While I was inspired by white asparagus during our trip to Brussels a few weekends ago, there were a few other highlights (so many long weekends in France and so hard to keep up!)
The forecast said rain and more rain so prepared with my raincoat, I was pleasantly surprised that we ended up with a relatively beautiful spring weekend. The tulips were out in full force as was a decent amount of sunshine. It’s so much easier to enjoy lambic in the sun.
In a desperate moment, desperate for lunch (we always wait too long until the hungry/angry feelings come out), we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of the way-too-touristy Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. As one should be, I was wary of eating here but we had reached the point of no return and luckily it was in front of Taverne du Passage, which upon entering was walking back in time to untouched art-deco decor. Being this is one of my favorite time periods for design, I settled into moules frites and the asperges blanches dish that inspired my own and a potentially disastrous moment was avoided.
Then we did the frite thing. Although in my opinion the trek out to Maison Antoine was not really worth it. Perhaps I’m not a frite person or perhaps it’s because we were in between our big lunch just before and a dinner of mouth-watering Italian to come. Perhaps it was the 45 minute wait in line. Perhaps it was that Philip wanted to take my photo with the frites. Either way, I was able to conjure up a smile. Go if you can make it but to be honest, if you’re really into fries, I think there are even better spots (but even further outside the city center).
But here is the exciting part!
During our walk through Sablon, wandering in and out of antique shops, I came upon a gem. Tucked into the street was a beautiful organic shop, Le Marché du Wine Bar. Owned by a lovely man named Joel, Le Marché du Wine Bar is connected to the fantastic farm to table restaurant, Le Wine Bar Sablon.
The shop sells gluten-free, Belgium made snacks, bio wines and locally grown produce, which the restaurant next door uses. Being the best husband that he is, Philip casually asked the shop owner if he had ever heard of chou kale or chou plume and Joel promptly responded that he hadn’t.
I’m never sure whether I should launch into my “kale speech” or not with people and I normally opt for the latter. Sometimes people are receptive and other times they aren’t. But Joel was interested and when we returned the next day to eat Easter lunch at the restaurant, he was even more excited. Apparently a Parisian couple was in his shop and knew of The Kale Project and le chou kale! Joel was officially sold. I am sending him seeds to share with his local producer.
Le Marché du Wine Bar / Wine Bar Sablon
196, rue Haute
Bruxelles, 1000
Wed-Sun 11h-19h