Belgian cuisine

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Belgian cuisine is widely varied with significant regional variations while also reflecting the contiguous French, German and Dutch cuisine. It is sometimes said that Belgian food is served in German cuisine but with the quality of French food. Abroad, Belgium is famous for its chocolate, soap tart, waffles, fries, and beer.

Although Belgium has many distinctive national dishes, many internationally popular foods such as hamburgers and spaghetti bolognese are also popular in Belgium, and much of what Belgium eats is also eaten in neighboring countries. 'Belgian cuisine' because it usually refers to a Belgian dish, or that is considered typical of Belgium.

Belgian cuisine has traditionally awarded regional and seasonal ingredients. Typical ingredients in Belgian cuisine include potatoes, spring onions, gray shrimp, white asparagus, Belgian endives and local beers, in addition to common European staples including meat, cheese and butter. Belgians usually eat three meals a day, with a light breakfast, medium lunch, snack, and a big dinner.

Belgium has a large number of dishes and products that are local to a certain area. Examples include waterzooi from Ghent, couque biscuits from Dinant city, and tarte au riz from Verviers. While their local origins are recognized, most of the dishes are enjoyed throughout Belgium.

Video Belgian cuisine

Belgian Cuisine

Appetizers

• Boterhammen : Sliced ​​rough slices and uncooked spices, often cheese or soft cheeses, served on cutting boards. The typical varieties are a piece of bread with sliced ​​radish, usually accompanied by a glass of gueuze.
• Jambon d'Ardenne : especially the smoked ham and pÃÆ'Ã… © t, are often made from games like wild boars. The forested Ardennes region of southern Belgium is famous for this type of food.
• Salade liÃÆ' Â © geoise : a salad with green beans, bacon, onions and vinegar. Usually associated with LiÃÆ'¨ge.
• Additional inscriptions Tomate aux : a typical Belgian culinary, consisting of empty tomatoes filled with gray shrimp peeled and mixed with mayonnaise.

Savory Plate

• Moules-frites : cooked or steamed mussels with onions and celery served with French fries. This recipe is often referred to as a national dish of the country but also popular in neighboring Nord, France.
• Carbonade flamande : Belgian beef stew, similar to French Beef Bourguignon, but made with beer instead of red wine. Served with bread or fries and mustard. Usually accompanied by beer. It is also regarded as one of the national dishes, along with the moules-frites .
• Steak-frites : a very common and popular dish served in a brasserie across Europe consisting of steak paired with fries.
• Waterzooi : rich soups and chicken or fish soup, vegetables, cream and eggs, usually associated with the city of Ghent.
• Gegratineerd witloof : a gratin from Belgium soaking in bacamel sauce with cheese. Often endives are wrapped with ham.
• Kip meets frienen en appelmoes : (chicken, fries, and apple sauce), which is very common around Brussels.
• Konijn in geuze : rabbit in gueuze, which is a spontaneously fermented beer from the area around Brussels.
• Filet amerci : Very fine chopped beef eaten raw and cold. It's spread out on sandwiches or bread with and sometimes topped with sauce, usually with Sauce Amà © à © ricaine , and served with fries. When served as dinner, it is mixed with onions and capers like steak tartare, but still retains the name amÃÆ'  © ricain .
• At least groen : Eels in green sauce from mixed herbs (including chervil and parsley). Served with bread or fries. Usually accompanied by beer or (sometimes) Alsace wine.
• PÃÆ'ªche au thon : two cans or a fresh peach filled with a mixture of tuna and mayonnaise, a tuna salad.
• Boudin : a type of sausage in which meat, or blood, is mixed with breadcrumbs often eaten with potatoes and applesauce, sometimes eaten raw or burnt.
• Stoemp : mashed potatoes (usually carrots or cabbage), often served with sausages.
• Vol-au-vent: a small box of puff pastry stuffed with chicken, mushrooms, small meatballs, and sauces, often Báchamel sauce, served with French fries.

