Belgium Travel Articles & Travelogues

BELGIUM TRAVEL ARTICLES

Ghent - November & December 2002

We arrived at Hotel Ibis Opera shortly before 5pm on 28th November, my birthday. After unpacking, we had a beer in the bar of the hotel. Then we went back up to our room and changed before going out to eat. Norman had already booked a table at Jan Van den Bon, a Michelin starred restaurant where we had eaten on his birthday a few years before. Surprisingly, there was no one else in the restaurant, although the waiter assured us it was booked solid for the next two nights.

We decided to have the set menu and started with four little freebies which were very good indeed. The first course was crayfish with trumpet de mort mushrooms in a light cream sauce. Delicious bread rolls were served throughout the meal. The fish course was gilt head sea bream with a sort of pancake of wild mushrooms and a tomato sauce. Next I had pheasant breast with girolles mushrooms, endives and cabbage, served in a rich sauce containing goose liver. Norman had hare, again with girolles and endives, and shredded fried potato. For dessert, we both had fresh figs with mint in a cranberry sauce with a mild chocolate ice cream and fromage frais. This was a lovely combination of flavours. We had a very nice red Bordeaux wine, which cost about £26 – wine isn’t cheap in Belgium.

Coffee came in individual pots and was served with lots of petit fours – truffles etc. It was an excellent meal and cost about £100. That was around the same price as the last time we ate there. The head waiter had been there on our previous visit and he said he recognised us. He was very friendly and chatted quite a lot. A younger waiter, who was there when we arrived, told us he had worked at a hotel restaurant in Oakham for two summers.
On 29th November, we went to the Bloch patisserie for breakfast. We had decided to eat there, as we remembered it from our last visit. The cheese bagels and coffee were very good and cost around £6. Afterwards, we went to look at the flea market. This was the real thing and I daresay there were one or two real fleas amongst the rubbish! There were quite a few antique and junk shops around the area and we went into one of them. It had all sorts of weird things for sale, from dolls to harmoniums, including all sorts of old clothing and furniture. There were lots of strange things swimming in murky liquids in jars and we didn’t look too closely at those.

After a brief trip back to the hotel, we went to look for somewhere for lunch. We were both looking forward to visiting Leon for mussels and chips. Unfortunately, it wasn’t where we remembered it had been and had either closed or moved. We looked at several cafés and eventually went in Monopol. They had mussels on the menu, but only in portions of 1½ kilograms for £11! When we asked if we could share a portion, we were told that we couldn’t. We were rather disappointed, and decided to have salad and chips. Norman had Chevre and I had Roquefort with walnuts. The salads were very nice and the meals cost about £16.50 including coffees.

After lunch we called in the Pakhuis restaurant, to book a table for Saturday night. Unfortunately, they were booked up so we reserved for that evening instead. It was quite a bright afternoon, so we crossed St. Michael’s Bridge and wandered round that area. There were a few narrow streets with antique shops and restaurants. These streets led up to the Castle of the Counts. We walked a little further over to the convent, which we had seen on our previous visit, and then back to the main shopping street. By this time, it was quite cold so we went into FNAC to warm up!

Back at the hotel, we had a late siesta before showering and changing. We had apple juice in the hotel bar before setting off for the Pakhuis, where we were eating at 9.30pm. When we arrived there, the restaurant was very busy. There was a good atmosphere and the service was pleasant.
We both had dog whelks with mayonnaise to start with. They were very cheap and very good, as was the bread and butter. Then I had a huge fillet steak with wild mushrooms in port and mashed Jerusalem artichokes. Norman had a sirloin steak with endives, carrots, béarnaise sauce and chips. Everything was really good. We had Spa water with the meal and double espressos (Illy) afterwards. It cost about £40. We returned to the hotel, wishing the restaurant hadn’t been fully booked for the next evening. I think we would have been extremely tempted to return there.

