Sunny Days and Three Hour Lunches

Great weekend, sun shining, trees blooming and with that the inevitable allergy related issues. Still, it is a nice change from the cold and rain and probably a good transitional period before we head off to Arizona to visit the Sun Devil.

The weather called for an outdoor table, so we found the only available spot at one of the local restaurants. It was not in the sun, but it was still outside. Apparently, most of the town had the same idea and within a few minutes the place was packed and every outdoor table across our little town square was occupied. Outdoor cafes are one of the most noticible things about Europe. In the US, every outdoor space has to be roped or fenced off to prevent the horrors that might ensue if an underage person were to taste a sip of an adult beverage. Here, whenever the weather is nice enough, the tables and chairs pour out onto the sidewalks and any available space. This creates a situation that is not as obvious but also different from the US. Belgium is not a tipping culture as I have mentioned before. Consequently, most restaurants and cafes have a limited number of waitstaff, so on days like today, they are hopping. Or not, depending upon their mood. The result today was a three hour leisurly lunch of warm chevre salad for She who must be obeyed and a Toast Cannibal (steak tare tare on a slice of toast) for me. Afterwards apple tart. Not a bad way to kill an afternoon.

With our leisurly lunch I tried the Keiser Karel Robijn Rood which is an 8.5% red ale. This is a dark red ale that looks almost like a kriek but darker. The nose is sweet and hoppy. The taste is crisp, very fruity, bannana, dried fruit and some toffee. A very nice beer, I would definitely order it again. Three and a Half Drunk Monks!!!

Fomagerie, Bucherie, Boulangerie

We went for a stroll in Brussels to enjoy the weather. At least it was a stroll by She who must be obeyed's definition. For me it felt more like a forced march. From Parc to the fish market, over to see Mannekin Pis (Dressed like dracula, WTF????), then up to Avenue Louise. She took pity on me and allowed us to take the Metro to Schuman, where we then walked down to Chez Antoine then back to the Metro for one stop. Lunch at Merode, then a walk up the hill to a great little fromagerie where we picked up our cheese course, a St. Felicien. Next door to the Bucherie to get a brochette de saucisse, then around the corner to the boulangerie. Stood in line for a few minutes only to get shut out when the dude in front of us bought all of the remaining baguettes. So we headed back home and got a great baguette from our local boulangerie.

The St. Felicien was really excellent. A raw milk cheese, you will not find it in the US thanks to the FDA. Gooey, funky and really creamy, absolutely delicious.

The brochette de saucisse was fun. How can you go wrong with a bunch of sausages on a stick cooked over glowing embers?

Pulled it all together with some stoemp.

Spring Fever

As a highly secular individual, The Masters golf tournament is the closest thing I have to religous observance each year. For me, the Master signals the beginning of Spring and the beginning of golf season. This year has wound up a little different. Every year for the last ten I would manage to watch all four rounds of The Masters, either in tape delay or on line. I was all set to do the same this year. I had assumed, incorrectly, that I would be able to watch the first two rounds live on line as I have the last few years. When I logged into the Master website however, it said that the video stream was not available in my area. I then spent the next two hours trying to update my ipad so that I could download the Master App. Unfortunately, in Europe it only offers highlights and clips not the live streaming of the US version. As of this writing, it appears that I might get some live coverage over the weekend on the BBC but I am not holding my breath. As consolation however, I am able to watch the REd Sox Yankees home opener on ESPN America. Not only that, but it is the NESN feed with Rem Dawg, so not all is bad. Although the Red Sox could start winning any time now.

So to Celebrate Beer Friday, I had a couple of St. Bernadus Abt 12 over dinner. I have to confess, that I like the St.Bernadus beers. I had not had the Abt 12 before, so when I saw it as the special for the evening, I had to give it a go. The first thing you notice with this beer is the smell. It is floral. Floral like a rose garden. Your first sip is a combination of fruity, yeasty goodness. There is a lot of complexity to this beer. The next thing you get is a strong alcohol bite with a smooth caramel/toffee finish. The mouthfeel is creamy smooth that makes you want your next sip. This is an exceptional beer, high in complexity but easy to drink. Four and a Half Drunk Monks

Sympathy for the Duvel

Things have slowed down just a hair. The in-laws who must be obeyed have returned to the US. I am down to just four presentations that I have to prepare for the next two days and I actually got home before 7PM for the first time this week. Today was the day to get home at a reasonable time. Another absolutely gorgeous Belgian Spring day. As I write this it is 8PM and it is still 70 degrees outside. She who must be obeyed suggested we do burgers on the grill to enjoy the great weather. As a bonus, she was able to make pasta salad with the Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing her mother brought over from the US. Ranch dressing is one of those things that we neglected to bring with us from the US. The things we knew we would have a hard time finding we purchased and packed immediately before leaving. Chile peppers (15 pounds of various types), Cholula sauce (regular and chipotle 6 bottles), fresh spices from Penzeys, Franks Red Hot (for wings). Sense a pattern yet? Most of the time, we have no problem buying the Belgian alternative. Some things are similar. Others are completely different, but you figure it out. There are a few things, however, that you just want the original. Ranch Dressing, Hot sauces and chile peppers among them. The food here is great, but it is generally not spicy and sometimes an American ExPat wants to bring the heat.

On the burger front, we still have to figure that one out. This is the second time we have done burgers and She who must be obeyed has purchased "Filet Americaine" both times. This is essentially ghetto steak tare tare. It looks like hamburger, but with a really low fat content. Consequently it makes a pretty dry burger. There is probably a way to get an 80/20 mix here but her Flemish is going to have to get a lot better.

Tonight I will review an old favorite, Duvel. Duvel is a beer that you can get easily in the US. It is a very clear amber color with a hoppy, fruity nose. Duvel is quite crisp with some sourness from the Belgian yeasts. It has good hop bitterness which gives way to herbal and bread flavors. The back story on the name is that according to legend, at a tasting in the village, the shoemaker Van De Wouwer said that it tasted like a real devil. So the name Duvel (devil) stuck. There are many beers here in belgium that follow in this tradition (lucifer, Satan, Etc.) I will eventually get to these but for now Duvel is alone with Four Drunk Monks!!

Sunny Belgium

An absolutely gorgeous day in Belgium today. T-shirt weather. As with any place with somewhat sketchy weather, when it is good, people are out. Today was no exception. We took the in laws who must be obeyed to Durbuy to enjoy the weather. Per usual the weather brought out the crowds. Still, it was not bad and we scored an excellent parking spot. We spent a bit of time wandering around and then headed back home to relax and spend their last day.

Whilst in Durbuy I tried a Diekirch Grand Cru. This beer is not actually Belgian but from Luxembourg. Hopefully this is not what we can expect from other beers from Luxembourg because frankly, it was not very good. I know I am becomming a hopeless beer snob, but with the competition this beer has less than 2 hours drive away, you would think it would be better. The Diekirch is very much like a pilsner but thin. A little like an Amstel light. A little hop, a little crisp but no depth, no complexity. Two Drunk Monks.

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.