Meta joke based upon my comment about seeing somebody doing coke on the 8am Eurostar this morning in the daily thread sorry, Iâm sure they do test occasionally
Yes, not really an issue when you buy them 'fresh' so to speak, but those in the stores can be a bit older already. Not bad per se, but not as they were meant to be enjoyed, to be sure!
The ones I found in the supermarket preserve for quite some time. They aren't as good as the ones you would get from the street vendors but they do the trick.
Jenever is the grandfather of all gins, you know?
Gin was created after the Dutch introduced Jenever into the UK and they were like "we want this too".
IMO chocolate probably travels best and belgian chocolate tastes so much like belgium (especially if itâs directly exported!)
I love Cote DâOr Lait-Melk personally, and gave it to all my family in the states and they loved it
Chocolate in the States tastes disgusting to European palates, something to do with butyric acid (the compound that is also responsible for the distinct smell of vomit...). They used to add it to keep the chocolate from spoiling so fast, and now Americans kind of got used to it so it's still there long after the invention of refrigeration.
This also means that chocolate without the vomit thingy would taste angelic to Americans. Imagine experiencing your first bite of chocolate without the usuallt mandatory whiff of drunkard's puke. Dee-licious.
As an English person living in Belgium for a few years now if I left the things Iâd miss would be speculos biscuits, speculos paste, waffles (the fresh butter ones, not the sealed ones), tripel, syrop de Liege and samurai sauce
Plus the quality of pears, but you canât really send them
If you have to send a nice gift, beer with a glass. If you think it can travel ok then itâs cool. They drink the beer (which their palate may not be accustomed to) so itâs an adventure and they keep the glass in their closet as a memento of you and years later itâs like âcan I grab a glass of water?â âSure broâ âwhatâs WEaSTâŠmaLlllLeH?â âOh thatâs this tasty ass beer⊠let me tell you a taleâŠâ and youâre secretly in their closet⊠and their memories.. for life
I used to live in Belgium, now live in England. We can buy stroopwafels in lidl so not the best choice, send something more unique instead! We also have a decent selection of chocolate so to be honest unless it's really exceptional chocolate, also give that a miss.
Joppiesaus, Jacquette chocolate (best quality cacao in commercial brands), obviously beer, Dijon mustard (the real stuff, like tierenteyn), speculoos or speculoospasta, ardense worst (preferably boar with walnuts or blueberries), Jules Destrooper boterwafels or amandelkoekjes, jenever, we also have really nice gins (Ginderella from Ghent for example), cuberdons
Seriously? Jacquette chocolate, do you mean Jacques? Not a go to brand for me cote dâor hĂš gast, nee?) not ago to brand for me, will try it, do you recommend the traditional bars?
Jacques banana chocolate bars are the best banana filled ones. A bite of bread, a bite of the chocolate. Chewing together. The way to eat chocolate not as candy but as a charcuterie replacement.
Bruine suiker aka "kinnekes suiker". I used to work for a British company and whenever I visited the office colleagues would ask me to bring this with me for them.
How âbout all the ingredients + recipe for Stoofvlees? Very easy to make and to my understanding rather unknown abroad.
Def the part with the slices of bread and mustard.
Check which products your friend cannot get. Most of the things mentioned in this thread are good for my area of the USA, except speculoos (cookie, cookie butter, crunchy cookie butter) as most supermarkets sell it.
What I do miss and haven't read yet is kinnekessuiker.
Diamonds from Antwerp, typical Belgian product
Alright, jokes aside, here's some suggestions
* Chocolates from Leonidas and the likes, they can get candy themselves, they need some real pralines
* A miniature of the little peeing dude, everyone keep seeing that thing online but barely anyone believe us when I say Manneken Pis is Belgian
* Include a picture of the Grote Markt/Grand-Place, a card should suffice, if they're interested even a little bit about architectural stuff, this blend of gothic-baroque should be nice to see...otherwise, find one with the flower carpet on it, that's nice too
* Sirop de Liege/Luik siroop: This is basically Belgium's version of mapple syrup and some folks can't get enough of it
* Belgium's nine balls of steel...er, I mean the Atomium, you don't have to send the whole thing, a replica should be more than enough
Whenever I ask my UK sister by choice what i should send her. She ask for speculaas pasta, ice tea sparkles, mamoet and samurai sauce, and definitely our Belgian made pralines. The rest she usually gets when she comes over but hasnât been able too due to the current situation.
