Ferme Nos Pilifs

Would you expect to find a full-sized operating farm in Brussels? And I mean not only the City of Brussels, but actually the Bruxelles-Ville commune. Surprise!

First of all, if you look at the map of Brussels districts, you will see that Bruxelles-Ville stretches up to north city borders, so we're not talking about the strict city center here. The area we're in used to be separate municipality called Neder-Over-Heembeek (lower-upper-heem-spring), and the name is still used to refer to it. Just next to big military hospital, we arrive at Nos Pilifs.

There's so many great things about that place, I find it hard to decide where should I start!

So first of all, it's a place you want to take your kids along with you. The access to the premises is absolutely free for everyone. There's a small playground available and then you can go for a long walk around the farm to see all the animals. And they have a lot of them!

Lots of different kinds of poultry, but also horses, goats, sheep, donkeys, and the biggest pigs I have seen in my life (just think of all the bacon!).

All animals are behind a fence (and some of them are behind an electric fence too). This is not a pet-zoo, children can't touch the animals, it is also strictly forbidden to feed them (except the pigs, no surprise).

When you're done with the tour, it's time to rest and maybe have a bite. Just in front of the playground (how convenient!) there's a small bistro with choice of beers, soft drinks and some food. The choice is not big, but I'm pretty sure the pancakes I had were fried on wood-kitchen - it gave them taste so amazing it didn't matter they were burnt a tiny bit - I ate them quicker than I could take a photo.

Now that you ate, you can do some shopping (never shop with an empty stomach!). In place you will find a small bio-shop which sells local produce and other bio-food. Wide selection of vegetables, fruits, cheese, and bread baked on wood.

On the other side you'll find a plant shop. The interior plants looked absolutely amazing.

The exterior ones were only slowly emerging after long winter, so they didn't yet look as impressive, but you can see the choice is great, and plants seem to be well taken care of.

That's a well spent day!

As a word of background, the farm is run by society that hires handicapped people. They have capacity of around 140 workers (as seen on their website). I find it a great initiative, that only adds to the splendor of the place.

And kept for the end, the thing I will absolutely have to try. Online store! In the country where 99% of commerce doesn't even exist in the internet (Chris read some statistics lately), here you can actually order all the best food with delivery to your nearest point of pickup (initially I thought they deliver straight home, but we didn't find a way to do that, still good enough).

I highly recommend that place. We'll be back! :)

Sgraffiti in Anderlecht

Rising like phoenix from the ashes, we're back after long, long winter. After approximately one week of spring, we seem to have jumped straight into summer today. People hungry for sunbeams rushed out on the streets. And so did we!

I've been wanting go see one place for some time now, and we finally did. But first things first.

Living in Anderlecht, we receive the official monthly Anderlecht newspaper: Anderlecht Contact. In the January edition I was very happy to see what's below.

Basically, for non FR/NL speakers, it's a competition. Every month they'll put a picture of some architectural detail, and people have to say what and where is it. As it's in the spirit of this blog, I promised myself to check them every month (though it seems they're getting harder!).

We didn't know the sgraffiti from the picture, but with enough googling around we managed to find the place (and by "we" I mean Chris found it, when he got sick of me nagging him). We threw the address in the Google Maps, and indeed it was the place. I'm putting a static screenshot from Google Street View just so you can see how the place looked originally (click on it to go to the map). It was horribly devastated, it's an amazing work that's been done on its restoration. It was almost impossible to see there was an artwork on these walls.

Google Map

And here it is now.

The paintings on the wall represent the four seasons and four parts of the day, all written in Dutch.

I asked people who organized the competition about any details of the building, architect, author of the paintings - but they replied that they couldn't find any information on it. It'll remain a mystery, at least until I find something...

As the weather was fantastic, we couldn't refuse ourselves a little walk around. We passed by the Plaine de Jeux Rauter that's on the corner, and which contains a playground with literally one slide in it. And nothing else... Well, I guest at least it's something.

It did seem like a very nice place anyway, and it was full of people playing around. On one side it's enclosed by a building with a mural that caught my attention.

 

Paintings contain view on Brussels (or rather it's the vision how Brussels should be), including some landmarks like Palais de Justice (first picture), Basilique, building of European Parliament, but also some typical Brussels street corners.

Altogether, a very nice little walk we had. More will surely follow - it's about time to revive this place!

Secret Brussels

Welcome in 2013, we have survived the end of the world!

(dry reference to the anticipated apocalypse: check)

Hope you all had a pleasant holiday break, and are welcoming this new year with eagerness, positive energy and good vibes! 

Good for you. We are all sick, and picture behind the window is as grey as it can get. Personally, I can't wait for a beam of sunshine coming down to warm up our city a bit, so we can enjoy being out again, and my list of places to visit and photograph got extremely long.

