Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful weather today - I love it! But then again, who doesn't? hehe. Spent the whole afternoon with mom roaming the alleys of Grand Place and (some of you may have noticed my status on facebook and twitter earlier on) we began by thoroughly enjoying our bask under the warm sun with servings of Belgian waffles and crepes with Haagen-Dazs ice cream! (More details of that are future down this entry) MmmmmmMMMMMmmmm! J'adore Belgique!
Note: Sorry for the bad quality photos, I forgot my camera again! >_<"
So... back to the title of this entry: Cupcakes! More specifically Belgian cupcakes! Boy oh boy, did Mom and I ever do some cupcake hunting today! It definitely was a difficult task - foraging through the streets of Brussels looking for any cupcake specialty stores. In the end, we only found two in the city: Merrily's and Lilicup. Of all places, why are there so little cupcake stores in Belgium??
.Belgian Cupcake: This one was Vanilla Cupcake.
.Belgians and their food.
Food in any culture, society, place and time is one of the many ways to explore and learn about a new country. You get a feel for what the local culture/perception/attitude is all about. Food can tell you a plenty load of things: from its history (like the history of Brunei and Ambuyat - it was created during World War II due to scarcity of rice), local preferences in ingredients, taste, character and personality - all this, you can tell from a few observing bites and gulps of their local dishes.
Belgium is arguably home to the best culinary chefs and food in the world - and when I say best, I mean creme of the crop, top of the top best! Food "construction" here is viewed as a work of art. I say "construction" because it's a highly skilled, precise, almost scientific approach to dealing with food.
Not surprisingly, Belgium is also home to the best chocolates and pastry/baked goods as well. Belgian Chocolate - personally I reckon that those people who think Swiss Chocolates are all that good, seriously haven't heard or even tried of Belgian chocolates. Tsk tsk...
Soooo... because of Belgian's reputation as a culinary front, Mom and I decided to do our own little cupcake quest, to see what the local take is on this petit gâteau!
The first cupcake store we visited was called Merrily's. A small dainty store that had cute colourful flags hanging by the window in pastel colours of blue, pink and red. I was a bit disappointed when we came by the store because there weren't much cupcakes to see: barely a plateful of options!!!
.The cupcakes we got from Lilicup.
No whole cupcakes today, lol, this photo was taken after our taste-testing!!
The second store we came across was called Lilicup and it was much better than the first store! Their cupcakes on offer wasn't a big selection (maybe six to 10 different kinds) but they all seemed pretty and were more appetising than the first! Mom and I ended up buying 4 cupcakes... which costs a whooping 10euro (B$20!!!) How mad pricey is that?!
.From top to bottom: Chocolate Orange, Speculoos and Lavender Cupcakes.
We decided to leave the tasting until later on in the evening after we arrived home. In between those times, as Dad was busy with work, Mom and I drove off to explore Grand Place .This is our second visit to this place and this time, we walked far and beyond - trying to explore almost all the alleyways there!
Good Tip for visiting/exploring Brussels:
I find that the best way to explore the city is by foot. You never know what you'll discover until you do it! We found so many delightful places and things today because of it. So wear your most comfy walking shoes and walk with a smile! (But don't smile too much... people will think you're crazy if you smile all by yourself!!)
Before we started meandering through the bustling alleyways to discover Brussels' hidden treasures, we stopped for a lovely session of waffles and crepes over ice-cream at.... (wait for it....) Haagen-Dazs!!! Beautiful, warm and sunny weather + Fresh crepes and HD ice cream with a local twist + (to top it off) live jazz sax music = more HEARTS!
.Again, sorry for the bad quality: Live band travelling from cafe to cafe.
Saxophone guy was GOOD!
0 comments:
Post a Comment