DONALD AND CATHY'S WORLD ADVENTURE

Le Tour De France

The tour De France is making it's way through Belgium and today it went through Brussels.  The starting point for today's race is just one block from our apartment.  The area was crazy with paparazzi, chase cars, support buses etc....Very exciting!  

 

 
We got there early so we would have a good view for photos.  There were crowds of people all along the route.  This is the path D takes when he walks to work.

 

 

Here they come!

 

swishing by in a matter of seconds

In the yellow is Stage 1 winner, Italian, Alesandro Petacci, who escaped the terrible crash yesterday that took almost the entire race to the ground.

We are pretty sure the one in red is Lance Armstrong he is racing on the Radio Shack Team this year.

 

 

And this poor fellow....we hope he catches up!

 

After the bicyclist go by, the team cars carrying the extra bikes proceed.  There were probably 40 team cars.  It really is quite an event.  They even had French Police on motorcycles that travel with the race.

 

A fun thing to see - but wow was it fast!

 

 

4th of July Celebration With the Eddy Merckx

 

Happy Fourth of July! 

Our new ambassador, Howard Gutman, planned a big celebration on July 1st so everyone could participate.  In honor of the up-coming Tour De France, he arranged a bike ride from the embassy to the Grande Place with Eddy Merckx leading the pack.

 

For those of you who do not recognize Belgian Eddy Merckx (and that would be me), many would say he is the greatest and most accomplished cyclist of all times.  He won the Tour De France 5 times. 

 

Here's Eddy (he told me to call him that) at the start with Ambassador Gutman.

D was between meetings and in a suit so we could not ride our bikes (like we have bikes) so we walked to the Grande Place and made it at the exact same time as the bicyclers.

Everyone then walked to the Manneken Pis were the Mayor of Brussels joined the group as they unveiled the new Manneen Pis outfit.  (L to R:   Eddy Merckz, Brussels Mayor Freddy Thielemans, cute bicyclist, wife of the Ambassador, and Ambassador Gutman).

The theme for the US and Belgium's partnership is "Our Future Together".  The Manneken Pis always has a curtain before the big unveil. 

TA-DA........

 

During the first few seconds of the unveil his little pisser shoots WAY out into the crowd.  Which is good to know otherwise you could get drenched!

 

 

With the slogan "Yes We Can" on his hat and if you look closely he has both the US and the Belgian flag in his hand.

 

After the big event everyone went back to the embassy where there was a large tent set up with food and drinks and the Embassy/Nato band Article 5 played.  

Then the very important Donald Ward of the FAA gave his speech (and so many of you question if he really works).

Just kidding.......he just stood up there for this photo.  But he does look presidential - don't you think?  I know his mom and mother-in-law both think so  :  )

We hope everyone had a fun 4th of July celebration too!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carnival in Aalst, Belgium

No....that is not me!  It is D's new Carnival friend.  We ventured to Aalst, 19 miles northwest of Brussels, to celebrate Carnival known as the day of the 'Voil Jeannetten' (literally "the Dirty Jennies"), i.e. men dressed as women.   Some of them dressed quite boldly....

  

others tried to be pretty.....

  

 

 

and some were just plain raunchy!

  

 

It is held at a time of year to say goodbye to the cold days of winter and welcome the onset of spring, but this year - winter was here to stay.  It was freezing cold and it snowed the entire parade.

  

  

But that did not seem to slow down the partying!  This friendly group shared a glass of their special Belgian Liqueur with us.  Aalst is in the Dutch part of the country.

 

This celebration dates back to the 1400's.  But the parades, events, and parties as they are know today have been going on for 82 years. 

  

It is said that when it first started, their was no money for costumes, so the men wore their wives old outfits, carried a handbag and an umbrella and pushed a baby buggy.  All of which you still see today.  The baby buggies are now used to store their drinks.

  

 

There were several "adjustments" made during the parade -

  

 

see guys - pantyhose aren't so easy to wear!

 

 

The celebrations last for three days ending on Shrove Tuesday which is the day before Ash Wednesday - 40 days before Easter. 

 

 

The celebration is a time to "gorge".  The last time you can drink enormous amounts of alcohol, eat tons of candy and meat and do things you should not be doing during lent.

 

 

 

And the people of the parade were certainly doing all of the above!

 

There are 2500 participants

 

 

and over 70 floats that wind their way through the street taking seven hours to do so.  It was so cold, we only made it through 4 hours.

 

 

Every year they create new costumes and floats.  They store them in big warehouses where locals work on them all year long.

 

As we understand it, the theme is an interpretation of the last twelve months’ world and local events, reflected in both their costumes and giant floats.

 

There are over-sized characters from local politics,

 

 

and the world. 

 

 

Many of which we did not understand.

 

 

The emphasis of the day is definitely on slapstick comedy. 

 

 

And men dressing as women. 

 

 

Sometimes it was hard to tell if it really was a man or just an ugly woman......

 

or just a really ugly man   :  )

 

 

The Gille is a long standing character whose costume is decorated with Belgium symbols; the lions, crowns and stars and in the Belgium colors red, yellow and black.  He throws oranges into the crowd.