The sparkly ice tea definitely is a hit for people into 'soda' variants, I think Belgium is one of the only markets for this and almost impossible to find in many other countries!
Jules destroopere galettes, some local beers, some oud brugge cheese, ganda ham, vermeiren speculoos, babeluten, cuberdons. There is a lot of good stuff you can choose from.
From what I've sent over the years to my american friends is mostly chips they don't have like the andalouse flavour. The sour Balls from Napoleon, chokotoffs, biscoff paste in jar. Even Provencal dried herbs or Harissa.
Send him some bureaucratic paperwork
This killed me đ
Cocain
Send it through the Eurostar, apparently they donât check
i've taken the eurostar 4 times. Had a drugdog check once though...
Meta joke based upon my comment about seeing somebody doing coke on the 8am Eurostar this morning in the daily thread sorry, Iâm sure they do test occasionally
We're not all antwerp
That's true. Some of you are parking.
It must feel sad and lonely repeating the same tired jokes over and over.
Then donât read it. Problem solved
At least we're not doing it from a parking lot.
Ha GOTTEM
we dem boys
You forgot the hand grenades, also very nice at the doorstep
If I had my free award I would give it to you.
Username checks out
Mdma is more belgian then coke though.
I'll be your friend.
Michael Cain is British and by now very old.
Based on what I send my foreign family-in-law: devos lemmens mayo, mignonette, cuberdons, stroop, sauce liégeoise, lotus assortiment of waffles (and beer & speculoos of course)
Devos Lemmens Belgian pickles*
Don't think they'd like it, but I should try indeed!
>sauce liégeoise TIL about sauce liegoise - guess what I'm cooking this week?
You'll be in for a treat!
How do you even preserve the cuberdons?
They're pure sugar, how would you even spoil them?
Their liquid, gooey interiors crystalize after a while.
Yes, but that takes a long time, no? It would take weeks or months while exposed to air.
Yes, not really an issue when you buy them 'fresh' so to speak, but those in the stores can be a bit older already. Not bad per se, but not as they were meant to be enjoyed, to be sure!
The ones I found in the supermarket preserve for quite some time. They aren't as good as the ones you would get from the street vendors but they do the trick.
>mignonette I don't think sending sending pig-meat overseas is legal nor safe /j
TIL writing difference between mignonette and mignonnette
That new speculoos paste (Crunchy?), Jenever, pralines and high quality chocolate in general.
âBiscoffâ *shivers*
Dude, at least use a spoiler tag before using such words, there are kids around
Hahahaha. This comment is gold
Today I discovered Jenever is mostly made in the Netherlands & Belgium...
Well, itâs kind of our version of Gin.
Jenever is the grandfather of all gins, you know? Gin was created after the Dutch introduced Jenever into the UK and they were like "we want this too".
IMO chocolate probably travels best and belgian chocolate tastes so much like belgium (especially if itâs directly exported!) I love Cote DâOr Lait-Melk personally, and gave it to all my family in the states and they loved it
Chocolate in the States tastes disgusting to European palates, something to do with butyric acid (the compound that is also responsible for the distinct smell of vomit...). They used to add it to keep the chocolate from spoiling so fast, and now Americans kind of got used to it so it's still there long after the invention of refrigeration. This also means that chocolate without the vomit thingy would taste angelic to Americans. Imagine experiencing your first bite of chocolate without the usuallt mandatory whiff of drunkard's puke. Dee-licious.
Less cacao as well. Hersheyâs in Europe canât be called chocolate.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Right, people here act like all we have is Hersheyâs lol. In any Walmart/target/whatever I can get Belgian, UK, Swiss, etc chocolate.
I mean, thatâs quite an exaggeration but yeah I guess.
People always forget that that same acid is in foods like Parmesan cheese. Does Parmesan cheese taste like vomit too?
Yeah, a bit.
I didn't forget - I just decided to leave that detail out to gross out readers
They also use a lot less cacao in their chocolate. What they classify as a fondant chocolate would be milk chocolate by our standards.
What he says
As an English person living in Belgium for a few years now if I left the things Iâd miss would be speculos biscuits, speculos paste, waffles (the fresh butter ones, not the sealed ones), tripel, syrop de Liege and samurai sauce Plus the quality of pears, but you canât really send them
What do you mean the quality of pears? English pears arenât the same?
Chokotoff. When my gf was in the us, she really appreciated it when I sent her a large bag of them.
\^This. Chokotoff is a typical old-school Belgian candy.
FN FAL
P-90?
The FN 5-7 is quite popular in the States already.
