Foodvice is a state of mind, it has to do with a constant curiosity about good food and a deep respect for the people who produce it and transform it

Fastfood can be close to “haute cuisine”, even if it is a Lebanese pitta. And this is not because the (good-looking) men serving it are wearing white shirts and ties (these gradually disappear from the slightly unbuttoned shirts – courtesy of the hot stoves behind the brave team). But because the spits rotating in the background are not the ghastly re-constituted “meat” we so often seen in other pitta joints. Every now and then a proud own takes real meat, marinates it in real spices, lemon and oil and then piles them up on the spit. The result can be tasted at “L’Express”, just off the Grand Place, and it is one of the best healthy meals downtown – whatever those who associate pitta with grease to appease drunkenness. This is the exception to a rule that dangerously flirts with junk food and deceitful presentation. So many fish joints are popping up on Boulevard Stalingrad. The sight is colorful and exciting, patisseries open until late at night, butchers, tea-shops and then the cheap restos where raw fish is marinating in different mixes at the counter. Well, a marinating fish fillet is the best way to disguise bad fish. It is not necessarily the case but the chances are high. In Portugal, fish is exhibited raw, with the head still on. In China, it is actually swimming in a tank. All the rest, stinks of bad news. Sadly, even when the produce is fresh, you can end up with fish which has been badly cleaned (bitter bits of guts still in the belly) or which is fried with little sense of the difference between crisp and soggy.

Another bad bad habit is that of rising prices unreasonably. It is happening everywhere around the city center, where a Vietnamese soup can easily cost you 8 euro and where the fab Chinese handmade noodles went up 40% in price, while the broth accompanying them remained the same artificially flavored gurgle. The worst of the worst is Mamma Roma. They have three branches and make the best pizza in town. But since 6 months or so, their price soared so much that a tiny square of pizza will easily be around 4 euro. Shame to you Mamma Roma, you surely don’t deserve your name!

Coffee is still awful in most places. Everyone prances around their Italian coffee machines but then staff (and owners) do not know how to clean them, how to filter the water, how to grind the coffee, how to set the temperature and so Brussels must be one of the worst coffee capitals in the world. In 2003, you could already find much better coffee in a place like Tokyo (which does not really have a coffee tradition to speak of, but they are very careful in cleaning, maintenance and copying good stuff). Nowadays you can find better coffee in places like Cologne, London or Stockholm, so really Brussels is a sham. Except for Cafe’ Blomkvist, which pushes the average up by a few notches. Owned by a passionate Swedish coffee-lover, this is a gem of its own kind and coffee flavor reaches poetic heights.

Chocolate is becoming a sour affair. Marcolini is almost unaffordable and the staff is just ridiculously snob about clients. This is why I always take pleasure in visiting them after a day of manual work, wearing smelly dusty clothes and looking like a tramp.

There is a new chocolate shop by Laurent Gerbaud near Central station but unfortunately this well packaged chocolate tastes disappointingly bad, dusty and lacking in flavor (I have not tasted the new Domori range, maybe that is better) and no addition of the usual chilies or nuts or yuzu or bergamot does not help either. These days, my chocolate cravings find satisfaction in the pralines of the Italian Guido Gubino, who takes on the great Piemontese tradition of chocolate making with hazelnuts and who created a surprising salty praline (which is a bit of a slap in the face of the Belgian nation).