Food and culture

In 1830, Belgium, a small heavily populated country bordering on France, Germany, and Luxembourg, detached itself from the Netherlands and became an independent nation. Its history is a long story of other nations marching over Belgian soil, each leaving an imprint upon the people and their traditions: Romans, Franks, Spaniards, Austrians, Dutch, and especially the French. Belgium is made up of two main groups: the Flemings in the north, a Teutonic people who speak Flemish (a dialect of Dutch related to German), and the Walloons in the south who are primarily a Celtic people who speak a dialect of French. It is said that Antwerp, the northern Flemish business city, represents its people's character: "salty, stubborn and proudly provincial," while Brussels, located in the heart of Belgium, and about four-fifths French-speaking, seems to represent the more emotional and flamboyant Walloons. But wherever one goes in Belgium, North or South, despite the differences, some things are universal. Almost everywhere, except in remote rural areas, English is spoken and understood; Belgian husbands become emotional on the subject of food and argue about whose wife is the better cook; and Belgians like their food in ample quantity and of good quality. But although good food well prepared is a priority, Belgians are not adventurous cooks. They have little interest in experimenting with "foreign" dishes, remaining happily confident that the best is Belgian home cooking and the best of restaurant food is none other than the haute cuisine of France. And although the Flemish favor foods masked with velvety sauces of cream and eggs, and the Walloons make extensive use of pork in their dishes, the overall tone of Belgian cookery is definitively French. The meticulous care with which Belgian cooks select their foods can best be illustrated by a walk through a Belgian supermarket, where even every-day items like butter and cream are carefully labeled with the proud producer's name, where an incredible array of exquisitely garnished cold meats, pates, sausages, salads, and prepared appetizers delight the eye, and where varieties of canned, packaged, and bottled goods line up in colorful profusion unparalleled elsewhere. Advertisements proudly proclaim: "Butter from Namur" ... "Asparagus from Malines" ... "Pork and pork products from Pietron" ... "Walnuts from Bastogne" ... "Strawberries from Wepion." The tremendous Belgian sweet tooth is not gratified in simply one bakeshop alone. A distinction is carefully made between the daily baked goods, which may be purchased from a boulangerie, and party specialties, which are selected from a patisserie. Candies and confections are so important they are sold in specialty stores called confiseries, where even a wan-ton glance seems to add pounds. But gradually, as is happening in other parts of the world, some of the high standards of daily shop-ping and food preparation must be lowered to accommodate the modern lifestyle: the realities of traffic snarls, working mothers, and a shared inter-national desire to narrow the waistline.

Belgian Foods

DAIRY PRODUCTS Fresh milk as a beverage is not too popular; even children prefer to drink cafe au lait. Much fresh cream and whole milk are used in the preparation of soups, custards, and many sauces. Cheeses are often eaten with breads for breakfast. Creme fraiche, a thick and slightly tangy cream, is used both in France and Belgium for cooking, with fruits and in desserts. FRUITS AND VEGETABLES Fresh seasonal fruits are preferred and good variety and excellent quality are to he had in supermarkets, specialty stores, and open markets. A typical Belgian touch is to add dried fruits to many meat dishes, especially in the winter when vegetables are scarce and more costly. Vegetables are of great importance in the Belgian diet and seldom served without distinction; they are usually served as a separate course, appropriately sauced and garnished, but often overcooked. Potatoes are a part of almost every lunch and dinner, especially when meat or fish is served. Cabbage, turnips, and potatoes are winter staples. Especially favored vegetables include cabbage, escarole, Belgian endive, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cressonette (water-cress), leeks, hop sprouts, and, of course, the ever-present potato, especially in the form of frites, served with some variety of mayonnaise. MEATS AND ALTERNATES Walloon cookery is noted for an extensive use of pork, but to all Belgians meat is an important part of dinner, followed by fish or seafood, which are also much enjoyed. But whether the main dish is meat or fish, the omnipresent side dish of some form of potatoes always makes the meal filling. Favored meats: pork, beef, veal, horsemeat; no lamb or mutton. Game meats are very popular and Belgians love to hunt: marcassin (wild boar), hare, rabbit, roe-buck, wild deer, wild duck, grouse, snipe, quail, partridge, and thrush. Favored fish: salmon, mullet, trout, turbot, skate, flounder, pike, carp, whitefish, dourade, mackerel, lotte, cod, herring. All seafood and shellfish are savored, especially mussels, which are called "the poor man's oysters." Other seafoods enjoyed are: eels, scallops, clams, crayfish, small crevettes, and large shrimp, oysters, and lobsters. Eggs are consumed mostly as part of other dishes: rich egg and cream sauces, mayonnaise, etc. Occasionally eggs may be part of light supper dish-es. Nuts and legumes are not an important part of the Belgian diet. BREADS AND GRAINS

