There was a front room and a second, slightly more formal room to the side. Neither looked all that familiar to me; I'm hoping youse guise will recognize it from these pics:
Front room
Side room, where I ate
I was the only solo diner in the room, and Salvator, my waiter, didn't look too thrilled when I ordered hot tea as my apertif (*sigh - I get that a lot in Europe*). He warmed up considerably when, in truly fractured French, I told him about eating at Aux Armes as a child. We figured out that he had moved to Brussels the year we left, and he also told me that he has been working at the restaurant for 31 years! I ordered Moules Mariniere and a Dame Blanche for dessert, which he termed my " repas traditionelle", and for the rest of the meal, he and the other waiters were very solicitous and attentive.
Was it good? Was it as good as I remembered it being? Was it the same?
I have a terrible visual memory but my gustatory memory says yes, yes, and YES! Exactly the same: celery, onion, and parsley in the broth, which got richer and richer as I ate; incredibly fat, tender mussels, fantastic bread to sop up the broth, awesome frites! Yum!
Avant le diner
I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the Dame Blanche - maybe because it was gone so fast! Gosh, but it was good - and it, too, tasted JUST as sublime, in its unerringly simple perfection, as it used to : really good vanilla ice cream, darkdarkdark chocolate sauce, and barely-sweetened whipped cream. The only difference, and it WAS a sad one: no super-thin, super-crispy waffle cookie on the top. You can't have it all!
Sibs, once again I ask you: memories?
The next day, I went into town and sat at a sweet little cafe near the Grande Place for my coffee. Across from me was a restaurant which says it all:
I know it looks like it says La Moule Sucree - the sugared mussel - but it actually says La Moule Sacree: the sacred mussel. Indeed.
8 comments:
Oh goodie.. a food post!! I remember Aux Armes de Bruxelles so well.. the moules.. the frites.. and a delectable appetizer called fondue parmesan..(how to make it follows)! And I remember all those cafes lining the street,,oh man.. I am SO hungry! Hey. Lanaux, remember Mom always served moules with a little ramikan of dijon mixed with vinegar along side.. do they do that in the restaurants? I always hated the prep, as I would be scrubbing this whole kitchen sinkful of mussels.. and those nasty little beards.. but oh baby.. what a dinner.. with those fabulous bagettes from the little patisserie down the lane.
Okay.. for fondue parmesan you make a very stiff bechamel sauce, add in copious amounts of gruyere and parmesan... chill till firm.. cut into good sized cubes.. bread and fry gently till the outside is golden and the interior is all melty..I ordered it every time!
Jeez, how could I not remember the cheese fondue thing? But I don't. However, as soon as I get back to a real kitchen, I'll be following your recipe! They don't serve the dijon/vinegar side at Aux Armes. You are bringing back soooo many memories, like scrubbing mussels at home....ewww - and eating loaves and loaves of bread sopping up the juice - and wasn't Mom also crazy about meat fondue when we lived in Belgium? Seems like we had that a lot....Back then, I remember the smell and super sweetness of the gaufres - waffle -things they used to sell on the street - had one while I was there and it was super delish!
Yes, I think that was when beef fondue became popular.. and another fav was stuffed breast of veal.. remember Mom would get those amazing veal breasts at the butcher.. stuff them.. serve them with that lovely sour cream and paprika sauce.. I remember the smell of those gaufres too.. not being much of a sweet eater I don't think I ever ate one, but I did like the way they perfumed the air..
You guys have GOT to stop talking about food! I am salivating and yearning and imagining all kinds of good things, and, Lanaux, you have heard my lament about the dreariness of cooking for one enough times, I won't do it to you again.
Oh lord, Lucy, your description of the fondue parmesan nearly made me swoon out of my computer chair.
Hi Anna, anyone who admits to swooning out of computer chair over food should be a friend of mine!! We Cookes will go on and on about food...
@Lu I just want to make sure I understand the recipe for the fondue parmesan. You start with a bechamel sauce, which means a butter-flour white sauce. Then you add cheese. And then you fry it? A breaded-fried-butter-cheese cube?
WOW!
Ken, yes.. it's kind of like making a croquette. The bechamel is made, then the cheeses added while the sauce is very hot. After all is melted, you correct your base seasonings and chill the sauce in a pan. When the sauce chills it becomes quite solid. You cut fairly good sized cubes, bread them with a standard flour/eggs/crumbs breading (though I might use panko instead of regular bread crumbs) and fry them gently.. not too hot.. so they brown to a golden on the outside while the center becomes soft and oozy.. trust me.. this is kick ass good! You have to use really good gruyere and really good parmesan. The quality of the cheeses is what makes this.
Anna Branscome, meet Lucy Little, who obviously missed her calling as a food and cookbook author in all the hullaballoo of having - and cooking for - a family, as well as briefly running an absolutely amazing restaurant, The French Pantry. Lu, meet Anna, whom Carter and I met on our first trip to England with W&M 18 years ago, when she was just a wee little (incredibly brilliant) lassie of, what was it, Anna, 18???????
Yo, Ken - if the "breaded-fried-butter-cheese-cube" wasn't a Belgian creation, it would have to be....DUTCH, where all things from a cow RULE! Am I right? And...don't you want some?????
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