What to Eat in Belgium
What should you eat in Belgium? What are the most typical and traditional Belgian dishes? Here is the list of the Best Belgian Food & Cuisine that you should try before you die. You cannot leave Belgium without eating these foods!
Written by Gert Geudens, Scrum Master from Leuven, Belgium
13 Best Top Foods You Must Try in Belgium
Belgian Fries with mayonaise
You’ll never hear a Belgian call them “french fries”. There’s a lot of controversy around who invented fried potatoes, but the Belgians perfected them. The secret is using freshly cut potatoes and they must be fried twice. First at a lower temperature to cook the inside to be soft and fluffy, and second, quickly at a higher temperature to cook the outside crispy. The best way to get them is from a frituur/frietkot/friterie, served in a cone covered with mayonaise. That’s the only right way to eat our national dish.
Mussels
Mosselen-Friet, in Flemish, or Moules-frites, in French, is a classic Belgian dish you can find at just about any café or brasserie in Belgium. The most common way mussels are served in Belgium is steamed with vegetables in big black mussel pots.
Flemish Stew
Stoofvlees (Flemish) or Carbonnade Ă la flamande (French). This typical Belgian food is made from beef slowly simmered in Belgian beer until it melts in your mouth.
Waffles
We have two types of Belgian waffles. The Brussels waffle is rectangular and usually topped with sugar. Tourists like adding additional toppings like whipped cream, chocolate or fruits. The denser Liège or Luikse waffle has rounded edges and crystallized sugar baked into it, making it slightly sticky and sweeter than the Brussels waffle.
Belgian Chocolate
Belgium is famous for high quality chocolate. It has a wide variety of top chocolate brands made by the world’s finest chocolatiers. Go on a culinary exploration into the world of truffles, pralines, chocolate bars and surprising flavours.
Vol-au-vent
Vol-au-vent, also called koninginnenhapje or videe in Flemish, consists of a round bladder dough pastry of which the “lid” is cut off so that the pastry can be filled with a mixture of chicken, little meatballs and mushrooms in a creamy sauce. It’s usually served with fries.
Endives with ham in the oven
Endive is a typical Flemish vegetable which is wrapped in ham prepared in the oven covered with a bechamel-and-cheese sauce. This dish is a classic of Belgian cuisine.
Asparagus Flemish-Style
When it’s asparagus season, from April to June, Belgium goes asparagus crazy. Flemish-style is the classic way to have them. Prepared in a butter sauce and covered with hard-boiled pieces of egg.
Speculaas
When you order a coffee in a Belgian cafe, it’ll come with a little speculaas gingerbread biscuit on the side. Try dipping it in and see how it tastes.
Sausage and Mash
Sausage and mashed vegetable potatoes or stoemp is a classic Belgian combination. It’s a hearty farmer’s dish and the kind of sausage used ranges from black to white and blood sausage.
Belgian Beer
For such a geographically small country, Belgium has quite an impressive number of beer styles. Stella Artois is obviously the most well known Belgian pils beer. But we’re also known for our typical Trappist beers (Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle, Westvleteren) , abbey beers (Leffe, Affligem), Blond and Tripel beers (Duvel, Karmeliet), Lambic, Gueuze and our Fruit beers like Kriek.
Belgian Sprouts / Brussel Sprouts
Our sprouts may have a bad reputation but they are a lovely typical belgian cabbage sidedish.
Rabbit with Prunes
The classic version of this Belgian dish combines rabbit with prunes to add sweetness and some croquettes on the side.
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Comments
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