Dry breakfast cereals or hot cooked porridges are seldom used. Crusty white bread is preferred either as the "Belgian family loaf" or as crusty small rolls called pistolets, which are a favorite late Sunday breakfast treat. FATS Unquestionably, the Belgians consume a consider-able amount of fat in the form of dressings and sauces, mayonnaise accompaniments, fried foods, and but-ter, which is used lavishly. Butter preferences are as individual as wine preferences and the particular butter is selected by the name of the producer and the area it comes from, but whoever produced it or wherever it came from, the true Belgian will choose unsalted butter as having the superior taste. Both butter and lard are used in cooking and baking. SWEETS AND SNACKS The object of desire sweets to satisfy the Belgian sweet tooth are everywhere in evidence. And of course, Belgian chocolate and Belgian waffles (with strawberries and whipped cream) are legendary. Boulangeries, patisseries, and confiseries are never too far away. For any occasion, gifts of exquisitely pack-aged candies are appropriate and customary. A typical popular snack is the readily available Belgian waffles, served with butter and sugar or whipped cream and sometimes fresh fruit. Belgians also manage to consume, with ease, great quantities of crisp dry cookies (achieved by using ammonium carbonate instead of an equal amount of baking powder). The frequent cup of coffee is seldom served alone; usually it too is accompanied by a sweet baked product. Late afternoon ladies' gatherings also enjoy "cakes and gossip." SEASONINGS There is only a subtle use of onions and garlic in Belgian cookery and fresh herbs of all kinds are preferred. The favorite herb is chervil, while the favorite spice is nutmeg. The richness of butter, cream, and eggs stands alone as the flavoring in many dishes. BEVERAGES Estaminets are the popular beer taverns where businessmen are said to down unbelievable quantities of beer. Coffee is served to all ages at all meals and often between meals as well. Belgians are very knowledgeable about wine selection and usually purchase their wine with their groceries. Wine is frequently served with dinner.

Domestic life and special occasions in Belgium

DOMESTIC LIFE Most Belgian kitchens, though tiny by western standards, are well equipped, people commonly own freezers and dishwashers. Because there is still a strong preference for the use of fresh, seasonal foods, large storage areas and complicated equipment

are really not a necessity. Family meals are often eaten in the home, but entertaining may often occur in restaurants, further obviating the need for complex preparation or large storage areas. SPECIAL OCCASIONS Belgians, with few exceptions, are Roman Catholic, the Flemish being more religious than the Walloons. A specialty of Catholic Flanders' Friday menu is botermelk met mavermout, a meatless soup of buttermilk thickened with oatmeal. Christmas is celebrated with no special menu, but with the best that each home has to offer. For many this may be a rich game dinner, for others pork or beef, but almost all will climax their Christmas dinner with a buche de Noel, a log of chocolate cake, trimmed to look like a fallen log, sometimes complete with mushrooms created of egg meringue. Whitsun is a spring holiday welcomed after the long winter because it heralds spring's tender young vegetables and wild strawberries. Family christenings are celebrated with afternoon tea or coffee; small packages of candied almonds are often sent to friends as a memento of the occasion. First communions, engagements, and weddings are often celebrated as formal occasions with elegant buffets and dances.

Belgium meals and customs

MEALS AND CUSTOMS Belgians are noted for their politeness, which is evident in business and at home. No dinner guest would ever be late, nor would a guest arrive without a bouquet of flowers or a beautifully wrapped box of candies. A short aperitif hour is customary, followed by a leisurely dinner with wine and likely one of Belgium's famed liqueurs with the after-dinner coffee: elixir de spa (pine-flavored), or walzin or elixir d'Anvers, both of which are similar to Benedictine, the liqueur prepared by the French Benedictine monks. The usual Belgian day begins with a light break-fast of bread or rolls with jam, unsalted butter, and cafe au lait. A midmorning break of coffee and waffles or cookies is likely for the women and children, while men will enjoy a beer or two. Traditionally, the noon meal is the main meal of the day: businessmen take a twohour break and most children come home from school. This is the meal that begins with soup or hors d'oeuvres, then a hearty meat or fish dish with potatoes, followed by a separate course of salad or cooked vegetables. Frequently the meat is carved in

