mural by Grand Place
Today we were going to go to the Brewers museum, only to walk up to a tri-lingual note telling us that it was closed specifically today and tomorrow. Nice. Oh, well.
As a back-up museum, we went to the Chocolate museum. For 4.5 euro for a student it was so-so. Poorly organized, but two free chocolate things and a cute demonstration by an old chocolatier with very limited english. Apparently Belgium became a big maker of chocolate because they improved one of the processes involved in producing chocolate, and they had a large/quick explosion of factories built for that purpose. Also, chocolate moulds didn't come into play until the 19th century.
Lunch was half a baguette sandwich and a double espresso. My experience with espresso in the states is that people tend to either drink it as part of something (cappuccino, etc), or entirely on its lonesome. Here it acts the way a cup of coffee in the states does, served with cream and sugar on the side that you can add. I have to say, I am pleased with the consistently high quality of coffee. I have yet to have a mediocre espresso here.
We checked out a few beer stores (Beer Planet and "de Bier Tempel"), looking for the elusive Delerium Tremens Noel in 75 cl bottles, or their seasonal glassware. All of the bars here serve each beer in its own distinctive glass (e.g.) and Will tells me that whenever they happen to be out of the associated glass, you are apologized to profusely.
The rain let up when Will bought his umbrella (of course) and we made our way to the Magritte museum. Magritte was, in fact, Belgian. Also, incredibly talented. Realism, impressionism, cubist stuff, sculptures, drawings, paintings, films, photos. I had no idea, past the well-known 'ceci n'est pas une pipe' and the man with the apple in front of his face. I bought a poster of 'black magic'. The museum has 3 floors. One is a cloak room and one an entrance level, but the other floors are dense with Magritte's work. He was very prolific. And got really weird when Belgium was invaded. As a side note, 2 euro entrance for students. Rock on.
After that, we headed out to the Cantillon Brewery, on the edge of town:
"The Cantillon brewery is outside the Petit Ring. Most of the Brussels region is surrounded by a motorway, called the "Ring", numbered R0 in the national road numbering system. There is a smaller ring of wide, differently named boulevards, in a roughly pentagonal shape, called the Petit Ring (Kleine Ring, Small Ring), the R20. This follows the path of the city's former 14th Century city walls." [source -- the interwebs ;) ]Cantillon brews lambics and guezes. Lambic is a traditional spontaneous-fermentation beer, tasting very sour instead of the bitterness you might expect in 'normal' beer. According to German definitions of beer, it actually can't be called beer. Lambic is aged for three years, and is flat. Gueze is what happens when 3 & 1-year lambics are mixed and more yeast added before bottling, giving it some carbonation. To widen their appeal, some lambics also have macerated fruits added before bottling-- Krieck has sour cherries. `Rose' ended up meaning raspberries were added (you might also see the word 'framboise' used). We tried one with muscat grapes added and Will said he had one with rhubarb (as an 'off-one', or seasonal sort of thing).
in the brewery:
Neat tour. There's an attic with a lot of air whooshing through where the mash picks up its yeast and starts fermenting. Two of the yeasts in particular are specific to the region, and there are on the order of 86 yeast strains involved.
Lunch had been 'traditional libanese food', their plate of the day, which was cinammoned rice with pistachios and almonds as well as some really tender chicken, then a salad with lemon juice, some oil and a lot of parsley mixed in. Washed down with European coca-cola, which *does* taste better (mmm real sugar). Also, lemon fanta is amazing.
Dinner (for the grand total of 8 euros - amazing) was made with stuff from the pseudo-grocery near the European parliament. Fresh tortellini stuffed with arugola ('rucola') and mushrooms (funghi) in a white sauce with shredded gruyere and sauteed some 'chicken sausage' (which was somewhere between sausage and bologna, but tasted pretty good on browning) as well as a nice salad of mixed greens on the side. All cooked on two lone burners --- Will's place lacks a real stovetop or oven, and he said that was common for apartments he was looking at in the area.
One more day, then another grueling plane-ride and customs-juggling. Woo.
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