Frites or frietjes (in Dutch) with mayonnaise

Belgian frites (fries) are, quite simply, the best in the world. They are deep-fried in good-quality oil not once but twice, so they end up golden brown and bien croustillantes (crisp). Frites can be a side-dish or – served with a dollop of mayonnaise – a meal in themselves.

Seafood plays a major role in Belgian cuisine. Mussels-and-chips (moules-frites) is virtually the national dish. Oysters (raw) and scallops (cooked) are also popular. A favourite lunchtime entertainment is to pick one’s way through a plateau de fruits de mer (seafood platter).

The North Sea ports are the base for active fishing fleets, which bring in daily catches of sole, skate, sea bass, cod and hake. To see the sheer variety of the catch, visit the Vismarkt (fish market) in central Bruges. Place Sainte-Catherine in Brussels is a centre for fish restaurants.

It may be a standard dish of any restaurant or bistro, but steak-frites (steak and chips/fries) can be excellent – just what you need on a cold night. You will understand why the meat is good when you visit a butcher’s shop: standards are high, because Belgian customers are knowledgeable and demanding.

Belgians have enough confidence in their beef to eat it raw – as Steak Américain. A toast cannibale is a snack form of this.

Belgian food pays heed to the seasons. Winter is the time for warming game recipes, such as the classic dish faisan à la brabançonne, pheasant cooked with caramelized endives. Rabbit, hare, venison, wild boar, pigeon, duck and guinea fowl are also much cherished. Much of the ”game“ is now farm-raised.

Several of Belgium’s classic dishes are cooked with beer – notably the beef stews called carbonnades flamandes or vlaamse stoverij. In some restaurants (such as Den Dyver in Bruges), almost the entire menu involves beer.

Chicons au gratin (Belgian endive)

A great Belgian invention. When trying to overwinter chicorée lettuce in around 1840, a Brussels gardener found it produced succulent, salad-like shoots. They can be eaten raw, but their sweet, slightly bitter flavour really emerges when they are cooked, either as a vegetable accompaniment or in dishes such as chicons au gratin. Chicon is the French word, witloof the Dutch; in English, it’s endive or chicory (but it’s confusing, as these terms can also refer to lettuce).

Every village and community in Belgium has a good pâtisserie; most shopping streets have several. These supreme concoctions of fresh fruit, chocolate, cream, crème pâtissière and, of course, pastry, are an integral part of Belgian life.

Waffles (gaufres/wafels) are a great Belgian tradition. There are two kinds: the crispy Brussels dusted with icing sugar, or the doughy Liège with sugar crystals baked in. The perfect portable snack, waffles are eaten as a snack at fun fairs, at the seaside and in shopping streets.