Dining at the Fascist Cafe

After buying some discounted Angora over at Stikkestek, Hubbo and I decided to get a snack and a beer at a local cafe down the block. So we go in, sit down, and the waitress comes over to us (no menu or anything) and asks us what we would like (this always amazes me, as if I am a psychic as to what they offer).

We ask, "Do you have any food?"

Waitress: " We have spaghetti, croque monsieur, hot dog and pizza baguette. But you must drink."

Me: "Ok, we'll have two beers."

Hubbo asks me what the heck she said (she had a thick accent) so I repeated it back to him.

Hubbo: "What the hell is a croque monsieur?"

Me: "It's a grilled cheese." I learned this from watching Julia Child.

So we laughed a little bit on the fact that they were serving a kiddies menu at this bar and forcing us to drink beer (not that we had a problem with this last bit). I was kinda hoping the menu would be something like mussels, frites, waffles and chocolates, but no, apparently, off the tourist track the fare at Belgian pubs in Bruges is the kiddies menu with beer. What the heck is up with that? Is this really true?

Speaking of beer, drinking beer outside of Germany can often be a letdown. Here, you get half-liter tall glasses of wonderful stuff. It really is good. When we went to Spain, the alcohol content was low, and the glasses so small my first thought was that the waiter was serving us a sample and I was about to go off on him for ripping us off. In Bruges, however, beer was certainly a treat. Not any of the mega-quantities that you get in Germany, but the quality was high and you should drink plenty of it if you ever happen to go to Belgium.

As for the kiddies menu, if you are ever looking to go off the beaten path, let a menu like that be your guide. Land on something like that and you are truly away from the tourists.