I apologize because by now this post is very much delayed. I really need to catch up and thus will share some pictures of Brussels without much commentary . There weren’t that many must-see places for me in Brussels and the pictures below are some of the highlights. If you want my advice, I think a day and night is enough to get you the gist of what Brussels is like. I’m sure there are a lot more cooler areas surrounding the city center but I will have to discover them some other time.
Part of the Grand Place in Brussels. This sqaure was really very very beautiful
Grand Place at night
The famous statue of Brussels- Maneken Pis. Yes, it is that small.
View of the the Atomium from below
A cute street walking up to the Sablon area - my favorite area in Brussels
The music museum in Brussels
Belgium is the birthplace of comics, of which Tintin and The Smurfs (original name is Les Schtroumpfs) would be the most well-known. So scattered all around Brussels are walls painted with comic characters. I thought it was really cool and stopped to take pictures of each wall I came across. I have quite a few but will just share three with you so as not to bore you. Comic walls might not be everyone’s thing.
Not sure what comic is on the wall. I know its not Tintin
Another comic wall
Any another. I think you get the idea by now....
It is extremely hot here in Lyon now- 36 degrees celsius outside. Not sure what is it in my room right now but it feels really hot even though I have a tiny fan from Carrefour blowing straight at me – the best 15 euros spent in my time here. I thank the Chinese for making it affordable. I feel so lethargic at home because of the heat. At work, I have no choice but to suck it up. As I am there dividing and shaping bread dough all I can think of is a nice cold watermelon. Seriously, a nice juicy red watermelon feels like heaven in this weather. So for the past two days, I head to Monoprix straight after work and buy me some watermelon! And some beer! Simple things in life.
At least my latest obsession is a healthy one, if not heavy one. Of course out elevator has to crap out as soon I as I get into this watermelon obsession. Nothing like making me work (through 4 flights of stairs) to eat my watermelon.
After Ghent, we hopped on the train again and 30mins later we arrived in Bruges. The rain had stopped so that was a good start. There were more people too in Bruges so we decided to again try to talk to the center of town even though in Ghent we had said we would take the bus in Bruges.
Our walk to the city center in Bruges
We passed one of the many canals in Bruges
Our first real stop ended up being the “Le Halve Moon” brewery where we took a beer brewing tour for 6 euros. Well worth the price. It was unexpectedly very informative and both Babita and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I definitely learnt a lot about beer. The beer included at the end wasn’t my thing but apparently they change it up when this special beer is in season sometime in the winter.
Ended up at a beer tour at Le Halve Moon brewery. View of Bruges from the rooftop of our brewery tour
Each beer in Belgium has to have its own beer glass
Market square in Bruges
The best thing about Bruges that day was this festival called Benenweek. Now I haven’t done any research as to what it is exactly but from my experience, it is like a big free dance and music festival. Various stages were set up around the city center each with a different “type” of music/dance. There are instructors there teaching a big group, and you can choose whether to watch or dance. We experienced the pop stage, flamenco and tango stage but spent most of our time in the ballroom dancing stage right in the market square, watching that is. In the afternoon, they were teaching people some moves but when we went back later on the night, it was a free form and it was a packed house with people (mostly older) dancing to oldies in different languages. Very cool and very fun. Too bad we had to catch train back to Brussels that night. I would have loved to stay on longer. More cities should organize such an event.
Benenweek = dance week?
Zumba crowd
Oldies crowd
Ghent is city 30mins by train from Brussels and is right in between Brussels and Bruges. I wasn’t expecting to go to Ghent but since it was on the way and Babita had read great things about it, we decided to make a stop. It was a very rainy day when we arrived in Ghent, Belgium and although it didn’t give us a very good impression in the beginning, I am really really glad we went. I loved it!
Since it was a small town, we didn’t think the city center would be too far from town. We hadn’t had breakfast yet and the local who we stopped to ask said it would be about a 20min walk to town. Actually she kind of hinted that we should take the tram but we still didn’t think it was too far to walk. Besides it hs just started drizzling then. Maybe if it wasn’t raining it wouldn’t have seemed so far but my advice for anyone going to Ghent is to take the tram. There weren’t people on the streets we could ask either at 10:30pm. Babita needed to get an umbrella but all the stores were still closed. After what seemed more like 30-40mins, we finally passed a breakfast place which I mentioned in my “Weekend in Belgium – Snacks” post.
After a good breakfast and some good directions from the staff at Pain Perdu, we made it to the city center. Maybe because we had low expectations at that point,we were very impressed. The wow factor was there even though it was raining. It was so beautiful by the canal. Babita mentioned that it is kind of like Annecy. To me, it was a bigger and better version of Annecy with more unique architecture. Maybe it is because I have been in France too long so the Belgian architecture was new to me.