Next morning we went back to Bloch for breakfast of cheese bagels and coffee. Then we wandered around the cathedral area to the market square and from there to the old restaurant area. After a brief return to the hotel, we went out to explore in a different direction, turning left by the Law Courts. We ended up close to the convent area where we had been the previous day. We made our way back to the city centre and went into the Anouschka snack bar in Groentenmakt for waffles and cream and orange juice for about £6.

Next we went to the area where the Klokhuis restaurant is and found more places to eat on Vronwebroerstraat. Just by chance we saw a photographic exhibition in that street, and decided to go in. It was all shots taken on the set of The Misfits and was very good.
We continued to wander around this area, which borders on Kraanlei, and found several art shops and ethnic restaurants. The street we were on eventually led back into Cordwanierstraat. On our way back, we walked down a street parallel to Veldstraat, the main shopping street, and eventually glimpsed what we thought was the main station. Only later, did I realise that this was the other railway station in Ghent – Gent-Zuid. We cut back from there in the direction of the hotel and arrived back there at around 4pm.

We left the hotel again shortly before 7pm to look for a restaurant. After trying a few places and finding that most were fully booked, we went into Karel de Stoute and decided to have the game menu, including wine in Norman’s case. We started with a glass of cava, followed by a piece of toast, two tiny round pieces of goat’s cheese with kiwi fruit, duck pâté in pastry with cumquat and cream of mushroom soup. There were nice bread rolls but a sort of lardy grease instead of butter. When we were offered butter instead, we accepted gladly. Next we had a wonderful starter of smoked venison (roe deer) with rocket type salad leaves and lots of different berries – redcurrants, blackberries, crab apples and so on with a subtle truffle sauce. This was beautifully presented and served with lovely granary bread. Norman had a nice South African red wine and we shared a bottle of mineral water. After this, we had a venison consommé with tomatoes and rosemary followed by a champagne sorbet.

We were sadly disappointed when the main courses arrived, as they had none of the subtlety of the starter. I had venison in a redcurrant sauce and Norman had pheasant in a mushroom sauce. We both had croquette potatoes, endives cooked in honey and figs. The sauces were heavy and floury and spoiled the meal. Norman had an Italian red wine with this.

With coffee, we had advocaat with hazel nuts, nougat, a Belgian chocolate and two sponge and cream mixtures. One of these was strawberry and the other was a little like tiramisu. They were all rather sweet. The whole meal cost about £80 but was disappointing after such a good beginning. We were back at the hotel at 10.45pm.

On Sunday, 1st December, we went to the Grand Café, next to the flower market, for coffee and then walked around the market for a short time. We didn’t stay out for long as it had started raining quite heavily. Soon after 12 noon, we left the hotel again and went for lunch at the Theatre Café, next to the Opera House. This café/restaurant has an international staff of very good looking young people – mainly girls. There were all colours and races and we heard several of them speaking English in addition to Flemish and French.

We both had foie gras (goose pâté on this occasion), with a nice chutney and toast. Then we had cod with mashed potato and shredded endive in a cream and shrimp sauce. It was quite nice and cost about £46 including a bottle of mineral water. Afterwards we went for a brief walk around before returning to the hotel bar to read our books. The weather was quite unpleasant.

At about 7.30pm, we went out again and decided to eat at the Klokhuis. We had eaten there the last time we were in Ghent, but had chosen to have Flemish dishes of Waterzoi and beef stew, neither of which dishes were to our taste. After giving the restaurant a second chance, we knew we had made a mistake. The fish soup was quite good, apart from the skin left on the salmon. Norman had steak, served in gravy with chips. He said the meat was tender but tasteless. I had ordered a timbale of fish but was served with a brochette for fish served with Chinese type noodles. It was pointless complaining, as there are always language difficulties in a foreign country and mistakes are easily made. However, I had seen various meals being served which looked particularly unappetising and had pretty well lost my appetite by this time. This was probably as well because the meal wasn’t good and I left most of it. I had a cherry Kreik and Norman had white beer with the meal. We decided to have coffee elsewhere and the bill came to £28 – not a fortune but we won’t go there again, despite the Michelin recommendation. Afterwards, we walked back to the Theatre Café, where we had coffee before returning to the hotel.