Beer is better in Belgium - Help save Belgium! (*)

The Tower of Babel

Pieter Brueghel the elder, 1563,
oil on panel, 114 x 155 cm

(*) please be nice and forward this to the Belgium (updated news) government

Saxophone, Beers, Mussel, Chocolate-truffles, French (why not Belgium?) fries, Rene Magritte , Jacques Brel, Comics (Tintin, Asterix etc), Flemish painters (Jacob de Backer, Jan Frans van, Adriaen Brouwer Bloemen, Jan Brueghel the Elder ), waffles, and more - remember: they all emerged from Belgium

I know - I am loosing right now a couple of my friends from Rue Mont-Royal and St-Denis in Montreal, but - Truth must be said: Beer in Belgium is (much) better than the one from Quebec, same for the chocolate...it is not that those products are bad in Quebec, on the contrary, they are excellent. but it is not the same league.

Some of you may disagree but as we say here in Montreal: question de gout... being honest,I need to give a full disclosure: I grow up in Belgium, I am crazy about this country - specially about Bruxelles (Brussels). And about chocolate - I prepare a post about this - before the holidays- keep posted: Yami Yami, it will include my recipe for great Chocolate Truffles!



All this started couple of days ago because of the weather: once it is bellow zero degrees in Montreal, I am switching to "winter mode": it includes (but not limited): choucroute (sauerkraut), with beers, chocolates, Waffles and long nostalgic nights with Jacques Brel in front of the fireplace - reading again and again Asterix le Gaulois & Tintin





At the bottom of this post - like every week- my new recipe: Cooked Pears in Belgium fruity Beer with Vanilla Ice-cream. I have been asked to add nutrition facts...well I am not yet sure about this, why to spoil our pleasure and Petit péchés. Bonne lecture, Bon Appétit!

Belgium

|more information|

Ho la la...La Belgique, who knows what is going to happend next in the politic between the walloons (the French spoken) and the flemish (speaking Flemish - dutch)

Let leave them to solve this internal problem (I am confident they will) we have an interest it will be solved and fast: none will argue that they produce one of the greatest chocolate ever, and some other great stuff like moullen fritten: mussels and fries (with mayonnaise),

Le plat pays (Jacques Brel)- a song about Belgium, take a minute and listen to a great singer!|more songs|

René Magritte the son of man, 1964
A consummate technician, his work frequently displays a juxtaposition of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. The representational use of objects as other than what they seem is typified in his painting, The Treachery Of Images (La trahison des images), which shows a pipe that looks as though it is a model for a tobacco store advertisement. Magritte painted below the pipe, This is not a pipe (Ceci n'est pas une pipe), which seems a contradiction, but is actually true: the painting is not a pipe, it is an image of a pipe. (In his book, This Is Not a Pipe, French critic Michel Foucault discusses the painting and its paradox.)|more information|


Brussels - la grande place
Some years ago, I was told by a beer connaisseur to try La mort Subite ("Sudden death"), so in a summer of 1995, in Brussels, before having lunch, I spent couple of hours in some bars in avenue Louise "trying" some of the beers of this brand...well, it was rather a beautiful "death" of my mind....and I somehow found myself next morning in my bed in the Hotel - even today I can't recall how I managed to go back to the hotel. Next morning, the staff at the reception were specially nice to me, they have respect for people who can survive une mort subite!|more information|

It reminds me, that years ago, before the train became the TGV (kind of high-tech trains) only rich people could take a flight from Paris to Brussels.
So in the 60' the train from Paris to Brussels was a real trip, and you knew you are arriving to Brussels train-station a couple of minutes before, because the factory of Côte d'Or Chocolate was located near the station - you could smell the chocolate aroma miles away, and you knew a great day will start. But this was long before Kraft acquired Côte d'Or.

It is a good question what makes one chocolate better then others? well, besides the (of course) gift and creativity of its creator, and the quality of the cacao used, it is as far as I know to do with the sub-micron size of the powder the Belge are using: it is about this.|more information|



The inventor of the Saxophone
Antoine-Joseph 'Adolphe' Sax
(November 6, 1814 – February 3, 1894) was a Belgian musical instrument designer and musician (clarinetist), best known for inventing the saxophone. Adolphe Sax was born in Dinant in Wallonia, Belgium. In 1841, Sax relocated permanently to Paris and began work on a new set of instruments valved bugles, and although he had not invented the instrument itself, his examples were so much more successful than those of his rivals that they became known as saxhorns. By 1846 Sax had designed, on paper at least, a full range of saxophones . Rival instrument makers attacked the legitimacy of his patents , driving him into bankruptcy twice (in 1856 and 1873). He died in 1894 in Paris and was interred in the Cimetière de Montmartre.

