princess genevieve

mercredi, août 08, 2007

Eating Out

Since I don't have a kitchen in my hotel room, and the room service is bad, I'm pretty much obliged to eat out every night. (except when people take pity on me and invite me over and feed me.)

For the most part, I like the food here in Belgium, and I've eaten in some nice restaurants. Mostly, the places I've been going to are in the same general price range as places I would go to in Washington. Maybe a bit on the higher end - more like places I'd go to in Washington only occasionally.

It does, however, take a long time to eat dinner in Brussels. At least an hour and a half, even if you are by yourself, and don't order a starter, and only drink water, and don't have coffee at the end of the meal. I've gotten pretty used to this pace, though, and when I went home last, I realized how quickly we eat! Last Friday, I went out to lunch with a friend, and we were back in the office in 45 minutes. Our food came out literally 3 minutes after we ordered it. That made me a bit nervous - was it just hanging around in the kitchen, waiting to be ordered? I'd rather wait longer and know for sure the food was cooked when I ordered, thanks.

One thing I will never order, and in fact, makes me a bit sick when I see people ordering it? Filet Americaine. I know it says American in there, but trust me, this is not something most Americans would order. It's steak tartare. Why they call it American I just don't know. Someone at a different table ordered it last night, and there it was, raw, red, ground meat, in the shape of a hamburger.

I am not generally squeamish about food. I order meat medium rare and I will try most anything. (please ask above mentioned person - I did try black pudding at her house!) (although I could not bring myself to try horse, either, at Frederic & Peggy's in France) There's just something about raw meat. I can't do it.

Libellés :

6 Comments:

At 8/08/2007 8:33 AM, Anonymous Anonyme said...

Yuck. Especially ground beef. Most beef bacterias grow on exposed surfaces, and ground beef has lots more surface area than solid cuts. I'm with you, that doesn't need to happen.

Funny the american reference, though.

 
At 8/08/2007 9:48 AM, Blogger Amie said...

ewww...with you on the raw meat thing.

I think the slower pace sounds great!

 
At 8/08/2007 11:05 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Raw beef is not meant to be consumed in my book, yuck!

I don't know if I could get used to the slower pace of eating, though. I am always in a hurry even if I have all the time in the world *laugh*

 
At 8/08/2007 7:56 PM, Anonymous Anonyme said...

i think asians eat at a very very fast pace. the moment the food is on the table, we practially gobble down our food without much of a chit chat. haahahahaha. sometimes when we do go out and eat, my partner and i find ourselves spending more time waiting for the food to arrive!!! haha.

now back to raw meat, the only raw think i can ever eat is raw salmon in japanese restaurant, aka salmon sashimi. i dont even like medium rare steam. my partner would eat rare steak!! where blood is oozing out when he cuts it. yuck.

 
At 8/08/2007 11:34 PM, Blogger Paisley said...

I've never tried Steak Tartare (although I know it was one of my dad's favourite dishes) but I would like to try it one day. (I'm grossed out by a lot of things, but raw meat isn't one of them). Intriguing though that they call it Filet Americaine.

 
At 8/10/2007 4:34 PM, Blogger Genevieve said...

Amie, yes, I do like the slower pace! Molly, I think you might get used to it...

Michelle, yeah, for some reason, raw fish does not make me feel as queasy as raw red meat does... I don't know why!

Paisley, I'd try it at a place that you know has quality meat... I don't think it's worth eating dodgy steak tartare :-)

 

Enregistrer un commentaire

<< Home