Kerry Beal

suckling lamb shoulder just sent half a carrot to ground - slippery little bastard I'm sitting at a high bar table - everything is at the wrong height

I don't usually eat in the hotel - however I bought into the explanation that it was good Spanish food and I'm suspecting it will be. glass of spanish rose a lovely bread with fabulous butter (gotta sneak the rest up to my room for my cramique) I mentioned I would have enjoyed some iberico but that sitting by myself it might be a bit much - so chef sent me over a spinach and leek croquette. Perfectly made!

I recall sweetness and I suspect I didn't care for them or I would have tried to make them I'm sure.

Yup - it's Turkish Delight. I love the chocolate bust idea!

You know there's a reason I posted the menu don't you?

Indeed! He seemed surprised that I only had the appetizer sized mussels - had I but known!

One of the stops on the tour is not a chocolate shop - it's Aux Merveilleux de Fred. Merveilleux appear to be a couple of meringues with a glob of cream between then rolled in various shavings. A coffee one and a chocolate one. Fred's also sells raisin cramiques. Leonidas takes claim to the Manon - coffee buttercream with a hazelnut. Corné does them one better with a coffee flavoured fondant coating - they claimed to be the only one making them - when I mentioned that I had seen them in several other shops they seemed genuinely surprised. There's however had an excellent buttercream. Mary's said the Mary and the salted Breton caramel were their two best. Neuhaus developed these for a world's fair I believe he said - so one of their newer items and a good seller. It's a roll of nougatine with a filling. One of these is coffee apparently. Did get some of the macaron and they are indeed good and indeed fragile. My little bag of lokum.

Back on track - and hunger sated - I found the shops I needed to - and a few others I didn't need to. Not a lot of chocolate here Or here - but I did get some lokum. There was a lovely little market in the square - one of the vendors had old metal chocolate molds - amazingly I resisted! This place was very difficult to find - I totally missed the sandwich board because I was coming at it from the wrong angle - I walked around two blocks and was ready to research it's closing when I realized it was right behind where I was standing! It is Pierre Ledent - makes a very nice macaron - less sugar, more almond - makes them quite fragile. More bloom on the second row back. How sad is it that I didn't take pics of nice chocolates - only the crummy ones. Pierre Marcolini - making these lovely pieces that they package to look like lipstick! I recall tasting these last trip - don't recall if I cared for them. Will have to test again. Was quite taken by this box! Of course if you are a famous chocolatier - your bust will never be bronze!

Indeed - pleased to know the horseshoe is still properly seated!

My little misadventure, that took me off the path, brought me past this little gem on my way back to Lombard Street. These two gentlemen and I were the only occupants at 2:30 or so when I arrived. Nice butter, parsley and white wine sauce to soak up the the bread (and the fries). \\

After a pleasant 12 hour sleep I woke feeling refreshed and not the slightest bit jet lagged this am. I love this jet lag program! It was however pissing down rain - so I futzed about for a couple of hours before I ventured out. It had stopped raining just as I did so - and by this afternoon I had a lovely sunny day for my walkabout. I had two missions today - I needed to walk the route of the chocolate shops that I need to take the gang to on Monday and I needed to find a 12 V connector required to fix an EZtemper that was shipped here to Brussels. I thought it was going to be a simple matter of soldering on a loose wire but discovered the whole connector was broken and hadn't thought to bring a spare. So I headed out to a shop that was just a few blocks away - where I was told there was no way I was going to find that in any shop in Brussels. I headed out instead to find my chocolate shops - Even the best have to contend with bloom! And apparently aren't embarrassed to sell it. Planète Chocolat At this point I apparently thought that I had to walk further to find Rue Midi and missed the turn. And become hopelessly lost. I kept thinking I was going in the direction that would take me back from whence I came and I was too stubborn to turn on Google Maps - when I ran across a shop called Elak Electronics - and by god they had exactly what I needed and also gave me instructions on how to get back to Rue Lombard.

Attendees: RobertM gfron1 (tentative) pastryani tikidoc ChocolateMom Audrey Brown

Unless I trip over him on the street and is wearing his chef's jacket so I'll recognize him - I suspect it will be unlikely.

Don't think you are going to get a better price than that.

I would have a hard time resisting eating the marrow out of the bones! And using the IP instead of a slow cooker.

Who is Rudy Van Veen?

I'm in Brussels now - we move to Wieze later. I've not been there before.

He said the best rye flour in the US was Bob's Red Mill.- you have to mill it finely yourself and it's till not the same as the European flours.

I'm on the back of the hotel - which given the number of bell ringing churches on the other side is rather appealing. Did some walking around after I got settled in - wasn't in the mood to eat by myself in a restaurant today so found an epicerie close by and grabbed a couple of carby things for my 'feast' dinner. Lentils Apple tart - beware - raisins in there!

Nope!

The 55 minute flight on Lufthansa served me far better food than anything I had on Air Canada.

There are cheaper outlying places to park - but given the time crunch - parking - taking a bus into the terminal etc wouldn't not have been an option.

My reaction too

The seat was not conducive to sleep until somewhere in the middle of the night the flight attendant apologized profusely for not explaining it and reset the pump that puts air into the bottom section of the seat. Before that I felt like I was sleeping on a very old sofa bed with the metal piece that is right at hip level! I went right to sleep (yeah right) after we took off - so rather than have the steak offered I asked if I could add it to my breakfast omelet so for this 'feast' day I could have a large quantity of protein. My flight attendant was a foodie too - he sympathized with me over the food. Camomile tea - not one of my favourites - but caffeine free. I made my way to the lounge in Frankfurt while awaiting my connection to Brussels - you know you are in Germany when there is a rack of pretzels beside the beer. I'm sitting enjoying a nice fruit infusion now - so much better than camomile.

sparking water - would have preferred the proseccco but Jet Lag considerations