Los pilotes y el enrejado

Potatoes with Mayonnaise)

The most popular street food in Belgium is Frieten , or what Americans call „French fries.‰ The „French‰ refers to the cutting technique; these fries are potatoes cut in small wedges. It is not that Americans discovered fries in France; Americans be-came familiar with fries in Belgium during the World Wars. However, the French do claim to have first made and sold them at the Pont Neuf in Paris, although they are still searching for the inventor and the proof of this. The Belgian history of frieten starts with an oral legend (from Jo Gérard, 1781) that says fries came to ex-istence in the late 17th century in the southern part of Belgium. Inhabitants from the cities surrounding the River Meuse had a tradition of frying little fish caught from the river. When weather conditions were not appropriate to fish, they cut potatoes into the shape of little fish and fried them. That is the story that GérardÊs great-grandfather used to tell. Unfortunately, he never wrote it down, and no sources exist to confirm this beautiful legend. In fact, potatoes came to Belgium only in the 18th century, and many doubt if ordinary Belgians could afford what was in the 17th century very expensive cooking oil for frying potatoes.

But written proof and even pictures show fries being made in Belgium in the sec-ond half of the 19th century. And so were the Frietkoten where they were sold. A Frietkot or fry shack is a small stall on the street that sells fries with different kinds of sauces. Laws required that the first fry shacks had to disappear at night, and only after World War II were they allowed to have a fixed position on the streets. Today some of these traditional fry shacks remain, but they are no bigger than a little hut with no place to sit. Many modern fry places are housed in units that resemble fast-food chains. That is because in the last few decades, local governments have begun to enforce strict hygiene regulations. Some think the traditional stall can be dan-gerous (for fire, or explosions), others believe they are too ugly, especially when standing next to a historical building (which for the fry shacks are the best spots, of course). Still, simplicity is the charm of a true fry shack according to most Bel-gians. And even if it has become more difficult for the traditional stalls to continue to exist, no one believes that they will ever fully disappear.

Big or small, fry shacks today all sell fries with a range of sauces and other fried foods (mainly fried meat). However, no Belgian will leave a fry shack without a pack of traditional fries, and the traditional Belgian way to eat fries is with mayon-naise, a sauce made from egg yolks and oil.

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In terms of healthy food, they are the nutritionistÊs worst enemy. Full of carbo-hydrates and fat, they are not the best choice. Still, most Belgians eat them about once a week. They are cheap and very filling, which makes them accessible for the rich and poor; they are tasty, and they are part of BelgiumÊs history.

Brusselse Wafels (Belgian Waffles)

Belgians are also known for Brusselse Wafels or waffles. The history of this sweet baked dough with a squared pattern goes back a very long time. Baking dough between plates was already common among the ancient Greeks. In the 13th cen-tury, a goldsmith refined this technique by making metal molds to bake patterned dough. And that is when the wafla , which is French for honeycomb·referring to the squared pattern of the waffles·came into existence. The first waffles were produced in France, followed by the Netherlands and Germany, which are all neighbors to Belgium. It is only in the late 19th century that recipes of „Brussels Waffles‰ started to appear in household cookbooks (e.g., CauderlierÊs book on sweet pastries that appeared in the late 19th century) and in pamphlets sold at fairs.

Because eating waffles was and is very popular during fairs, it is a street food for special occasions. One of the most famous vendors of waffles at fairs was (and still is) Max, named after Maximilaen Consael, who opened up his stall in 1856. It is then that the famous Brussels waffles were born.

Brusselse Wafels should not be confused with their sweeter variant: Luikse Wafels , or waffles from Liege, a town in the Southern part of Belgium. According to leg-end·though written proof is not existent·these emerged already in the 18th century when the prince of Liege asked his chef to prepare him a sweet dish with sugar. Little pieces of sugar were added to the waffle dough, and the prince loved them.

Waffle seller in a typical waffle stand in Brussels, Belgium. (Kobby Dagan/Dreamstime.com)

Belgium | 51 Although still popular today, Luikse Wafels are different. Not just because of the difference in the amount of sugar used, but also because of their shape: Brussels waffles have 20 holes, and Liege waffles have 24.