As with all my pictures, they do not do the place any justice. If you get the chance, you definitely have to go see it for yourself.
Typical street in Ghent, Belgium
Scenic view by the canals
Saw a cute wedding procession with the little boy holding the bride's train. They all hopped onto a boat waiting for them by the canal.
My friend, Babita in Ghent. I love the distinct architecture in the background
The town square in Ghent
p.s. On a side note, I am headed down south to the Cote d’Azur this weekend and so won’t be able to continue my posts of Belgium until next week. I won’t have many pictures of the French riviera to share because I somehow broke my camera in my last few hours in Belgium. I’m so sad because I only have a few days left and it isn’t worth it to buy a new camera. Also i think it can be repaired. I don’t see any visible damages but the lens keeps coming out and retracting and it tells me to turn the power on and off. It just does the same thing when I do though. 😦 Anyone have the same problem with their Sony WD-350? I would be keen on hearing if you have a quick fix.
Laurent walks into work today and tells me it is Fête de la saint Hélène today. Huh? What kind of fête is that? Apparently there is something called la fête de la prenom also called “name day” in English. I guess its is a religious thing associated with saints of the past but but apparently, every given name has a day in the calendar. I had never heard of this and was confused as to what they where talking about. Then they showed me the calender….underneath August 18th was St. Hélène. “But hey, that’s not my name!” I said. No one had heard of my name spelt as E-L-A-I-N-E before and it always confuses the French.
On an unrelated note, I was asking Yohann if the markings on the couche (bread cloth) that was indented on the baguette would appear after we bake it and he said no. That’s too bad because if it did, I would try to get a couche with my name on it. Then he suggested we could score my name on the baguette instead. So I scored it and he was confused as to what I was spelling. After it was baked, the other apprentice had a hard time making out what was written even after I said it was my name. (These guys were not part of the earlier discussion.) Anyways, below is the result….. not a very pretty baguette.
The E-L-A-I-N-E baguette
Happy Saint Helene/Elaine day everyone!
Belgium was great! I especially enjoyed Ghent and Bruges. Again I have quite a few pictures to share so I shall continue with the the same format I shared my pictures from Madrid. First the food, and more specifically, Snacks!
The first night we arrived in Brussels, I was starving and in search of some mussels and fries. We ended up at the tourist street near the Grand Place and had mussels from Chez Leon as it was recommended from a random guy we asked who was about to enter his apartment. The mussels and my raspberry beer were good, but the fries and shrimp croquettes were blah. I was so hungry and anxious to dig in that I forgot to take a picture. I also forgot to take a picture of our breakfast the next morning in Ghent. It was pouring when we arrived and thinking the town center wasn’t too far off from the train station we decided to walk. There wasn’t a single soul on the street at 10:30am. This must be a party town since it seems that people don’t wake up until later. We were not enjoying Ghent at that point as it was raining, very quiet and most importantly, we were hungry!! Closer to civilization we stopped at the first place that seemed to serve breakfast – a place called Pain Perdu. It is very very similar to Le Pain Quotidien (which I just learnt is from Belgium). In fact I was hesitant to eat there because I thought it was a Le Pain Quotidien and I’d rather not go to a place where I can go to back in LA. But I’m sure glad my stomach spoke up because I thoroughly enjoyed breakfast there. Their spreads were so good. I order a set that included a hot beverage, juice, a viennoiserie, and a choice of bread. The pain au raisin wasn’t great so I could have done without that but I was addicted to the spreads they had and couldn’t stop eating it with my bread. They had strawberry, rhubarb, apple and pear and a praline tartiner. Again, sorry no pictures except for the outside.
Pain Perdu - great place for breakfast in Ghent, Belgium
The rest of our meals in Belgium really comes down to snacks and beer. The most memorable were the fries in Bruges (actually its more about the sauces then the fries) and the trappist beer.
There are two green frites stands in the market square of Bruges. I think they are both equally good – again, its all about the different sauces, but we tried the one on the left when you stand facing the Belfry tower.
Frites with curry-ketchup in Bruges market square
Frites with andalouse (mayo, tomato paste, peppers, lemon juice) sauce
After the fries, we tried to occupy ourselves in Bruges but we came across Bittersweet cafe too soon. I had read about this place and wasn’t quite sure I’d be able to find it without a map. Since we just happened to come across it, it was a sign we had to stop off for some Belgian waffles. Despite being full I also ordered the tulip hot chocolate. The presentation was really cool – a tulip chocolate filled with chocolate shavings which you drop in its entirety into the hot milk. Yum yum yum – really good! Equally good were the waffles – the perfect crunchy texture and the perfect sweetness. It was good on its own. I didn’t need the Speculoos spread, but its hard for an addict to say no.
Hot chocolate
Belgian Waffles (gauffres)
After all the snacks, our dinner that night consisted of just a beer.
