Alex's Summer at Sea

If you were to start a city and choose a couple of foods upon which your local cuisine would center, I have a feeling you would probably end up selecting ones very similar to Belgium’s specialties. It’s hard to argue with the delicacies here: Belgian waffles, Belgian fries, Belgian chocolate, and Belgian beer.

Our first night in Antwerp started off with dinner at a cozy little café, where I had the classic Belgian specialty: the “One Night in Bangkok Chicken Sandwich.” With the sandwich I asked what kind of beer our waitress recommended; she told me the most popular is a beer called Jupiler, so I gave that a try. It’s an excellent beer, especially since I like lighter flavors, and the price was right – less than 1.90Euros, while a Fanta would have set me back 2.50 Euros.

A bit full from dinner, we wandered the streets of Antwerp with two goals in mind: explore the city, and make room for the Belgium fries. The city itself has a lot of character. Lots of old buildings, still in remarkable condition, line the narrow, curving streets. Much of the ground is still made of cobblestones, and a lot of the city is closed to cars, so pedestrians can walk around freely. There are also pockets of very interesting sections, including one small park, in the middle of the city, surrounded by walls covered in gorgeous, colorful graffiti. Along the waterfront where our ship is docked, are a series of fascinating flags hanging from light posts; each light post features two flags, each one with a caricature of a face. The faces range from whimsical cartoons to serious sketches, providing some atmosphere to an otherwise blasé waterfront.

After some exploring, we felt it was time to try the fries. There are numerous “Frituur’s” around the city, almost all with just a small storefront, and a very limited menu. We ordered the klein frites especial – small fries with mayonnaise. The fries come extremely hot, in a flimsy paper tray, with a huge dallop of mayonnaise on top (Uncle Mark: don’t even think about the especial; I have a feeling just seeing the photo of the mayo will make you sick). The fries here are baked before being fried, so they are very crispy on the outside, and despite the excessive grease, really don’t feel that heavy while you eat them. I don’t know exactly what it is about the fries – perhaps it’s the combination of fried potatoes with globs of mayo – but as soon as you eat a few of them, you can feel it. We split a small portion, and didn’t even get to the bottom of the tray. How someone could finish a small, let alone a large portion, by themselves is beyond me. It is, however, my recommendation that Belgian frites be added to the traditional Yom Kippur dinner, because I think a tray of these things would definitely stick with you for at least 24 hours of atonement – they may even hold you over for a double-duty of davening.

Alas, after eating part of a small fries, in addition to my meal and Belgian beer, there was no way I could go for the “trifecta,” finishing off the night with a waffle. Fear not, however, as the waffle is high on my to-do list tomorrow in exploring the city.

I leave you with some photos of the evening:

Street scene:


Graffiti:


Flags:

Fries: