Belga Cafe, Washington, D.C.

Tuesday night, I metroed over to Eastern Market to meet my friend Kody for dinner. Kody is an Oklahoma boy I used to know before I moved to D.C. and he's here this semester at Georgetown University to take a couple of classes while he does an internship at an unspeakably unfortunate placement (but he volunteered for it and likes it). We'd originally planned to go to Montmartre (Kody loves all things French), but on the Metro ride over, I ran in to a friend who suggested Kody and I go instead to Belga Cafe. That was a wonderful idea!

So, once Kody arrived, he thought Belgian food would be fun, so off we went down Barracks Row to Belga Cafe.

Belga Cafe has been open a year now, so they were having a special four course prix fixe menu for $49, including some unusual Belgian beers and free souvenir beer glasses as an "anniversary special." It's this week only, though, so you Belgian beer fans should race right over. The special menu looked good, but we decided instead to order à la carte from the menu.

Kody opted for the le vrai steak Belge, a Belgian-style steak served with Belgian fries (the original pommes frites, for you French fries lovers) and mayonnaise for dipping, plus a green salad with a simple vinaigrette. On the waiter's strong recommendation, I had the waterzooi van vis, a waterzooi of fish. For those unfamiliar with Belgian cooking terms, a waterzooi is a stew with seasoned stock enriched with egg yolks and cream. In this case, the fish was accompanied by some mussels and julienned threads of winter vegetables; I also detected an anise flavor, so they probably used some celery root or fennel in the mix.




For dessert, I had wanted to try the asparagus ice cream with asparagus beignets, but, alas, they were out, and nothing else on the dessert list struck my fancy, so I abstained. Kody tried the three-way crème brulée with one chocolate pot de crème and two vanilla brulées differently scented.



Kody hadn't had Belgian beers before, so he decided to sample several.





He also decided to sample a poire William eau de vie....



......and an Osborne port.



I had a "Delirium Tremens" beer. It tasted like beer. I also had a port after dinner, and it was good; my only complaint was that the bartender served the ports in grappa glasses.

Anyway, it was a great evening and I'm looking forward to dining out with Kody again soon.