Gastronomy
Good cooking and fine beers are seen by many as part of Belgian culture. One of the many beers with the high prestige is that of the Trappist monks. Technically, it is an ale and traditionally each abbey's beer is served in its own glass (the forms, heights and widths are different). There are only seven breweries (six of them are Belgian) that are allowed to brew Trappist beer.
Although Belgian gastronomy is connected to French cuisine, some recipes were reputedly invented there as e.g. French-fried potatoes (despite the name), stoofkarbonnaden (or carbonade flamande in French, a beef stew with beer, mustard and bay laurel), speculaas (a sort of cinnamon and ginger-flavoured cookie), Brussels waffles (and their variant, Belgian waffles), waterzooi (a broth made with chicken or fish, cream and vegetables), endive with bechamel sauce, Brussels sprouts, Belgian pralines (Belgium has some of the most renowned chocolate houses), charcuterie (deli meats) and Paling in 't groen (river eels in a sauce of green herbs).
Belgian cookies are noted for their aroma and unique texture.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Belgium
Famous quotes containing the word gastronomy:
“To stroll is a science, it is the gastronomy of the eye. To walk is to vegetate, to stroll is to live.... To stroll is to enjoy, it is to assume a mind-set, it is to admire the sublime pictures of unhappiness, of love, of joy, of graceful or grotesque portraits; it is to plunge one’s vision to the depths of a thousand existences: young, it is to desire everything; old, it is to live the life of the young, to marry their passions.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)