the kitchen and the platter garnished with seasonal vegetables. It is interesting to note that vegetables and salads are almost a social status symbol the higher the level, the more vegetables and salads are used. For most families, however, potatoes are the only vegetable requirement. A dessert for dinner would be fruit and cheese, a tart or pudding. Wine or beer is usually served as well. Throughout the day, snacks of waffles, coffee, and cookies or frites to order, dunked in mayonnaise, are generously indulged in. The evening meal is usually a light supper of leftovers or simple egg, cheese, or fish dishes. As in other countries in the western world, Belgian city dwellers are finding that the pressures of urban life make it increasingly difficult to enjoy that leisurely noon meal. Sunday is a quiet day devoted to family and friends and often features a specially prepared dinner. For some families, Sunday is the day for dinner out, and in Belgium this is a delightful prospect, for all restaurants strive to achieve a high level of renown, especially since many gastronomic societies keep watchful eyes on the menus and specialties of these establishments.

FOODS COMMONLY USED "Coffee is a passion" and frites are so popular at home and as snacks everywhere that coffee and fried potatoes may be labeled Belgian staples. Belgium's national dish is biftek, frites, salade also the usual lunch for almost everyone. Biftek is not a steak per se but is the general term used to describe any well-trimmed boneless piece of meat, whether it is beef, veal, pork, or horsemeat. The frites are usually eaten with varieties of mayonnaise, such as tartar sauce, Russian dressing or bearnaise sauce, accompanied with pickles or pickled onions. In fact, mayonnaise seems to appear almost everywhere in one form or another. Fish and seafood are loved, deep-fried foods and potato-based soups enjoyed. The famed waterzooi is somewhere between a soup and a stew, made from fish or chicken in a wellsimmered broth that is lightly thickened with eggs and cream and served in a soup plate accompanied with potatoes or buttered bread. As it sounds, it is a meal in itself. Sometimes the broth may be served first with the fish or chicken and the simmered vegetables served as a separate course.

Glossary of Foods from Belgium

GLOSSARY OF FOODS AND FOOD TERMS

A la Flamande: "in the Flemish style," i.e., rich with smooth egg and cream sauces. Amuse-geules: small cocktail tidbits. Biftek: used to describe any trimmed, boneless piece of meat whether beef, veal, pork, or horsemeat. Botermelk met Mavermout: buttermilk soup thickened with oatmeal, enjoyed on meatless Fridays in Catholic Flanders. Boudin: sausage. Boudin Blanc: mild-flavored sausage. Boudin Noir: blood sausage. Boulangeries: bakeshops specializing in "everyday" breads, rolls, cakes, and pies. Carbonnades Flamandes: famous Belgian dish of stewed beef and onions simmered in beer. Chicoon: French name for the variety of chicory from which the Belgian endive was first developed. Confiseries: fancy bakeshops featuring party cakes and pastries. La Cramique or Rosynenbrood: a loaf rich with raisins and eggs, served thickly sliced and buttered, with coffee. The favorite coffeebread of Belgium. Creme Fraiche: slightly thick and flavorful cream available in both France and Belgium, widely used for fruits and desserts and in cooking. Crevettes: tiny shrimp. Elixir d'Anvers: one of the national liqueurs of Belgium, somewhat similar to Benedictine. Elixir de Spa: Belgian liqueur with a taste of pine. Estaminets: beer taverns. Fondu Bruxelloise: a favorite appetizer of chilled thick cheese sauce, poured into a pan then cut in squares, breaded, and deep-fried. Fraises des Bois: strawberries. Frites: french-fried potatoes. Fritures: any deepfried food. Hutespot: the Flemish pot-au-feu. Keppebouillon:chicken soup. Kervelsoip: light buttery soup, flavored with fresh chervil Marcassin: wild boar. Moules: mussels. Padstools: a delightful appetizer of salmon-stuffed eggs arranged on end with tops of tomatoes to resemble mushrooms.

Patisseries: fancy bakeshops featuring party cakes and pastries. Pistolets: traditional rolls for late Sunday breakfast. Preisop: smooth pureed leek and potato soup. Preskop: headcheese. Rijspap: Flemish rice pudding made with milk, rice, and raisins, flavored with saffron and cooked in a large flat dish. Speculaas: molded spiced breads and cookies. Sprats: small herrings. Tomates aux Crevettes: the favorite Belgian appetizer, tomato halves heaped with tiny shrimp in mayonnaise. Walzin: Belgian liqueur with a flavor similar to Benedictine. Waterzooi: between a soup and a stew, made with fish or chicken, its rich broth fortified with an egg and cream sauce. Served in a soup plate, it is accompanied by buttered bread or potatoes. The fish or chicken is usually served as a separate course. Whitloof: Flemish name for the variety of chicory from which the famed Belgian endive was developed.