One of the reason of it, is definitely my also growing collection of books about Brussels. Since I was pleased to receive (and buy myself) another two, I think it's time for a small review. And with that, I'll start with the very first book I got from a friend for my birthday last year. And it's called "Secret Brussels". Just perfect, isn't it? :)

For the practical details, as it was a present I should not check the prices for the book myself, but I am sure you can figure it out with simple search online, same goes for as to where to buy this book. Several places as a form of recommendation from me, include Sterling Books and Filigranes, I also saw few similar books in the wonderful store by the Brussels Museum of Fine Arts (though this particular one was not there).

The book has a short, to-the-point subtitle "Local Guides by Local People", and is indeed written by inhabitants of the city. It comes in a handy pocket guide form, easy to carry around with you.

Chapters are made of different districts of the city, and in my edition that includes West of Boulevards, East of Boulevards, Ixelles, Etterbeek and the European District, Saint-Gilles and Forest, Anderlecht (yay), Molenbeek, Koekelberg and Laeken, Uccle, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre and Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Watermael-Boisfort and Auderghem. Each chapter begins with the list of all items in that district and their localisation shown on the plan. 

You won't find many of the most famous places of Brussels, and even the few that are there, are shown from different than usual perspective (the alchemistry of the Grand Place, masonic Brussels Park). You will find tons of unusual monuments, unknown museums and hidden architectural gems. 

Each curiosity has one page of description, with a full page picture on the side, practical information (like localisation, or opening hours where applicable), and sometimes - sights to see nearby with their little description too.

I don't think I can say anything more, without actually going into details of the content, which I don't want to do. This book deserves to be bought by anyone interested. It is not a guide for someone who's first time in Brussels (unless you're a total hipster going always against the wave, but I'd feel sorry if you missed to see Atomium). 

What it is, is a perfect guide for someone who already knows Brussels, seen the main things. Maybe you're coming to the city yet another time, you've seen all the "important" stuff and you look for a fresh idea. Maybe you've been living here for a while and need inspiration for another walk in the city. Maybe you've been here your whole life, but you never noticed this weird museum by the corner, or beautiful sgraffiti on the house in your street. (Yes, after reading all the books, and getting into the topic, I know words like sgraffiti, art-nouveau and "new insights are crafted from both mundane and transcendant textures". Ah no, last one is from http://www.artybollocks.com :)).

What can I say in the end? Open your wallet, get the book, hit the streets of Brussels and make yourself feel like Indiana Jones - you're exploring!

Nocturnes - Belgian museum of freemasonry

Short days, and cold evenings are definitely not a big source of inspiration for me. I haven't been writing for a while, even though I still have few topics waiting in the queue since the better days - guilty as charged. Let's try to break that stagnation a bit.

If as me, you're not a big fan of outdoor activities when temperature leans towards 0, but you still want to do _something_, and unlike me you have free Thursday evenings - why not go to the museum?

Now, museums in Brussels have pretty mean opening hours. You'd have to skip work or get up early on Saturday (but Saturday is already occupied with shopping, which you can't do on any other day either!). Fortunately, there are ways.

Brussels Nocturnes are organized every year by Brussels Museum Council. Every Thursday couple of Brussels museums are open until late evening, often providing special guides or other events. This year edition is almost finished already, so if you haven't notice that in my calendar, you missed it! Check out details at their website:

http://www.brusselsmuseumsnocturnes.be/

We managed to visit one (yes, only one) museum. I really wanted to see more, but as much as some of the evenings are very kids-friendly, none of them are really baby-friendly, which is usually a show-stopper for us (but not for long!). The one visited was the Belgian museum of freemasonry.

http://mbfm.be

I was interested in freemasonry for some time now, especially when I started investigating Brussels for this little blog here and I saw what impact the fraternity had on the city.When I saw that the museum has open days it was already decided.

Museum is placed on rather quiet street and doesn't really catch your attention if you're not looking for it, with fits the discretion that Freemasons are known by. At the same time though, it welcomes the visitors with big transparency statement on the wall.

There are several groups of freemasonry all over the world, not all of them recognize each other as "true" ones. The museum is run by all the Belgian lodges (at least all the big ones), which I find to be a nice touch, since they generally don't go together well.

Entrance is pretty neat. You have to wait to the door to be open in a small room, surrounded by freemasonry symbols. Behind the door you enter the corridor with sky-like ceiling, traditional to freemasonry. Very impressive!

The excitement wears off pretty quick though. Museum, even though small, contains quite some amount of items, but is definitely missing more organization and explanation. I found it was lacking some general introduction where the freemasonry came from, what it means, what is it today. It felt a bit like all the items were just thrown inside to be watched, but there was no, or little story behind them. That's unless you have a guide.

