Belgium: who knew? (and also, birthday food.)

I'm going to take this moment to announce that I am fairly certain I did NOT fail my German test this afternoon. Wooohoooo!

And now, as promised, a review of the restaurant where we ate for Mike's birthday: Marcellino (approximately a 5-minute walk from our apartment). In a word, YUM. In another, EXPENSIVE. Welcome to Zürich, suckers. Mike opted for the a la carte menu, and I went for the tasting menu, which was delicious, but LARGE. Soooo much food. He started with burrata; I started with a sampler plate of beef carpaccio with olive oil and parmesan, some sort of avocado relish ("guacamole", to the lay person), and cold octopus salad with minced pickled vegetables and some sort of extra fishy flavor...and, oddly enough, my least favorite thing on the plate was the avocado. Who knew octopus was so yummy?

We then proceeded to the pasta course. Mike: spinach-and-ricotta ravioli; me: ravioli sampler, but I can't for the life of me remember what was in all of them (there were 4 different types). Suffice it to say that they were all drowning in butter, and really, what's more worth remembering than THAT?

Next, the meat courses. Mike had the cordon bleu (which is REALLY popular here, and not terribly Italian, but whatever...) with creamy risotto, and I had some gigantic slab of some sort of delicious fish. And creamy risotto. REALLY good fish. REALLY hot risotto, but also good...although neither of us could finish it by this point.

Finally, desserts. Mike had crema catalan, which is kinda like orange creme brulee, but better, and I had a teensy panna cotta with some variety of berry topping. I will say here that while the desserts were tasty, they weren't anything terribly special: I think the best parts of the meal were the appetizers and the ravioli. (And my fish certainly wasn't too shabby.)

As aforementioned, a GIGANTIC and EXPENSIVE meal, but really tasty. And we got to eat outside on their little patio, which was adorable and filled with plants and white twinkle lights and tables with umbrellas...just a really lovely evening. Maybe really only a special-occasion-type meal, but good.  :)

And now, onto Belgium! Which is, by the way, a FAR more beautiful and interesting and tasty country than I'd imagined. I guess it's nice to go into things with ZERO preconceptions sometimes, so that you can be extremely pleasantly surprised. This was one instance, I suppose, where actually turned out to be a benefit being an ignorant American. (How many people do YOU know that would know what to expect from Belgium...?)

Anyway. We were there for 3 days...spent the first night in Brussels, the second in Bruges, and the third back in Brussels. And I have the photos to prove it.

Notre-Dame du Sablon. Near the restaurant where we had dinner.

And here: a quick review of the dinner we had our first night in Belgium, at Lola. Really small, hipster-y restaurant, with FANTASTIC, and mostly affordable--at least, compared to Zurich--food! Between Jen, Dave, Mike, and myself, we had three starters: buffala mozzarella with prosciutto (yum!), foie gras with toast (meh...I don't see what the fuss is all about), and Flemish-style white asparagus. (Asparagus is EVERYWHERE right now, since it's in season, and I couldn't really care less, 'cause I DON'T LIKE IT. But this stuff was boiled fairly well and served with diced, salted, boiled eggs and olive oil: not horrible!) Appetizers: sehr gut. Then Jen had shrimp pasta, Dave had steak tartare, Mike had an Irish filet, and I had lentils with pumpkin puree and tomatoes. ALL DELICIOUS. If you go to Brussels, EAT AT LOLA. Entirely delicious, entirely worth the (not-too-expensive) prices. But back to the city.

Just FYI: the seemingly main-est tourist attraction in Brussels is this teensy statue--like, a foot high--of this little boy peeing. His likeness is everywhere, in every shop, even on their Coke advertisements (this is hilarious). Consider yourselves forewarned.

Yup. He's peeing chocolate. No one said anything about Brussels being a CLASSY town.

Here he is again, in every color of the rainbow, and then some.

Oh yeah. And did we mention that it was gay pride weekend there? Lots of rainbow flags and dance music and animal prints. We had no idea. Thus commenced our second inadvertent Big Gay Weekend. (The first was our anniversary in San Francisco in 2006.)

