De
blog op tournee / Le blog en tour!
We were in Brussels with the primary aim of enjoying its many
fine bars. Food was needed in support of this and, as we found most restaurants
had become very busy, very quickly, we opted for this fairly ordinary looking place
– named in honour of the Brussels stock exchange – on the famous Rue de Flandre
in the St. Catherine area of the city.
I went for the cod, chips and tartare sauce at €15. The
noble mushy pea, sadly, has yet to enter the world of classic Belgian poisson et frites accompaniments.
The cod was a big fat chunk of a thing. As I had hoped in
this fish-obsessed city, it was very fresh and very tasty. The only shame was
that it was a little overcooked and was therefore dry in some parts. The batter
was lovely and light but it still has some taste of flour in it. It was OK
overall.
The chips, which came on a separate plate, were thin
frites – not in the slightest chunky and thankfully as far removed from a wedge
as you can get – but they were very well cooked and had plenty of flavour. The
taste alone would put the chips in many British chips shops to shame.
The tartare sauce, which also formed a ‘bed’ for the
fish, was a revelation with big, full, herby, sharp flavours. Lots of capers
but no gherkins, yet the parsley, lemon, mayo and caper combination definitely made
up for it. The lemon was a good wedge. Salt, but sadly no vinegar.
The salad was left on the side where it belonged.
Restaurant de la Bourse is a no-nonsense eatery in the
middle of a district that has many high-class restaurants charging top-whack
for food that can often disappoint. Yet this place delivered exactly what it promised:
mostly well-cooked, tasty food in a down-to-earth atmosphere.
The meal was washed down with water as we were on our way
to the fabulous Au Daringman pub a few yards (metres) down the same road.
