Market Day

Europe has amazing markets. Whenever we move back, I am sure that this will be the thing that I miss most. (maybe next to Den Engel). It is hard to describe the markets to someone who has never been to one. There is a tremendous variety and each one has its own particular character. The market in Antwerp is excellent. It is on Saturday mornings and it is big. My favorite part of many of these markets are the stands selling food to eat immediately. You have the oyster guys with champagne and white wine. There are the asian food vendors with lumpia (egg rolls) and Phad Thai. The moroccan vendors with durum pancakes filled with feta and honey. and it goes on.

We always time our market visits to the brunch hour. Glass of wine, something to munch on, then we shop for dinner. Today was tea and moroccan pancakes. Being Autumn, it is mushroom season and everywhere you look there are vendors selling amazing varieties of mushrooms. Cepes, black trumpet mushrooms, elk horns, you name it. A good excuse for mushroom pasta in my book.

Soon it will be the Chasse (Hunting season), and the markets will fill up with wild game. Rabbit, venison and wild boar. Not to mention Fois gras. I really think this is the best time of the year to be here.

In the US there are farmers markets and they are nice for what they are, but they are nothing like this. I love the fresh produce and the home baked items, but there is something special about being able to get a half dozen oysters, a glass of champagne while you are shopping for the week.

I think it is going to be hard to move home.

 

Beer Me

This is the Annual Brussels Beer Weekend (http://www.belgianbrewers.be/en/events/belgian-beer-weekend-171/article/belgian-beer-weekend). It is our fourth. We moved here one week before the first one we attended back in 2010 and it has become how we mark time spent in Belgium. Three years, four Beer weekends.

As one would expect, Beer Weekend has proven to be a draw for visitors. Even from the first Beer Weekend, we have had people join us for each one. This year it was a collection of colleagues from around the globe. SWMBO (ever the hostess) picked up our Jeton and crowns to get our glasses and beer. Unfortunately we miscalculated. We thought that we would be getting the 33cl normal beer pours that we had in every previous year but this year they moved to small half pours. Probably an effort to reduce public drunkenness but it forced us to thwart their efforts by relocating to http://www.moederlambic.com for post festival beers.

In addition to Brussels Beer Weekend, it is also Reuzenfeest (http://www.reuzen.be) in our town. It is really hard to fully capture what Reuzenfeest is but essentially it is a festival with big paper mâché giants as the central characters. In addition to a parade of giants, we also have a big market featuring lots of junk food and yes, beer. Currently we are awaiting the fireworks which mark the halfway point of the festival.

Tomorrow, back to the Beer Festival with a couple of other co-workers. A light day, I think. It is a school night after all.