Foodie Facts
Belgium produces 172,000 tons of chocolate per year in over 2,130 chocolate shops. Our chocolate has pure cocoa flavour because we don't use vegetable shortening.
There are over 400 different types of beer in Belgium running the gamut from white to raspberry beer. Most beers have their own glass in which only that beer may be served. Some of the most famous are made by Trappist monks.
Belgium and Flanders are particularly famous for waffles and chips. Belgian chips are often eaten with mayonnaise or served with mussels. Chicory is a popular vegetable, as are, of course, Brussels sprouts. Sea food is plentiful and trout is fished in the rivers. Soups include waterzooi which is more like a stew. Beer features in a number of recipes.
Belgian "national dishes" are fries with mussels, rabbit with plums, eel in green sauce (Paling in't Groen in Dutch) and meatballs with "rabbit sauce" - also called "hunter sauce" - (literal translation of respectively Boulets sauce lapin and Boulets sauce chasseur in French).
Brussels has 138 restaurants per square mile.
Flanders is a gourmet paradise, boasting a positive cornucopia of Michelin star rated restaurants.
Famous Flemish brewery Hoegaarden was founded by a milkman.
Beers such as Kriek and Framboise are often served in champagne glasses to bring out their full flavour.
When producing its Kriek beer, Belle-Vue uses one pound of cherries for every three litres of beer.
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