Another warm and sunny Saturday and I decided to take a trip to the Botanic Gardens, just outside Brussels. This is a large park (92 acres) and contains the historic Castle of Bouchout, with its square 14th century tower.
Castle of Bouchout
The Park, with its age-old trees, ponds and broad lawns, offers numerous walks and lead you through exquisite open-air collections of medicinal plants, herbaceous plants, shrubs, trees, and conifers.
Another world is revealed in the Plant Palace, an enormous glasshouse covering 2,5 acres with more than 10,000 plant species, an ideal location to introduce you to unusual tropical and subtropical plants from America, Africa, Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Close to my apartment is Place Jourdan and I decided to check out an Indian restaurant Le Shimla. It is a little bit on the pricey side, nice atmosphere and the food was OK but I had much better. After a couple of years in London and also several trips to India it is always difficult to find good Indian food when you come to a new place. I will continue to search for something better because I love Indian food.
Mont des Cats
Earlier this summer there were some rumours regarding a new Trappist beer no 8. Some research lead me to Mont des Cats and the Abbaye du Ste-Marie Mont des Cats, in Northern France known as French Flanders. I also found the beer at Beermania in Brussels it is named ‘bière trappiste” on labels and product statements. No, there is no longer a brewery there (it closed early in the last century because the monk brewer died.) There are no plans to install a brewery, and the brothers of Mont des Cats have just their abbey and no money.
Cheese as well
The Amber beer is instead brewed in the Chimay brewery (Abbey of Notre Dame de Scourmont). The Alcohol percentage is 7.6% and the beer is well-hopped. Like other trappist beers it is refermented in the bottle. You will taste herbs, and the Chimay-lover will recognize some hints from the Chimay-Trappist beer. The beer goes perfectly together with cheese (the monks of Mont des Cats is supposed to produce excellent cheese!) and meat. A bit too bitter or should I say too dry. Sorry not even close to a decent Abbey or Trappist beer. Like the other Abbey/Trappist beers it hides the alcohol quite well.
During my research I also picked up rumours from the Netherlands that there might be the 8th Trappist after all coming up. The Trappist monks of the Abbey of ‘Maria Toevlucht’ in Zundert have plans to start a brewery between the walls of their Abbey. This would mean that the Abbey of Zundert, instead of Mont des Cats, could carry the logo and be the 8th official Trappist Beer. If everything goes well, the first beer will be brewed in the end of 2012.
Monastic beers like Abbey and Trappist beers, unique in the world and even legally protected, offer premium products, with a wide range of flavours and colours, without compromising the quality and dedication, which is central to the way of life of these religious communities.
Coming weeks:
- EU continued
- In search for the best beer (an on-going quest for the perfect pint)
- More seafood
- Cheese
- Parks
- Culture, Comics
- Markets
- Politics
Facts of the week;
Drink; Mont De Cats 7,6%
Location: Indian restaurant Le Shimla, Place Jourdan
Point of Interest : Botanic Gardens
