a memory of Brussels: people eating on the street as they walk along...

[underahedgerow]

15. You were in the prettiest parts of the city and not in the nieghborhoods. Even just a few blocks off

the main stretch there, and surrounding the train station are some really nasty areas. Anderlecht in particular is seriously derelict and I have no doubt that we'll be hearing news from there any day now, with some other miscreants being rousted out. There's only the one train station and trust me, it's filthy, filled with pickpockets and ne'er do wells.

The waffle eating is only in the touristy parts of BXL because the rest of the food in BXL is ridiculously high priced and largely unedible unless you're a fan of falafel or pizza, and then, you're taking your life into your hands with the lack of health codes and genuine chefs. Waffles are pretty much the only street food. They're usually pre-fabricated frozen things tossed on a grill to heat them up and then covered in whipped cream to disguise their nastiness. Huge profit margins for almost no effort. It costs them about .25c to make them and they sell them for at least 2 bucks each.

On the other hand if you actually ever come across an artisinal gauffre maker, where they use hand made, sugar crusted yeast dough, then you're actually in for an amazing treat. Only two places in BXL that I found did that were the Haggan Daz place in the train station, and this italian guy in his yellow truck in the middle of the Grand Central Market on Sunday.