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It's been a
rather chilly winter, and we’ve still several weeks to go…so, we say, give
in to one of the pleasures of cold weather…food! Nestled between
the beautiful brooding Pas de Calais to the South and Holland to
the North, Belgium, or Gallia Belgica as the Romans named
it, has developed a remarkably vibrant and syncretic culture.
This dual Galllic and Dutch heritage has been fertile ground for
innovative artistic visions, from Flemish painting (one thinks of
masters such as van Eyck and van Dyck) with its romantic
landscapes and finely-crafted portraits, to the wonderfully
avant-garde and cerebral Antwerp Six designers (a list which
includes Dries van Noten, Dirk Bikkembergs, Ann Demeulemeester).
Belgium has continued to produce innovative thinkers and artists,
and the Belgians are a free-spirited lot, having pulled away and asserted their independence from the Dutch
in the mid-nineteenth century.
Gentse
waterzooi
(image via
belgianchocolate)
Today
Belgians display the same idiosyncratic assertiveness when it
comes to their national cuisine. Take waterzooi,
a classic Flemish stew and a national dish of sorts, properly
pronounced vatter zoy, from the Flemish zooien, to
boil. Ask five Belgian chefs what constitutes a proper
waterzooi and you are likely to receive five different
answers! Waterzooi ŕ la Gantoise, or Gentse
waterzooi if you favor the Flemish nomenclatura, (from the
eastern seaside city of Ghent) probably originated as a fish dish:
some favor perch (others go so far as to insist on using only
Belgian perch fished in the North Sea) while others freely use
eel, carp or even pike. Incorporated step-by-step into the
broth are vegetables, herbs, eggs, cream, and butter. The
resulting dish: smooth, refined, and delicious. Seafood is
eschewed entirely by some in favor of chicken, a tasty alternative
that Julia Child took particular pleasure in
preparing!
It’s a wonderful Sunday meal to prepare at home; one can also try
an excellent Waterzooi ŕ la Gantoise (with chicken) at
Markt
in
Chelsea.
Mussels are
another national treasure, cooked in a variety of wine, tomato, or
cream sauces, though we tend to favor the traditional moules
mariničre—i.e. steamed with onions, shallots, parsley, and
white wine.
Petite
Abeille,
a relaxed brasserie with an excellent selection of Belgian beers
and Tintin books, has some of the best mussels in town along with
pommes frites with mayonnaise, another Belgian tradition.
And there are the Belgian standards: anguilles au vert
(eels in green sauce) and carbonnades flamande (beef stewed
in beer and lard). Accompany your next Belgian culinary
outing with that surprisingly delicious alcoholic
delicacy—raspberry lambic beer—with, of course, fine Belgian
chocolates to end the meal, and toast 2010 with a very Belgian
“op uw gezondheid!”
Eat:
Markt
Eat:
Petite
Abeille
Cook:
Julia Child's
waterzooi recipe
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