Belgium 2016
Spa - but you don't want my race commentary.... breakfast:
This weekend, my parents came to visit. Having been told that they had to join us for race day breakfast, they were not looking forward to it (having previously been subject to kuih lapis - see blog for Malaysia, March 2015).
As we have come to realise, the 'continental breakfast' is common to most of the continent. Bread with cold meat and cheese seams to be the standard morning meal for all of Europe - except the Brits, who apparently eat corn flakes. So again we emphasised the Belgian variants.
This involved adding smoked salmon (Scottish), Gouda cheese (actually Dutch not Belgium) and croissants (apparently has become Belgian 'tradition'). And so we see that Belgium is merely a muddle of the nations around.
Fruit salad was mentioned in some commentaries as an accompaniment to breakfast in Belgium so we did that too. We chose a colourful mix of watermelon, apple, grapes, banana, mango and blueberries.
We made a traditional breakfast bread called cramique. A slightly sweetened buttery white bread filled with cinnamon soaked raisins. Heidi loves it, and for this alone, I think Belgium might be a contender for 'best of the year'.
To accompany the savoury meat and cheese I made a granary loaf too, making up a recipe as I went. Despite having more flour than the cramique I might have not allowed sufficient proving time, but the end result was by all a good tasting bread, albeit small.
I forgot to add to the table the Nutella, but which went unnoticed. This might however have been the clincher for topping Heidi's favourites list.
My parents need not have been afraid, but Tally resolved to eat just a slice of plain white bread and as much smoked salmon and Port Salut as we would let her.
This weekend, my parents came to visit. Having been told that they had to join us for race day breakfast, they were not looking forward to it (having previously been subject to kuih lapis - see blog for Malaysia, March 2015).
As we have come to realise, the 'continental breakfast' is common to most of the continent. Bread with cold meat and cheese seams to be the standard morning meal for all of Europe - except the Brits, who apparently eat corn flakes. So again we emphasised the Belgian variants.
This involved adding smoked salmon (Scottish), Gouda cheese (actually Dutch not Belgium) and croissants (apparently has become Belgian 'tradition'). And so we see that Belgium is merely a muddle of the nations around.
Fruit salad was mentioned in some commentaries as an accompaniment to breakfast in Belgium so we did that too. We chose a colourful mix of watermelon, apple, grapes, banana, mango and blueberries.
We made a traditional breakfast bread called cramique. A slightly sweetened buttery white bread filled with cinnamon soaked raisins. Heidi loves it, and for this alone, I think Belgium might be a contender for 'best of the year'.
To accompany the savoury meat and cheese I made a granary loaf too, making up a recipe as I went. Despite having more flour than the cramique I might have not allowed sufficient proving time, but the end result was by all a good tasting bread, albeit small.
I forgot to add to the table the Nutella, but which went unnoticed. This might however have been the clincher for topping Heidi's favourites list.
My parents need not have been afraid, but Tally resolved to eat just a slice of plain white bread and as much smoked salmon and Port Salut as we would let her.
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| Folding in raisins |
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| Big bread, little bread |
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| All tucking in |
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| Fruit salad |
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| Example of Heidi's Nutella addiction and the associated mess (from our recent holiday in Brittany) |
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| Everyone enjoys a walk at the Newport Wetlands Reserve (Dad appears to be checking his hair is keeping neat) |
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