BXL Zoute. Moules Frites. Belgium.

Dish: 8/10

Something so simple should always be done this right.

Restaurant: 6/10

Nice, informal little Belgium bar.

The national dish of Belgium is Moules Frites - Mussels with French Fries, although potatoes cut into thin strips and fried is not french, and may in fact be Belgian. We are huge fans of mussels, but it's hard to imagine a more hit-or-miss shellfish, so there's a unique sense of trepedation whenever we order them. 

We visited BXL Zoute, a Belgian bar and restaurant in the Flatiron District, to enjoy their Moules Frites for the World Restaurant Challenge. 

"I think oysters are more beautiful than any religion," he resumed presently. "They not only forgive our unkindness to them; they justify it, they incite us to go on being perfectly horrid to them. Once they arrive at the supper-table they seem to enter thoroughly into the spirit of the thing. There's nothing in Christianity or Buddhism that quite matches the sympathetic unselfishness of an oyster. Do you like my new waistcoat? I'm wearing it for the first time tonight."


  from 'The Chronicles of Clovis' by Saki

The Mussel: A Personal History

The above quote could apply to mussels, or any shellfish as far as we are concerned. The biggest pain of serving or eating mussels is cleaning them, but once cleaned, all they need is to be thrown into a pot with some wine or beer, a few sauteed vegetables, and pinch of salt, and they they come out tasting magnificent. In fact, you barely need any of the additions - a pot with some shellfish, in a splash of water, is a near perfect dish. 

We have been to Prince Edward Island, in part, because that's where mussels come from. They were plentiful and terrific there, and although it doesn't say on the menu, we imagine that's where the BXL Zoute mussels came from. The best we have ever had, was at Niagara Falls (on the Canadian side, of course), at Windows, which was then headed by Jamie Kennedy is now Massimo's Italian and looks a bit shit to be honest (still a great view though). We can still taste those mussels, all of which were perfectly plump, sandless, juicy and bursting with flavor, complimented by a light lemongrass, coconut broth. 


But as has been stated, mussels don't need any fancy broths, even when they are a perfect compliment, and while you have several choices at BXL Zoute - thai, dijonnaise, creamy, provencal etc - the straight Marieniere is what we went with - the simplest and often the best accompaniment. The mussels were delicious, the dish was straightforward, and the fries were flawless. How do Belgians make those perfect fries? No fancy Heston Blumenthalesque techniques I'm sure. 

Belgium and Belgian Americans

We suppose the root of this challenge is the idea that New York City is full of various immigrants, and therefore finding authentic cuisine from a lot of countries should be uniquely easy. And in each page we try to say a little about the immigrants from said country, because it's likely that the reason we are able to enjoy their cuisiine is because of the ex-pats and immigrants. Belgium is one of those countries where that's not really the case. There's not a ton of Belgians in New York City, although there is a lot of folks descended from Belgians who moved here in the 1850s, around Green Bay, WI. 

Belgium is one of those weird western-European countries that are held together by a weird Victorian compact. Like Great Britain, France and Spain, they aren't defined by any single ethnographic group. In Belgium the country is divided almost in half into Flanders and Wallonia and occasionally there are proposals for the country to be split, or for some sort of dissolution of the country into France and the Netherlands. 

The beauty of Moules Frites is that it perfectly combines mussels, which are especially popular in the Flemish part of Belgium, and fried potatoes which are something of an art of agriculture and cuisine throughout northern France/southern Belgium. So the dish becomes an expression of the marriage between these cultures. 

BXL

BXL has two locations: Zoute, where ate; and the Cafe, which is up near Times Square on 43rd Street. You can grab Moules Frites and a great selection of Belgian beers in either location. 

Other Belgian restaurants around the city include B. Cafe and Cafe D'Anvers on the UES. There are other places to find Belgian fries, and you can of course get Moules Marinieres in french restaurants and American pubs, but BXL - either Zoute or Cafe - seem like some of the best reviewed options for this meal. 

Merci! Au Revoir!