvre, the same brewery that makes Moeder Overste which I have reviewed previously. Barbar is a Special Blonde Ale which is made with honey. Surprisingly, it is not as sweet as I would have thought. The honey presents itself on the finish but up front there is quite a bit of hop and fruit. I think this beer would probably play better as an aperitif, but it was not bad with my pizza. Four Drunk Monks!!!

Strike!!!

I worked from home today. The reason being that we had a National Strike today that shut my office down. Oddly enough, the strike was not becuase we have not had a government for more than 250 days. Nope, nobody cares about that. As I understand it, the strike was called because there is a movement to eliminate the mandatory cost of living adjustment to pay. Typical pay raises in Belgium are not very high each year, but when combined with the cost of living, it tends to be about the same as are typical in the US for companies with a regular review cycle. So, understandably, the unions are a bit perturbed.

The upside to this, is that Belgians tend to strike on Mondays or Fridays and seldom for more than 4 hours. Although today's was the full day. I guess they wanted to let everyone know they are really serious. I am not sure if anything was accomplished by the strike, but it was kind of nice to be able to see the sun during the day.

Time for Some Stoofvlees

On a cool evening, nothing like a little beef stew. Or as it is referred to in Flanders, Stoofvlees. She who must be obeyed had the Koninginnehapje, which I would not try to pronounce. There is a lot of saliva involved in pronouncing this correctly. I am not quite there yet.

Paired off with the stoofvlees was a Malheur 12. I had the 10 last week when I was there and I have to say I like the 12 better. At more than 11% this is a very strong beer. It is exceptionally well balanced however. There is a little bit of sweet but there is also a lot of nutty richness that backs it up. Really a flavorful and complex beer. Four Dunk Monks!!!!

Curry and Chimay Tripel

She who must be obeyed pulled together all of her culinary skills today to create a chicken tikka masala and homemade puri. This is a meal that she has made before but today was landmark. The last time, the kitchen was coated in a thin film of oil and curry that took weeks to get clean. Today, she set everything up and with the exception of sounding a little frantic when I called to let her know I was coming home from work, pulled the meal together very efficiently. I have to say, it was a very welcome thing to have dinner ready when I got home. A little Ozzie and Harriet but welcome.

To accompany the curry, I opened a Chimay Tripel. This is the Chimay that comes in the cream colored label, which is a good choice because the mouthfeel is really creamy and full. As readers of this blog know, I like tripels and this is the standard. The Chimay is an opaque deep honey color with a yeasty aroma. Hops are very forward on the palate as are some of the unique esters that give a bit of banana and fruit. This is a beer with a lot of character and flavor and it stands up well to a curry. The creaminess may make it not as ideal as an IPA with the Indian food, but it still has that hoppy zing that cuts through. I really like this tripel and the upside is that it is found pretty easily in the US, so you can try one too. Four Dunk Monks!!!

As a side note. Today is my brother's birthday. Happy Birthday SR!!!!