Le Bar Belge

[Evan writes:]

This brief blog is for brother Bruce, who still has fond memories of his business trip to Brussels some years ago.

The painting finished, some of us decided to meet at Le Bar Belge for dinner, 97 Avenue du Général Leclerc, Maisons-Alfort, which is a 21-minute walk from the Centre, across the bridge where Janice's and Tom's ancestors traveled when going from eastern France to Ohio.  Sadly, they knew nothing of Le Bar Belge.  This is quite the establishment, offering Belgian beers and cooking. 

Let's begin with the menu, the beer menu, that is.  There are more than 300 beers listed, but about 14 are no longer on offer.  I noticed that they are not getting the best beers from Austria and Canada, but people generally prefer Belgian beer anyway.

Here is a closeup shot of the abbey beers from Belgium, beers whose recipes go back to monastic days.  You usually order by number (far left column) or by name, but the waiters have to ensure that understand which beer you have in mind.  The number immediately following the name of the beer (in this case, the abbey) gives the alcohol content by percent.  The two columns on the right give the size and price. 

Guess which beer was mine . . . none of this 33cl stuff for me.

Janie had moules/mussels, one great big hot bowl of mussels done in white wine, butter, and onions with a rich cream with garlic sauce liberally poured over everything.   As I recall, there was a full inch of the delicious nectar at the bottom of the pan.  Then . . . then, once you have finished your mussels, you are politely asked whether you might like to have a second helping (at no extra charge).  We were told that some guys get three bowls!

I had a Flemish Flammenkueche, which is very similar to that which is so popular in the Alsace.  This had crème fraîche (I make it by adding a bit of yogurt to rich cream and letting it sit at room temperature for 24 hours), a bit of fromage blanc (white cheese), lardons (diced thick bacon), and chopped steak (hamburger but absolutely no fat).  I found it went down nicely, especially with the second beer.  

We're going back . . . soon.