Recipes from Belgium

Half of Belgium is Francophone; but the whole of the short coastline falls in the Flemish part. So Belgian seafood cookery is essentially Flemish and fits as neatly as part of a jigsaw puzzle between that of Flanders to the south and the Netherlands to the north. It has little which is peculiar to it, but possesses a character of its own. Thus the Visserskaai at Ostend, with its fifty-three restaurants all serving seafood, has an unmistakably Belgian flavour; and even a brief exploration of the fishermen’s quarter of Ostend is enough to reveal interesting traditions and the distinctive dialect which survive with Flemish tenacity in this and similar communities. Ostend, after all, was once the east end of the island de Streep which stretched down to Westende; and this stretch of coast still has an insular feel to it.