Oliebollen / Smoutebollen (Fried Dough Balls)

Also popular at fairs in Belgium are Oliebollen or smoutebollen , which consist of sweet dough fried in oil or lard ( smout ). Basically they are a mix of Frieten (fried) and Wafels (sweet dough). In terms of ingredients and preparation, they can be compared with doughnuts, but they have a different shape, small balls (the size of a golf ball). Similar to fries, the traditional way to serve them is in a paper cone.

They are not served with mayonnaise, but with lots of powdered sugar.

Similar to waffles, smoutebollen are traditional street foods for special occasions.

They are popular at New Year, but can also be found at fairs throughout the year and are especially popular on Vette Dinsdag (Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras), the day before Lent when people fast.

Today s moutebollen are still most popular at fairs, and some stalls sell them to-gether with waffles and fries. Because they have become popular with tourists, they are also outside the context of festivities, but they are not as common as waffles and fries, which can be easily found in every major city.

Other Street Foods

Gentse (Gestreken) Mastellen (Ghent Sandwiches)

A traditional, though less known, street food from Ghent, a lovely city in the north of Belgium, is Gentse Mastellen . Mastellen are sweet breads, comparable with a sandwich with a hint of cinnamon, and shaped like a bagel or doughnut. They emerged in Ghent about a century ago when Carmelites started to produce them for daily consumption. The tradition began in the 12th century when one of the bishops of Ghent installed a holy day (St. HubertÊs Day on November 3) to protect his people using mastellen. People would bring them to morning church, and they would be blessed: bakers still do it. A blessed mastel supposedly protects people from diseases like rabies.

Mastellen became popular street foods at the Patersholfeesten , a three-day outdoor festival that takes place in the second weekend of August in a part of Ghent known as the Patershol . The mastellen are sold as Gestreken Mastellen , which literally means „ironed mastels‰ and that is exactly what they are, at least in their traditional fashion. Until a couple decades ago, they were made by ladies from a traditional bakery in that area. They filled the mastel with sugar and flat-tened them using a warm iron. Today the original bakery no longer exists, but the ironed mastels have remained popular. Perhaps a little too popular, because

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to cater the high demands, they are nowadays made using the big irons they also use for warm sandwiches.

Geutelingen from Elst (Pancakes)

Another regional street food from Belgium that is quite well known is Geutelingen.

They are similar to pancakes, but baked on stone in a wood oven. Similar to other street foods in Belgium, Geutelingen are food for special occasions; they are tradi-tionally made and eaten around Candlemas (February 2). On that day, people also tend to eat regular pancakes. Pancakes are easier to make than these Geutelingen , which require people to take their dough to a place with a wood-fired oven or to the home of someone who owns one.

Until the first decades of the 20th century, these Geutelingen were common across Belgium, but they started to disappear in the late 1930s except in Elst, a city in the north of Belgium, where the tradition was kept alive. In 1981, a special committee was even installed to guard this tradition. Ever since the tradition has become very popular, people travel to Elst especially for these Geutelingen and other festivities.

Karekollen (Whelks)

Karekollen or whelks (small sea snails) are another well-known street food. They are popular not only along the coastline, but also in the capital of Belgium, Brussels, where Mie Caracol has been selling these delicacies for more than 50 years. She is based in one of the old neighborhoods of Brussels called the „Marollen.‰ Born in a family that ran amusement attractions at fairs, she started selling Karekollen at these fairs. Nowadays her stand is at the corner of the Hoogstraat and Vossen-straat, selling the best Karekollen in town (and worldwide according to some). Her recipe remains top secret.

Charlotte De Backer Further Reading

www.belgianfries.com

Gérard, J. Curiosités de la table dans les Pays-Bas Belgiques [Table Curiosities in the Belgian Low Countries] (1781). http://www.geutelingen.be/

Ilegems, Paul. Het volkomen frietboek. Amsterdam/Antwerpen: Nijgh & Van Ditmar (2002).

Brazil

With 190 million people and an area of 3.3 million square miles, Brazil (officially the Federative Republic of Brazil) is South AmericaÊs largest country. Its variety of geography and climates, ranging from green mountains along the Atlantic Ocean

Brazil | 53 to the Amazon forest in the north and a central plateau cut with hundreds of rivers, is reflected in its cuisine.