During the Nocturnes there were several guides in place, as far as I understand Freemasons themselves. They were all very nice and helpful (and one was pretty drunk, too! :)) We rather quickly acquainted one of them and spend most of the time not only asking questions in context of the museum, but also having general discussions of life, universe and the rest. He was the one to point few items in the museum and say some story about them.

Unfortunately, for the sake of the exhibits taking photos is forbidden, only general "ambience" pictures are allowed, with no flash. Fortunately, my camera deals pretty well with darkness so I could photograph a wall with names of famous masons. According to the story of our guide, the stain on the wall, which they tried to get rid of by any means, turned out to be horse piss! The room used to be stables in the past.

I was expecting the museum to be rather empty, but it turned out to be really busy! The legend of Freemasonry attracted many people, so it got crowded and loud, for such a small place. Not the way I want to contemplate such a topic. I am therefore hoping to come back there, in some better circumstances and get to know more about it.

Generally, if you're interested by the topic, it's a great museum as long as you get a guide. Without a guide, you'll probably be bored after 15 minutes, but with a proper one - you could spend hours there going through all the exhibits.

Remember the Brussels Nocturnes for the next year. It's a nice way to pass the time, maybe see friends, and afterwards go to a nice resto nearby to warm up (we chose the La fin de siècle, which Chris described in his last post). And there's so many museums to choose from, everyone will find something interesting.

La fin de siècle

Today I will be continuing the tour of my favorite restaurants with "La fin de siècle".

This restaurant is a classic for nightcrawlers in Brussels: good food, correct prices and the kitchen is opened until 1 AM.

Don't expect chips with the dishes, here it is potato or rice

To locate the place, it is in the rue des Chartreux, next to the Greenwich café (this bar also deserves a visit, especially if you like chess).

I know this restaurant for more than 10 years now and nothing changed there since (not even the prices!). For me it is filled with memories of endless conversations, big laughters and all that happens on an improvised night out with friends.

It is also the place I show to people visiting Brussels to explain how we live here: simplicity, warmth and amiability.

The place has more to offer than meets the eye (yes, I saw Transformers just before writing this.) because when you'll enter you might think "what is so special about that place? The tables and the chairs don't match,it is noisy, crowded and the crew look like 4 hobos and a bear..."

To explain, I would say that it is all about the food.
I was once said that when the bread they give you is good, the food will be good too.
Well, they have the best bread in Brussels.
And the rest follows of course. The last time I went there was the première for Agata and the magic operated, she tasted all the dishes (we were 3, our friend Jonathan joined us) and loved it all!

The black board, only menu available here. It will keep you busy while waiting for your table

On the menu my favourite dishes are:


Le jambonneau à la moutarde à l'ancienne (Ham with mustard) to eat only when you are REALLY hungry.

La tranche de gigot d'agneau sauce au porto (grilled lamb with porto sauce)

And the traditional Stoemp saucisse (Mashed vegetables and potatoes with sausage).

The rabbit in cherry beer sauce, a belgian classic

If you prefer something lighter, you have salad with grilled chicken, rabbit with cherry beer sauce or the scampi brochette. Or you can just pick randomly, anyway it will be good (just don't take anything you are allergic to. I don't want to be sued by a potential Darwin award winner).

light and tasty, how scampi should be (don't forget to spread them with garlic butter)

I will just finish with some advices:
- first, they don't accept plastic so be sure to have enough cash (you don't want to piss off the grizzlie).

- second, be there early. I said it for the tapas locas but it is twice an advice for the fin de siècle, especially if you are a group, you might never have a table and you'll have to end up eating thaï next to the O'Reilly (I'll give you addresses later!)

- third, just enjoy, don't hesitate to engage conversation with your neighbours and to try every drink, especially the shots.

First Rodenbach for Agata, teenagers in Brussels drink it with grenadine syrup  as an introduction to beers

Le grenier d'Elvire

Touring our best places in Brussels would not be thorough without a pit-stop at Grenier d'Elvire.

The restaurant is located nearby the University at Chaussée de Boondael 339 in Ixelles.

Let's first talk about the neighborhood: the Cimetière d'Ixelles is the student's neighborhood of Brussels. It is famous for its many restaurants and bars. You will find every possible cuisine at every price (but still affordable).

You'll find many bars around so let's name some of them (we'll write about them later... Eventually):
The trendies:  "Waff", "Tavernier" and the new "Bar d'Ixelles"
The "students": Gauguin, Montmartre and Ratabar
The classics: La Bastoche, La Bécasse and L'Atelier (a very interesting list of beers there)

But we should go back to Boondael. The Chaussée starts on place du cimetière d'Ixelles but be careful, if you just go down the street, you'll never find the grenier d'Elvire. Chaussée de Boondael has the particularity of being composed of two parts on parallel streets linked by a small segment starting at Gauguin and finishing at Montmartre.

