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The post Ghent, the rock ‘n’ roll alternative to Bruges in Belgium appeared first on Miss Foodwise.
]]>Ghent is constantly reinventing itself, people are friendly and the atmosphere is relaxed. You can have a good glass of Belgian beer on nearly every street corner but the last few years exciting new places have been opening all over the town. Ghent has been reputed being the vegetarian capital of Europe and that is something I had to be told by a friend who is vegan and visited Ghent a few months ago.
Ghent has been our nearest town for the last 12 years and with our move a few months ago we hardly ever visited because life has just been to busy and we no longer live a 20 minute drive away. But I find I look at Ghent with different eyes now when we do manage to carve out some time to travel there. We no longer pop over for lunch at our favourite Italian (Trattoria Della Mamma), but venture further into the city to try other things, stay longer to have dessert or afternoon tea (Huset), or an ice cold glass of Belgian style.
If shopping is what you are after, Ghent has it all. You have your highstreet chains in de Veldstraat but if small independent shops is your thing – it sure is for me – you have an array of little shops dotted around town.
If you saved all your pennies for the train fare and have not much extra to spend, fear not. On a budget Ghent is still as appealing as if you’ve got an envelope of cash in your purse. Walks around town are of course free and beautiful and a traditional meal of Flemish fries in a paper cone is romantic as well as cheap. Ghent has something for everyone.
Let me share with you my favourite addresses to make your trip the best it can be. And if you’re visiting around this time, Ghent has a shopping on sunday (shops are usually closed on sundays) and next week there is a folk festival in the Patershol quarter (Patershol feesten). This borough is called ‘Coté Culture’ this summer and there are great restaurants, traditional, ethnical and hipster. I love the shops here like Louise & Madeleine for gifts, jewellery and pottery, Maaike kleedt for fashion and an old fashioned wallpaper shop you just have to go and see to be transported back in time.
These shops are all situated on or just off the Kraanlei, a beautiful street by the water where you just have to have a walk even if you don’t feel like shopping. There are plenty of places to keep you watered from tea (Julie’s House), coffee (Jetje) to the more stronger stuff.
I love shops where you can find unique or home made things, these are shops selling those things and if you have prop shopping in mind, some of these will be great for you.
Dille & Kamille (baskets, crockery and props, a larger chain but I still love the fact they sell smaller brands like Doves farm organic products, and did I tell you about the baskets??)
Hoornstraat
Louise & Madeleine
Kraanlei (a very nice street by the water with a few nice places to have a drink and eat)
Maaike Kleedt (fashion)
Kraanlei
Confiserie Temmerman (old fashioned sweet shop, great facade)
Kraanlei
Behangwinkel Priem (vintage wallpaper, this store has been here for decades)
Zuivelbrugstraat
Piet Moodshop
Sint Pieternieuwstraat
Seventy One (Vintage revival shopping)
Brabantdam
Het Paard van Troye (large selection of cookbooks and a café)
Kouter
Mokabon (old fashioned retro coffee place from the 1930’s)
Donkersteeg
Tierenteyn -Verlent Mustard shop (mustard, pickles and other delicious preserves, a must visit for the old shop interior)
Groentenmarkt
Himschoot Bakery (where you can find traditional local pastries like mastel breads and mattetaart)
Groentenmarkt
Tratoria Della Mamma (Italian take-away)
Sint Pieternieuwstraat
Traditional Cuberdon sweets (purple cones, tastes like violet)
At various stalls in the town
Cheese shop
Donkersteeg
Cheese Mekka
Koestraat
Hinkelspel (Organic cheese maker, love the fenugreek one)
Ferdinand Lousbergskaai 33
Het Lepelblad (sustainable food, great place, great wine and beer)
Onderbergen
De parkiet
Kraanlei
Boon (Vegetarian)
Veerleplein
Komkommertijd (Vegetarian)
Reep
Le petit Botanique (all produce from city farms in Ghent)
Kammerstraat
Eetkaffee De Lieve (Old fashioned Belgian)
Sint-Margrietstraat
Aroy Aroy (Fusion)
Lang Steenstraat
Trattoria Della Mamma (Traditional Italian, just for lunch)
Sint Pieternieuwstraat 36
Huset (breakfast, afternoon tea, coffee and cake, beautiful location)
Hoogstraat
Eat Love Pizza (organic, made with love!)
