Ekaterina Netchitailova

Ambiance

Enter any Belgian café or a restaurant and you get smiles, friendly comments and feel like you are much welcome to be there.

In France, not always so. It is as if they do you a favor, that they have much better things to do, rather than spend their time on tolerating foreigners to eat their food. Trust me, I love France and I love the French language, and I love their food, but the portions they make made me always feel guilty that I actually was hungry and wanted to eat.

Asking for a ketchup in a French restaurant is considered almost like a crime, as well as failure to understand what ris de veau means from first attempt.

Come to Belgium though and see for yourself: large, generous portions that cost much cheaper than French without any pressure to remember with which fork or a knife to start one’s appetizer. Belgian portions are generous because the food is meant to be shared and enjoyed, not admired from a distance.

The fries

French fries are an American invention named after France. In Belgium it’s a real thing. They are crisp and slightly bigger, served generously. A kiosk selling fries is a cultural institution in Belgium. They are also better than the Dutch ones (sorry guys!) that are rather unpredictable. Sometimes you get the French style, sometimes it’s like in Belgium. National pride is also at stake,  – never reveal that you know what is a proper fry (Belgian), and never, ever, compare Belgian food with the Dutch one.

In France they just avoid the topic all together. For them it’s all the same. Belgian fries you said? That’s French. Is this writer from Belgium? Sorry, no, she speaks and writes in French, which means she is French. Bonjour Amélie Nothomb!

Chocolate

France has grand chocolatiers — beautiful, expensive, very serious chocolate, maybe even a bit pretentious? Come to Brussels and have a look – dozens of shops that all sell excellent, delicious chocolate at affordable prices. They treat chocolate as a daily joy, not a luxury. And it is kind of visible. Belgian people are a bit more robust in their physique, where without any guilt they show to the rest of the world what joie de vivre actually is. Not just a concept, it’s based in practice. Belgian people enjoy life and love good food. They are gourmand, not gourmet like French.

Belgian chocolate is democratic: you can buy world-class quality in a train station kiosk.

And then there are waffles

French gaufres are often thin and crisp. Belgian waffles are thick, chewy, light inside, caramelised outside. Liege waffles (with pearl sugar) are eaten plain or with toppings. Brussels waffles are lighter, rectangular, perfect with whipped cream and strawberries. Belgium treats waffles as a national treasure — France treats them as a dessert footnote.

The variety

Due to its unique geography Belgium simply has more choices. It has three official languages: French, Flemish and German, therefore, it isn’t a surprise that they have so many varieties in food. Brussels, the capital, has restaurants of almost every nation on earth. The EU headquarters are there, and it shows: all kinds of food is offered in supermarkets and cafes.

And Belgium also has its unique cultural dishes. Think of Carbonade Flamande (rich beef stew slow-cooked with Belgian beer), Chicken Waterzooi (a creamy, stew like soup, with chicken, fish, vegetables, cream and egg yolks), Chicons au Gratin (endives wrapped in ham with cheese bechamel sauce), etc, etc. Their desserts are also much better. When I first arrived to Brussels when I was nineteen, I put on like ten kilos in a month, and had to learn how to diet, among all that delicious food.

I can go on and on about Belgian food but will stop for now. Maybe you have something to add?

Are you team Belgium or team France?