Everything filed under: 'Belgium'
A Tall Man in a Low Land by Harry Pearson
This is a book review with a difference.
This week’s unique selling point is that I read A Tall Man in a Low Land about three months ago, lent it to somebody, and can’t remember an awful lot about it, apart from that I was impressed.
It’s about a man (Harry Pearson) and his wife and child, who take an extended holiday in Belgium. They stay in various towns, and visit various others, and eat very well.
Pearson writes with affection for Belgium. There may or may not have been some family connection. He writes poignantly about the road to Flanders being historically one way for a lot of Brits. Belgium is not somewhere that you necessarily return from.
In the muddle of my memory, he didn’t like Charleroi. He said it’s not the kind of place you’d like to be after dark. He liked Liège. Brussels gets only a fleeting mention, and he suggests that the Walloons bring their dogs, under cover of darkness, to shit all over the capital before the sun comes up.
He leaves his baby daughter in the care of a museum curator, who then disappears with the baby, but has only gone into the garden. He recounts an anecdote told to him about the difference between the Dutch and the Flemish. (It involved Holland having only one type of cheese, that has made it famous all over the world, and Flanders having hundreds of cheeses and remaining obscure.)
There are cycling stories. In fact, I think the book may be the product of more than one trip to Belgium. If I had it in front of me I’d check.
Comparisons with Bill Bryson are inevitable, and Pearson holds his own. A very good book that I can remember more than one thing about.
Rue de Bailli: creative graffiti
Non-permanent, puerile, sticky-tape graffiti caught my eye on the way to work last week. Shop is called “Ayna”:
and on closer inspection:
Doing a Lynndie entirely optional.
How to survive Brussels
Brilliant, observational and dry blog about Brussels. A series of tips, with photos, on simply surviving. This advice on moving to Ghent:
ghent isn’t only the city of good music like soulwax or isabelle adam, there is also a big population of pussies who didn’t survive in brussels. feel free to join them.
go see –> How to survive Brussels
Non! Monsieur is not dead!
Seen in a recently vacated shop window on Avenue Louise, and prompting many more questions than it answers:
“FOLLOWING THE MOST ABSURD RUMOURS, NON, Monsieur has NOT DIED.
It’s the END OF THE LEASE. It’s the END OF THE LEASE, he has RETIRED!”
A cut-out-and-keep Belgian Menu
Bored of waiting for service in your restaurant? Afraid of an interminable wait between getting your menu and ordering? Visiting Belgium for the first time? Don’t speak the language?
Never fear! The Kim Bah Lee cut-out-and-keep pocket-sized menu is here! Never be lost in a restaurant again!
Based on extensive research, the trusty dining companion can be used in ANY Belgian restaurant! Just point to what you feel like eating, be it prawns OR beef, and your waiter will bring you the freshest prawns or beef available!
It’s in French and English, good for dining in any Brussels-based establishment! And what’s more, it’s FREE! You’ll never need to look at another menu again*!
*not for use in bars that *also* serve food. In such cases, please memorise “spaghetti bolognaise” or “croque monsieur”
Kokob: Ethiopian
Kokob, Ethiopian restaurant downtown. On the basis of rave reviews, I booked a table for four on a Saturday night without hassle.
Free rum-based aperitif. There wasn’t much rum in it, but it was appreciated.
It’s a concept restaurant. The concept is that you eat with your hands, off a shared, edible plate. Which makes for less washing up. And is, thus, green. Eat at Kokob and save the Ethiopian Panda!
There is also an awesome Dyson hand-drier that alone is worth a trip to the bathroom.
The menu was complex, and interpreting it required cross-referencing the transliterated Amharic with the index, and a degree. Without any further education between the four us, we went for the McEthiopia Bumper Meal Deal: three meats, three veg and half a bottle of wine and water per person, for 30 euros a head.
The chef chose the food, which was satisfactory, if lacking in texture. The tables next door, presumably clever enough to interpret the menu, had big lumps of flesh in gravy and the occasional hard-boiled egg. We had large dollops of minced meat, spicy, and not so easy to eat with bits of flat bread.
Apparently it was lamb and beef. Which was fine, but it could have been anything. The bread-cutlery was filling and there was more of it when we asked.
The coffee came with great ceremony, was home-brewed, ground and smoked. It was served in tiny cups from broken pot with a lump of tin-foil in place of a lid. It was weak and pissy. Which is fine, if you’re an American. Or, presumably, Ethiopian.
The overwhelming feeling was one of distinct apathy. The service was good, the food was ok, the prices very reasonable. Can’t not recommend it, but won’t be rushing back. Try it. Or don’t. You be the judge.
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