<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">===========================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 03 May 2009 - Volume 01<br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Encoding: Unicode (UTF-08)</span><br>
===========================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI"><span class="gD" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc.</span> <span class="go"><<a href="mailto:roger.thijs@euro-support.be">roger.thijs@euro-support.be</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI">LL-L Travels<br><br></span><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">Cf. the discussions about behaviour in
restaurants.</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">I agree cultures and meanings of words
locally differ.</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Â </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">My first trips to the US were for Monsanto in the early
80s.</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">I felt quite uneasy when people in New-England restaurants
said "<strong>Take it easy</strong>".</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">I was not overdoing, so why should I take it
easier.</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Â </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">My eternal problem is <strong>when to tip</strong> and how
much.</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">In little Springfield MA restaurants one doesn't tip when one
is serviced by the owner,</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">but how to find out whether a waiter gets its living from the
tips or not.</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Â </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">Waiters in the US have to earn their tip.</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">We from Europe are not so very much interested in knowing
their names,</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">nor for getting the glass with icewater constantly kept full
to the border.</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Â </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">My advices for tourists coming to Belgium (and especially the
Brussels area):</font></div><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" size="2">
<div><br>1 - Avoid surprises at the beginning, start with the big chains</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div><a href="http://www.panos.be/" target="_blank">http://www.panos.be</a>, sandwiches,
pastry</div>
<div><a href="http://www.subway.com/" target="_blank">http://www.subway.com/</a>,
sandwiches</div>
<div><a href="http://www.quick.be/" target="_blank">http://www.quick.be/</a>, hamburgers<br><a href="http://www.macdonalds.be/" target="_blank">http://www.macdonalds.be/</a>, hamburgers</div>
<div><a href="http://www.pizzahut.be/" target="_blank">http://www.pizzahut.be</a>, pizzas<br><a href="http://www.lunchgarden.com/" target="_blank">http://www.lunchgarden.com/</a>, self
service, Belgian food</div>
<div><a href="http://www.colmar.be/" target="_blank">http://www.colmar.be/</a>, buffet formukas,
you will spend 2 to 3x more than in a Lunch Garden</div>
<div><a href="http://www.hector.be/" target="_blank">http://www.hector.be</a>, chicken</div>
<div><a href="http://www.chichis.be/" target="_blank">http://www.chichis.be/</a>, texmex, they
have a buffet formula for about 10 euro for lunch on weekdays</div>
<div><a href="http://www.exki.be/" target="_blank">http://www.exki.be/</a>, healty food as e.g.
spinach pie and other ugly things</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>2 - food courts in shopping centers generally offer a little variety of
choices, without surprises</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>3 - Try every man's snack eateries in smaller municipalities, you
will not spend much money</div>
<div>some times they offer only food_to_go / takeaway<br>some times they combine
takeway service with a little restaurant<br>incidentally (e.g. some
chineserestaurants) they combine with buffet formulas.</div>
<div>Types:</div>
<div>- <strong>fritkot</strong>, frituur, friture, friterie (you hardly can
drive a couple of minutes before finding one)</div>
<div>Â Belgian fries with sauce and a snack (sausage type, brochette type
etc.)<br>Â some offer also sandwiches</div>
<div>- <strong>waffle booths</strong> (more in towns)<br>Â Most of then
sell gaufres de Liège, <strong>Luikse Wafels</strong>, suikerwafels, eventually
warmed up; eventually with some topping<br>Â Real <strong>Brussels
waffles</strong> are rather served in restaurants, they are hollow, mostly
served with cream (crème fraiche) topping</div>
<div>- <strong>pizzerias</strong></div>
<div>- <strong>kebab</strong> restaurants</div>
<div>- <strong>chinese (</strong>chinese-indonesian: bami-goreng, nasi-goreng:
much less use less of pinda sauce than in the Netherlands)</div>
<div>- <strong>patisseries:</strong> offer pastry with coffee & ice
cream</div>
<div><br>4 - Just have a drink with some food in a <strong>café, (e)staminet,
pub, tavern, bistrot, brasserie, bar, ..</strong></div>
<div>Things one often can get:</div>
<div>Â sandwiches<br>Â soupes<br>Â croque-monsieur<br>Â uitsmijter:
egg sunshine with ham on a slice of bread, with some green stuff around</div>
<div>Smaller cafés: one may just have some dry food as e.g. chips (crips)</div>
<div>For Brussels, see: <a href="http://www.ebru.be/Cafes/CafePage.html" target="_blank">http://www.ebru.be/Cafes/CafePage.html</a></div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>Attention: "bar" is not only used for "pub",</div>
<div>the service-houses with girls at the window often call themselves also
"bar".</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>5 - medium price restaurants</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>get advice first</div>
<div><br>avoid tourist area's (or take just a coffee on a nice terras, take
no food, pay with exact coins, they cheat like hell when returning change)</div>
<div>Quality of food in tourist restaurants is low to really bad.</div>
<div>You may not realize this when you cover everything with ketchup.</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>6 - business restaurants</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>Ofter quite expensive.</div>
<div>While in the US they already put the second dish on the table before you
are done with the first, in Belgian business restaurants the waiting time betwee
dishes is often about 15 minutes. To more to the South, the more time one takes
for lunch. Business is often tentatively realized during a good long meal.</div>
<div><br>7 - general</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>7.1 have coins for the washrooms</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>Since Belgian law made washrooms in restaurants accessible for all, many
charge for use.</div>
<div>Rates vary: 0, 30, 35, 40, 50 eurocent</div>
<div>There is incidentally coin-controlled automatic access as e.g. in some
railway stations (e.g. Brussels South, free though in the Eurostar checked
area, but I guess it is Brittish zone since one passed UK border controll).