Ajuinlei
Superette (sourdough bread and pizzas, modern cuisine)
Guldensporenstraat
Simon Says (Great lunch spot)
Sluizeken
San (Bowl food, very elegant)
Brabantdam
Roots (imaginative cuisine)
Karel De Stoute (upmarket cuisine)
Bocca Di Lupo (Italian)
De Brouwbar (Brewbar)
Oudburg
Gruut City Brewery (brewery with pub and guided tour)
Rembert Dodoensdreef
Jazz cafe Otis
Oudburg
Jiggers’ cocktail bar (for perfect cocktails)
Oudburg
Dulle Griet (beer café)
Vrijdagmarkt
Het Waterhuis aan de Bierkant (beer café)
Groentenmarkt
Dreupelkot (Jenever)
Groentenmarkt
Trapistenhuis (beer)
Brabantdam
Het Véloke (as seen in my book Belgian Café Culture, a very-very unique place run by hoarder Lieven, go there at your own risk, you’ll see what I mean)
Mokabon (old fashioned coffee place from the 1930’s, a must go even if you don’t drink coffee)
Donkersteeg
Huset (beautiful location, great cakes!)
Hoogstraat
Simon Says
Sluizeken
Julie’s House (afternoon tea, tea and coffee)
Kraanlei
Jetje
Kraanlei
Madame Bakster
Brabantdam
Sint-Baafskathedraal (cathedral with exhibition)
http://www.sintbaafskathedraal.be/
Gravensteen (Ghent’s beautiful castle in the middle of town)
https://gravensteen.stad.gent/en
S.M.A.K (museum for temporary art)
Jan Hoetplein
Weekly market on Friday
Vrijdagmarkt
Organic market on Friday
Groentenmarkt
Organic market on Sunday
Sint-Pieters Railway station
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]]>The post My Books: Belgian Café Culture appeared first on Miss Foodwise.
]]>UPDATE 2021 – Belgian Café Culture is getting a 5 year anniversary edition with a new cover! I am so very pleased! Publication date in early November!
A week after the launch of Pride And Pudding, exactly one year ago, I started working on a new book, a passion project…
This book ‘Belgian Café Culture / Authentieke Belgische Cafés (in English and Dutch) is a plea to carefully handle the fragile café heritage of Belgium. For too long have we taken these little cafés for granted. Not enough have we stopped to think about their history and their relevance in our culture. They are part of our social and cultural patrimony in Belgium. When I walk the streets, everywhere I look I see forgotten and lost cafés.
When I read in the papers that a much-loved café was going to close down I went to visit it, to talk to the people there who were about to lose their local. I was probably one of the last to document it. Nothing could be done; the owners of the building wanted to renovate the café and there is wind of a more hipster implementation. For this reason alone a lot of authentic cafés have had to go.
But the need for modernisation is not the only reason why so many old Belgian cafés disappear. The ones that have been in the family for generations often disappear because there are no children who want to take over, or because no-one dares to take over an old-fashioned café. The cafés that have been closing in the last 5 years mostly become residential dwellings. All that remains are the memories of those who used to drink there.
A café can be the centre of a community, where people laugh and cry together over a glass of ale. Where disagreements are settled with words and sometimes with the fist. But where people often help those who are in need. Listen to those who would otherwise only have silence as a reply. Births and weddings are celebrated, but so are the dead.
Clubs meet at cafés and in the past they also doubled as village or theatre halls. Cafés often had a small shop, a smithy, a hairdresser or a butcher’s shop. This was very common before the 1980s. Today there’s only one café shop left and you can count the café hairdressers on one hand.
In the larger cities the cafés were also where people waited to be given work from the factories or the docks. It was also where they were paid at night. A café landlady from Antwerp remembers the drama well when men spent their entire wages on beer and went home without a dime. There was a café on every street corner in those days…
This book is dedicated to the landlords and ladies who have been running these cafés for generations or have been preserving the original interiors purely out of understanding of their importance. This book is not about me, it is about them and their livelihoods. Our Belgian Café.
Belgian Café Culture or Authentieke Belgische Cafés is a bilingual edition English/Dutch. Published by LUSTER, 272 pages and hardback finish.
Written, photographed and designed by your truly. The cover is by my husband Bruno Vergauwen.
If you’d like a signed copy (25 euro plus shipping), or a signed copy with a signed photo print (50 euro plus shipping), please get in contact. There is a Dutch and an English cover.
Alternatively you can also contact the publisher directly or go to your local bookstore (in Belgium) or order online at the usual places (Amazon, or Waterstones to name two)
I will be sharing the limited edition version soon, this will contain a signed book, signed photoprint, and a ‘Zageman’ a kinetic toy used in Belgian Cafés in the past (why you’ll read in the book where I explain the folkloristic customs). This edition will be limited to 10 only, and will be available for 99 euro plus shipping, or 150 euro for a painted ‘Zageman’ kinetic toy. More info and pictures soon, we’re making the ‘Zageman’ as we speak. (See the video here for a preview >)
For press get in touch by emailing me.
