Vol. 11 — Beer, Chocolate and Slow Weekends
Belgium
From Brussels to Ghent
Standfirst
A small country with an outsized food culture — moules-frites at midnight, chocolate shops on every corner, and abbeys still brewing beer the way monks have done for centuries.
Chapter One
A country of small perfections
Belgium is a country that quietly perfects things. The frites are cut twice, cooked twice, and served in a paper cone with mayonnaise. The chocolate is tempered by hand. The beer arrives in its own glass, poured with a precise finger of foam. Nothing is loud — everything is exact.
Sit down for moules-frites in a Brussels brasserie, or a bowl of waterzooi in Ghent, and you understand the whole country in a few bites: patient cooking, honest ingredients, and a very good bottle of something local on the table.
The Belgians perfected the frite the way the French perfected sauces. Everyone else is still catching up.
— Maison Maps journal
Chapter Two
Chocolate, beer and the Sunday market
Weekend mornings in Belgium start slowly at the market — a paper cone of warm waffles from a stall, a wedge of Herve cheese, a pain à la grecque, a small paper bag of pralines to nibble on the way home.
Later, the afternoon slips into a café for a Trappist beer and a plate of stoofvlees, then into an early evening of quiet conversation, low light and, always, another round of frites.
Chapter Three
For the kitchen and the everyday
Pieces designed to slot quietly into a Belgian home — for the cook, the market walk, and the smallest member of the family.
Tee — Antwerp
Sweater — Bruges
Onesie — Ghent
The Collection
The Belgium Collection
Moules-frites, waffles, waterzooi, stoofvlees, pralines and Trappist beer — the calm, generous spirit of Belgium, illustrated in a single composition.
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