My chat with Boris got me thinking about my own visit to Belgium. 

I spent a week in Ghent with my lifelong friend and travel buddy, Lisa. We had been overseas for not even two weeks, unaware of the new adventures and life changes that, over the years, would come from our jaunt around Europe. We took a train from Amsterdam; watched the countryside, drew little pictures  of our adventures, ate some hastily purchased bitterballen. 

Then, we were in Belgium. We were set to meet our Couchsurfing host at the train station, so we chatted with a sausage vendor, who sang us an aria from his favourite opera. 

Our host was a wry young woman with blonde dreadlocks and bright, colourful clothing. We spent many happy evenings with her.  On our first night, we accompanied her to a local taverne, where her friends held an underground "pay what you can" dinner party. We dropped some euros into a jar next to an enormous pot of stew, and sat at a big, crowded table.  We clinked glasses of beer, and tucked into deep bowls of lentil soup as wisps of smoke and the snippets of Flemish floated around us. 
We chatted with many people that night, and though we'd just eaten, we of course we began asking about food. Lisa and I had spent a good portion of our train journey discussing how excited we were to try frieten, which are Belgian style chips, served hot in a paper cone. When we asked our new friends about where to get the best ones, they all agreed on one thing; no matter where we go, we must get speciaalsaus. It was, of course, the first thing we did when we were on our own in the city the next day.

So, what is speciaalsaus? It's a combination of mayonnaise, ketchup, and curry, with a bit of chopped onion. It's easy to make and absolutely delicious on chips. I'm sure this would also be good with sausages, burgers, or pretty much anything fried.
In my interview with Boris, he says he prefers his fries late at night, with "just salt", but  the mention of Belgian frieten evoked such fond memories. The other day, it was really slow in the restaurant where I cook, so I made myself some fries and decided to try and make some sauce.
One taste, and I was transported right back to Ghent, sitting in a little shop with my best friend, giggling over our travels, wondering what was ahead, and dipping hot frites into speciaalsaus.

Belgian Speciaalsaus

2 tbsp mayonnaise

1 1/2 tbsp ketchup

1 tsp curry powder

1/4 of an onion, diced

Combine ingredients.  Enjoy.

I know this isn't much of a recipe, but hopefully it will be of good use to you. 

Lisa. Ghent. Adventure awaits.

"Breakfast is my favourite moment of the day."

Boris Gronemberger, the drummer of Belgian band Girls in Hawaii was such a delight to interview. He even provided his recipe for ham quiche, which I will be posting later this week!

If you'd like to see Boris and his bandmates in action, Girls in Hawaii are playing at a variety of music festivals in Europe over the summer. And definitely give their newest video, Rorschach, a watch.  

There will be recipes inspired by this interview coming soon. Enjoy! 

Patchwork Tablecloth: What are your favourite foods?

Boris Gronemberger: Beside French or Belgian traditional food, I love Italian, Lebanese, Indian and Mexican food.

PT:  What sort of food do you like to cook?

BG: Any kind of pastas but I also like to make quiche.  My favourite is leeks, carrots and ham quiche. I do the pastry myself, using olive oil, flour, water and salt.  

PT: What are your favourite holidays or celebrations? What foods do you associate with them?

BG: Summer holidays are my favourite because of the barbecues. I love salads, grilled meat and vegetables and bananas as desert.

PT: What are your favourite fruits and vegetables?

BG: Pears, apples, strawberries, prunes, leek,  carrot, endives, pumpkins.

PT: What did you eat as a child? 

BG: Mainly pancakes, fish sticks, pastas with tomato sauce, meat, and of course, chocolate.

PT: Imagine your refrigerator. What do you see inside?

BG: I see some seasonal vegetables; for now leeks, carrots, parsnips, parsley. Cheese; Comté, goat cheese. Eggs from the countryside, bacon, tofu, rice milk, yoghurt... 

PT: Are there any foods you dislike? What are they?

BG: Seafood, all of it. I'm definitely not a seafood fan. 

