Belgium

Belgium between chip shops, speculoos, and chocolate

A small country with a great cuisine: Belgium combines French finesse and Flemish down-to-earthness, plus perhaps the richest beer culture in Europe. At nur Gutes, you will find Belgian chocolate from Baulers, gluten-free speculoos from Tubize, organic granola from Antwerp, fruit vinegar from West Flanders, and handmade chips from a Brussels brand.

Belgian specialties arise wherever two culinary traditions share a plate between the North Sea and the Ardennes. Wallonia cooks with a French ear, Flanders with a Dutch hand. In the end, both agree on butter, beer, and chocolate. On this page, you can see what we carry from the country: bars, cookies, granola, vinegar, and chips from small companies, all of which have a name and an address.

A country that claims to have invented the fry

French fries are the old bone of contention between Belgium and France, and the Belgians have the better arguments to put forward. It is said that pieces of potato were fried in the Meuse Valley as early as the 17th century when the Meuse was frozen and the usual small fish were unavailable. Today, there is a "frittkot" in every town—the stall where they are deep-fried twice—and it is accompanied by mayonnaise instead of ketchup, without any discussion.

The hot food is heartier than its sophisticated neighbor might suggest, and "carbonnade flamande" braises beef in dark beer with gingerbread and mustard. Waterzooi from Ghent softens chicken or fish in a cream soup. In winter, chicory—called "witloof" (white leaf) here—goes into the oven. Added to this are the "grauwe garnalen," those small grey North Sea shrimp that are shelled by hand.

Things get sweet when it comes to pastries, and here the schools of thought divide. The Liège waffle contains pearl sugar in the dough, which caramelizes during baking, while the Brussels waffle is lighter and uses powdered sugar. And then there is the speculoos, that brown spiced biscuit made from cinnamon, cloves, and brown sugar. It is molded in wooden forms, and unlike here, it does not wait for Advent in Belgium.

Where no wine grows, there is beer

Belgium has hardly any vineyards, but it does have a great brewing culture, which has been recognized as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2016. This includes six Trappist breweries, where monks still have a say, as well as saison, witbier, and the lambics from the Senne Valley southwest of Brussels.

Lambic is the true specialty, as it is not fermented with cultivated yeast, but with what lives in the air of the brewery. This process is called spontaneous fermentation—a sourdough made of beer, so to speak. After one to three years in wooden barrels, the brewer blends young and old barrels to create gueuze. If cherries are added to the barrel, the result is called Kriek—sour and dry, with an effervescence comparable to sparkling wine.

The same logic of fruit, acidity, and time can be tasted in the fruit vinegar from Belberry. The company is based in Kortrijk, West Flanders, where they bottle the Royal Selection line, including the Kalamansi Citrus Vinegar made with the juice of a Philippine citrus fruit. Sweet-and-sour, floral, and significantly quieter than a lemon, it finds its way into dressings, on fish, and in desserts.

What we have on our shelves from Belgium

The Belgian chocolate in our shop comes from Dolfin in Baulers, south of Brussels. Their principle is called "The Art of Blending": fruit, nuts, spices, or sea salt go directly into the cocoa mass instead of sitting on top as a coating. How well this succeeds can be tasted in the white chocolate with raspberries, in which the berry is evenly distributed throughout the bar.

At Generous in Tubize, a small team bakes gluten-free cookies that carry first names and flirt a little with them: Céline Citron, Charlotte Chocolat, and Sylvain Speculoos stand next to each other on the shelf. The lemon cookies are the friendliest entry point, the speculoos the most Belgian variety. No one at the coffee table will ask if they notice that everything here is gluten-free.

From Antwerp comes the organic granola by I just love breakfast, which is roasted by hand in small batches, without refined sugar or palm oil. The Pecan Almond Granola uses large pecan pieces instead of crumbs. The chips from Superbon are a special case among the Belgian specialties. Since 2012, the Brussels brand has had them baked in the del Pozo family's Madrid workshop, using three ingredients.

How to put Belgium on the table

A Belgian round table needs less of a menu sequence than a good surface in the middle. Place the Chips de Madrid with salt there, next to a small bowl of mayonnaise, because that’s how it’s done. Open a small bottle of Belberry for the salad, whose acidity balances the fattiness.

Things get easier for coffee, as a piece of Dolfin and a cookie from Generous are perfectly sufficient. The afternoon is most pleasant when both lie side by side and you can compare in peace what one house does with cocoa and what another does with butter and cinnamon. The same applies to weekend breakfast with granola, yogurt, and a handful of berries.

People behind the Belgian companies

Generous was founded in 2013 following a diagnosis, when pastry chef Christophe Harou discovered his gluten intolerance. Faced with the question of whether he had to give up his profession, he decided against it and, together with Théodora, Jean-Benoît, and Aurélie, founded a gluten-free cookie factory in Tubize, where baking is certified organic and regional.

Dolfin traces back to brothers Michael and Jean-François Poncelet, who started in 1989. Since 2021, the Cocoa Act 4 program has bundled their work on people, planet, quality, and transparency, which is no side issue with cocoa. I just love breakfast began in 2015 when architect Nathalie Vanderick fell in love with muesli breakfasts in New York and tinkered with it until the recipe captured her attitude toward life.

When Belgium is a particularly good fit

Speculoos belongs to Advent, just like our local spice cookies, only no one in Belgium would limit them to December. The chocolate carries you through the entire winter, the granola through every morning, and the chips wait patiently for the first warm evening on the balcony.

Belgian specialties work particularly well as a gift because they are small and come nicely packaged by nature: a bar, a cookie tin, a small bottle of vinegar. If you would like to keep looking, you will find our neighbors just across the border under Netherlands and all countries at a glance under Regions. Belgium is a small country that has simply decided not to let that fact be a limitation.