Week #10: Belgium

This is going to be a great week! We're taking our tastebuds to Belgium!!!

I've found so many interesting recipes and lots of great info about Belgian food. This country's cuisine isn't just about chocolate, waffles and beer, although its certainly lauded for each of them, and more. Dutch, German and French influences yield hearty soups and stews. Also, despite just a sliver of coastline, many recipes prominently feature fish and seafood, like pike, bass and even eel! (Don't think I'll tackle that last ingredient, but I've got another signature seafood dish in mind...)

Perhaps it's most famous ingredient, however, bears it's name. Belgian endive, discovered there in 1830, is a bitter lettuce-like relative of chicory that grows heartily in its native country. Belgians call it "white gold" and rank it among the world's most exotic and luxurious ingredients, like saffron, caviar and truffles. There are red a green varieties and, depending on how they're prepared, their flavor changes, making endive an ideal component of everything from soups to stews to salads.

To me, though, it's most marked trait is the debate over how to pronounce it. According to this chef, you say it just like it looks, "EN-dive." This clever commercial begs to differ and calls it "on-DEEV." (Amazingly, the PronunciationHub's explanation differs from both!) Turns out, according to this site, both the chef and the commercial are correct, but there are different pronunciations because they're different plants. I guess, in the end, it's just another case of toe-MAY-toe and toe-MAH-toe.

So, join me as we sample some famous Flemish flavors! They're sure to be delicious!