Sweet dishes and desserts

• Waffles: sometimes eaten as street snacks and sold by ice cream van. Among the more famous styles are waffle LiÃÆ'¨ge, Brussels waffle, and stroopwafel.
• Speculoos: shortcrust cinnamon shortbread, traditionally baked for consumption on or just before Sinterklaas in the Netherlands (5 December), Belgium (December 6), and around Christmas in Germany.
• Croustillons : fried balls containing sweet dough, eaten in the open or on special occasions.
• Rijstevlaai : cake with stuffing based on rice pudding, original Verviers.
• Sirop de LiÃÆ'¨ge : jam or jam like jelly made from fruit juice that evaporates.
• Cuberdon: conical purple candy made from gum arab made from England.

Maps Belgian cuisine

Belgian Fries and fries in culture

French fries, deep-fried fries, are very popular in Belgium, where they are considered to be originated. The earliest evidence of this dish comes from a book entitled Curiosità © de la table dans les Pays-Bas-Belgiques written in 1781, describing how the people of Namur, Dinant and Andenne around the Meuse River have eaten potatoes fried foods since about 1680. Although they are commonly known as "French fries" in the United States, it is argued that American soldiers during the First World War called them "French Fries" because the Belgian soldiers introduced them to French speaking platters.

In Belgium, fries are sold at fast food outlets or in specialty fast food restaurants called friteries, frietkots, or frituurs (loose: fried huts). They are often served with various sauces and eaten alone or at other snack companies. Traditionally, they are served in "cornet de frites" (French) or "puntzak" (Flemish), a piece of thick white paper cone then wrapped in a thin (and colored) piece of paper, with a sauce on it. peak. Larger portions are often served on a cardboard tray for practicality. Other street foods such as frikandel, gehaktbal or croquettes are sold side by side. In some cases, the fries are served in the form of a baguette sandwich along with their sauce and meat; this is known as "mitraillette". In areas with immigration, the same combination is also available in packs called dÃÆ'¼rÃÆ'¼m rather than in the baguette.

Most Belgian households have deep fryers, allowing them to make their own fries and other fried foods at home. Supermarkets sell a variety of animal fats and liquid and solid vegetables for use in in house fryers; beef fat is very valuable.

In June 2017 the European Commission issued a recommendation to restrict chemical acrylamide - the natural result of frying some foods at high temperatures - from reaching consumers, due to the carcinogenic nature of being alleged. The document proposes a change in the preparation of French fries to prevent the formation of acrylamide, by pouring it before it is fried, as opposed to the traditional method of double frying. This led to a wave of protests from some Belgian politicians, who saw it as an assault on the country's gastronomic culture and traditions.

Sauce

Mayonnaise and tomato sauce are the sauce commonly eaten with French fries in Belgium. Friteries and other fast food companies tend to offer a number of different sauces for fries and meats, including aÃÆ'¯oli and Sauce Amà © à © ricaine but also much more complicated varieties, including BÃÆ'  © arnaise sauce. There are often more than a dozen choices, and most of them are mayonnaise, so the varieties include:

• AÃÆ'¯oli/Looksaus (garlic mayonnaise).
• Sauce andalouse - mayonnaise with tomato paste and chilli.
• Sauce Americaine - mayonnaise with tomatoes, chervil, onions, capers, crustacean stock, and celery.
• Bicky sauce - a commercial brand made from mayonnaise, white cabbage, tarragon, dough, cucumber, onion, mustard, and dextrose.
• Brazilian sauce - mayonnaise with pineapple, tomato, and spiced paste.
• Cocktail sauce - one of several types of cold-temperature sauces or rooms often served as part of a dish (es) called a seafood cocktail or as a spice with other seafood.
• Curry tomato sauce - a spice variant in tomato sauce and common sauces in Belgium, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
• Curry mayonnaise - mayonnaise with turmeric, cumin, ginger, and fresh or dried fresh chili.
• Joppiesaus - a commercial brand made of mayonnaise, spices, onions, and curry powder.
• Soy sauce - a sweet and tangy sauce usually made from tomatoes, sweeteners, and vinegar with a variety of herbs and spices.
• Mammoet sauce - mayonnaise with tomato, onion, glucose, garlic, and soy sauce
• Mayonnaise - thick cold sauce or sauce commonly used in sandwiches and composed salads.
• Pepper sauce - mayonnaise or spicy sauce with black pepper.
• Relish - a ripe and pickled product made from chopped vegetables, fruits, or spices, and is a foodstuff that is usually used as a spice, especially for raising the staple.
• Lapin Sauce - Sauces made from Sirop de LiÃÆ'¨ge, cooked with raisins, onions, plums, and cloves, usually served with frittes Boulets.
• Sauce Riche - pink, tartar-based sauce.
• Samurai sauce - mayonnaise with Tunisian pepper, spices, tomatoes, and peppers.
• Tartar sauce - mayonnaise sauce or French urano sauce, and is usually a rough consistency due to the addition of diced gherkins or other pickled types.
• Zigeuner Sauce - The "gypsy" sauce from tomatoes, peppers, and chopped peppers, borrowed from Germany.

