h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Reasons to like the Belgians:

1. They are friendly and patient with foreigners.
2. Their food in general is terrific.
3. They are laid-back and not pretentious.
4. Their French Fries are heavenly.
5. They can manage to understand even my French.
6. One word: Rubens.
7. They really try to get along with each other. Every time I've been mistaken for a Walloon in Flanders, or Flemish in Wallonia, they've been extra nice to me on principle.
8. The whole place is in a time warp, unlike the Netherlands.
9. They have no sense of proportion. There's a digital readout on a 500-year-old building in Ghent.
10. They sell unbelievable cute but huge bunny rabbits in outdoor markets.

I can't see myself ever getting bored in Belgium. But hey, I'm more easily amused than some.

The country is small enough to drive from one end to the other in a few hours unless the traffic is really bad. The climate is probably pretty good.

I live quite close to Liège/Luttich/Leuken and keep forgetting to go there when I want to do a bit of shopping. I usually end up in Aix-la-Chapelle/Aachen/Aken instead

Pity, Gno, you didn't try some of the Schwarzbier (I think they have it in Belgium too) it's very filling and brewed by monks to get them through lent.

Belgian fries are great - but I prefer the Dutch ones that I get here with onions and special sauce/ketchup and mayo. Pommes Speziel. Yum.

That Schwarzbier sounds something similar to the Red Chimay I had.

Many Belgian beers come in the three colours, don't they: dark, red and golden? The dark is definitely the best.

The Ardennes is a beautiful region to explore. It's also handy for visiting Germany, Luxembourg and even France if you're desperate

Flemish-speaking areas are more friendly in my short experience of being in Belgium. Well, I assume they're being friendly - actually, I've no idea what they're saying - it sounds like they're clearing their throat and smiling at the same time.

When I was a gel of about 13 - 17, our family holidays consisted of sailing across the North Sea to the Dutch or Belgian coast. In our schoolgirl innocence, we thought that all of Belgium spoke French, and were met with very cold stares when we tried speaking French in the shops in Oostende, Knokke-Heist, etc. Not very friendly.

However, I haven't had any trouble with any Belgians since.

Poor old Gnomon - he only wanted to tell us about his nice weekend and here we all are, pontificating and generalising on Belgium and the Belgians.

Isn't that what journals are for, to take over and change the subject?

Nobody's ever done anything else on MY journal...

You just reminded me that we haven't played the Topic Drift game for a while. A journal posting will follow...

The brussels World's Fair, 1958:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_58

I've heard that 'French Fries' is a misnomer as they came from Belgium. They certainly had the idea of eating them with mayonnaise.

I've never had the courage. How does it taste?

I've eaten them with tartar sauce on many occasions. Which is just mayo with a bit of pickle relish in it basically.

I've also, on a few occasions used just mayo.

I've no real strong preference. Mayo, catsup, tartar sauce, vinegar or just salt & pepper. All are fine with me.

Personally I like mayonnaise best on my chips. It's much better than vinegar which is the norm in Ireland.

Tartar sauce is a mixture of mayonnaise and capers, I think. Capers are the pickled buds of some flower or other.

Ooh, that sounds much better than the dill pickle relish based tartar sauce we find here.

http://www.caperplants.com/About%20Capers.htm

http://www.google.com/search?q=cream+of+tartar&oq=cream+of+tartar&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.13710j0j4&client=tablet-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-real-tartar-sauce-98511?photo=26511

Cream of tartar used as a mayonaise or sauce ingredient acts as an emulsifying agent, helping to combine polar ingredients (water, vinegar...) non-polar ingredients (fats and oils) and other ingredients into a stable creamy mixture that stays mixed.

It also has a distinctive flavor of its own.

If you order "Pommes rot-weiss here, you'll get chips with ketchup *and* mayonnaise.

MacDonalds' "secret sauce", approximately equal amounts of ketchup, mayonaisse, mustard and pickle relish well mixed.

... Kind of like 'Thousand French Ranches' salad dressing, a bottle of every kind of salad dressing available on the shelf, well mixed.

Sometimes served on US Army mess lines.

"MacDonalds' "secret sauce", approximately equal amounts of ketchup, mayonaisse, mustard and pickle relish well mixed." [ITIWBS]



Perfect for those times when you're too tired or impatient to stop and choose only one.

Well, any mention of mayonnaise brings to mind how mayonnaise is proof that time travel exists.


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