Apparently I’d booked a solo mission to Brussels some time over Christmas so at 5 am on a Wednesday morning found me hauling myself out of bed to get the early train out of St P.

The plan for the day was a morning full of art followed by an afternoon full of art. Magritte was the early stop and it was a real pleasure to revisit his gaff. The timer around it was his portraits that stood out for me (something I didn’t notice previously) but it was a chore to find that the shop was closed for stocktaking and another minor irritant, how could a museum that big (Magritte is on the same site as the Old Masters) not have even a basic coffee shop?

I guess it’s good for local trade, as I forced to go out into the smudgy cold Belgian weather to look for lunch. Squeezed between a QuickBurger and a kebab shop I found exactly what I was looking for – Le Trappiste.

The room is over a hundred years old (as, it would seem, is most of the clientèle) and is the perfect example of a good, no nonsense bistro. I got a table near the window and perused the menu. This mixes local classics (mussels (in a variety of ways), stoemp, carbonade) with varying local classics on the specials menu (hare, boar, fish).

I ordered a boar stew with a quart of house red from the almost too Begian-looking waiter (think Eddy Mercx crossed with Jacques Brel). A few nibbles with the wine were half complete when the stew turned up. The stew was a deep flavoured plate of brown sauce containing plenty of meat, bacon, carrots and celery. Just about as perfect a dish as you could get on a chilly, sleep-deprived day. At 30-odd euros the value was high, though the rapidity of the service make me wonder if it is a long lunchable place for future visits.

And with that it was back to the Old Masters where the highlight was the almost obscene amount of high quality Breugels. And an excellent Bacon of a pensive Pope. Worth getting up early for.

8/10

To see where else I’ve been click on the google map below.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=18qCyiPZih_gzhGG8mwfacnNRWD3b0bo&ehbc=2E312F

Art Belgium Food Brussels Food