Some nice Beers from Belgium

si bibam hanc cerevesiam, quae speciem insolitam praebet, urinane mea eveniet quoque viridans? (*)

But let's focus on the beer this time - since my post on Chocolate will be ready for the coming holidays.
It will be nearly impossible to make in one post an overview of the Belgium Beers. let's say that if Japan is the mecca of the Sushi, Belgium is the holy place for beer connaiseurs. the real one...

Belgian beer varies from the popular pale lager to the esoteric appeal of lambic beer and Flemish Red. Belgian beer-brewing's origins go back to the Middle-Ages, when monasteries began producing beers.|more information|

Although beer production in Belgium is now dominated by Inbev and Alken Maes, there are approximately 125 breweries in the country, producing about 500 standard beers. When special beers are included, the total number of brands of Belgian beer exceeds 1000. Complete brewery lists can be consulted at the Belgian Beer Board

(*) In Latin: If I drink this funny-looking beer, will my pee turn green, too?


Some of the best brewery in Belgium (in some you can even eat, drink and sleep...)

Huyghe brewery
Ever since 1654 there has undoubtedly been some kind of brewing activity in the "Appelhoek" in Melle. In 1902, Léon Huyghe settled in Melle. Barely four years later, in 1906, he bought the brewery, which he named "Brouwerij-Mouterij den Appel". During the First World War, several breweries got into trouble, and after the war the brewing-coppers, which the occupying forces had claimed, had to be replaced as quickly as possible.|more information|

Abbaye de Leffe
The abbey Notre Dame de Leffe was founded in 1152 on the Meuse River in the province of Namur in southern Belgium.
The monks of the abbey brewed ale, using knowledge passed from generation to generation and ingredients found in the wild near the abbey, developing a unique ale, brewed only at the abbey. The brewery was later bought by the international beer company Interbrew (now InBev). Now all Leffe brands are brewed at the Stella Artois brewery in Leuven. |more information|

Liefmans
The first written reference to the brewery goes back to the year 1679. The Liefmans home brewery is one of the rare breweries which still produce entirely natural beer. Fermentation is done in open tanks. Lambic beer is instead produced by spontaneous fermentation: it is exposed to the wild yeasts and bacteria that are said to be native to the Senne valley, in which Brussels lies. It is this unusual process which gives the beer its distinctive flavour: dry, vinous, and cidery, with a slightly sour flavour
|more information|

Het Anker Brewery
Although the oldest documents which are currently in the archives of Mechelen date from 1369, the brewery was in operation before that time, which proves that it is probably the oldest brewery still working in Belgium. The Goude Carolus cuve van de Keizer Gouden Carolus "Cuvee of the Emperor" is brewed once a year, on the 24th of February, birthday of Charles the Fifth, in a limited quantity.Try it!|more information|

cogito sumere potum alterum(*)

History:
Exactly when beer was first brewed cannot be determined. Two slate tablets are displayed in the British Museum in London, which were, in the year 1926, scientifically estimated to be about 9000 years old. The scientist, a Mr. E. Huber, believed that the inscriptions on these tablets showed the coarse milling of emmer (A prehistoric grain type, similar to spelt, used for the brewing of beer). He concluded that this was possibly the oldest evidence of the brewing of beer. More recent research has indicated that the tablets are probably not so old as Mr. Huber thought and that even the connection with the brewing process may be doubtful. The oldest proven records of brewing are about 6000 years old and refer to the Sumarians.[more information|

The Lambic style can trace its roots back over 400 years, and has remained mostly unchanged from its introduction. The first written recipe is dated 1516 and accounts from 1559 mention the production of Lambic "according to an old recipe".

In fact in ancient Mesopotamia a beer that could be thought of as the "roots" of Lambic was brewed by the Sumerians, about 5500 BC. Sikaru, the premium beer of the day, was brewed from 60% malt, 40% raw wheat, used wild fermentation and was flavoured with herbs like aniseed and cinnamon.
Although it is impossible to confirm the origin of the word "Lambic" ("lambiek" in Flemish / Dutch), it is most likely a distortion of Lembeek (Flemish) or Lembecq (French), a present and historic Lambic brewing town. Other sources relate it to "alambic" or to "lambere" (Latin). aftertaste.|more information|

(*) in Latin: I think I'll have another drink.