As you can see, the restaurant is not huge, so making a reservation isn't a bad idea.

The decoration really looks like the stuff you could find hidden in an attic (grenier in french) but it gives you a peaceful sensation of warmth.
Unfortunately the noise of the place chases the peace away


Let's make a proper review point by point.

First, the place itself: well situated, nice deco, a bit too loud.

Second, the service: it might not be a three star restaurant but the team is a real asset of the place. They work well and are really helpful.
The second time we went there, Agata was pregnant and ordered some food she finally could not eat. They remained helpful and didn't want us to pay even if it was our complete fault that she didn't eat (pregnancy cannot be commanded)

Third, the drinks: we don't often order wine while eating so we won't be of much help on this but I don't recall anyone complaining about that in Grenier d'Elvire. What I LOVE on the other side are their fruit punch, it is rhum marinated in fruits or spices and it is gorgeous.

That day it was pineapple, badiane or violet

Their other specialty is the homemade iced tea. Not too sour nor too sweet, perfectly refreshing!

Just try it!!!

(we'll take a better picture next time)

And last but not least, the food: one word - GREAT.

My favorite is the mixed grill and the marinated ribs are amongst the best in Brussels. (Both served with salad, great chips and homemade mayonnaise)

Mesdames et Messieurs : Le mixed grill: 

Chicken wings and natural ribs. 

So simple yet so difficult...

They also serve pasta and salad plus a really great board of suggestions that changes too often for me

 (I can't come every week to taste everything!)

tiropitakia (crunchy cheese pastries, for those who believe that fat means life!)

Scampi diaboliques (they are hot as hell !!!)

The tajine is as tasty as colourful...

The desserts are great too. Especially the cheese cake and the mousse au chocolat but you must be really hungry to achieve having one after an entrée and a main dish.

Once again, I can only recommand going there. To try it is to love it!

http://www2.resto.be/grenierdelvire/reservation.cfm?langue=FR

Stand Up World

Judging from crowds at every single show, I didn't think there is an English-speaking person in Brussels who did NOT know about StandUp World. Well, there was at least one, so maybe it is worth to write about it after all.

Done by expats and for expats, StandUp World invites best stand-up comedians from all over the world to entertain Brussels audience on a (almost) monthly basis.

If you don't care about my "yadda yadda" you can just go at http://www.standupworld.com and sign-up for their next show.

Now, for my friends and family (who are obliged to read further, because they later have to face awkward "so, what do you think" questions).

The show takes place at Theatre 140, in Schaerbeek, Avenue Eugène Plasky 140. As I mentioned before, it looks pretty crowded most of the time, so I always suggest reserving a ticket before hand, and you can pick it up one hour before the show.

Show is usually done in English, but expect many different accents as guests come to Brussels from all over the world. True Belgians never exceed 10% of the audience, but you can find lots of other nationalities from all over EU and beyond. Actually, the "what nationalities do we have here tonight" is a usual start of the evening.

If you're shy and take offence easily, you might want to choose a seat in the corner of the back. Or maybe just don't come at all. The host of the show, as well as some of the guests, take no prisoners. They make fun of everything and everyone. On the other side, if you're open-minded, relaxed, and with good, sometimes a bit black sense of humour - you'll have a great time! If you're not sure, check on the website who will be the next guests, and just see on youtube if you like this kind of humour.

Always before a show you can have an Indian meal (which I never tried) and some basic drinks at the bar. Watch out though, most of the time you're not allowed to take drinks with you for a show. I hate that rule, so sometimes I still manage to illegally import a glass of wine with me under a coat (oh sue me!). There is break in the middle of the show, to refill your cups and empty your bladders. Watch out girls though, it's highly unlikely you'll actually manage to get to the toilet due to huge queues.

Show usually consists of an intro done by splendid host, and three guests. There are exceptions though, when special show takes place. After a show (or before, or both) many people meet at a close-by pubs to drink beer, have a snack and chat until late hours.

Last time we went it was special show time - The Umbillical Brothers. And I recommend them with my whole heart!

I saw their show on the internet ages ago, and I can still come back to it every now and then. I never even expected to see them live, but amazing thing do happen, and they came to Belgium, to Theatre 140! 3 people on stage, and a backstage voice, no props (apart from one green plank) - what can you expect from that? Everything!

With mimes, sound effects and proper lighting you will be transported to other worlds. But you just have check it out yourself. Go for one of their DVDs (Speedmouse being, I think, the most famous). It's worth gold!

After the show there was some selling DVDs, hugging and signing posters time. Roadie won't let himself be a background.

To sum it up. If you like comedy and understand English (well, you're reading this, it's enough) - definitely go and see the StandUp world!

If you ever come by The Umbilical Brothers - just buy the tickets before they're gone.