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Belgium's 10 Most Popular Dishes

Apr 24, 2014
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Serve yourself up a plate of Belgian!

As an expat living in Belgium, you have probably already picked up on the variety of dishes featured in the ‘Traditional Belgian Food’ menu in local restaurants. And yet, whether for fear of the culinary unknown, or rather an inability to read – let alone pronounce – the dish to order it, there are still many Belgian dishes that you have yet to sink your teeth into.

To facilitate your discovery of Belgian cuisine, The Bulletin has taken up the task of demystifying this Burgundian country's most popular eats. Once you’ve read up on these delights, put your pre-taste-test apprehensions aside and make that Belgian culinary leap of faith. You won’t be disappointed!

10 Popular Belgian Eats Explained

1.) Chicons au gratin:
Belgians have a fascination with chicory (or rather grow a lot of it) and so its no surprise that one of the most popular dishes features their beloved Belgian endive.  The dish consists of endives rolled in ham and covered in a béchamel sauce and cheese and then cooked in the oven. This hearty meal is usually served with mashed potatoes or stoemp (see below).

2.) Stoemp/Saucisses: 
For cold winter days, Belgians love their stoemp with sausages. Traditionally stoemp is mashed potato and carrot but can also be made with many other vegetables (such as leek, for example).

3.) Waterzooi:
Waterzooi is Belgium’s ‘summer stew;’ unlike its winter stews made with beer, Waterzooi uses egg yolk, cream and thickened vegetable broth. Originating in Flanders, its name derives from the Dutch term zooien meaning "to boil". The original dish is made with fish (Viszooitje), but chicken waterzooi (Kippenwaterzooi) is also quite popular. Besides fish or chicken, the stew usually has carrots, onions, celery, leeks, potatoes and herbs (parsley, thyme and bay leaves).

4.) Carbonnade Flamande:
A specialty of Flanders, this dish features one of Belgium’s other great gifts to the culinary world: beer. Carbonnade flamande is a Flemish beef stew in which beef and onions are simmered in Belgian beer for hours. Choosing which Belgian beer goes into the stew is crucial: darker abbey beers or Flanders red ales are preferred, as they tend to give a somewhat more bitter-sour flavour to the dish. 

5.) Pêches au thon:
Mixing salty and sweet is commonplace in Belgium. A simple yet energy-boosting dish, all you need is halved peaches which are then stuffed with tuna and a little mayonnaise. To add a little more Belgian punch, serve with fries and salad.

6.) Américain préparé/Frites:
You cannot be fully integrated in Belgium and not have tried this dish. While the dish usually goes by the name “tartar” in other countries, some joke that they called in ‘American filet’ in Belgium to trick Americans into eating raw meat (which is quite faux-pas in American culinary tradition). The truth is, no one knows whey they call it American filet in Belgium, all we do know is that, although looking unappetizing to some, this ‘prepared’ raw meat dish with fries is a savoury delight. So taste and enjoy now, question the raw contents later.

7.) Moules/Frites:
The world famous mussels and fries. The dish was created long ago by combining mussels, a popular and cheap foodstuff eaten around the Flemish coast, and fried potatoes which were commonly eaten around the country in winter.

8.) Vol-au-Vent:
This is a delicious dish consisting of a light salty pastry covered in a creamy chicken and mushroom sauce. Vol-au-vent is French for "windblown" to describe the hollow pastry’s lightness. Add some Belgian fries to the plate and the dish is complete!  

9.) Tomates/Crevettes:
The Belgian proverb of ‘sweet, salty and simple is delicious’ is reapplied to this dish. Cut a tomato in two and cover it with a shrimp salad (with a little mayonnaise, leek and boiled eggs), and you’re ready to enjoy eating Belgian style.

10.) Steak/Frites:
Steak and fries is probably the most popular dish in Belgium.

  

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia commons and Flickr/Vincent Van Den Storme, JessandColin, Su-lin, Kimberlykv