Chocolate Museum and Sushi

Now that it's all over, what did you really do yesterday that's worth mentioning?  ~Coleman Cox

A little about Belgium: Right now Belgium does not have a government, yet it's national pride dates way back before it became an independent country in 1830.  The word Belgium actually comes from Ceaser around 60 B.C.  Belgium's political history is made up of a serious of compromises.  This is due to the major opinion differences in Belgium.  There are language borders and political separation. Due to the major differences in Northern and Southern Belgium, there has always been a question of whether Belgium should split into 2 separate countries.

Northern Belgium, who was once part of the Netherlands, is the Flanders area.  They speak mainly Flemish (Dutch) and are for the separation of Belgium.  The Southern area is called Wallonia, they speak mostly French and are mainly against the separation of Belgium since economically they are farther behind than the Flanders area.  This is due to the fact that after WWII most of the aid given by through the United States Marshall Plan was recieved by Flanders.  Therefore, Wallonia had more trouble recovering after the war, industrially and economically.

 

When I asked a Francaphone (native Belgian French speaker), what the drinking age was.  She said there really isn't one set.  People are responsible about what they drink and they teach their children as they grow up how to handle alcohol.  When I asked my host parents what the

drinking age was they just looked at each other - they had no idea.

The Belgians are very proud of the language they speak whether it be Dutch or French. Oh! By the way, Brussels is not part of Flanders or Wallonia.  It is a completely different area, with different views, but definitely more of a mix of languages (mainly French) and political views.  Most of the people working in Brussels do not live in Brussels - they commute.  There is also an area in Southeastern Belgium which speaks German - this is the area which the French helped the Belgians conquer in between World Wars.  It has been a part of Belgium ever since then.

 

The Brussels Chocolate Museum.

The baby above is made of all chocolate.  Belgium is known for its chocolate and the Belgians are every proud of their chocolate.  Below is a part of the museum where there are articles of clothing made from all chocolate.

 

The Belgians are not as bubbly as the Americans.  They tend to keep to themselves and mind their own business.  It takes a while for you to get to know them.  It is actually found rude to ask a Belgian you just met about anything more than the weather.  But, after a couple times of small talk they tend to warm up to you and are extremely nice and friendly.

Belgians kiss on the cheek when creating someone informally.  This is the same for both men and women.  Also, when in a grocery store for instance, if a Belgian sees a friend across the way but does not feel like going to say hi, it is normal for them to just acknowledge each-others presence with a simple nod.  This especially occurs when the Belgian sees that the friend is with their significant other.  This is just one example of how they allow others privacy.

Below is the worlds largets sugar bean.

 

This is found in the Brussels Chocolate Museum.  At the end of the self guided tour we got to taste the chocolate on a famous cookie called speculoos.  Speculoos is an extremely popular cookie which Belgium is known for.  It was orignanly a cookie and then made in to a paste.  A popular summer meal i speculoos stuck inebtween two pieces of bread with butter.  Or, just a thin piece of chocolate in between two pices of bread.  

At the chocolate museum they served us melted chocolate so we dipped the speculoos in and voila! Bon apetite!  It is very polite for Belgians to say the phrase "bon apetite" if they see someone eating or right before eating a meal with family and friends.  My host family says it before we eat, right after the meal is served on our plates.  It is also ok for people at the dinner table to begin eating before everyone has their meal.  The Belgian's main concern is to eat the food while its hot.

Below is a picture of Jiemin holding parts of our homemade sushi.  you can see my host mother in the background observing us.  She is very fond of our kitchen and keeps it completely spotless, therefore she is not particularly happy when we use it.

 

On the weekends my host family is not required to feed us dinner.  So almost everyother Sunday, my two housemates (Janice and Jiemin) make sushi. Jiemin taught us how to do it the first Sunday and from then on we switched off who bought the supplies and who made the sushi rolls. 

 

Believe it or not the sushi contains egg, hot dog, carrot, and cucumber.  You can see the pieces of ginger in between the sushi.  First we make the rice and let it dry.  While its drying we cut the egg, hot dog, carrot, and cucumber into long thin pieces.  Once the rice is no longer wet, we add the rice vinegar to make it sticky.  Then we spread the rice across the seaweed sheet (about the size of a piece of paper).  Then we pile the egg, hot dog, carrot, and cucumber pieces on top of each other and role it up using a special sushi roler.  Next we cut the sushi and voila! Bon apetite!