Belgian beer, chocolate, waffles and frites are marketed in Britain as traditional, high quality Belgian products.  For tourists, these products are also strongly pushed as souvenirs around the centre of Brussels.  It was disappointing to see so many of the same products on sale in Belgium as in Britain.  Notably, many of the same chocolates and beer brands crowd the shelves in expensive shops.  However, by looking a little deeper,  it is possible to find more exciting produce, at a nicer price too.

Beer

Many of the shops and bars have recognisable brands such as Chimay, Leffe, Hoegarden and Duval on sale – the same as in the UK.  There are however, a staggering array of other types of beer, including Amber ales (pale), the lighter Blonde beers, slightly sour or fruity Lambic beers, white wheat beer or one of many more.

Trappist Beers are manufactured by Monks and have some of the oldest and most traditional brewing methods.   Abbey beers are produced by breweries where the original Trappist monastery no longer exists, no longer brews or are just sometimes commercial attempts to imitate Trappist beers.  Although numbers have fallen, Belgium still boasts hundreds of small, independent breweries.
La Morte Subite (Sudden Death) is both a bar and a brewery, where the fourth generation of the family serve up a wonderful array of beers (nearly 30 to choose from) in the fabulous 1920′s style bar which has been home to the bar since 1928.

Alternatively, if in Bruges, why not try the Brugse Zot (Bruges Fool) brewed at De Halve Maan (The Half Moon) – Bruges last remaining family brewery.  Enjoy a tour of the brewery, grab some lunch or just sample the beer.  Periodically steaming piles of mashed hops/barley/wheat are ejected down a wooden chute and into a barrow.  The aroma reminds you that the place is a working brewery, if somewhat touristy.  The beer is a wonderful, light, crisp refreshing beer, ideal in the sunshine after pounding the inexhaustibly picturesque streets of Bruges.

Frites

It was surprising to learn that the Belgians take frites very very seriously.  None of this French Fries nonsense.  As with the waffles, mobile serveries and street hatches serve up low cost frites left right and centre.  Popular with locals and tourists alike, there always seems to be a queue.  Frites are cooked once then, re-fried before being served to you.  This adds extra crispness and a deep golden colour.  A theatrical process of tossing the frites high in the air is observed, portion by portion, to adequately mix in the salt.  Hence the queues as each portion is cooked up to order and served with ketchup and mayonnaise in a truly continental fashion.

Waffles & Chocolate

Waffles do seem to be present everywhere in Belgium.  The smell of hot waffles off the irons from street side serving hatches fills the air of many a street.  Dangerously delicious, the light, crispy waffles are uniformly good; most probably because of the huge volume produced meaning yours is almost always as fresh as can be.

There are an alarming array of chocolate shops dotted around the centre of Brussels and Bruges, making chocolate fresh on-site, all very expensive and seemingly reluctant to give out samples.  A box of 10-12 sophisticated little chocs could cost anything from €12-15 upwards in these shops, although the choice and more importantly, aroma is wonderful.  There didn’t seem to be anything particularly Belgian about the type (truffles, mousses, praline etc) or flavours (coffee, fruit, nuts etc) but they all boasted high cocoa content Belgian chocolate.  Perhaps the growth in ‘high end’ chocolates in the UK over the last few years means the novelty of the fine Belgian chocs is not what it once was.

Restaurants

Having somewhat patronisingly heard Belgian food described as Peasant food, there appeared be precious little of it around in Central Brussels at least.  Unsuprisingly, most restaurants around La Grande Place and the Lower City are very touristy, selling Mussel & Frites at very high prices (~€20 and somewhat disappointing).

For something a little more sedate, Place Saint Cathering, in the old docks area, offers a more relaxed environment.  Again the restaurants are on the pricey side of reasonable and generally not particarly inspring.
A good choice would be  L’Achepot in the Place Saint Catherine.  It offers reasonable value, aparrently more traditional food, including a good variety of fish and offal.  They have several Belgian beers to choose from and a nice terrace, slightly away from the busier main square.  Very informal and full of locals, the Rabbit fricasse was served up with all the offal and some good crusty bread.  The black pudding, servied with apple and mashed potato is a tempting dish for the less adventourous who want to have a traditional dish.