 

 

They also throw onions on Monday.  The people of Aalst are nicknamed ajuinen by their fellow Belgians because of the large number of onion farms that once covered the region. 

 

  
The festivities traditionally end with the "Burning of the Doll", happening on Tuesday evening.  This ritual is meant to represent the burning of the spirit of winter.

Believe it or not, this Parade is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

 

Who cut the cheese?

Kathrine, one of D's colleagues and her husband Kim coordinated a cheese making workshop in Achel Belgium at the Catharinadal Kaasmakerij.  It is an hour from Brussels and is in the Dutch speaking part of the country.

It was a nice drive and we saw some beautiful scenery along the way.

There is a Trappist brewery at the Monastery of our lady Saint Benedict.  It is in the same town as the cheese class so we left early to check it out.  The Monastery is in Belgium, but the gardens cross the border into the Netherlands.  You could not see or tour the brewery, but they had a great store where you could buy their beer, Achel Beer, and hundreds of others.  D was a happy guy! 

We brought sandwiches as we did not have enough time to eat at a restaurant and make the class on time.  D wanted to eat in the Netherlands, I just wanted to stay in Belgium.  So....

We both got our way!

 

The Catharinadal kaasmakerij (cheese room) is run by two brothers.  One owns and milks the cows (just down the street from kassmakerij) and the other brother makes the cheese and runs the shop.

We were a group of 19, 11 adults and 8 kids.  Here we all are with Franz, our cheese monger (and teacher). 

 We had to "dress" for the making of the cheese.   They also advised us to wear rubber boots (I am the one in the middle with the red boots).

 D is assessing the work station.

We started with raw milk from their cows (no we did not milk the cows).  The milk was heated slightly and the first step was to add lactic-acid producing bacteria and stir for 30 minutes. 

Cheese is made by curdling the milk.  Next, rennet ( a natural enzyme from a young calves stomach to digest the mother's milk) is added.

     

 

It was amazing how fast it started to thicken.  He told us that our milk was warmer than the rest of the groups and this caused our cheese to thicken faster than the rest.  We were bummed as we thought it was not going to turn out.  He said it would just make ours a little harder vs soft.

Next, we had to break up the curd (the solid element) into very small chucks.  To do this we used a special knife called a "harp"

  

and cut across one way:

and then the other - a cross-hatch style.  Donald's colleague Dave said he was going to go back to work and tell everyone he saw D "cut the cheese".

   

After it got to a certain size, we had to use our hands to break the curd up as small as possible - the size of a pea.

And yes.....I got my hands dirty too!

Looks ready to me!

   

We then had to take out half of the the Whey (liquid) from our bucket, add hot water and gently wash the the curds. The curd is then pressed through a net to get out all of the whey.

It had the texture of ricotta cheese

     

We took a break and tasted several cheeses so we could decide what flavor we wanted to make ours.

We choose horseradish and ginger for one, shown here before mixing in the spices into the curd.

 

And mustard for the other shown with spices mixed in.

 

D tasted it to make sure our cheese was "on track".

Next step:  to press the curd in to a net which was then placed into a mold.

 

We had to squeeze as much liquid out as possible.

It is then carefully removed from the form (this is where you could see it starting to look like cheese),

 

and flipped it over and put back into the form upside- down.  This was the final step to "making" the cheese.  It is ready to be placed in the industrial strength cheese-press.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It pressed for about 30 minutes while we all took a break and sampled their yummy desserts.  After you took it out of the container, you trimmed the edges.

Voila - Look at this beautiful cheese!  And looks like that one came from "Team Ward"!

    

Franz then showed us how they complete the cheese process and showed us what we needed to do at home.  They soak the cheese in a brine (salt water) for 24 hours in large vats.  We would need to do the same at home in a pot.

 

We need to let our cheese dry for 4 days, turning it each day.  On the 4th day, we will paint on a wax coating as Franz showed us.

The cheese is now ready for the last stage:  maturing.  This needs to be done at a temperature of 60 degrees for 6 weeks.  Dave rigged up a spot in his basement with an air-conditioner to keep it at the perfect temperature as our apartments are too warm and the refrigerator is too cold.  He has graciously offered to "house" anyone's cheese.

So Dave and Drew will babysit our cheese for the next 6 weeks, turning it each day!

The cheese shop had a very large cool room where they matured theirs.  We bought several types of their cheese, notice the Dutch names (long!)

We also bought their home-made yogurt and ICE CREAM (speculoos)!  Delicious!

Who says I can't become a Belgium farmer?

 

 

 

A Very Special Lunch

de pastorale

D had off work on Monday for the holiday so he treated me to a very special lunch.  We drove about 30 minutes outside of the city to a two star Michelin restaurant, de pastorale. 

The decor was beautiful.  Very soft and chic.  With an Alice and wonderland feel to the garden.