Bruges Zot beer from De Halve Maan brewery tour
Back in Brussels, we skipped breakfast the next day to have an early seafood lunch. Its a stand-up place in a corner of Place Saint-Catherine (walking distance from the Grand Place). You go up, order at the counter and eat at the counter. Because it was a cool cloudy day, the fish stew was very appealing. I was satisfyingly good. Unfortunately, the shrimp croquettes (I figured I had to give this Belgian specialty another try) and the sardines were disappointing. I regret not ordering the mussels!
Fish soup
Shrimp croquette and sardines
Belgium seems to be the capital of chocolates but since I’m not a big fan of chocolate, I chose to have the ice cream instead from this famous chocolatier. I have been craving ice cream for a very long time so that might explain why I loved the caramal crunch ice cream so much. It wasn’t a big portion so it was just right. The texture, taste and everything was divine. For the price it should be though. I’m glad I tried it. I also tried three macarons – mojito (interesting), lemon tea with chocolate (weird) and the pierre marcolini (good) which apparently is made from chocolate sourced from three origins.
Caramel crunch ice cream from Pierre Marcolini
Some entremets from Pierre Marcolini's window display
We had waffles again but this time from a packed touristy spot near the Maneken Pis statue in Brussels. Blah, it was terrible! Ridiculously sweet and too soft even though I just had a sprinkle of powdered sugar on mine. I think I only took two bites. Do not go to Le Funambule for waffles. Unfortunately I don’t have any recommendations for waffles in Brussels because I only had stomach left to try a trappist beer. Good choice on my part. Trappist beers are brewed under the control of Trappist monks. I don’t know much about beer but these monks sure know how to brew a good beer! Cheers or Sante to them!
Waffle choices
Le Trappe trappist beer
But it was not to be my last beer of the day. While heading towards the comic musuem, I passed by a bar I had read about that served a really good peach lambic beer. Another thing I learnt – lambic beer is a type of beer that is only brewed in an area in Belgium, close to brussels. I just had a beer but when in Belgium, why not another? Especially one that was only brewed in region. The first taste wasn’t that great but a few more sips, I grew really like it. It has a distinct ciderish taste.
Peach lambic beer
It has been awhile since I’ve had a pastry posting. As a gastronomic capital, Lyon isn’t really known for its patisseries. Its what I miss most about Paris, but in a sense its better for me since I won’t be tempted. There are two places that are well known in Lyon for beautiful pastries – one is Seve, where I got my birthday cake, and two is Bouillet, as in Sebastien Bouillet. He has places in Lyon and Tokyo and anyone looking for good pastries in Lyon should go there. I always think about going there to get something but the main store is a bit of a hike uphill, in a hippie area called La Croix Rousse. Carolina staged there for 3 months and she came back to visit them yesterday. Knowing this, I asked her to bring some pastries and this is what she selected…..
St. Honore because it is her favorite dessert there, and....
Chestnut tart because I love chestnuts
Both were good but the St Honore was REALLY good. Instead of pastry cream, they fill it with salted caramel pastry cream. And the chantilly cream was really good too… light, tasty and not overly sweet. Hmm, now I’m not sure which pastry shop has the better St Honore – Patisserie des Reves in Paris, or Bouillet in Lyon. I might have to make that hike to Bouillet before I leave Lyon. Apparently, they’re Fraisier’s are really good too. I’ll let you know…..
In the past week or so, our bread apprenti who starts work at 3am, Yohann, would see me snap a picture or two of the bread we make. Early this morning, he called me over from making sandwiches to see if I wanted to take a picture of this….
Pretty arrangement set up by Yohann. I was impressed!
So sweet of him! I was very surprised that he did this beautiful arrangement, and pretty quickly too I assume, as the manager was right there mixing dough. This is why I love the people I work with in Lyon. They’re super nice to me!
I haven’t tried all these breads yet, although I probably should before I leave. Today I tried the mini apricot, hazelnut and raisin bread. It was good but I alwas find these types of bread a bit dry. Also, it had been baked about 7 hours ago and nowadays, I’m so spoilt that a few hours ago just isn’t fresh enough for me. I am ruined! 😦
A few days ago, I tried the cumin bread and it was really good. Very tasty! Cumin is supposed to be good for you too.
Pain curcumin or Cumin bread (with hazelnuts tho)
Below is a rustic whole meal bread we cut and slice up to make sandwiches with. We only use the middle portion as the borders are too small of a piece to use. So since we end up wasting a lot of the bread, I eat it.
Torte
Below are some breads that I haven’t tried,… yet.
Cereal or grain bread
Cereal/Grain baguette. Actually I tried this one, but I prefered the one from the boulangerie in Yssingeaux. I miss that boulangerie.
Ciabatta with olives and herbes de provence. I tried the baguette when it was still hot - delicious!
