Best. Investment. Ever.

Remember when I finally decided to buy a bamboo steamer? 

My. Was that the best investment I've made in a while. 

All those months of being bao-less. All that time searching for dumplings...admittedly, things still aren't great as the frozen bao selection in this city isn't fantastic but I'm slowly getting there. What has really helped is finding a store that sold homemade dumplings (jiaozi), which while not as good as those from somewhere like hutong or shanghai street, will do for now.

Steaming away...where have you been all my life?!

Top shelf - the mushroom and vegetable baos transformed from hard and frozen to puffy and steamy.

Lower shelf - oh yeah...I showed this to Markus who grew to love jiaozi when he went to Shanghai. He wanted to know when I was going to ihim over for lunch.

Om nom! Not as good as those made by Marene's parents but they'll do. 

Anyway, I for see a hopefully bao and jiaozi-filled winter. All I have to do is find someone who sells frozen charsiu bao and I will be a happy mallymoodle indeed. 

Gossip girls

I  had lunch with a former colleague who many other colleagues hadn't met before because he left two years ago. We had a merry discussion about a paper on which we're co-authors. But this then caused my day to day colleagues to freak out because they thought I was having a date.

A DATE.
AT WORK.
AT OUR NOTORIOUSLY BAD CAFETERIA.

Damn people, give me some credit!

Finnish fish soup

The weather has gone cold and you know what that means - SOUP SEASON!!! Couple that with a bit of craving for fish and you have me looking up online recipes for that Finnish fish soup I'd tried in Helsinki. 

And here is my attempt.

I think it got pretty close to what we'd tried. The main difference is that when we had it and the recipe I found only had potatoes in it. I decided to veggie it up by adding carrot and celery. I also didn't add the rye bread...I could try that next. 

New coat!

I was surprisingly restrained when I went to Antwerp for shopping. Probably because I was after boots and I couldn't find a pair that I wanted :( I ended up with a few pairs of stockings and this:

New coat! Bright, bright green, chic cut and fit. I hope it's warm enough for the winter!

Belgium - Day 3

Another day tearing through a town as tourists! Unfortunately, I realise I'm going to have to return because despite knowing that Colin Farrel and Brendan Gleeson viewed Bosch's The Last Judgement at the Groeningemuseum during In Bruges, I didn't go see it myself. Oh well!

Walking in from the train station...it's so cute!

And picturesque!

Does this mean I grew up on a farm and am happen to be retarded? (movie reference)

For lunch we had some Belgian food.

Tomate-crevette - tomatoes stuffed with shrimp. After yesterday's protein bomb, I really needed some roughage!

MOULES-FRITES!!! YAY!!!!! Unfortunately, the restaurant was a bit disappointing. The sauce wasn't as good as we were used to :(

Strolling around the town, we were pleasantly surprised to find that many shops were actually open. It wasn't just stores that would appeal to tourists either - I nearly bought a pair of boots! And lots of chocolate.

Marzipan 'hams' in the window of a chocolaterie.

Chocolate genitals were also for sale!

Not being fat people, we went to Market Square to climb the Belfort.

So cute!

366 steps to get to the top. I told Marene that I am a thundering dome and tower climber, having done so in Paris, Rome, Florence, St. Petersburg...

No smoking, ice cream, mugs, dogs or hearts allowed.

The view of the square from the first level (I think. It could have been the second).

At the top! It was pretty cold and windy up there actually :(

The view!

My observations - Bruges is so pretty!

And flat!

A bell in the tower. I was advised not to be up there when they go off at each quarter hour. It gets loud.

So instead I sat amazed watching the mechanism.

Which was actually pretty amazing.

Our next stop: The Basilica of the Holy Blood, which has a vial of Jesus' blood.

We looked at the blood. It was quite bright for a sample that's nearly 2000 years old. 

But since it was late afternoon and I still had to check into my flight, we spent the next hour strolling around before taking a train back to Brussels for dinner.

I know I sound as though I'm on repeat...

But Bruges is pretty.

All those canals and water...

So relaxing...

