Yesterday we took a day off and went to the cities of Gent and Tongeren, in Belgium.

I got lucky with this action shot

And here's a map with 79 photos of this trip, nearly all of them worth a look. Rico, there's a statue of the Van Eyck brothers, Jan and Hubert, in there.

later. It's 83 photos now.

Later still. Now it's 103 pics. Belgian cities are oft such an interesting mess.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: yabor,

That is a great capture broeder yabor. It is like a miracle when an image comes together like that. Excellent job being prepared.

The Van Eyck image is funny on it's own too. So strange all the other people wanting to meet them in the statue and how they are bringing their children as if to be anointed by them.

At first in the small thumbnails I thought there was an image of zuster Petra smoking. Ha ha she was eating a pom fritz.

A day off well spent. There is an odd sense of the old but also of the new. Like the transportation even the cars all seem new.

Now for some pictures of me made by Sister:

on the road in Gallic War country

Getting fat:

Frituur 1

Frituur 2

Frituur 3

Frituur 4

Frituur 5

plenty of mayo

I really like the pomm-fritz series of shots.
The red-orange crusty thing, is this some fish?

And the action-shot: priceless!

smithz, below the crust is nassi goreng. Normally delicious, but better in Holland than in Belgium, maybe on account of the Dutch colonial past: Indonesia was one of our colonies, and traditionally one can get fine Indonesian food in Holland.

So when in Holland, order a "nassiblok"(square form) or a "nassibal" with your large "friet met mayonaise." --Ideally, you want "Belgische friet met mayonaise." Be sure to get plenty of salt on your friet.

Those travel shots are amazing. And I love the one of you holding up "Caesar Bellum Gallicum" as you journey to adventure and mayonnaise.

You mean to tell me that they simply form fried rice into a brick, bread it, and fry it some more? It actually looks really good. I may have to try it. I make a pretty good Nasi goreng. I like it with a fried egg on top... a very different flavor from chinese or chinese-american fried rice, sweeter with a bit of a kick from red chili. I've never tried corn in it, though. And since sweet corn is in season now, maybe I'll give that a try.

quote:

So when in Holland, order a "nassiblok"(square form)

wtf, this is brilliant. I loved Nasi-Goreng back in my youth and i still like a good Nasi. But a quare block of nasi-goreng-style-food. This is it. I have to try that out, Holland here i come. :-)

Nasi - Food of Gods

iNasi - Digital Rice

quote:

iNasi - Digital Rice

LOL, that's perfect, because that fried delicacy is about the size and shape of a digi device.

We could start a whole industry of deep fried snacks that look like iPhones or iPods. picture a beignet with licorice whip wires and gummy earphones.

Yabor looks like he is eating a cheap Japanese transistor radio that has been breaded and deep fried. Still, I do find that I like mayo on my fries. Actually, I go to this one favorite place of mine and you can get their homemade tartar sauce to go with them. Really good. But it must be this wacko counter-culture recessive European gene that I have because I'm not particularly fond of ketchup on my French fries. That's just boring to me. In this one place in Canada (if not in most places) they put vinegar on them. I like that too, but I don't ever find that south of the border, although I suppose in multicultural Seattle they would. If there is some "exotic" Asian practice of eating dog meat, they'd do that too.

I also like dipping the fries in au jus which is French for "brown stuff that I don't really know what the hell it's made out of."

OK, I made some fries last night, and for the hell of it made some homemade mayo just on a whim. It was actually pretty good. I guess what grosses me out is the idea of the mayo sitting in a glop atop the hot fries, where it would be prone to break. But a dollop of cold fresh mayo on the side, a quick dip, and yes, I see the appeal. I mean, I prefer good ol' American Ketchup on my fries, but my lemony homemade mayo was pretty darn tasty. And I don't even want to think about how fattening.

But here's what a snob I'm becoming. Now, I prefer homemade ketchup to Heinz. Something about supporting Theresa Heinz (and hence John Kerry) doesn't appeal to me. Though it is good ketchup. But in my own homemade version, sometimes I'll give it a kick with red chili or other spices. And THAT on fries is truly sublime.

What a breakthrough, brother thalo. As for the Zuster and me, we agree that, come to think of it, it's actually the warming mayo (a sprinkling of salt on top) that we like so much.

My twin brother, when he still lived here, when he wanted fries, he almost always took the trouble to pop across the border to Belgium for them. It was especially the Belgian mayo that he was crazy about. Her still pines for it over in New Zealand.

Fries with mayo is the standard combination here and in Belgium, like ham and eggs, but more so.--It's more a unity than a combination.