Musee de la Ville -- northeast side of the Grand Place. I have NEVER seen a more ornate collection of buildings in one place. It was pretty surprising. Belgium: who knew??

Northwest side of the Grand Place.

City hall in the Grand Place (southwest side).

Southeast end of the Grand Place.

Chocolates at Pierre Marcolini. Tasty, but not my favorites...I'm sticking with good ol' Neuhaus, for now!

Near the Grand Place. I seriously love the buildings in this city, although this part at night was extremely reminiscent of Bourbon Street.

 Fancy covered shopping arcade similar to those in Milan or Torino...very pretty. 

Bruges! The main square.

Market along one side of the square.

Bruges: small city, giant towers. The belfry in the main square.

Basilica of the Holy Blood. Allegedly has a vial of Holy Blood collected by Joseph.

The Venice of Belgium....?

Now you see why this place was PACKED with tourists.

Oh yeah. Casa Patata. Word on the street is that those crazy Belgians fry their french fries TWICE. Yesssss.

And then...another fantastic meal. Dave, whenever we travel with him, will forever be in charge of the meals, 'cause Den Dyver was ALSO fantastic. (Dave picked it 'cause the food was supposed to be good, but also 'cause they did beer pairings with the tasting menu, rather than the usual wine pairings.) Ok, so definitely not as affordable as Lola, but a REALLY nice meal. We started with a "salsa" tray of tiny whole shrimps, fish salsa, and crunchy bread sticks, followed by a three-part fish-themed amuse bouche. ALL YUMMY. Mike, Dave, and I got the tasting menu, but with different options...so I only have photos of my (and one of Mike's) plates. The menfolk went with the all-meat options (duck breast and gizzard, grilled dune asparagus, skelp mustard, artichoke, red perilla for an app; baked veal fantasy, roast potatoes on sea salt, aubergine, lavas, beetroot). I went all fish (listed below). Let's face it: I don't know what about half of these food terms mean, but I was darn happy to eat it all, nonetheless. Mmmmmmm, snooty food.

Our table...REALLY good bread and herbed butter.

My appetizer course: mackerel with razor shell clams, apples and onions, pickled cucumber, carrot, cumin, and fennel. My first--and only--dish served with some variety of flavored foam. It was tasty foam, whatever it was.

My fish. (Gilt head bream, goat’s milk "smeus", garden pea puree, purslane, enoki, green sauce, red onion. I'm not quite sure what all of that is, except that it's DELICIOUS.)

Mike's meat course.

Dessert: black rice pudding, orange mousse, elderberry sorbet. (With a candied orange slice and elderberry flowers. Mmmmmm, elderberry anything.)

And after dinner: naturally, they were having a giant American-style carnival in Bruges, and Dave talked us all into going through the fun house. This is it. Soooo silly. But more fun that I cared to admit at the time.

This is NOT a good picture. But it fits the theme...Bruges: little city, giant towers. This is St. Saviour's at night.

Littlecitygianttowers. Church of Our Lady - contains (supposedly) the only Michelangelo sculpture to have left Italy during his lifetime. (My photo of the statue came out terribly. Sorry.)

Church of Our Lady.

Super fancy carved pulpit! Dad, you should maybe look into getting one of these. It was pretty impressive.

Yesssssssssssss.

I couldn't figure out whether it would be a total cliche to insist on eating a waffle before leaving Belgium, or whether it's just what you have to do while you're there. So I gave into the ever persuasive, country-wide waffle lobby, and BOY, was it worthwhile! Super delicious vanilla waffles topped in a layer of crunchy sugar, served with no fewer than two inches of whipped cream on top. Belgium would be worth a return visit just for THESE bad boys.

And there you have it, friends: my Belgium, in a nutshell. There were, of course, additional gorgeous vistas, interesting architectures, and tasty treats, but I don't want to go on and on and on and on, although it might be a bit late for that. Let's just sum it up by saying, Belgium: truly delightful. We will be going back. 

Next up: various miscellanea pertaining to my apartment and the botanic gardens. And after that, Lake Como, which is where we're going this weekend. Or the other way 'round. Either way, Europe rocks. Come visit.  :)