Brugge

Continuing on with the story of our European adventure... after discovering Düsseldorf and eating our way through Chimay, the husband and I made our way to Brugge, Belgium.

Maybe the prettiest city ever.  Legend has it that Brugge was spared the drab-ification of the Industrial Revolution thanks to the thriving lace-making industry in the area.  Or that's what I was told when I first traveled there in 2003.  On this trip I learned that the city's history is not so simplistic.  Brugge at one point was supposedly the commercial centre of the world, has a history of attracting great European artists, and was once actually a port city (silt deposits now place it a-ways inland).  These days it seems to have a reputation in Europe for being a big tourist trap.  But, like all good cliches, Brugge's reputation is rooted in truth - it's a great spot to visit!

We spent hours on end traipsing over the cobblestoned streets in the historic (UNESCO-historic) city centre.  The streets circle around the Markt and run parallel with the many canals of the city (hence the alias "Venice of the North").    We found tiny cafes, funny little homes, and some hole-in-the-wall-ground beer cafes.

Our lodgings were lovely to look at, though a bit damp in person (I guess that was to be expected in the bargain lodgings of "Venice of the North").

The food was excellent.  For an example, see our moules-et-frites, below.  On a few occasions we hit up the grocery stores for picnic fare and lunched near the windmills on the perimeter of the city.  Simple and romantic - fitting for our honeymoon.  We also ate delicious Belgian waffles but they didn't come close to lasting long enough to be photographed.  Luckily, they're safely stored away in my food memory.

I can't not mention the beer.  Belgium has so many beer styles, some only to be found in that country.  There's not really beer there - except the odd import - that would really be recognizable as beer to the Canadian mass market.  Many Belgian styles are sweet and/or have a high alcohol content, but really the styles run the gamut.  To generalize, it's the kind of beer you savour and relish.  You won't see a Belgian chugging.  You don't buy a 2-4 in Brugge.  In short, Belgian beer is an art form.  When's the last time you went to a Canadian pub, asked for the house beer and got this:

Served on it's own tray, in it's own glass, on a doily, with a side of specially selected local cheese.  Belgian beer.  That's what I'm talking about.

To me, Brugge is a wonderfully rich city and well worth a visit.  I've been there twice and I'd love to go again.

The next European stop will be in the Czech Republic.  So stay tuned...

Garden fresh

Hello again!  It's about time I got back to the blog.  It's been a busy summer with a new house and a new job, so despite having lots of things to blog about I haven't found enough time to actually post!

Back in June, when we moved in to the house, I quickly took advantage of my very first yard (yeah!), and planted veggies straight away.  At the time I said I would be content if I even had a 10% yield, seeing as it was my first year planting anything.

Sure enough, I didn't get a super yield.  Below is a picture (taken last week) of the 'garden' where I planted yellow beans, carrots, and cucumbers.

[underwhelming]

Yep.  Underwhelming.  Because NOTHING grew!  I noticed when I tilled the garden that there were numerous creepy-crawlies making a home in the dirt.  Cut-worms must have been included in the melange because, aside from a few short-lived bean sprouts, my crop yield was nil.  Mildly disappointing.

But now onto the success story of my garden:  the cherry tomatoes!  I decided to plant potted tomatoes because I've heard good things about container gardening - you know exactly what type of soil you're giving the plants, you can move the containers to get the optimal light, and really, you can put them wherever in/on your yard or deck you please.  I found my plants at VanKampen's Greenhouses here in Charlottetown.

[just after planting]

I planted three cherry tomato plants per container (in retrospect I would have planted two - you'll see why).  One container was a mix of potting soil + PEI compost and the other had potting soil + a Miracle-Gro potting soil.  I was going to experiment to see which plants did better, but of course mixed up the containers before labeling them (all my years experimenting in labs obviously have gone to waste!).

[crazy plants]

In the end, the soil-experiment mix-up was moot.  All plants took off like crazy.  At last count, about three weeks ago, there were over 100 tomatoes on the vines - I'm guessing that number has doubled by now!  If you look closely in the pic above, you can see the green wire frames I'm using to support the vines - compare to the first picture to see how massive the plants actually are!

[pretty tomatoes]

[enough for dinner!]

