Brussels gastronomy - Wikivoyage, the free collaborative travel and tourism guide - Gastronomie bruxelloise — Wikivoyage, le guide de voyage et de tourisme collaboratif gratuit

The Brussels gastronomy is the testimony of the flavors, the know-how and the terroir of Brussels and its hinterland in the center of the Belgium.

Cold cuts and meats

• Bloempanch (Bloedpens)  – A sort of big black sausage 10 cm in diameter containing cubes of fat, thickly sliced ​​and pan-fried over high heat. (last update March 2018)
• Kip-kap  – Pressed head made from a mixture of pork meats (head, feet, rind and other offal), cut very thin without bones, cooked in water or in beer and placed in a terrine. It is eaten cold with lukewarm spelled rolls spread with lard and ground pepper. (last update March 2018)
• Calf head in turtle  – Calf's head in tomato paste and mounted in an earthenware bowl that is returned to the plate to extract the contents, which then looks like a turtle shell. (last update March 2018)

Condiments, herbs, oils and vegetables

• Chicon (Witloof)  – Created around 1830 in the Josaphat valley in Schaerbeek, chicory can be eaten either raw, mixed with lamb's lettuce and mayonnaise, or steamed or stewed or braised or coated in ham, topped with bechamel sauce, sprinkled with cheese and baked. (last update March 2018)
• Brussels sprouts (Spruit)  – These are the axillary buds forming a small head of a cabbage variety created in the middle of the XVII^e century to Saint-Gilles. They are eaten cooked in water, sautéed in a pan, in a gratin or in a salad. (last update March 2018)
• Hop streams  – Hop buds, traditionally picked in early February but now found all year round. They are eaten in salads, as a side dish or steamed. (last update March 2018)

Prepared dishes and / or specialties

• Brussels-style carbonades  – Flemish stew cooked with gueuze. (last update March 2018)
• Choesels  – Offal dish (bull's testicles, beef sweetbreads and kidneys, mutton trotters). The binding is a sauce made from gueuze and madeira. (last update March 2018)
• Brussels-style rabbit  – Rabbit braised in lard then simmered in gueuze. The sauce is flavored with red currant jam or sweetened with brown sugar. (last update March 2018)
• Bird nest  – Meatball with a hard-boiled egg in the center. (last update March 2018)
• Headless bird (Vogel zonder kop)  – Veal paupiette stuffed with minced pork and veal and wrapped in bacon fat. It is roasted or braised. (last update March 2018)
• Brussels omelet  – Pan-fried omelette with chunks of white asparagus. (last update March 2018)
• Brussels chicken  – Cuckoo from Mechelen accompanied by fried chicory. (last update March 2018)
• Stoemp  – Dish cooked in Brussels since at least the XIX^e century. It is made from mashed potatoes mixed with one or more of the following vegetables: onions and carrots, leeks, spinach, chicory, peas or cabbage and flavored with thyme and bay leaf. Traditionally, sausage or bacon is precooked in the same appliance. (last update March 2018)
• Vol-au-vent  – Cylindrical crust made of puff pastry and garnished with small pieces of cuckoo de malines and mushrooms bound in a bechamel sauce. (last update March 2018)
• Chicken Waterzooï  – Chicken or hen dish bound in cream or butter, accompanied by vegetables and served in a soup tureen. Not to be confused with “waterzooï à la gantoise” (kindness waterzooi) who, as the name suggests, is from Ghent and where the white fish takes the place of the chicken or the hen. (last update March 2018)

Fish, seafood, crustaceans and molluscs

• Caricoles  – Whelks served in a marinière. Unfortunately, this specialty is on the way out. There are a dozen street vendors left in the streets of Brussels. (last update March 2018)
• Brussels-style carp  – Carp cooked with lambic and red wine. The sauce is thickened with gingerbread. (last update March 2018)
• Meulemeester eggs  – Gratin of gray shrimps macerated in beer and hard-boiled egg. (last update March 2018)

Cheeses and dairy products

• Beersel cheese (Mandjekaas)  – So called because the curd is poured into woven wicker molds in the shape of small baskets (mandjes). It is eaten with bread or served for dessert with a fruit coulis. (last update March 2018)
• Brussels cheese (Hettekeis)  – Produced with skimmed milk with 0% fat, salted, dried and with a relatively pronounced taste and strong odor. Difficult to eat due to its high salt content, it is most often mixed with plattekeis to do the pottekeis which is then served on a slice of bread accompanied by radishes (ramenach pottekeis) and / or young onions. (last update March 2018)
• Brabant Maquee (Plattekeis)  – Lean and fresh white cheese. (last update March 2018)

Breads, desserts, fruits, jams, sweets and sweets

• Croustillons (Smoutebollen)  – Donuts made with lager beer and baker's yeast. They are sprinkled with icing sugar (“impalpable sugar” in Belgium). (last update March 2018)
• Brussels waffle  – Thin and crispy waffle made from wheat flour, yeast, cane sugar, milk, water, butter, salt and beaten egg whites. Traditionally, it is best enjoyed hot or warm, sprinkled with icing sugar only. There are also now, tourist trap obligatory, topped with chocolate and whipped cream and decorated with fresh fruit or even replaced by Belgian waffles who undergo the same support. (last update March 2018)
• Greek bread  – Cinnamon dough strip, sprinkled with granulated sugar and baked in the oven. The name has no relation to Greece but is a deformation of the street where it originates: rue du Fossé aux Loups (Wolvengracht in Dutch), the Brabant dialect grecht which means ditch. (last update March 2018)
• Speculoos  – Biscuit with a particular grainy texture due to the presence of brown sugar, crunchy and brown in color, traditionally flavored with cinnamon. In the form of Saint Nicholas consumed during Advent and more particularly on the feast of Saint Nicholas. (last update Dec. 2020)
• Brown sugar (called vergeoise in France)  – Sugar often obtained from beet syrup, after refining, with a soft consistency, colored and flavored by successive cooking. (last update Dec. 2020)
• Bodding (bodink)  – Brussels bread pudding (last update Dec. 2020)

Drinks, wines and spirits

• Be careful with alcoholic drinks: the abuse of said alcohol is dangerous, so consume and drink in moderation.

Waters

Beers

• Lambic (lambiek)  – Beer with spontaneous fermentation typical of Brussels and its periphery. Exposed to the open air and, only, to the specific wild yeasts of the place, it is not very effervescent and, therefore, not very frothy. It has an alcohol content of around 5%. It can be drunk as it is, but above all it is used in the composition of other frothy regional beers. It is not bottled and can only be found in certain cafes. (last update Dec. 2020)
  • Gueuze  – Beer consisting of a blend of two lambics of different ages which are fermented a second time. (last update Dec. 2020)
  • Faro  – Beer consisting of a mixture of lambic with Candi sugar which leads to a second fermentation. (last update Dec. 2020)
  • Kriek  – Beer consisting of a mixture of lambic with cherries causing refermentation (last update Dec. 2020)
  • Raspberry  – Beer consisting of a mixture of lambic with raspberries causing refermentation. (last update Dec. 2020)
  • Fisherwoman  – Beer consisting of a mixture of lambic with peaches causing refermentation. (last update Dec. 2020)

Various drinks

Aperitifs, digestives, liqueurs and spirits

Wines