SOME BELGIAN CUSTOMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3197, 23 June 1915, Page 73

SOME BELGIAN CUSTOMS.

By Edith Seaklu Grossman, M.A. Now that nearly all nationalities wear the same dress, the principal distinctions left amongst men are in their meals, although even the diet is beginning to be more and more nearly the same everywhere. In old chronicles the Flemish had the reputation of being fond of good living, and this reputation is borne out by the many pictures their old masters painted of feasting in tavern, cottage, and hall. They were, before the war, essentially a middle-class people, with practically no nobilty or aristocracy. They were still what Scott describes his heroes as being, “valiant trenchermen,” feasting liberally on thick soups and broths, meats, Belgian pastries and savouries, and drinking freely wines, spirits, and beer. Highly esthetic people have even objected to the saints and angels of Eubens on the ground that they were too fleshly, and the type was still common. There was another side of .the Belgian character that was not so often dwelt upon, and that was the reverse of all this —an imaginative mysticism that is seen in Maeterlinck. But one cannot discuss that side in a culinary article.

Tourists’ experiences do not, of course, represent the local customs of the inhabitants very accurately. But tourists had so overflocded this little country that they had formed a surface life of their own in it. An idea of their importance can be got from the fact that in some parts of Belgium, especially in Ostend, the visitors greatly outnumbered the native population, Thousands of cheap excursionists came from London and all over England by the Dover-Ostend boats in August and September. Another class of tourists were artists and people of artistic tastes, including those interested in the romances of history and architecture. Each of these classes had to be catered for, and it is a proof of something commendably stubborn in the Belgians that they managed to retain so much still of their national wai, and customs* Before the great tragedy of this war they mixed «very little with foreign visitors or residents except the French.

Except in hotels, and pensions especially meant for British and often kept by London landladies, the night’s fast was broken early in the morning, .and about the hour vfhen English ladies and maids take their first cup of tea, Belgian tourists were dressed and seated at a long dining table, taking morning coffee and hot bread. In the Ardennes and some other parts you were provided with a whole coffee-pot to yourself, hot milk enough to supply a small family, and a new loaf (rather than the customary roll), with butter, preserves, or honey and fresh fruit. At halfpast 12, or even earlier, came the midday meal—a very substantial dinner. It began with hors d’oeuvres and olives, and went on to thick and often rather greasy soup, unlike the coloured watery gravies of English and French hotels. A large bowl of this was set before you. Then followed two or three meat courses, of which one might be beef, another mutton, and another veal. For an ordinary Britisher this merely meant choosing which you prefered and waiting until it came round. Stewed or boiled meats predominated over roasts, though not so

much as in other Continental countries. Vegetables were - cooked differently from the English way, and the same kinds were not in favour in the two countries. No English puddings were known. Belgians, especially in Brussels, were famous for their pastries, small and large tarts, of great variety of shape, colour, and flavour, and sometimes delicious. These were all made at the pastrycooks. Even the hotel landlady and the mistress of a private household sent to the pastrycook for her swests. One of the common sights of the streets was a white-aproned cook or shopman, carrying on his head a tray with an elaborate tart or number of little tarts. Such large quantities of food were given for each “portion” that tourists had got into the habit of asking for two plates and sharing their portion with a companion. There was generally for the midday meal some “plat du jour,” or “dish of the day,” cooked without being specially ordered, and generally at a lower cost than those extra dishes which could be bad on order’. At the two principal meals you were expected to drink wine, beer, or spirits in considerable quantities, and if you did not, instead of being charged less you were charged more by the waiter to signify disapproval of your habits. In a real Belgian establishment of any kind there was no such thing as afternoon tea to be had ; but the Belgians themselves often dropped in to a cafe, or rather took a seat in front of one of the hotels, and ordered coffee or liqueur or absinthe. The 6 o’clock meal was very much like the midday meal. In the Ardennes you could get excellent tea at one or two places, but rarely else-

where. Even in Brussels there were not many tea shops and in Liege only one good one. In the smaller villages, if you asked at the cafes or restaurants for tea you created regular consternation. In old-fashioned private households what we mean by tea was unknown, and when Madame H. first settled in Belgium and remarked to her new relatives that she would like a cup of tea, they said with polite anxiety, ,f ßut are you illY What is the matter with you?’ “Belgian tea was a kind of tisane made of bitter herb and drunk to cure certain disease and ailments. Packets of this herb appeared in ship windows with the misleading label of tea.”

Instead of giving afternoon teas, Belgian ladies gave very elaborate afternoon coffees, when coffees, wine, or liqueurs were served with pastries, cakes, and more solid food. In small villages like Hermalle the people seemed to live on meagre fare. The bread was somewhat coarse, and hard brown bread with a slightly bitter flavour, and good butter hard to get.

Besides the hotels and cafes there were all over Flanders .places called estaminets, simple, but generally perfectly respectable and clean, where meals could be had at a low price. I entered one in Bruges—a large, clean room or hall with long tables, and with benches instead of chairs. The food consisted of "Flemish dishes, served in the Flemish way. These estaminets had a certain local interest, and must not be confounded with ordinary inferior eating house. They were probably in existence long before modem cafes and tourist hotels.

In the Ardennes, in hotels frequented year after year by the same artists or same class of people, the meals were much less elaborate than in the large towns, but with fewer courses; the food was much better in quality. Indeed, the food of the Ardennes vied with that of Holland and Belgium for the reputation of being the best to be got on this globe. There was no great variety and comparatively little imported, but'bread, meat, milk, and vegetables were the best of their kind, and preserves, fruit, and pastries excellent. The reason given me by a Belgian was that everything was homegrown and home-made, which suggests that foreign commerce is not quite such a desirable thing as people suppose. It always means sending away the best out of the country to the largest markets for consumption in grand hotels and in the wealthiest households.