Gourmet Beer and French Fries

Couchsurfing in Brussels
We were lucky to have a great host for our first couchsurfing experience, Johan. He gave us a crash course in Belgian beers (he used to have his own café), steered us towards some excellent pubs and pommes frites shops, directed us towards some interesting sights, and gave us an excellent overview of the city. He also greeted us with coffee and chocolate, prepared a few filling breakfasts for us during our stay, made us the best traditional Belgian mussels I can remember having, and helped us find the cheapest and easiest ways to travel around the city and to Bruges. Overall, the experience was completely positive and made us excited to couchsurf and host as much as possible in the future. Thanks so much, Johan. We hope that you make it to Korea so we can return all of your hospitality

Check out couchsurfing.com if you are interested in more info. Sue and I both highly recommend it.

PS-A Finnish girl named Rica (sp??) also stayed with Johan while we were there. It was great to hear about Finland and her extremely positive experiences hosting and being hosted through couchsurfing, all of which have been as positive as Johan’s. We would love to see her again in the future, either in Finland or Korea, just as we hope Johan will come to visit Korea on his Trans-siberian trip in the future. We’re excited to host and be hosted more in the future and are going to look for people to share our time with in Turkey and India if at all possible.

French Fries and beer. . . As stated to many prior to our departure, our original purpose for travelling to Belgium was to sample the delicious French fries and mayo based sauces (it’s good, don’t trust Vincent Vega) introduced to us at Pommes Frites in NYC by the esteemed Jay Boehmer and drink as much good beer as possible. While the fries here in Belgium were good, they didn’t stack up to those in NYC because they were too thin, had no skin, and most importantly, the mayo based sauces accompanying them were a bit thick for us, were not as creative (or numerous), and didn’t have the complexity of flavor that the 20+ choices in NYC do. Still, definitely worth eating if you’re in Belgium.

The beer, on the other hand, lived up to the hype that we had created. We went to several bars with excellent choices of Trappiste, white, and brown beers available, and also got the chance to sample a pure limbic without any infusion of fruit, and all were interesting and delicious. Among the best we tried was XX Bitter, Tara Bulbos (Sp?), and Westmalle. Even the less than stellar options were still better than 90% of the world’s beers. As we decided, a bad Belgian beer is still a pretty damn good beer. We were so impressed that we’re even tossing around the idea of opening up our own Belgian fry and beer shop in Korea and having Johan advise us on beers to carry. Can anyone complete this syllogism: Wine: Sommelier:: Beer: _______?

Trip to Bruges
Saw the movie In Bruges on the plane in South America and it’s recommended more than the actual city of Bruges, which we enjoyed, but after so many other medieval cities, didn’t feel particularly awe-inspiring. Admittedly, we only spent 5 hours there. Still, I think I got it. Nicely preserved (actually, rebuilt), but the mood was quite fabricated. The boat tour we took through the city’s canals wasn’t anything particularly special either.

Medieval architecture and canals aside, Belgium will always be remembered fondly for the hospitality showed to us by Johan and for the life-changing beer (and damn good fries). If you didn’t know already, that should confirm our priorities on the trip. After all, this blog isn’t called the Voyage of Swill for nothing.