Occasionally, warm sauce is offered by friteries, including Hollandaise sauce, ProvenÃÆ'§ale sauce, BÃÆ' Â © arnaise sauce, or even carbonade flamande. Most of the above sauces are also available in the supermarket. The use of this sauce is not limited to French fries; they are used on a variety of other dishes as well.

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Beer

For a relatively small country, Belgium produces large quantities of beer in different styles - in fact, Belgium has more distinctly different types of beer per capita than anywhere else in the world. In 2011, there were 1,132 different types of beer produced in the country. The brewing tradition in Belgium can be traced back to the early Middle Ages and 6 Trappist Monasteries still produce beer, which was originally used to finance their maintenance.

On average, Belgium drinks 157 liters of beer each year, down from about 260 each year in 1900. Most of the beer is bought or served in bottles, rather than cans, and almost every style of beer has its own special or unique shaped glass or other. drinking. Using the correct glass is thought to enhance the taste.

The varied nature of Belgian beers makes it possible to match them with each dish, for example:

• Wheat beer with seafood or fish.
• Blonde or Triple beer with eel, chicken or white meat
• Dubbel or any other dark beer with dark meat
• Fruit Lambics with dessert

A number of traditional Belgian dishes use beer as ingredients. One of them is carbonade , beef stew cooked in beer, similar to boeuf bourguignon. The beer used is usually a regional specialty: lamb in Brussels, De Koninck in Antwerp, so the taste of the dishes varies. Others are rabbits in gueuze. Trappist Monastery in Chimay also produces cheese "washed" with beer to enhance the taste.

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Jenever

Jenever, also known as geniÃÆ'¨vre , genever , peket or Dutch gin , is the national spirit of Belgium from where gin evolved. While beer is probably the most famous alcoholic beverage in Belgium, jenever has been the country's traditional and national spirit for over 500 years. Jenever is a "Product Protected Origin", after receiving eleven different applications or AOCs from the EU, and can only be made in Belgium, the Netherlands and some regions in France and Germany. Most of the AOC jenever is exclusively for Belgium making Belgian jenever (Belgium genever) one of the best kept secrets in the liquor industry.

For centuries the jenever was packed in handmade clay jugs. Its iconic shape is recognizable and unique to jenever. Traditionally the Belgians served jenever in a full shot glass that had just been pulled out of the freezer. The first step to drank the juice once properly is to keep the glass on the table, bend and take the first stroke without holding the glass. After the first traditional sip finish, one can drink the rest of the drink normally.

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Chocolate

Belgium is famous for its high quality chocolates and over 2,000 chocolatiers, both small and large. The Belgian Association with chocolate returned as far back as 1635 when the country was under Spanish occupation. By the mid-18th century, chocolate had become very popular among the middle and upper classes, especially in the form of hot chocolate, including with Charles-Alexander of Lorraine, governor of the Austrian region. From the beginning of the 20th century, the country was able to import large quantities of chocolate from its colonies in Africa, Belgian Congo. Both chocolate and praline are the discoveries of the Belgian chocolate industry. Today, chocolate is very popular in Belgium, with 172,000 tons produced each year, and is widely exported.

Belgian chocolate compositions have been regulated by law since 1884. To prevent counterfeiting chocolate with low-quality fat from other sources, a minimum level of 35% pure cocoa is charged. Adherence to traditional manufacturing techniques also serves to improve the quality of Belgian chocolate. Specifically, vegetable fat is not used. Many companies produce chocolate by hand, which is exhausting and explains the prevalence of small and independent chocolate outlets, which are popular with tourists. Famous chocolate companies, such as Neuhaus and Guylian, strictly follow traditional (and sometimes secret) recipes for their products.

Source of the article : Wikipedia