What started out as a nice walk on a beautiful sunny day to Chez Moeder Lambic quickly evolved into something else altogether. The apartment here in Brussels is located in the Saint-Gilles section of Brussels which contains Avenue Louise ... it is along here that you find Tiffany's, Versace, etc. ... all very high end stores.
Walking through here naturally leads you to the Grand Place, the historic centre piece of Brussels and so I just gave myself over to the forces of nature drawing me there. For many centuries this was the economic and administrative heart of the city; today still flanked by former guild houses. It's as an impressive display of architecture that I have seen anywhere.
It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and there were several cafes at the former entrances to the Guild Houses so I walked around the Place once and then sat down at a cafe that looked particularly inviting and had an Affligem to ponder my next move ...
As I was sitting there an English couple ... mother and son ... Sandra and Paul, struck up a conversation ... we chatted about everything from the Royal Wedding to Osama ... as they were leaving Sandra asked if she could e-mail and I said sure and I gave her my e-mail address ... she handed me a card in return and she and Paul left.
I sat there for another 10 minutes watching the scarecrow competition and, judging of same, in the main square when I absent mindedly picked up the business card that Sandra had left me ... to my surprise the card was blank with the exception of a hand written note .... 'you should try the beer Tempelier' ... now that's odd ...
I left the square and headed towards one of the local tourist attractions that no one can explain ... Manneken-Pis ... a bronze statue of a small boy peeing a jet of water ... well I hope it's water ... the small statue is usually clothed in a costume of some kind ... after that I stopped at a another cafe ordered a Lindemann Kriek ... basically Lambic that has had fresh cherries added to it ... very refreshing ... Lambic referring to spontaneous fermentation ...
As I was sitting there gazing at the menu and enjoying the 25 C weather, I noticed they had Tempelier by the bottle ... so of course I ordered one ... the beer was lighter by Belgian standards ... of more interest was the label ... in fact interesting enough that when a local and his dog sat down and saw me looking at it ... he asked if I liked the illustration ... I said it was fascinating ... well if you like it, you should visit the Musee Royaux des Beaux-Arts ... and with that he and the dog abruptly departed.
Belgium, aside from the beer, is noted for it's food and it's chocolate ... since I am allergic to very good chocolate ... I decided to track down some food. The two top culinary items in Brussels are frites et moules ... fries and mussels ... so I headed to Chez Leon ... famous since 1893 for these two items ... I ordered the formule Leon .. mussels, frites and a beer ... and they were very good ... maybe the best mussels I have ever had and the twice fried frites were delicious ... all washed down with a dry, light Belgian beer ... grail hunting is a bitch ...
After that I strolled back to the apartment ... on the way walking right by the Musee .. making a mental note of it's location ... a visit will be required.
I grabbed a baguette, some cheese, some beer, some wine and a civilized evening was had pondering the days culinary adventures ... musing on the Musee and what could be there that will provide a clue to the missing grail ....
To quote from verse 1893 of the Krome Koan,
' ... save the earth ... it's the only planet with beer .... '
The G.R Ale Hunter (aka The Night Templar)
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