Belgium's Got The Frites.
I’m back y’all! After being sequestered in my house for a couple of weeks binge-watching Singles Inferno, reading through the mountain of books on my desk, and organizing my sock drawer (damn, that was a mess), I’m really happy to say that I’m back! Taking a hiatus from writing proved to be both therapeutic and terrifying, but was well worth the time not sitting at my desk clacking furiously on a keyboard.
Shall we get back into the swing of things? I think so!
Next up on Eating A-Z in NYC is Belgium. Some things I learned about the small country sandwiched between France + the Netherlands is that they have three official languages which are Dutch, French, and German. They were one of the first countries to join the European Union and they have a history of colonization in Africa, which to me seems to have been left out of many history books (they left the Congo in 1960).
When searching for a Belgian restaurant to eat at, my only criteria was to eat ALL the pommes frites that my heart desired and I did just that at BXL Zoute. The restaurant is tucked away on a side street in the Chelsea neighborhood of downtown Manhattan. We arrived when they opened to avoid Brunch crowds and found ourselves drinking Belgian beers and listening to cool 80’s French pop music within minutes after arrival.
Belgium is very well known for their beer brewing, which they’ve been doing since 300 AD and this restaurant did not disappoint with their selections. We ordered a Cuvee BXL and a La Chouffe beer. I sipped slowly since this was going to be my one and only beer (man, I miss alcohol). The Cuvee BXL is their house beer which is amber in color and a bit woody in taste. It definitely had a bit more bite than the La Chouffe which was lighter with fruitier notes.
As per usual we ordered a bevy of food starting off with french onion soup as our appetizer. The french onion soup was probably the most surprising from all the things we ordered. It was made with light chicken stock instead of the usual beef broth that is required for the soup. Using the lighter broth really changed the game. The onions which weren’t paper-thin and rather chunks were the star of the show. You could actually taste the herbs and none of the onion flavor was masked by the broth, which I sometimes find is the case when I’ve eaten the soup. Also, how can you go wrong with onions, cheese, bread, and broth?!
Next, we gobbled up a croque madame that came with a huge helping of fries and salad. A croque madame is a tasty AF sandwich with a runny egg on top that has layers of ham + Gruyère cheese and is slathered with béchamel sauce between two slices of thick white bread. The bread was super soft and lightly toasted with a very nice chunk of ham and melty Gruyère inside. The sandwich disappeared just as quickly as it was brought out to the table and has made me a firm believer that all sandos should have a runny egg on top.
And last, but not least we had the quintessential Belgian dish of moules frites. The mussels came in a covered pot and were cooked in a white wine cream sauce. The mussels were a bit gritty, but that didn’t stop us from devouring them all. The cream sauce was very light + thin and not heavily seasoned which allowed the mussels to be tasted fully. We dunked our fries into the cream sauce because that’s what you do of course when you have extra saucy goodness that’s leftover.
If I had to describe Belgian food I’d have to say it seems like really well-made comfort food. It checks all the boxes that comfort food does. Cheesy? Check. Saucy? Check. Warm? Check. Boozy? Double-check. Belgian food may seem heavily French-inspired, but I think Belgians have figured out a way to add their own charm to their cuisine. I’m ready to normalize eating mussels cooked in wine with a side of fries as an anytime-you-want-it kind of meal like burgers + fries. Who’s with me!?
Paid Subscribers: My first Meet + Eat will be Saturday, February 12th! We’ll be doing a delicious food tour with Bob’s Pizza Tour in Lower Manhattan. The link to sign up will go out with Friday’s newsletter. 🍕🍕🍕🍕
Cook. Eat. Repeat.
Natalie ✨💗
how lovely to read your lovely appreciate notes! Any tips on making the Frites?
Awesome review. My first time to see a review on Belgian food. That croque madame looks tasty. well done.