It made for a for a very interesting juxtaposition of the quiet soft interior mixed with the over exaggerated comical animals in the garden.  The big green rabbit sat just outside the window of our table, as if he was asking for just a little bite.  Good thing we had fish and veal......not sure I would have been able to eat rabbit   :   )

And the meal was one of our best!  The chef describes his food as "total taste".  That was a very accurate description as every bite was so flavorful it bounced off every part of our taste-buds.

It started out with a bread stick that looked like a tree branch.  D thought it was decoration at first.  It was made with mushrooms and had a tomato coulis sauce for dipping.

Next came a variety of bread with butter and olive oil.  We could have been happy just eating the bread with salt and butter for lunch.

Beautiful presentation throughout the meal.  Simple, yet elegant.

  Our first amuse bouche was was one of the most creative servings we have ever had.  The waiter came out with two spoons and handed us each one.  This happened so fast we could not take a photo.  On the spoon was a small circle of goat cheese, caramelized.  On the bottom on the spoon was a dollop of cream mixed with a flavor. 

The second amuse bouche, chicken morsel with couscous and foam.

      We were ready for our first course. 

In an article, De Pooter, 39 was described as being strongly influenced by art and architecture and by a culinary movement towards food that was low in fat and sugar.  Did you catch that?  This entire lunch was a diet meal. 

Donald's dish:  veal breast, confit, sweetbreads, cardamon, green olives and artichoke.  This was the first time we have had sweetbreads.  They were veal sweetbreads, which are deemed the best,  "prized by gourmets throughout the world" .  For those of you who are not familiar with sweetbreads, they are thymus glands.  By the way....I had one and half glasses of wine at this point, so yes, I did taste!  And we both thought they were delicious.

 

Another clip form the article; De Pooter's cuisine is visually arresting yet strangely cool, almost as if the physical beauty takes precedence over everything else.  We agree - they were absolutely beautiful dishes.

My dish: pike perch, baked, cumin, petite carrots, onion, and asparagus.  The sauce was carrot.

The dessert was a winter wonderland with a multitude of "white" flavors - coconut, cream, powdered sugar, white chocolate, ice cream.  I am not a big white chocolate fan, but this was in a world of it's own.  The ball on the side of the dish had a delicate shell with a flavorful burst of citrus when we ate it.  It was a stunning dessert.

  

............and deserves a closer look:

 

Post-dessert & coffee.  We have learned that the coffee course in expensive restaurants in Europe is an experience in itself.  The coffee comes....

 

and so do plates of bite-sized treats......  

 

fun little sweets to amuse your tongue.

And if that was not enough, out comes the post-post-dessert, tarte tatin (were were told it was the chef's interpretation of apple pie with a dollop of ice cream).

 

Wow - one of the best meals with service to match.

Of course I HAD to walk in the garden with the creatures.

 

The rabbit told D a secret - he never did tell me what it was.

   

We can't wait to go back!

 

 

 

Valentine's Day

   

Brussels was full of love today, Valentine's Day, and there were lots of fun events going on in the city.  They were giving out Elixirs of Love (basically chocolate milk) and chocolate candy.  And at 3:00, the Love Balloon event:

 You wrote a love letter on a note, put your address on it, and tied it to a balloon.

What did our love letter say?  Poopie loves poopette, of course!

 

oops........a few let theirs go before 3:00.

 

un, duex, trois.....me letting go!

     

There were cheers and excitement from all!

   

It was an absolutely perfect day for such an event.

 

The idea is that if you find a card in the street later this week, you are to drop in in the mail so the love letter can get to it's rightful owner.

 

Our beloved Smurfs (Le Schtroumpfs) were there - did you know they are Belgian?

They were created in 1958 by Belgian cartoonist Peyo.

 

Even the Love Bugs (old and new) were out with BIG bows.

 

guessing this little one may have been a bit chilly.

 

they were so colorful in the steets

A fun day!

and Yes, D was my date, despite not being in any of the photos!

 

SPECIAL EDITION - BODY PAINTING CONTEST - MARCH 08

Please keep in mind this is ART.

This weekend was the 26th Annual Fantasy Film Festival in Brussels and one of the exhabits was a body painting contest. 

For a small fee, you were allowed to enter the artist workshop area and watch them paint.....and take photos.  We took over 450 photos between the two cameras.  When we were allowed in, they were already partially painted/covered.  The painting went on for approx. 2 hours.  It was facinating to watch.  After a short break, the contest began.  The contest/show was equally as interesting because each "paintee" did a little skit with music.  Some danced, some did comedy, one sang.  It was a difficult task to narrow our photos down to a select few......but here goes.  Oh yeah, we decided that, next year, we will enter the contest.  Donald will paint and I will, well uh, ummmmmmmm select a women for him to paint  :  ).  Enjoy!

This artist was last year's winner. 
He did not compete in 2008, but did a special exhibit and was in the lobby entrance.

 

This was the 2008 winner.  The details were amazing and her contest act was very animated.

 

One of our favorites, the music fairy. 
She danced to Madonna's Take a Bow.

This is another of our favorites, the painting was beautiful and showed so well on stage.

Front......

and back

 

Most of the artist were females and were fairly young.