Because I want to share this book as much as I can to tell people about this fading heritage, I’m giving away 2 copies of the book. I’ll pick from the comments below, just tell me why you think this is important to be documented, or tell me about fading heritage in your country or region. Or another story! Post! Let’s get this conversation going!!
Update: The winners are Gabriela Athayde and Rossella Di Bidino. Please get in touch with your address! (see my email on the contact page!)
In Dutch:
English
French
The post My Books: Belgian Café Culture appeared first on Miss Foodwise.
]]>The post Mussels with Belgian fries for Food Revolution day appeared first on Miss Foodwise.
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As Jamie says in his article for the Huffington Post, “Food Revolution Day is an opportunity for everyone around the world to
do something. The Food Revolution and Food Revolution Day is about
empowering people through education or, frankly, just inspiring people
to be more street-wise about food, where it comes from and how it
affects their bodies. If you know how to cook you can save yourself
money, feel better and live longer, and the chances are, your kids will
follow suit. After all, we all kind of become our parents in the end.”
People tend to see Jamie as that cheeky guy from Essex, the naked chef. What a lot of folks don’t realize is the fact that he actually uses his ‘celebrity chef’ status to do good, to make a change. In 2005 he declared war to the unhealthy British school dinners, in 2010 he took the fight to Amerika. He has built kitchens all over Britain with his Ministry of Food, to learn people how to cook so they can teach others to do so as well. He is passionate about food and people’s relationship with food.
Today on 19 May, Food Revolution Day will happen in kitchens, homes and communities around the world.
Vanilla honey rhubarb galette by Zita from ‘Zizi’s adventures’ in Hungary
Rhubarb Panna Cota by Sarka from ‘Cook your dream’, England-originally from Czech Republic
……………………………………………………………………………
I am preparing Moules et frites, Mussels with real Belgian fries.
Zeeland |
What do you need (serves 1 as a main and 6 as a starter)
• SeasaltMethod
The mussels
Select mussels that are tightly closed or that close when you tap them.
Discard the ones with cracked shells.
Use you nose, they should smell clean and salty, like the sea.
Rinse them under running water and don’t be too gentle because you want all the sand to come out.
Remove the beards, clean the shells if you need to.
Cut your vegetables in small dices and put aside.
Now back to the mussels
Add the diced vegetables to a large pot to hold all the mussels, sweat the vegetables and add the water. Leave it to boil a few minutes.
Now back to the fries
Get the temperature of the fat to 190°.
Fry the fries in small batches until a beautiful golden color.
Before you put the last batch of fries in in the fat, add the mussels to the boiling water, add the lid and shake.
Leave for 5 minutes and shake.
The mussels should have opened now.
Put the lid back on. Turn of the fire.
Fry the last batch of fries.
Get some mayonnaise and add 1 teaspoon of mustard and 1 teaspoon of cooking water from the mussels. This is you mussel sauce, traditionally you should also add a bit of vinegar to the sauce.
When the fries are ready, sprinkle them with seasalt and serve with the mussels!
Delicious with a pint of real ale or a nice glass of dry white wine!
*Waste none: the leftover vegetables and cooking water of the mussels makes a delicous tomato soup, just add a tin of skinned tomatoes and a tin of tomato puree and bring to the boil. Puree the soup and bring to the boil again.
Enjoy!
Ah Belgian pride in a cone |
Try and find out if you can buy meat and or vegetables straight from a farm so you reduce your carbon footprint but also by creating awareness about where your food comes from. I will probably mean ordering your meat, veggies and dairy in advance sometimes but this will reduce the trips you usually make to the superstore.
More time to cook!
By buying straight from the producer you reduce the amount of food that is thrown in the garbage and you also have a hand in the fact that less animals will be killed in vain.
I strongly feel that no animal should be slaughtered if it’s not going to be eaten nose to tail.
Not just for animal welfare but also for environmental reasons.
The carbon footprint of livestock is huge and if we keep up the current way of life, we will one day need to go vegetarian because the earth is just not producing enough food to feed the whole planet.
Eat less meat, but good quality meat from local farms instead of intensively reared meat.
Happy animals produce better and healthier meat!
Would you like to donate to Food Revolution Day? DONATE
The complete picture, mussels, fries and beer |
Please feel free to leave a comment, I love reading them!
The post Mussels with Belgian fries for Food Revolution day appeared first on Miss Foodwise.
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