The best part is that the tomatoes are actually starting to ripen in useful quantities.  For about two weeks we simply ate them as they ripened one-by-one, but this weekend we had enough to use in our marinated-summer-veggie-and-tofu-kabobs.  We typically go through a container of cherry tomatoes every week or two, so this garden success story will actually help our grocery bill.

Another success in the garden was the pea patch:

[before and after]

We're starting to see a bit of a yield - looking forward to the first harvest.

[so fresh]

Lastly, let me show you our inherited grape vines.  I can claim no part in helping them grow, they just came along with our house.  They seem to be doing wonderfully this season, though.  I might try some grape jelly in the fall if they become plump enough.  They are definitely still sour at this point.

[grape vines on the pergola]

[lotsa grapes!]

Thanks for checking back into the blog despite the summer dormancy.  Hope to have more posts for you soon!

Chimay... the food

I promised in my first post about Chimay that I'd be back with more about the food we discovered there.  Well, promise fulfilled.

If I recall correctly, the first food we had on arrival at the Auberge de Poteaupré was - dun da na na - the cheese.  Not only was it the first food we tried, but the first food we smelled.  On walking in the front door, the aroma of cheese rind was in the air.  Kinda fousty, but in a pleasant way.  Unless you don't like cheese.  In that case, you probably shouldn't read this post.  Anyway, I began salivating immediately.

After freshening up, we sauntered down to the restaurant.  First item of business:  selecting one of the Chimay Trappist beers.  I chose Chimay Red, a somewhat dark beer that was fruity, spicy, and served in a beautiful goblet.

While selecting a beer from the Auberge menu, I happily noted that each beer was paired with a cheese, also made by the Trappist monks across the road to my right.  Across the field to my left was a herd of dairy cows.  I knew this was going to be good cheese!

Our group was up for trying ALL the cheeses.  Luckily, samples were on the menu.

[clockwise from top left:  cheese board, Grand Cru, A la Biere, Vieux Chimay, Grand Classique, Le Poteaupré]

I'm not going to pretend that I can critique the cheese and beer pairing.  My palate is not that refined!  They all went well together, in my opinion.  The cheese was delicious.  It ranged from creamy and smooth (Classique and A la Biere) to mild and firm (Vieux Chimay) and finally (my favorites) to smoky and rich (Le Poteaupré and Grand Cru).  If there is a specialty cheese shop near you, I'd have a look for any of these cheeses the next time you're in.

When the cheese had vanished from the board, leaving nothing but a pile of toothpick-flags, we moved on to selecting our mains.  I couldn't resist the pan-fried local trout:

The trout was simple and fresh with a crispy skin and a perfectly-cooked, flaky-but-moist interior.  It reminded me of going fishing with ski poles with my dad when we were kids.  We'd take the fish home, flour, and pan-fry them.  Except we would usually behead the fish before cooking it...

Mike went for heavier fare.  Homemade meatballs.  All smothered in cheese.  Meatballs big enough to plant a flag in:

Oh, that cheese sauce... (I'm obviously drooling right now).  I dipped a few frites in it, not gonna lie.  Imagine a saltier, smokier, creamier Hollandaise sauce and you'd be close.  It also had bacon in it.  Yeah, it did.

Do you see why the food needed it's own post?  And this was just one evening!  We had an equally fabulous dinner the next night.  I'm telling you, this Auberge is the place to go in Belgium.

Until next time!

Tzatziki

Hopefully at least some readers are experiencing hot summer weather right now!  Thought I'd share the (easy) recipe for a cool, tasty, summer dip:  tzatziki sauce!  This is a traditionally Greek dipping sauce that uses thick yogurt, cucumber, lemon and garlic and is ultimately refreshing.

From the ingredient list, you could probably intuitively throw this recipe together.  But there are a few tricks to it, namely controlling the water content of the dip, so I'll give you a few instructions.  My method was cobbled together from several online recipes (which all gave similar advice).

You should start making the dip maybe five or six hours ahead of when you plan to serve it.  I found the leftovers kept well refrigerated for 24 hours, so you could probably prepare it that far in advance.  It will just need a good stir before serving.