Bubbly, frothing and ticklish -- soft drinks and beer promise a welcome taste of home to faraway space travelers.
Will fermentation work the same in weightlessness? What happens to carbonation when there's no buoyancy to bring the bubbles to the top? Can space beer form a proper head? Scientists who study the physics of gas-liquid mixtures would love to know! Two separate space shuttle experiments tackled these questions. Both were engineered and mediated by BioServe Space Technologies, a NASA-sponsored Commercial Space Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder. NASA's Space Product Development (SPD) program encourages the commercialization of space by industry through 17 such CSCs. [more information]

Kirsten Sterrett, recently a University of Colorado graduate student, first became interested in how beer would brew in space while working at the Coors Brewing Company. Having studied aerospace engineering as an undergraduate, she began to wonder: How would yeast that perform fermentation fare in orbital free fall? The answer would not only shed light on the possible makings of space-beer, but also provide valuable information to pharmaceutical companies with a keen interest in the biology of orbiting microbes.[more information]

"Beer Drinkers in Space" Now the DVD!

Beer Drinkers in Space has a special place in cinematic history (was created in 1983) in that it never made cinematic history. It's hard to understand what went wrong. You'd think a story about a star tanker crew led by an inept, Captain Kirk-wanna be commander and an openly gay navigator hauling beer across deep space to Nebulae 7-11 would have mass audience appeal. [more information]

poring a perfect a glass of beer

Serving and glassware
Virtually every beer has a branded glass. Beyond the basic shape of the glass (wide-mouth goblet, curvaceous tulip glass, tall Pilsener, etc), each glass is imprinted with a logo or name. Some maintain that the different basic shapes are designed to enhance the flavour and aroma of the particular beer, owing to the different paths that the bubbles travel up the sides of the glass, while others regard them as promotional or novelty items.

My Recipe of the week:

Cooked pears in Lambic beer with Ice-cream

iam est satis superque linguae Latinae-Fatuinae edamus (*)

Mood: Zen

60 min prep (45 cooking)





6 servings




Easy



(*) In Latin: "so enough already with the latin-schmatin, let's eat"

Ingredients:



6 Pears, do not peel them, just wash them nicelly.







2 bottles of a fruity beer, can be raspberry (framboise), but cherry can work as well. Take a good one, it will be rewarding! you need about 1-1.5 liters of beer.





3 tablespoons of brown sugar or Cassonade (1 tablespoon = 15 ml)





A bit of a lemon peel (un zeste de citron), not more then 1/4 teaspoon (1 teaspoon = 5 ml)






Hight Quality Vanila ice-cream







Cinnamon best is a real one, some powder can work as well




Dark Chocolate (85% min dark pure chocolate Crunched with a knife)



Preparation:

• After washing the pears under cold water, cut their base so they can "sit" well in the pot in a vertical way. Gently put them in a small, mid-size pot ( marmite like Le Creuset ), best kind is the heavy metal pots. They distribute the heat in an even way, so it is better for long cooking processes.
• Add the 2 bottles of beer to the pot, and make sure the pears are nearly 2/3-3/4 inside the beer, do not worry if they are fully emerges insides.
• Add 1/4-1/2 of a cinnamon stick in the pot, as well as the brown sugar.
• Cook at mid-low temperature, for 45 minutes. The first 30 minutes - cover the pot so only some small amount of steam can come out.
  
• Make sure from time to time that there is enough liquid in the pot and that the heat is not too high. The idea is to have a low cooking process in the fruity beer to let all the flavours to develop.
• After 30 minutes - open the cover, so the liquids start to evaporate and reduce.
  
• After another 10 minutes, (for a total of 40 min) - take the pears out and put them carefully in the serving plate (best individual ones) - take care: they are fragile after being cooked!
• Reduce the liquid to a semi-dense syrup, add the zest of lemon - turn off the fire.
  
• Add some ice-cream next to each pear, add some crunched pieces of dark chocolate on the top of the pear as well as on the ice-cream.
• Put some of the syrup you just made on top of each pear and a bit on the ice-cream.
  
• The mint leaf is for decoration, you can add some additional cinnamon - not to much.

To be eaten immediately, can be served with some fruity beer - Bon Appétit!

Some interesting related reading:

Beer Advocate.com: The largest Beer Community in the world
Jacques Brel singing "Ne me quitte pas", "Amsterdam", "Les Bourgeois"
René Magritte
Belgian Beer - a complet blog (english) - very good.
The New World Order's Belgian Conspiracy (a bit anarchist...)