PT: Where do you consider yourself to be "from"? Please tell me a bit about the food in the place where you grew up, the place you live now, and, if you'd like, anywhere else that is important to you.

BG: I usually say that I come from the woods. I'm coming from a small town located in the Ardenne, a region in the south of Belgium.  It's called Bouillon. It has a very nice middle age castle and it's surrounded by the Semois river- famous for its tobacco and its trouts.

The town of Bouillon. Photo by Boris Gronemberger.

I don't really see any specific meal. We love meat as it's mainly a hunting area.  Maybe the most specific thing would be the sauce we use. It's called sauce Ardennaise or 'à l'Ardennaise. 

It's mainly made of cream, butter and slices of bacon and maybe some parsley.You can find any meat, or fish or even mussels à l'Ardennaise. Even Salad. All you need is to put that creamy sauce on top of anything or just some slices of bacon.

Now I'm living in Brussels and pretty much ironically I got to know about vegetables here... It's much easier to find vegetarian restaurants here and I was part of a local farming support group. That helped me a lot discovering lots of unknown or forgotten vegetables. 

PT: What is your typical breakfast?

BG: Breakfast is my favourite moment of the day.
I mainly eat toasts and jam but when I have time, I have my two favourites that are extremely opposite:

One;  Eggs, bacon, beans, toast.

Kousmine Budwig Cream.  Photo by Boris Gronemberger.

Two; the Kousmine Budwig Cream. It just helps me feel better sometime. It's like a magic potion! 

When you have this in the morning you can be sure it's gonna stick to your body for half a day. 

PT: What are your favourite beverages?

BG: Japanese green tea; genmaicha. Coffee.

Beer. We have thousands of them in Belgium but for now it's Guldenberg.  Whisky...I like Singleton pretty much.

PT: Which sweets and desserts do you like best?

BG: Chocolate cake is my favourite ever. 

PT: What is your favourite combination of flavours?

BG: I recently went to a Cuban restaurant and had what they called El Nacional. It's made of pork meat, plantains , rice, black beans and a creamy peanut sauce. That was a real kick for me.

PT: What is something interesting that you've eaten during your travels?

BG: Pollo mole in Tucson, Arizona. Chicken breast with beans, rice and spicy chocolate sauce. Simply amazing.

PT: What is the best thing you can remember eating?

BG: This pollo mole in Tucson is probably one of my best. 

PT:  Do you have any food-related family traditions? What are they? 

BG: For my birthday, I used to ask my mother to cook roasted pork topped with a tomato, wine and bacon sauce. Another variation of the Ardennaise sauce but without cream.

PT: Are there certain foods you like to cook or eat during certain seasons? What are they?

BG: I love barbcues but I also like winter courses. Any simmered course is welcome. like blanquette of veal with rice. 

PT: What is your favourite food related smell? 

BG: Toast and coffee in the morning.

PT: What do you like best on pizza?

BG: I like pretty much ham, cheese, tomato, pineapples. We call it the pizza Hawaii.

But there is one place in Brussels where they serve pizza with potatoes and a creamy truffle sauce. That's what I have every time I go there.

PT: You're throwing a party. What are you serving?

BG: Some cheese, crisps and guacamole, dried sausages. White pudding and some raw vegetable; carrots, zucchinis.

PT: It's 2 am and you're making your way home after a big night out. What are you eating?

BG: If i'm on my way home, I'll definitely go for some fries... only with salt.
But if I'm home, I might make myself a big sandwich with ham and cheese. 

PT:  Please tell me about a memory- any memory- that somehow relates to food.

BG: It was in Beiruit. I was on tour and we had dinner in a small restaurant where two guys were playing traditional music and there were only local people, no tourists.

After a while, everybody was singing and smoking narghile, men and women together.
It was just after the civil war and everybody was laughing. Such a wonderful experience and the food was excellent.
Lebanese food is one of the finest in the Mediterranean Sea and also one of my favourite.