Brussels and Houffalize

We took the train from Amsterdam to Brussels and stayed one night, and rented a car in the morning. We rented a car from the south train station, which is in the Anderlecht, the middle eastern and north African area of Brussels aka the best place to eat. I'll have pictures of some of the food from when we came back to Brussels.

Chez Moeder Lambic (in Brussel's St. Gilles neighborhood) is one of the best bars in the world, and now they have an outpost in central Brussels. It's in a cheesed-out area, and the new bar is somewhat generic feeling.

However, the new place has enabled them to put in over 30 taps (rather than the 5 or so at the old one) and you will know if you are really into Belgian beer if you get really excited looking at this tap list.

Here's the Cantillon kriek made specially for Moeder Lambic. The St. Lamvinus on draft was one of the many wonderful sours I drank during our trip. I don't get the thing about serving sours on cask. I enjoy them less on cask.
I didn't want to attract attention, but I took a couple of surreptitious snaps at Au Bon Vieux Temps, which is hidden down a passageway in central Brussels. It's not exactly a secret, it's in all the guidebooks. It's a cool-looking bar that dates to 1695. So of course there is still smoking allowed inside!
It's a great place to have an abbey beer or two.
The next day, after the harrowing experience of picking up the car and being thrust into roundabouts and unfamiliar traffic signs, we headed to lambic country, which consists of a bunch of teeny towns surrounding Brussels. This is a cafe in Gooik, I believe. Smiller will probably remember what these beers are, I have forgotten.


This lady ran the cafe, she was very lovely. Her style was very French.
Then, we drove to a place near Gooik, completely surrounded by farms and open land. I kept doubting the GPS was actually directing us to a cafe, but then it appeared. It was kinda empty, but there were a few local old-timers, and then people on bike trips would bike up periodically.

There are a lot of tiny ponies and miniature horses in Belgium.
Here's what the spot looked like.

This was the road up to it, we took lots of pretty roads like these.

Here's the next place we stayed after Brussels, for two nights. It was about two hours southeast of Brussels. In a village called Houffalize, where the Chouffe brewery is located.
La Chouffe's logo is a gnome. There are lots of gnomes everywhere in the surrounding countryside, both real gnomes and fake gnomes that moon you.
This is my kind of Christmas tree!
This B and B was completely bad ass and cheap. I would recommend it to anyone. It's very close to France, to it could be nicely incorporated into a trip to northern France.
We were a little frazzled pulling in after driving around all day, and we thought we had just missed our chance to visit the La Chouffe brasserie. The innkeeper, Tine, assured us the pub was open and not only that, there was a path through the woods directly to it!! Magical.

We thought this was just a fanciful bench, but Tine told us later it was for hunting.
These woods are filled with wild boar, weasels, foxes, and of course, gnomes. Look carefully and you may see one.
Here's the La Chouffe restaurant. Unfortunately, the rise in interest in craft beer has led to a lot of remodeling of cool old places. This was an example, it was still pretty cool inside, but I'm sure the old place was more charming.
This is a wonderfully fresh Houblon Chouffe on draft. This is a hoppy beer that La Chouffe created for the American market, but now it is popular in Belgium as well.
This is a pork chop with "dragonsauce". I didn't know what that was, but duh, it was tarragon. Usually I just pair tarragon with chicken but this brown gravy with tons of it was delicious!! I will try to duplicate this soon. My garden tarragon is just starting to return.

Don't look, Janatalie, this is rabbit with gueuze sauce.
And of course, a bucket of wonderful fries. Somehow when I'm in Belgium I can eat fries every day with mayo and not gain weight.
Here's the La Chouffe brewery. At night it is entirely staffed by trolls.
Here's the hearth of the 400 year old stone house that is the Vieille Forge inn
Next day we drove around a lot
We visited the La Rulles brewery. There isn't much there except a shop. They sell their beer absurdly cheaply. They make a nice hoppy blonde that is not exported to the US. Gary at The Shack and Rob at Pangaea are both big fans of La Rulles, so if you want to try their excellent tripel, check there.

The Vieille Forge had a fully stocked beer fridge on the honor system, mostly filled with local beers. The Orval abbey is very close, unfortunately the cafe was closed while we were in Belgium so we couldn't go!
I was told by a cheese shop dude that this is a very typical Belgian breakfast cheese. It is a raw cow's milk cheese and it smelled so much like ass it was kind of unbelievable. It was so stinky that we couldn't find a place to stash it and ended up leaving it in the car so it wouldn't stink up the whole inn.
He gave me two little samples of this fruit syrup that comes from Liege. He said that that's what Belgians eat with the cheese. I loved it and brought some back.
The syrup is very thick and it's made of boiled-down fruit like apples, pears, dates, or prunes.

We partied with this guy, Belgian Willy, one night. He was an inspiration. He busted his trumpet at a local restaurant, and then later it turned out he was staying at the inn. He introduced us to the idea of the Duvel nightcap, which will certainly put you out. He was from the Belgian seaside area and he came from a family of seamen. He had done everything in his life from tugboat captain, to restaurant owner, and now he is a very successful entrepreneur who travels all over the world. Either that, or he's a really good liar.
Everyone has stuffed boar's heads cuz of all the boar in the area.
How can you not love an inn that has a cat and a dog who are best friends?
Pol, the innkeeper who is married to Tine, is a serious brewer who makes two brews (a witte and a milk stout) in the smallest brewery in Belgium. It is the size of a walk-in closet. Both of his brews are excellent, especially the witte. He only brews for himself, his friends, and to sell at his inn and in the little bar that he opens only on the weekends. People want him to sell more but he doesn't want to. He's an interesting guy with some very strong opinions about beer. A drawing of his face is on the bottle
We didn't get to hang at the bar (which stays open until 3 or 4 am on Friday and Saturday), but here's what it looks like. Lots of famous brewers visit from all over and he knows all the Belgian brewers. I'll be back to party here someday!

Goodbye Vieille Forge!
See you next time

Next...more Belgium...swimming in an ocean of gueuze and lambie