Thinking more about it, it's not like I don't LOVE potato salad which is what? Basically potatoes and mayo. But anyone will tell you, on a hot day, potato salad can become lethal... and I still find it disgusting when mayo "breaks" or separates having been left out too long.

I think that's where my revulsion came from, associating warm mayo with spoiled or broken mayo.

But fresh? With hot crispy fries, salted right out of the oil? Damn good. I think temperature is a factor, because I prefer cold ketchup to warm. Perhaps the enjoyment of fries and a dipping sauce for me is like a hot fudge sundae, the juxtaposition of warm and cold.

Here's my homemade mayo recipe:

Ingredients:
2-3 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 T white wine vinegar
1 jumbo egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
pinch sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt (not Kosher salt)
Safflower (or grapeseed) oil, 1 cup


Mix the vinegar and lemon juice together and set aside. In another bowl, add egg yolk, dry mustard, salt and sugar, and whisk together. When well mixed, add half the lemon juice/vinegar mixture and whisk. Now the tricky part... add oil a few drops at a time, literally drop by drop, while whisking furiously. You want to build an emulsion. Once the emulsion begins to thicken and become a lighter color, you can increase the flow of oil to a dribble, and you don't have to whisk quite as hard. When half the oil has been incorporated, add the rest of the lemon juice/vinegar mixture. then continue to stream in the oil which will mount more easily into mayo. You're done when you're satisfied with the thickness, gloss, and consistency. At this point you can add anything you like to give it a little zing. Chili sauce, white pepper (that's classic), chopped sweet pickles (for Brad's tartar sauce), whatever.

Emulsions are really a culinary miracle. Add fresh fries and enjoy.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: thalo,

It's gotta be the Heinz connection that is spooking me. But, really, that bottled ketchup tastes like it's bottled. I'd be up for some of thalo's homemade. I imagine that makes all the difference.

Well, there's homemade ketchup using tomato paste (much, much easier)... then there's real hardcore foodie made-from-scratch ketchup from fresh tomatoes. That's much much harder, but the flavor is unbelievable if you're getting tomatoes right from the garden at the peak of flavor. You almost don't want to go back to bottled ketchup after that. And I actually like Heinz.

I'll give you the easy recipe first, but I never really measure when I make Ketchup. It's a small can of tomato paste, water, a couple of splashes of vinegar, and then whatever spices you want. That's really to taste. I like:

ground cloves, dry mustard, cinnamon, allspice, ground red chili, dried ginger. Go easy and taste as you go, so no one spice dominates (unless that's what you want-- a little cinnamon goes a long way, same with cloves).

Put all ingredients in a saucepan and whisk together over low heat. Add about 1/4-1/2 cup of brown sugar, depending on how sweet you like it. Heat until sugar dissolves. You can thin the mixture with water and/or vinegar until you get the consistency you like. If it gets too thin, you can just keep cooking until it thickens up to where you want it. Cool completely, then put in squeeze bottles and store in the fridge.

You can go crazy with any spice or seasoning you can imagine and make it thai ketchup (add sriracha and fish sauce, white pepper), indian ketchup (garam masala, red chili powder, a little ground fenugreek seed), mexican ketchup (whizz up a chipotle pepper or use bottled hot sauce)... If you decide to use fresh herbs (fresh oregano, basil make a great italian ketchup), you really ought to food process, and then skip the squeeze bottle, because the herbs will clog the nozzle and explode on you.

Holy smokes, you sound like the Jedi of chefs. All that sounds good and is somewhat out of my culinary league. But, damn, I know I'd love French fries with ketchup if the ketchup wasn't the bland, tin-tasting, over-acetic Heinz stuff.

I think I could do the mayonnaise though. I might try that.

Have you ever thought of marketing your own line of sauces? I guess I'm thinking of that now because I'm doing some labels for a local restaurant that's doing a line of dressings, BBQ sauce, and stuff like that. Yours could be the "Master Flavor" collection. Sort of connects.

The ketchup is actually easier than the mayo, if you're talking the tomato paste version. It's really just a question of balancing the spices to your taste. Your own personalized ketchup is always going to be delicious if you season it the way you like. A dash of worcestershire sauce in it is also good.

The brits eat fries with just salt and a splash of malt vinegar. Hard to go wrong with that either. That's pretty less is more.

We went to Liège, aka Luik, today, a strange francophone Belgian town.

The sun didn't shine, so conditions were good for color photographs. I used my 100 mm macro lens.

Here's 40 odd photos.

I love the one of wet yabor cleaning his glasses!

And wouldn't a blob of cream-colored paint on the carved wooden fries have been cool?