Two hours from central London to Brussels? Amazing food, gorgeous architecture and some great art? Why had I never done this before?
Friday
A bit of wandering around to get our bearings before dinner at a down-to-earth brasserie recommended by the Independent, one of the myriad seafood places off Place St. Catherine – paper tablecloths, dodgy wood panelling and a mix of locals and tourists. The Indy said it has the best mussels in Brussels – difficult to tell, but we definitely ate well. We had croquettes to start – torpedoes of gooey prawny stuff – alright I’m not selling them brilliantly but they were perfectly fried and to die for. Mr. R&R’s foie gras was great too, with aspic, addictive tangles of caramelized red onions and a sprig of redcurrants. Then two huge buckets of beautiful mussels in white wine with tons of celery and chips, demolished in record time and in virtual silence, disturbed only by the ping of empty shells into the provided bowl. For afters, Mr. R&R had a sublime chocolate mousse and I had the sabayon with Grand Marnier, which was a warm velvety, foamy, alcoholic mass of bliss with cold ice-cream. I restrained myself from licking the bowl, but it was a close run thing. We had a bottle of their Pouilly Fuissé which went down a treat but gave us massive hangovers (we are both complete lightweights in the alcohol department). Staggered around the centre for a bit, then collapsed into bed.
Saturday
Followed the Grand Place audio guide from the Brussels tourism site on the iPad and iPhone – nice idea and well-paced, but not too hot on historical stuff and we would have done better following the maps in the Rough Guide. Made it up to the museum area for lunch at their café which is recommended. It’s self service but they make you up lovely salads on the spot, have a really good cheese selection, delicious bread and lots of cakes which looked great. There’s a coffee bar too.
The Magritte museum was fantastic – three floors taking you through his life and works with a brilliant audio commentary. I really got a flavour of the artistic movements of the time and his carefree attitude to people trying to interpret his works. Touching, as well, his long marriage to his muse Georgette. Really worth spending an afternoon to do properly.
By this time, I was a little weary (on checking my Ki Fit when we got home, we’d done over 18000 steps) but we ventured out again to Dandoy on the appropriately named rue au Beurre for some biscuit buying: traditional speculaas, almond thins and the intriguing speculoos spread and jam.
And so to dinner: Belga Queen, a bistro housed under an art nouveau glass roof, waiters bustling around in sculptural aprons. We went to the earlier of two shifts at 7.30 and the service was pretty speedy – fine for us, as we were famished but they’re probably more relaxed for the 9.30 session. The food was great though – some absolutely super oysters and more foie gras to start, then meatballs Belgian style for Mr. R&R, cooked in a spiced fruit sauce, and a hunk of more ordinary but tasty cod for me, with crispy bacony bits. The chips were insanely good. We shared the trio of white, milk and dark chocolate mousses for pud which was naturally yummy, but regretted not trying the icecream with speculoos.
More walking after dinner and a great nighttime view of Brussels and the Grand Place up by the museums.
Sunday
Last minute chocolate shopping at Laurent Gerbaud for slabs of chocolate with roasted cocoa nibs and Persian cranberries, others with bergamot, black pepper or yuzu, and dried pears coated with chocolate. The lady behind the counter knew Gobino in Turin, which we took as a very good sign. So far, it’s all delicious (although not quite as sublime as the stuff from the Chocolate Line in Bruges).
Then a whiz round the Flemish Primitives at the fine arts museum – a good audio guide here too and some stellar Bruegels, van der Weyden and various unnamed Masters. Rembrants, van Dycks and Rubens too. All good stuff but after about 1700 it gets a bit cutesy (hunting scenes, still lifes, pink cheeked children) and unfortunately we didn’t have time for the modern art museum. We’ll save that for the next trip, along with the art nouveau architecture tour, the antique shops, the speculaas icecream…
Then back on the Eurostar and home for tea. More photos on my Flickr stream.
Hotel: We stayed at the Dominican – slap bang in the centre, right next door to an enormous kitchenware shop and facing the back of the opera house (so from the street you can hear the singers warming up in the evening). Executive rooms are quiet (there’s an internal courtyard) and spacious with both bath, shower and a proper door to the bathroom, none of this glass/curtain nonsense. Great cafe au lait in the afternoon at the bar – didn’t have the buffet breakfast but it looked a little sad.
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