Valentine is coming up. A stereotype gift is of course chocolat. Belgium is of course the number one chocolate country (sorry for our Swiss friends), so if you want to give chocolate to your Valentine, give him or her Belgian chocolat, a sign of quality and good taste. Read the rest of this entry »
Belgian male super model Cesar Casier was one of the first people we interviewed on I Love Belgium. Back than we knew he wasn’t just a pretty face. This boy had ambition. And bucket list full of exciting projects! People who follow his blog will know he’s quite the cook. His healthy recipes were a big hit and one day he asked his readers: to cook book or not to cook book. Read the rest of this entry »
They’ve been there for ages but now they’re also all the rage in Belgium: cupcakes! Apparently the term “cupcake” was first mentioned in 1828 in Eliza Leslie’s Receipts cookbook. In previous centuries, before muffin tins were widely available, the cakes were often baked in individual pottery cups… hence the name! The I Love Belgium team has a real sweet tooth and gives you the best belgian addresses. Read the rest of this entry »
Fact: Belgium has the highest ratio of Michelin stars per capita in the world! So we can conclude that Belgium is, by definition, a culinary country. But it doesn’t stop there, lately there’s a whole new foodie frenzy. Cooking shows are non-stop on our television screens and new cookbooks are daily published. That’s why the I Love Belgium team started wondering… We know the faces and dishes of the master chefs, but who are the people behind the bigger culinary picture? Read the rest of this entry »
You can recognize a country by the food they serve. Everybody knows Belgian chocolate, but what about the cuberdon candy. For many Belgians a beloved childhood taste, but unknown outside our frontiers. The recipe, that dates back to the 19th century, is a well kept secret only known by a handful of confisiers (aka candy makers). You can recognize a classic cuberdon as a violet collared sugar cone containing a thick raspberry syrup. Read the rest of this entry »
Yes we know that we are adored for our famous Belgian fries, but do you realize that we also have some delicious burger places? And no we don’t mean MacDonalds or Quick, but places where your burgers are prepared with a smile and sweet love! Therefore, the I Love Belgium team made a selection of three restaurants where you will get that mouthwatering experience for 2012! Read the rest of this entry »
The USA is burger country number 1 but did you know there’s a legendary Belgian burger? Yes! Along with the notorious Belgian fries with mayonaise (yes Belgian, not French), we have a tasty burger sold in fries shops all over the country (and even in The Netherlands) since 1981. Read the rest of this entry »
Belgians are food lovers, that’s a proven fact! So if we can imagine a new dish to spoil our taste buds even more, we’ll do it. Two Belgian restaurants worked with the same basic ingredient and technique to create a Belgian classic. Where can you find these? Aux vieux Saint – Martin in Brussels and Martino in Ghent. Read the rest of this entry »
We love to eat in Belgium so we love to cook to! One says it’s very hard to find a bad restaurant or eatery in Belgium. Everywhere you go in Belgium you will find a restaurant, a bistro or even a pub where you can have a decent meal. No wonder that electronics brand Electrolux launched the unique temporary dining concept The Cube in Belgium. Read the rest of this entry »
We can’t write about Belgium all the time without mentioning food. Belgians are food lovers. It’s not so difficult, even in the smallest villages, to find a place where they serve good food. Read the rest of this entry »
Rob’s Gourmet market in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre probably is one of our country’s most distinguished supermarkets. From afar you can see its black banderoles advertising they are ‘dedicated to gastronomy’. Read the rest of this entry »
Is there something in the air or is there a new generation of girls that combine entrepreneurship with the plain male sexist cliché that every woman should be in the kitchen? The I Love Belgium team already reported about different cupcake places in Brussels and Ghent and of course Antwerp couldn’t stay behind. Read the rest of this entry »
Belgium has some great restaurants and we actually have a “dining out-culture”. We love going to restaurants and having good food with friends. But for some years (we cannot speak of a trend anymore), people love having friends over for dinner. No more parking troubles, no more traffic jams, no more discussion about who will not be drinking,… People even invite chefs at their own home who prepares everything and even does the dishes. But where’s the fun when you don’t have people raving over your excellent cooking skills? Read the rest of this entry »
Another sweet discovery of the I Love Belgium team: l‘Arrière Cuisine (the ‘back kitchen’). Aurélie and Jean-Benoît, born epicurians, are your hosts in this cosy cake & quiche house. Read the rest of this entry »
The name says it all: Cook & Book. A Brussels booskshop the size of a supermarket, smartly divided in 8 spaces and a music section. Each with its own atmosphere and matching lunch/dinner space. Cook & Book offers a fresh approach to books, mingling the cultural and the convivial… Read the rest of this entry »
What do you get when you bring a chef, a musician and a dancer together? A brilliant lunch concept called “Les Filles – Plaisirs Culinaires“! These three girls: Jeanna, Pascale and Line, dreamed of a communal kitchen where you can get a healthy lunch, follow a cooking course or get a group lunch delivered to your office door. Read the rest of this entry »
There are places where you just walk by. Places known by insiders. Mil’s Place is one of those. The tiny Italo-French restaurant in Antwerp is not in the city centre, but it’s not really outside the city either. It’s hidden between typical pubs, galleries and shops in the St.-Jorispoort just across the neo-gothic St.-Joris church. Read the rest of this entry »
The Marolles district in Brussels is one the most cosy neigbourhoods to walk around. The Marollen, originally a working class neighbourhood but getting more and popular with hipsters young and old, hides some great lunch places. Read the rest of this entry »
Brussels based chocolatier Laurent Gerbaud‘s ‘Box Bunny’ is real chocolate art. Gerbaud is a rising star in the chocolate firmament and his holiday creations are every time a display of creative chocolate artisanry.
The campaign, shot by C’est Chic photographer Laetitia Bica, features Belgian singer An Pierlé (styling by C’est Chic’s Dominique Degrelle and hair & make-up by C’est Chic’s Miaou). The poppy and refreshing approach (from both Gerbaud and the campaign) takes Easter away from the boring ads and chocolate eggs we see coming back every year.
The dark chocolate bunny, a blend of Madagascar and Ecuador cacao beans – 75 %, can be yours for a democratic 14,50 euro. Campaign picture and info about Gerbaud after the jump. Happy Easter from the I Love Belgium crew! Read the rest of this entry »
One of the most whimsical places in Brussels is definitely ‘Le Chalet Robinson’. This restaurant-lounge in the middle of an island in the La Cambre woods (Ter Kameren Bos in Dutch). If you want to go there, you have to cross the lake with a boat. This short trip takes you immediately back into time. You can imagine couples from the beginning of the 20th century walking around the island. Men with top hats wooing women with lace parasols on a perfect Summer day. Having a light lunch or a tea with biscuits in the afternoon on the terrace of the chalet. Read the rest of this entry »
