Day 5: An Ode to the Waffle

When in Belgium...eat waffles. If you're like me, you might be wondering if the Belgian waffle is just another American misnomer. But it turns out that, yes, they do eat waffles in Belgium, and they do them right.

Here's where I get to tell you about my new love: the Liège waffle.

Personally, I find waffles too crunchy and far too difficult to evenly distribute butter on. I almost always order pancakes over waffles. Waffles taste good when I'm eating them, but I never crave them like I crave pancakes. Well, the liège waffle has caused me to think differently about the potential of waffles.

There are two main types of waffle in Belgium: the Brussels waffle (which, unfortunately, I didn't try, because the Liège was so dang good) and the Liège waffle. Here they are:

Brussels waffle. Note the regular sides.

Liège waffle. Note the irregular sides and dark spots of caramelization

The Brussels waffle, from what I hear, is more like what we consider a Belgian waffle. The Liège waffle, on the other hand, is a chewy, brioche-like treat that is totally delicious on its own. No strawberries or whipped cream necessary. That's because the dough (you really can't call it a batter) contains pearl sugar—big drops of special pearl-shaped sugar that caramelize on the waffle iron. The dough doesn't quite spread out evenly over the waffle iron, hence the irregular sides.

We sampled many waffles in Brussels, but the most memorable (not necessarily the most tasty) ones were from Maison Dandoy. Maison Dandoy is one of the oldest "biscuit houses" in Brussels, dating back to the 1800s. The inside is all old-fashionedy and just what you'd expect from...an old biscuit house. They're known for their speculoos. If you're wondering what speculoos are or have noticed that word popping up a lot more (say, at Trader Joe's), read about them here. I didn't know how popular they were in Belgium, otherwise I would have sampled some there!

Une gaufre de Liège!

Waffle time in the Grand Place

Next, we popped into various comic book shops to complete Cliff's Tintin collection. Then we set off for Antwerp. We walked around the city a whole bunch, only to find that the two places we wanted to eat and drink at were closed. We ended up at our second-best choice for beer consumption, a bar called Gollem (yes, I thought of Lord of the Rings, too) which was fine since they also had excellent food to go with their great beer selection.

Belgian frites and beef stew—delicious!

A Belgian meal isn't complete without Belgian beer!

I feel I should pause here to give proper attention to Belgian fries. A quick internet search reveals that there's still heated debate between France and Belgium as to who invented them. In any case...almost all of the fries I had in Belgium looked like the above—short, a bit irregular, a little bloated-looking. There's more potato "meat" to them, and I love the texture. I'm not sure what oil they use, but you can definitely taste that too. They're almost always served with mayonnaise, but a mayonnaise that's more clean-tasting than our bottled stuff. They're not my favorite kind of fry, but they certainly are a welcome snack when consuming Belgian beer.

Overall, we weren't overly impressed with Antwerp, but if you're into high-end shopping or giant hands, or just giants in general, it's worth a stop.

This hand wasn't very accepting of me—I almost slid right out of it

This giant man is scaring the little people with his general giantness or maybe his pelvic thrust

Next, we set off for Ghent. I wasn't sure what to expect from Ghent, but it turned out to be a delightful sort of mini-Bruges, complete with pretty canals. And, yup, the Treaty of Ghent was signed there to end the War of 1812. Ghent is a university town, and you can tell just by walking around. Young folks EVERYWHERE.

Youngsters enjoying the canal

There was a heavy push to make Ghent car-free a while back, so there are tons of bikers. As a tourist, you can walk to pretty much anything worth seeing, but boy do you have to pay attention when you're walking so you don't collide with a bike! We didn't have an agenda in Ghent, and there's nothing super-famous to see (the building where the Treaty was signed only showcases a little plaque), so we just wandered around. There are lots of cool old buildings and churches and even a castle. Yeah, I know, "cool old buildings" are a dime a dozen in Europe...but these ones stood out to me because the city is so clean, making their historical landmarks really shine.

Cliff spotted Ronald McDonald on our way to the recommended watering hole. Crazy! I didn't know he was a she.

Ronald McDonald sighting!

Said watering hole is a place called Waterhuis. The beer selection was decent, but the staff didn't contribute anything pleasant to the experience. The place is on the canal (as you might imagine from the name), though, so it's got that going for it.

Watering at the watering hole, Waterhuis

I really wanted a waffle or some chocolate, but we couldn't find any in our path. We ended up getting frozen yogurt (a sure sign of a hip college town, right?) and meandering back to our car. On the way, we came across a public piano.

Public piano

How cool is that?? We ate our fro-yo while listening to various folks try their hand at pianism. Some of them were really good. Good enough to make me NOT want to play in front of strangers. Finally, we left the beauty of Ghent to return to our hub in Brussels and pack up for Sicily.

Flowers over a canal in Ghent