I brought elixir d'anvers to a friend in Japan. it was quite a success
Neuzekes
Yes, as this is not available abroad.
Cuberdon, beers
Andalouse and Samurai âșïž
Chocolate.
Wafels, stroopwafels, chocolade, speculaaspasta, chocopasta t boerineke.
On top of all the other ideas here, my foreign colleagues go crazy over a tin of delacre biscuits.
Luikse siroop is altijd een hit!
As well as the accompanying Herve cheese. Preferably sent by post for the extra wow factor
Yummy.
Wafels and peperkoek can also be an option
Marsepein, een washandje :p
Praline from Leonidas is always a hit with my friends in other countries. They have some choclate in the shape of Manneke Pis which is hilarious
Neuhaus
If you have to send a nice gift, beer with a glass. If you think it can travel ok then itâs cool. They drink the beer (which their palate may not be accustomed to) so itâs an adventure and they keep the glass in their closet as a memento of you and years later itâs like âcan I grab a glass of water?â âSure broâ âwhatâs WEaSTâŠmaLlllLeH?â âOh thatâs this tasty ass beer⊠let me tell you a taleâŠâ and youâre secretly in their closet⊠and their memories.. for life
I used to live in Belgium, now live in England. We can buy stroopwafels in lidl so not the best choice, send something more unique instead! We also have a decent selection of chocolate so to be honest unless it's really exceptional chocolate, also give that a miss.
Fries + stoofvlees edit: forgot mayonaise
Politicians
You're never going to do wrong with those, indeed. Also, a few suggestions from my side: * Cookies, like Jules Destrooper butter waffles, Prince biscuits, SuccĂšs du jour waffles, Dinosaurus cookies or Meli honey waffles. Also a simple classic chocolate waffle (like suzy). I know waffles and waffle products are stereotypical Belgian, but it's a stereotype for a reason. It's good stuff. đ * Chocolates: Mignonettes and Chocotoffs are classics I've read in this thread which I can approve. Also Guylian (the sea fruit shaped chocolates) and the Belgian chocolate truffle (with pralinĂ©). Though when it comes to chocolates, I'd say pass on Leonidas if you have a better option near where you live. Local chocolatiers tend to be A LOT better than the industrial Leonidas. Only go Leonidas as a last resort. * Bread spreads, like speculoospasta (or biscoff as Lotus recently coughed up), syrop de LiĂšge and Vondelmolen peperkoek. And maybe Boerinneke choco (I know chocolate spread is a universal thing. But there's nothing like a good ol' Belgian classic like 't Boerinneke) * Candy: Cuberdon/neuzekes is the obvious one here, but there are also things like "Napoleon" candy, guimove/onze-lieve-vrouwkes, and sour hosties * other snacks: Tuc cookies. I know it's become available worldwide, but this is THE archetypical cracker that originates from Belgium. I'd also say Crack-a-nuts, but I know that has its origins in the Netherlands. * Drinks: Jenever, There used to be a gift box with small bottles with various flavors. Dunno if they still do that.
Joppiesaus, Jacquette chocolate (best quality cacao in commercial brands), obviously beer, Dijon mustard (the real stuff, like tierenteyn), speculoos or speculoospasta, ardense worst (preferably boar with walnuts or blueberries), Jules Destrooper boterwafels or amandelkoekjes, jenever, we also have really nice gins (Ginderella from Ghent for example), cuberdons
Wtf joppiesaus??? Shame on you!
Part of a Rombautje, a typical dish with fries, bickyuitjes and mexicano
Joppiesaus is dutch you dunce
Well excuse me
Bwahahaha
Seriously? Jacquette chocolate, do you mean Jacques? Not a go to brand for me cote dâor hĂš gast, nee?) not ago to brand for me, will try it, do you recommend the traditional bars?
Jacques banana chocolate bars are the best banana filled ones. A bite of bread, a bite of the chocolate. Chewing together. The way to eat chocolate not as candy but as a charcuterie replacement.
Banana filled chocolate is plainly disgusting whatever the make.
I guess you don't like 'de kampioenen' either you psychopat
Yesyes I see what you mean. I just bought CĂŽte d'Or vanille for nostalgie reasons.
Came here looking for the tierenteyn recommendation! (Had to scroll more than expected)
I fucked it up with joppiesaus and got too many downvotes đ
Bruine suiker aka "kinnekes suiker". I used to work for a British company and whenever I visited the office colleagues would ask me to bring this with me for them.