The original plan was to have dinner together and then make our way to the airport. This was derailed by the train taking 40 minutes longer than scheduled, leaving me slightly freaked out at the prospect of having to sprint my way through to get to my gate if we stopped for dinner. (I actually saw a few ppl sprinting through so I guess some people didn't realise there was an issue.) Instead, we got what is apparently another icon of Belgian cuisine - Bicky Burger + Frites. This is another thing I regret not photographing. Bicky burger consists of a DEEP FRIED mystery meat patty (internet investigation says a combo of chicken, pork and horse - must be why it was so lekker!), with some salad, american (i.e. plastic) cheese and three different sauces. The Friterie we went to went one better - he also fried the patty AFTER deep frying it! Then he slammed our frites INTO the burger and slathered it with more sauce! That was a bit inconvenient since we had to eat all the frites before getting to the burger but...DAYUM! Even Marene was impressed with the final result. It's perfect drunk food and really hit the spot on the train to the airport. 

I know that when people think of Belgium, the words 'fun' and 'excitement' don't spring to mind. But I had a really fun and exciting long weekend there. Love you guys! I'll try to come back when the weather gets better ;)

One last surprise - if you wanted to charge your devices at the airport, you had to work for it. Yes, I spent 30 minutes going great guns on it but the pedals were a bit too low for my short legs :(

Belgium - Day 2

Day 2 in Belgium! Because it's a small country, Marene and I were going to day trip to Antwerp. Studds had to stay home and work :(

But first! The view from my bedroom, aka the living the room!

Antwerp is about an hour away by train from Leuven and the weather was just as gloomy :D

But the central station sure is purdy.

I didn't know Australia had a great reputation for home made ice cream.

Like me, Marene has been craving good Asian food since she moved to Europe so we had a small yum cha lunch that was actually pretty good! It was so good that I didn't take any photos because we were too busy digging in. During lunch, we discussed our options - we could do touristy things or, being Saturday, we could shop. I chose shopping.

The main shopping strip!

But we did some touristy things! Here I am outside of Rubens' house. 

Omg, I just wanted to steal away this bulldog and play with his face flaps

After a few hours of shopping, the wonderful scent of deep-fried seafood wafted through the air. We naturally had to partake of this wonderful custom. 

The deep-fried seafood stall was set up outside this lovely traiteur. OM NOM NOM!!!

As the sun slowly set, we decided that we'd better do some quick sightseeing before heading back to Leuven.

Buildings at the Grote Markt

Me outside the City Hall (Stadthuis) at the Grote Markt.

This old woman and beagle was sitting opposite the Stadhuis and offered to take a photo of me and Marene together + her dog. This was foiled first by her dog not wanting to stand by us, and secondly, her inability to work my camera. Then she gave us a weird spiel about how she can only photography with proper cameras...

The Cathedral of Our Lady, with its one completed tower (two were planned)

Het Steen - the oldest building in Antwerp!

Time was running short and we had to be back in Leuven for dinner o'clock. Naturally, we got a waffle for the wait.

IT WAS PRETTY WARM AND DELICIOUS!!!

 We ended up arriving late to Leuven but that was okay because the restaurant double-booked us and asked us to come back in an hour for their second sitting.

We reconvened to a bar where I was plied with Belgian beer in a futile attempt to convince me that it is superior to Bavarian beer.

It was pretty good! And strong!

Dinner was at Marene and Studd's local French bistrot. Let me tell you folks: go. It's good. And they've been there so often that Chef actually came out to our table twice and even advised Studds on what he should eat for dinner. Now that is insider service. The tripadvisor site has reviews criticising the waiting time for the meal but it's worth it.

My horse steak. Lekker!

The post meal carnage.

Crepe suzette dessert!

But I preferred this chocolate pudding with raspberry sorbet.

We were all absolutely stuffed. But that wasn't all! The staff then came along and loaded our table with bottles of different digestifs! I preferred the rose and the peach flavoured schnapps; Marene preferred the pear-flavoured vodka. With full bellies, we rolled back home to get ready for our last day together.

Goedenacht!