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Cuisine a la biere in Brussels
by Keith Mapstone
It was early May, western Europe basked in a heat wave and we were spending a weekend in Brussels, intent on some serious beer tourism. Brussels is the capital of a nation that has a great culinary tradition and a wonderful brewing heritage and it combines the two in cuisine a la biere, the style of cooking which uses beer as both ingredient and accompaniment.
A ten-minute stroll from the Cantillon brewery is L'Etoile d'Or (30 Rue des Foulons, tel. (02) 502.60.48), a restaurant that features Cantillon's lambic beer in its cookery. We ordered steak Bruxelloise, served with tangy sauce combining Cantillon Geuze and the local sharp-tasting soft white cheese and duo de poisson: salmon and John Dory with a sauce of capers and wit beer, the Belgian style of spiced wheat beer. Satisfying as the main courses were, the highlight of the meal was the dessert. Baked pear in a syrupy kriek sauce, showcased Cantillon's exceptional cherry lambic, whilst the Geuze sorbet, again using Cantillon's beer, was a refreshing revelation.
Beersel, a small town 5 miles south of Brussels, is famous for its lambic brewers and the quality of its restaurants. The best of both worlds can be found at Drie Fonteinen (The Three Fountains, 3 Herman Tierlinckplein, tel. (02) 331.06.52). As a succession of pleasingly dusty bottles of the house Kriek and geuze were brought up for us from the cellar, we dined on salmon in pajotte sauce and rabbit casseroled in Drie Fonteinen's excellent Kriek.
On our final day in Brussels we visited In't Spinnekopke (The Little Spider's Head, 1 Place du Jardin aux Fleurs, tel (02) 511.86.95) whose owner, Juan Rodriquez, is the author of Cuisine facile 'a la biere. The house aperitif is a pleasant mixture of cherry licquer and wit beer, and the beer list of around hundred is the most extensive of the restaurants featured here. Scallops in a sauce of Rochefort 8, a strong dark Trappist ale, was followed by fillet steak in Gouden Carolus sauce, using a strong brown ale. We finished with three different beer sorbets - brown ale, wit beer and a gorgeously coloured Kriek sorbet laced with cherries.
Anyone thinking of visiting Brussels for beer should obtain A Selective Guide to Brussels Bars, compiled by Stephen D'Arcy and published by CAMRA Brussels at Boîte no. 5, 67 Rue des Atrébates, B1040 Brussels, Belgium. At £4 this covers bars in most other large Belgian towns.
Keith Mapstone
Reproduced from the Full Pint, Issue 11.
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