The first step is to find a good, thick plain yogurt (500 mL).  I prefer at least 2% milk fat in mine, more if I can find it.  (What makes non-fat yogurt so creamy?  It freaks me out.)  Greek-style is preferable as it is the thickest type of yogurt, but I could only find Balkan-style and it still worked well.  So, as I mentioned, you need to get rid of any excess moisture in the yogurt.  This can be accomplished using a large bowl and a strainer lined with cheesecloth.  This is my set up:

Let it stand in the fridge for a few hours.  You'll be surprised at how much water drains out!  Or maybe you won't, because I'm going to show you:

While the yogurt is straining, you can work on the cucumber.  I've read that cucumbers are 95% water.  I can't verify that, but they certainly are juicy!  I love cucumbers.  And in making this dip, I discovered I really love grating them.  Warning: prepare to get splashed!

I used the large side of a plain old box grater and grated one English cucumber, skin and all (for the colour and the nutrients).  To get rid of the excess water, just use a bit of basic science:  sprinkle the grated cuke with salt (a teaspoon or two), which will osmotically draw water out of its cells.  Give the process time to work by leaving the mixture in the fridge for an hour or so.  Next, to get rid of the moisture, drain the liquid out of the mixture, then pat it down well with some paper towels or a clean dish towel.  The cucumber shreds should look pretty limp and relatively dry.

[just-salted cuke]

From here on out, the recipe is pretty basic.  Mix the thickened yogurt with the dry cucumber, then add a clove (or more to taste) of crushed garlic and the juice of 1/2 lemon, plus some zest.  Stir well.  Chill for a few hours before serving.

[clockwise from top: whole-wheat pita bread, tzatziki, tabouleh, hummous, kibbeh]

I like tzatziki served as a dip for vegetables or whole-wheat pita bread.   On this particular occasion, though, I was hosting a Middle Eastern-style dinner, so the tzatziki was also a dressing for kibbeh, a sort of lamb meatloaf made with bulgar wheat and pinenuts and spiced with allspice and cinnamon.  I was trying to emulate the kibbeh at my favorite Lebanese restaurant.  Now that's a recipe I'd like to share with you (now that I know it will turn out well!).

Hope you find an opportunity to prepare this great dip!

Chimay

Stop #2 on our European adventure was perhaps the most anticipated.  Because it was our goal to sample the fine foods and beer in this part of the world, Chimay was a prime destination.  Not only do the monks here create the famous Trappist beer of the same name, but they also craft an extensive line of cheeses.

The most fun part of this leg of the trip was that we spent it in the company of good friends.  Friends of ours from university days had since moved to the Netherlands (and recently had a little baby girl).  Along with Aaron (who we met up with in Düsseldorf), we made a nice little party of six (or maybe five-and-a-half!).

We fit (snugly!) into a European rent-a-car.  Which was essential, since Chimay is a bit off-the-beaten-track.

So, just for the part of me that loves accuracy, let me explain what I mean by "Chimay".  I'm using the name a bit loosely to describe the area we visited.  Chimay is a small village in Wallonia, the southern region of Belgium.  About 10 km away, out in the countryside, you can find the Abbey of Notre Dame de Scourmont.  The Abbey is home to the Trappist monks who brew and cheese-make (the profits of their enterprise go to running the monastery and helping the poor).  Their product brand is also Chimay.  We did spend a few hours in the town of Chimay (photos to follow), but we stayed at the Auberge de Poteaupré, the inn loosely associated with the monastery and just a short walk from the grounds.

Whew.  Hope that explains it for you.  Now for the pictures!

[Auberge de Poteaupré]

[walk through the woods]

[grounds of the Abbey]

[inside the Abbey church]

[ancient church in Chimay (town)]

[Chimay]

I think it's quite evident from the pictures, but the area was beautiful.  Quiet, pastoral and green.  The weather was perfect - temperatures in the mid-twenties, sunshine, and not a cloud in the sky.  The Inn was in fabulous shape with crisp linens on the bed and friendly service in the restaurant.  The monastery was utterly peaceful and beautifully kept by the monks.  The town was just ancient - stone buildings and cobblestone streets in need of repair - but charming none-the-less.  Language-wise, we got along fine (Mike was a French immersion kid, and quite a few locals spoke basic English).  Chimay and the surrounding area made for a great long weekend and would be the perfect spot to go if you wanted to get away from it all.

Apparently, writing about the locale alone makes a full post!  I think I'll give you a breather.  You can read all about the food (including cheese!) in my next entry.