Pain au siegle (Rye bread)
Loaf bread or what the French call Pain de Mie
There’s more to come. This is what I get up at 3:45am for.
First the healthy stuff….
The fruit in the markets here are always changing with what’s in season. I love buying whatever is in season because it always tastes so sweet and juicy. I have to say my favorite fruits right now is the sweet sweet melons of all types and figs. I’ve never eaten so many fresh figs in my life! I first bought them on Saturday and ate more than I half so I bought another bag on Sunday. We have figs in California but for some reason I don’t remember having eaten a fresh fig before I got to France. Although I’m not sure if these figs are from France or Spain.
Weekend fruit purchase from the market
Inside of a fig
Now for the not so healthy part. Remember how I was addicted to the Ovomaltine crunchy spread? Well that stuff is still really good but I’ve also found a new crunchy spread that is giving it a run for its money. Speculoos Crunchy!! Speculoos is the french version of a graham cracker so think of a graham cracker flavored spread with small bits of graham crackers in it. That sweet crunchy cinnamon goodness is insanely good with a freshly baked baguette that is crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside. That is what I look forward to when I get home from a physical day at work.
My new favorite spread! Speculoos CRUNCHY!
I am finally getting a taste of what it feels like to be a boulanger. With one month left, I was worried that I wouldn’t get to learn enough bread especially with all the sandwiches I have been making, filling in for our usual “traiteur” guys who is on vacation along with everyone else. It was very quiet in the store yesterday and today. Apparently everyone is on vacation in the south of France and Spain or in Brittany in the month of August. They also mentioned Ramadhan having to do with the quietness which is surprising because I didn’t know the muslim population was so significant in Lyon. Anyways, I asked the manager, who is also the head baker, if I could come in earlier to do more bread and he said, “Sure. Come in at 4:30am tomorrow so you can start with me.”
So in I went at 4:30am today. Getting up was especially tough and I was started to kick myself for having asked to go in so early. It was weird going to bed last night when the sun was still up. When I arrived, Yohann, an experienced apprentice who had arrived at 3am, had already baked all these different breads prepared the day before.
First batch of breads for the day
Closer up. The paler bread is ciabatta. We make 3 different types - plain, with olives and with herbs of provence (my breakfast today).
Why did Yohann have to come in so early to bake? So that when the first sales lady comes in at 5am, she can start setting up for the store preparing for the opening at 6am. Usually there are one or two people waiting outside for the store to open.
Our bread display being set up in the store
When I first arrived, I was told they were having a problem with the flour dispenser. We have this machine where we enter the amount of flour we want and it magically dispenses that particular amount of flour. It saves space in the kitchen and there is no need to measure out the flour. Thankfully our manager/head baker figured out that a switch was flipped on the side (maybe from when the new apprentice was cleaning) so it was a simple fix. Sweet, but I wonder if there is a backup for when it really malfunctions. Flour is at the heart of a boulangerie – no flour, no boulangerie. I suppose water is essential too.
Flour dispensing machine
Once the flour machine was fixed, the head baker and I got started on scaling the ingredients for all the breads for the next day. He has all the measurements in his head. We basically have a few base doughs, into which we later add different ingredients for different breads. There is the regular baguette dough, the whole wheat dough, the malted dough, the ciabatta dough, and the viennoiserie dough. The name viennoiserie dough was confusing for me at first because it is not the same dough we use for croissants even though croissants are a type of viennoiserie.
Simultaneously, we knead the dough in this big kneading machine below and a also slightly smaller one that I don’t have a picture of.
Our Petrir or Kneading machine
Once the dough is ready (when it looks smooth), we transfer them into plastic cases and let it rest for about 30 mins. Care must be taken to not under-knead or over-knead the dough. If we under-knead, the bread will be small and dense. If we over-knead, it will rise too much and have less taste. It was a hot day so the resting dough was rising pretty fast. Thus, we (actually, I) had to start dividing pretty quick.
Place and spread out the dough in the divider dusting with lots of flour to prevent sticking
Close the lid, work a lever and Voila! It divides it up into even pieces
We give the pieces in the picture above a bit of a shaping and place them in this machine. We let it sit here for a bit.
And it pops out here slightly elongated. This particular one is the fatter baguette (Flute)
For the Flutes, we don’t have to do too much shaping. Just place the pieces on a bread couche (on top of a grill) dusted with a bit of flour and into the cold room. The next morning the dough would have risen and be ready for baking.
Next morning - Flutes ready to be scored and baked
Scoring the "Flutes" before rolling it in the oven
That’s our basic process in a nutshell. There are slight variations according to the different type of bread which I will try to get photos of in the coming days. For now I need to get ready for bed so that I can be ready for another 4:30am shift tomorrow.
Life as a pastry newbie 