Discovered by the Portuguese explorer Pedro ˘lvares Cabral in 1500, Brazil was first called Ilha de Santa Cruz (Saint Cross Island.) At the time, it was in-habited by around 5 million people with different cultures and languages. For many years, the Portuguese made little attempt to move inland or colonize the vast territory. But in the mid-16th century, the king of Portugal decided to install a central government and divided the territory into hereditary captaincies. New arrivals cut down vast swathes of forests, initially for brazilwood, later sugar-cane, cotton, and tobacco plantations. Coffee and cocoa beans were introduced and grown for export. Other products from PortugalÊs vast overseas empire in-cluded rice, bananas, and coconuts. The colonists in turn were introduced to na-tive products, including corn, manioc, chili peppers, peanuts, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and various beans. Today rice, beans, and manioc flour are the main staples of the Brazilian diet.

To work on the plantations, the Portuguese brought slaves from Western Af-rica. In 1850, the transportation of slaves was banned, and in 1888, slavery was abolished in Brazil. Today around 47 percent of Brazilians are of European origin (mainly Portuguese, Spanish, German, and Italian), 51 percent are of African or mixed descent, plus a small percentage of Asians and indigenous people.

Street food first appeared in the villages of the southeast, where modern São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are located, and the northeast, where BrazilÊs first capital Salvador in Bahia State was located. It was initially sold by the negros de ganho , slaves who had expertise in cooking. Usually they would have to give all their profits to their owners, but eventually, it became a way of social advancement that could even lead to freedom if the slave managed to save enough money to buy his manumission.

After slavery was abolished, selling street food became a major source of em-ployment for freed slaves. The first Brazilian street food was angu , boiled and mashed cornmeal seasoned with salt if the latter was available. Other dishes sold outdoors were fried fish with mashed fruits (a staple among indigenous peoples);

stews made with local vegetables, boiled and mashed cassava, and palm fruits, such as the pupunha ; fresh fruits, including banana and pineapple; and sonhos („dreams‰

in Portuguese), round sweet deep-fried treats made from sugar and flour (mainly cassava). Dishes from the African repertoire became the quintessence of street food in Salvador and throughout Brazil. The most famous is acarajé , a fritter made from peeled black-eyed peas formed into a ball and then deep-fried in palm oil.

Today everyone can be seen eating street food in Brazil, although its major ap-peal is for low-salary workers. For people who live in the poorest areas in big cit-ies and work far away from home, it is the only way to eat, since they have to have lunch in the city centers close to their jobs. Moreover, as in many other countries,

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selling street food provides employment for immigrants and newcomers who do not have regular jobs.

In cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, street food is sold mainly during lunchtime and rush hours. For breakfast, Brazilians stop by the padarias (baker-ies) and botequins (informal snack bars) that for many years were run by recent Portuguese immigrants. Here customers drink coffee and eat bread, snacks, and sandwiches. Botequins are a trademark of Rio, serving coffee and bread for break-fast, beer and typical appetizers all day long, such as Bolinho de bacalhau (codfish fritters), boiled eggs, fried fish, and pastel (thin pastry folded like a paper, filled with meat, ham, cheese). Many of these are officially sanctioned, unlike the ven-dors who sell without licenses in the poorer parts of cities.

Street-food stalls were built informally in city markets, at bus and subway termi-nals, and at street fairs. Early in the morning, one can see a vendor selling mingau de tapioca or mingau de maisena (tapioca and cornstarch porridge) in train stations in many big cities. In São Paulo, BrazilÊs largest city, there is no law protecting street-food vendors, who are harassed by the police. Food trucks are prohibited by the public health sanitary code. Meanwhile, street food is becoming trendy, and many chefs occasionally become street-food vendors, trying to help to legalize the activity.

BrazilÊs street-food culture is so rich that a person would have to travel all over the country to appreciate it. The most important street-food scenes are located outside of the capital São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. A famous street-food venue is the Ver-o-Peso Fish Market and streets around it in Belém in the State of Pará. It is known for its açaí com peixe ·açaí berries pulverized into a porridge and served with toasted cassava flour and grilled fish. Mercado Modelo in Salvador is famous for its comida de santo , African inspired dishes such as acarajé and cuscuz (cous-cous), which are dedicated to African deities on worship days. Japanese sobás are popular dishes in street fairs in Campo Grande, capital of Mato Grosso do Sul. The coastal cities of the Northeast are famous for queijo de coalho (curd cheese) melted on a skewer that is sold by ambulatory vendors.

Major Street Foods