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A famous café-bar in central Brussels, with a gueuze named after it (see A La Mort Subite).

Other abbeys also produced beer, but unlike the Trappist monasteries, many have licensed them to commercial breweries. Leffe, for example, is now closely connected with Interbrew. That said, many of the abbey beers are excellent. In addition, there are good “abbey-style” beers, such as Ename, Floreffe and St Feuillien.

Eels cooked in a sauce of fresh green herbs.

For lovers of everything from old comics and Art Nouveau door handles to exquisite Louis XVI desks and ormolu clocks, Belgium is a happy hunting ground. In Brussels, the full range is on view between the Place du Jeu de Balle and the Place du Grand Sablon.

The largest Art Deco building ever built? Remarkable view from its copper-green dome.

Tiny béguinage (see Bruges) – now a museum showing how the béguines lived.

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).

Supreme biscuit manufacturer, in a class of its own (see Biscuiterie Dandoy).

It is hard not to drool in front of the ravishing shop windows of Belgian pâtisseries – and the mouth-watering offerings taste as good as they look. An alternative is to buy some of the equally famed biscuits (cookies) – from a specialist like Dandoy (see Biscuiterie Dandoy).