Mussels in Brussels and Other Things to Do in This Underrated City

(Above: A really cool park called the Place du Petit Sablon. In the upper right hand corner is the back of a statue of two Counts who were executed in the 1500s, in the distance, the church L'Eglise Notre-Dame du Sablon)

Just before Christmas, my friend Meghan and I squeezed in a four day trip to see three cities: Brussels, Bruges and Amsterdam. If we had our choice,we would have gone right for Amsterdam, but the cheap flight gods weren't having it; we had to fly into Brussels. So while we were there, we thought we'd try to make the best of it. And we didn't end up having to try very hard.



You see, Brussels is in Belgium, and as such, is home to a few things I deeply appreciate: chocolate, waffles, beer, mussels and frites. I mean, really, when you have those ingredients to toss around during some free time, how can you go wrong?


(Left: Waffle maker and waffles; Middle: my finished plate of mussels with garlic butter, frites are off camera in this shot; Right: Chunks of chocolate set with a spoon in the middle. You dip these into a hot cup of milk from the same vendor. The chocolate melts as you stir it and, Voila! Hot chocolate. Note also that there are small syringes filled with liquor also set into the chocolate wiht the spoon so you can make yours a high-octane hot chocolate, if you so desire)


A few more surprises were that there is an active royal family in Belgium, it is a treasure-trove of comic strip art, many Belgians speak French, Dutch, and a little English (making them essentially trilingual -- impressive!), and there is some really cool architecture hidden among all the dark, industrial buildings you might envision when you think "Brussels".


(Photos of the Grand Place / Grote Markt and surrounding neighborhood)


(L: Belgians like their comic strips so much that they paint whole sides of buildings with some of the images in that style. R: Here is a close-up of Meghan giving Mr. Comic Strip a hand.)

Brussels is widely known as the Capital of the European Union, is also as the home of a little fountain known as the Manneken Pis (turn down volume for this link). You might recognize it.



(Above: The really teeny Manneken Pis statue, and a few renditions in chocolate, bien sur!)



And when I say little fountain, I really mean it -- it is about the size of a toddler, something that I didn't anticipate.



So, onto more food details:



(L: the terrace at Falstaff, R: The Gaufrette, or waffle, bus)

We had lunch at Falstaff, an art deco brasserie in the center of the city (above), where we feasted on chicken waterzooi, shrimp croquettes .


We snacked on waffles purchased fresh from a converted VW bus kitchen.

We had dinner at Chez Leon on Rue de Bouchers (an extremely touristy restaurant row). We were wary, but but loads of guidebooks and websites recommended their moules frites, so we were compelled and were not disappointed. Great mussels + great frites = a happy girls

We sampled the famous chocolates and pralines* from Leonidas

And our beer sampler: Belle Vue geuze, Cuvee du Troll, Hoegaarden Grand Cru, and straight up Hoegaarden (one of my favorites; it's $8 a bottle at most bars, but in Brussels it is 2 Euros!)

My things-to-do-next-time list:



*Go to Musee Horta (an art nouveau museum, we tried to find it with no luck)


*Visit The Belgian Comic Strip Center (I was skeptical about this being a major attraction until I realized that the Belgians created The Smurfs!)


*Go to Place St. Catherine


*Eat beef carbonnade


*Go to all those Jazz bars!


*Praliné is composed of richly flavored chocolate to which caramelized sugar (hot caramel), well-roasted, finely-ground hazelnuts (or almonds) and vanilla have been added. The praliné flavor is typical in many Belgian chocolates or "pralines."(Source: http://www.aalstpatissier.com/glossary#p)