It’s spring, or almost!
I saw this beauty on the way to the Institute this week:
After several months of dead leaves everywhere, it was nice to see a little green peeking out!
Some friends were in town last week for Mardi Gras; Carnival in Binche, to be exact. I went down for the day from Brussels. It was an easy trip by train, just about an hour or so. Special ticket price, just 10€. I got some work done to and fro, and still enjoyed the day. It was the first time I’ve worn sunglasses since I arrived!
I only took a few photos on my phone, but this is pretty much all we saw:
The streets were flooded with confetti. Random children confetti-bombed each other, and passers-by, and us. Fun for them, not so much fun for us.
In any event, they stopped back in Brussels on the way home to London on Ash Wednesday. I took the afternoon off and we did a little sightseeing. In an attempt to take them to one of the famed crepes places, we uncovered this:
It’s not surprising. Whenever I want to take someone somewhere specific, it generally ends up with construction …. or scaffolding.
So, we settled on a little Vietnamese spot on a random corner.
It was quiet, but reasonably priced. One of the workers sat at a table nearby and actually prepped the fresh herbs, so we knew it was going to taste great, or at the very least …. fresh! It was mid-afternoon, and we only wanted a snack. My friends shared this, tofu and vegetables with fried vermicelli noodles:
And I went for something a little smaller, because I had a birthday event that night. Fresh spring rolls, with shrimp and a little thin slice of pork inside.
I tried their dish. It was great. I love it when there are peanuts on dishes. I absolutely love peanuts. They add a special oomph to just about anything, and of course, I love the crunch. My spring rolls were quite good, even though I wasn’t expecting the pork. Sadly, though, I didn’t care for the peanut sauce. Normally, I’m a peanut sauce fiend, but this one was too …. savory. I don’t know. There was just something about it. Not too bad to dip into, but not good enough to dunk.
The birthday event was fun that night. We went to a little Irish Pub called MacSweeney’s. Right off Avenue Louise, which I mentioned in a previous post. All in all, it was a long day, but fruitful. Surrounded by friends helped to ease some of the pain of the last six months.
Happy spring, everyone. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.
~ nolafoodie
HumidFoodie 