Many of these machines give no return coins.</div>
<div>In some chains you get a voucher in return, allowing you to deduct the
pi-money from your next meal (This is also current practice in some motorway
restaurants in the Netherlands)<br><strong>So always have sufficient 5, 10,
20, 50 ct coins, it is essential for survival,</strong><br>Self service in the
wild ("wildplassen") is a crime</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>7.2 Service and tax (TVA)Â are <strong>always included</strong> (by
law), whether it is mentioned or not on the card.</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>Some restaurants in tourist areas illegally add things (as
"<strong>couvert</strong>" cutlery in the Brussels' Rue des Bouchers)<br>In some
restaurants you do not realize ahead that you will have to pay for add-ons: e.g.
in some Indian retaurants in Brussels the price for the dish only covers
the sauce, you will pay a supplement for the rice</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>7.3 Anglo-Saxons often like their food well-done.</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>They often dislike "<strong>filet américan":</strong> prepared raw ground
beef meat</div>
<div>or the same as "<strong>steak tartare",</strong> often left for
yourself to mix, with on top a raw egg in half its shell.</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>A steak qualified as <strong>rare, saignant,</strong> may be much more rare
than usually found in Anglo-Saxon countries,</div>
<div>and have quite some bloody juice still comming out of the meat.</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>Other typical things include <strong>escargots</strong> or the
<strong>cheaper caricols</strong> (snails), frog legs...</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>I had some bad experiences in some African and Vietnamese restaurants in
Brussels, that the <strong>meat </strong>was virtually nothing more than
<strong>bones</strong>, even a dog would have problems for scratching off some
meat.</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>8 My preferred guide for the Brussels area:</div>
<div><br>Guide 2009<br>BELGA planet<br><strong>Restaurants de Bruxelles & du
Brabant wallon</strong><br>6e édition ISBN 2-930400-05-6, 384 pp.</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>about 6 adresses per page with 5 to 10 lines each<br>+ publicity
pages<br>It does NOT include ALL eateries</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div><strong>Restaurants & Bars</strong></div>
<div><em>pages from-to</em><br>011-018 fondues &
pierrades<br><strong>Salles</strong><br>019-040 banquets et
seminaires<br><strong>Restaurants & Bars<br></strong>041-043
<strong>Allemagne-Autriche</strong> (only 2 adresses !!!!!!!!)<br>045-075
Belgique<br>077-082 Espagne<br>085-120 France<br>121-124 <strong>Gr-Bretagne
& Irlande</strong> (11 adresses)<br>125-137 Grèce & Chypre<br>139-190
Italie<br>191-195 Pays de l'Est et Balkan<br>197-199 Pays nordiques (only 3
adresses !!!)<br>200-205 Portugal<br>207-210 Suisse<br>211-218
Maghreb<br>219-223 Afrique<br>224-230 Proche et Moyen-Orient Egypte - Iran -
Israël - Liban - Turquie<br>231-246 Chine<br>247-253 Inde Pakistan<br>255-256
Indonésie<br>259-267 Japon<br>267 Corée (2 adresses)<br>269-282
Thailande<br>283-293 Vietnam & Cambodge<br>285 <strong>Amérique du
Nord</strong> (2 adresses, one "La Pomme" with fajitas etc, the other "Villa
Wotaland" with "bison d'Amérique" etc.)<br>297-306 Pays Latinos
Argentine-Brésil-Chili-Cuba-Mexique-Pérou<br>307-309 Iles (Martinique,
Guadeloupe, Rep Dominicaine, Jamaique, Maurice, Réunion)<br>311-326 Monde
[fusion]<br>327-338 Possons & crustacés<br>339-342 Bio &
Végértarien<br>343-347 Vins<br>348-354 Buffet à volonté<br>355-363
Animation<br>364-371 Nuit</div>
<div>Â </div>
<div>Regards,</div>
<div>Roger<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
</div></font>
•
<p>
==============================END===================================
<p>
* Please submit postings to lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org.
<p>
* Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.
<p>
* Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
<p>
* Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l")
<p>
are to be sent to listserv@listserv.linguistlist.org or at
<p>
http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
<p>
*********************************************************************