A Day in Bruges

In Belgium, Food & Beverages August 16, 2016

Belgium is quietly nestled between the Netherlands, France and Germany with Dutch, French and German being the three official languages. Its proximity to France and Germany and its Indonesian colonial influences are reflective in the food. I had been to Belgium twice before, but wanted to try some places outside of Brussels.

There were over 130 restaurants awarded one, two or three 2016 Michelin stars in a country the size of the state of Maryland. There are also numerous restaurants worth visiting that aren’t mentioned. I don’t strictly rely on the Michelin guide to find places to eat, but for traveling, it has proven to be a good launching point.

Having only four meal slots to spend in Belgium, it was hard to choose where to eat. The unfortunate issue with dining in Belgium is many top places are at least an hour away from each other, so that also drives your itinerary. Belgian food is not really in the “trending talk” of American social media, but has some really phenomenal food.

I narrowed my choices to: In de Wulf and De Karmeliet because they will be shuttering by the end of the year, Souviner, L’air du Temps, Castor, Boury, Pure C (return visit) and Bon Bon. After combing through my notes on “every place in the world I want to go,” contacting friends, saved places on Facebook, a smattering of messages, and who was open when, I decided on my picks (with friends’ help!) and came up with: Bistro Bruut, Hertog Jan, Willhem Hiele and Hof Van Cleve, none of which were in my original picks but in the end, gave a strong representational variety between new, local, up and coming, classical, and modern.

Getting There

I left my house on Monday at 11:30 am Chicago CST time and arrived Tuesday, 10:30am, Belgian CET time. Belgium is 7 hours ahead so it was really 16 hours from door to airport yet I still had to leave the airport and get to my first destination, lunch at 1:00. Easy right?

The Rooster Says “Cocorico”

Bruges is about an 1 1/2 hours west of Brussels but almost 3 hours if your rental car’s GPS only speaks French and you get disoriented in rotundas having to go around them twice to get out on the right street. The only French I could recall from high school was the farm theme chapter, and whenever I drove past a cow, a pig or a barn, I was able to ”think in French.”

It would be expensive to hire taxis so I rented a car. This was my first time driving in Europe. I had no sense of how fast I was going. There were no speed limit signs anywhere. The streets didn’t have signs and the ones that did, didn’t match the names on my phone. I couldn’t ”feel” how long a kilometer was. I didn’t understand the arrows painted on the roads, when to go down in the center tunnel, or when to go to the right to exit. Red signs, black X’s. blue arrows and street names I couldn’t pronounce.

I wanted to give up, pull over to the side of the road and cry but was on a very tight schedule. Besides, I was given an upgrade to a beautiful C-Class Mercedes so it would’ve been pretty pathetic to be sad about that.

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TIP: Browse and learn the street signs of the country you will be visiting before you get behind the wheel.

TIP: Learn to drive stick shift. You will pay more than double to rent an automatic car in Europe.

Bruges

IMG_3437 (1) — Once I saw what I had to enter to get to Bruges, everything came together.

L1270484 — I parked the car and dropped off my bag in the lobby at the Flanders Hotel which was in the perfect location and close to everything.

Lunch at Bistro Bruut

My first destination was lunch at Bistro Bruut. It was the perfect setting, service, vibe and food for my first meal in Belgium.

Zucchini, nasturtium, lovage salt, pickled mussels on a bed of sweet onions.

Walking Around Bruges

L1270414 — The Bruges canal photos online are so beautiful, I didn’t need to take any. This was to remind myself to take the 30-minute canal tour next time since it shows all of Bruges by water.

L1270467 — The Historic Center of Bruges feels almost Disneyesque with it’s colorful building facades mixed in with the neo-Gothic buildings.

Chocolatiers

Belgium is known for their chocolate and while there are dozens of chocolate shops and chocolate tours all over the city, there were only two that I wanted to visit. It becomes easier to pick once you start reading and researching all of the tales on how the different chocolatiers got started. Like restaurants, I read articles, talk to people and follow awards and lists, but in the end, I try to seek places which are appealing in some personal way or that I find special or unique.

The Chocolate Line by Dominique Persoone

L1270437 — Funky, whimsical, sassy and playful is the tone at **The Chocolate Line** but their chocolate making is quite serious. The store is being remodeled so these were taken at their pop-up location.

Untitled design — The Chocolate Line is one of only three chocolatiers to be mentioned in the Michelin guide.

Pierre Marcolini

Dinner at Hertog Jan

Some of the most beautiful plating can be found at Hertog Jan. I can’t recall the last time I didn’t want to eat my food, simply because it was so beautifully constructed. Here are the photos from my dinner.

Speculoos, plattekaas cream, berries, flowers, herbs

Goodbye Bruges

I checked out in the morning and headed to my next destination for lunch. This is a place I want to return. It was tough being in a hotel across the street from De Karmeliet and not have time to try it. They will be closing at year’s end and I will never have know how good it was.

I loved everything about this enchanting city: the small streets, the colors, the shapes of the rooftops, the doors, the uneven cobble stone roads and narrow sidewalks all with the bikes, horses and scooters whizzing by.