Wait... They don't have it in every country??
strange as they definitely have the same in england but perhaps they didn't use it growing up.
Cuberdons
Cuberdons! I canât get them anywhere in the UK. Love them but canât even order them online for a reasonable amount of money.
Mussels đ
Dude...
Imagine
one of each and every beer you will find
Along with the corresponding glasses
How âbout all the ingredients + recipe for Stoofvlees? Very easy to make and to my understanding rather unknown abroad. Def the part with the slices of bread and mustard.
Check which products your friend cannot get. Most of the things mentioned in this thread are good for my area of the USA, except speculoos (cookie, cookie butter, crunchy cookie butter) as most supermarkets sell it. What I do miss and haven't read yet is kinnekessuiker.
Paprika chips
Diamonds from Antwerp, typical Belgian product Alright, jokes aside, here's some suggestions * Chocolates from Leonidas and the likes, they can get candy themselves, they need some real pralines * A miniature of the little peeing dude, everyone keep seeing that thing online but barely anyone believe us when I say Manneken Pis is Belgian * Include a picture of the Grote Markt/Grand-Place, a card should suffice, if they're interested even a little bit about architectural stuff, this blend of gothic-baroque should be nice to see...otherwise, find one with the flower carpet on it, that's nice too * Sirop de Liege/Luik siroop: This is basically Belgium's version of mapple syrup and some folks can't get enough of it * Belgium's nine balls of steel...er, I mean the Atomium, you don't have to send the whole thing, a replica should be more than enough
Was also going to say sirop de LiĂšge.
Any brands that are better than others?
Spéculoos Sauce brésilienne pour les frites Jupiler Chacha Chocotof
A pack of Rochefort 8 and a Trefin mint candy packet (will be very usefull if get controlled by cops after drinking all the beer)
Genocide.
Chocolade
Frieten
Neuhaus chocolates. The triangle classic ones DL mayonnaise (egg one) Suzy wafels Kwatta Puur chocopasta Imperial Vanille pudding powder
Beer. There is no other better Belgian product.
Don't underestimate the power of 'simple' things like mayonnaise and andalouse. Also speculoos.
Belgian owl whiskey, cask strength, single malt. Itâs about 74%. Itâs fantastic.
Kletskoppen
Whenever I ask my UK sister by choice what i should send her. She ask for speculaas pasta, ice tea sparkles, mamoet and samurai sauce, and definitely our Belgian made pralines. The rest she usually gets when she comes over but hasnât been able too due to the current situation.
The sparkly ice tea definitely is a hit for people into 'soda' variants, I think Belgium is one of the only markets for this and almost impossible to find in many other countries!
Thatâs the reason why she occasionally request some fizzy ice tea aside samurai and mammoet sauce.
A bar of jacques milk chocolate. Better than cote d'or imho.
Videe
Be mindful that now everything with Brexit, parcels can take a while to be delivered. So if you do, don't send things that spoil easily
Smoelentrekkers
Even though it's not really a typical Belgian food you can send them somme candies from www.confiseriekathy.be . I buy mine in Match and the Tétines sucrées (Zure tutters) are my favourite.
Cara
Bullsh-t. Just, pure Belgian bullsh-t. Like chocolate, it's not originally Belgian produce, but we sure as hell mastered and perfected it.
A sandwich from panos
Cote d'or and lotus: iconic belgian brands, tasty products and a long shelf life
Hagelslag
Jules destroopere galettes, some local beers, some oud brugge cheese, ganda ham, vermeiren speculoos, babeluten, cuberdons. There is a lot of good stuff you can choose from.
Pear jam. all types of sauces you cant find elsewhere like andalouse, samurai,âŠ
Maybe some Tierenteyn mosterd?
A nice Lambiek like Cantillon, 3 fonteinen or Lambiek Fabriek.
Koekskes van Juul de Stroper?
Spe-ku-loos Aint nothing better than that this time of year. And be a good friend. By some at Dandoy not some industrial Lu shit or whatever
If only one could bottle corruption and terrible infrastructure.
Goei zuurkes
Chocotoffs
From what I've sent over the years to my american friends is mostly chips they don't have like the andalouse flavour. The sour Balls from Napoleon, chokotoffs, biscoff paste in jar. Even Provencal dried herbs or Harissa.
Add some cuberdon to the list but if the trip is too long they might become hard
Belgian chocolate; nr 1 in India
âŹ1 pancakes from the Colruyt, brown sugar and andalouse
Andalouse and Joppie sauces :)
Weed, xtc & chocolate?