Street Food, Belgian Style...

Yes it is worth writing about the lowly waffle--Torontonians eat your wieners, Ottawa, you can HAVE your beaver tails...not until you’ve tasted a “gauffre” right from the wagon can you say you’ve eaten street food.

Some background: I was here in 2005 for two weeks, and because of lack of opportunity and and a little bit of fear, I avoided the frites and waffles very successfully. I think maybe having just reached a weight goal and kept it for 4 months, I wasn’t going to sabotage that hard work just yet. Those fears have long gone, but still I thought the waffle was an evil thing. Oh boy, was I wrong.

How do I describe the crispy, sweet outsides, gooey, eggy, rich, souffléd insides without waxing poetic? How do I suitably describe the heady yeasty sugary smell wafting from the 1970’s VW-style wagon parked outside almost every city attraction--university, museum, shopping district, theatre, transit station? There just aren’t the words in the english language for such tastes and sensations.

We succumbed when coming home from borrowing CD’s and DVD’s from the media-bibliotech (“Ou est le biblioteque?” finally came in handy from grade 7 french) while waiting for a tram...we shared one right then and there, and bought a second and bagged it for the boys, who we were meeting at the end of our journey. Even Duncan who rarely eats rich sweet things (must have been adopted) gobbled it down with gusto. The enthusiasm of my four year old and the width his eyes opened upon swallowing his first bite gave me the understanding of why Belgians love their food and celebrate this icon of their culture.

I’ll have to have another to compare other vendors...this social scientist needs a greater sample size, folks!
(here's a guy named Dave eating a waffle in Grand Place...I got his image off the internet, so thanks Dave for your photo--you look like every Belgian who has ever clasped this warm pastry and since I didn't have my camera handy I appreciate that you had the forethought to have your picture taken during your consumption of this lovely delicacy)