Traditional Belgian Meal

This evening I was invited along with Holly and Callie to Leonard’s to enjoy a traditional Belgian meal. As already mentioned in my blog, Leonard is from Ghent in Belgium and he has shared many things about his country. For instance, I have learned that Belgium has three national languages, Dutch, French, and German, and that Belgium has had no official government for 540 successsive days, setting a new world record for the longest period of time a country has had no official government. The previous record holder was Iraq at 289 days. I am learning more about Belgium than its reputation for amazing chocolate.

Leonard making our Belgian meal, waterzooi

Leonard is very proud of his culture so he decided to make a traditional Belgian dish, waterzooi. The ingredients in waterzooi are fish or chicken as in our case, carrots, onions, celery, leeks, potatoes, herbs, egg yolks, cream, and butter. The dish was absolutely delicious. It was a very hardy dish and reminded me of some of the stews I have had in Ireland. I plan on getting the recipe from Leonard so I can make the dish back home.

The delicious waterzooi meal

After dinner, Leonard shared some chocolate and cookies his parents had sent him from Belgium. The chocolate heart I tried was amazing; the heart melted in my mouth and I have a new taste for Belgium chocolate. The chocolate has lived up to its reputation. The cookies we tried were called speculoos or speculaas. The main ingredient in the cookies is cinnamon and they tasted like molasses cookies but better.

Both the meal and sweets afterwards were a real treat. Leonard was a great host and I am very fortunate to have experienced a little part of Belgium. Callie and I will have to make an American meal to share with others. We don’t have any plans yet, but we will come up with one.