Photo by Chris Osburn ©2008
Greetings. I'm in the UK this week, and spent last Monday evening partaking of a spectacular meal at the Belgo Centraal restaurant in Convent Gardens, in the company of two of my favorite bloggers, Will Kane and Tiki Chris. Chris invited us to join him, as he was reviewing Belgo for the Londonist, and Belgo's publicist was kind enough to comp Will and I as well, in exchange for a meal review. Always happy to prostitute myself for free eats, I decided to break my posting hiatus in order to convey my impressions of the grub to you, my long-neglected readers.

All 3 of us ordered Belgo's current special, the Oktoberfeast, a 3-course meal paired with a flight of Belgian beers. As I'm a good Wisconsin boy who loves me some fried cheese, I ordered the Croquettes de Fromage for starters. The croquettes arrived, done to a crispy golden brown, and accompanied by a golden, hoppy Trappist beer called Orval, served (as always when drinking Belgian brew) in the proper glass. The croquettes were filled with a Belgian cheese of unknown provenance that was a bit too mild and soft for my tastes, but the pickled onions and peppers that shared the plate with them added enough bite and spice to balance out the presentation.

For my main course, I ordered the Carbonnade Flamande, a braised-beef dish, swimming in a rich, brown gravy made from Faro Beer, nutmeg, and brown sugar, with chunks of yams. The beer pairing was Mort Subite Gueuze, an unfiltered, crisp, slightly-sweet and sour, amber-colored beer made from a mixture of young and old lambics. The Carbonnade was very good. The beef was tender, and the gravy was delicious, the yams adding a nice sweet texture to the dish. A side of Belgian frites and mayonnaise provided some fried, salty, heart-unhealthy goodness to the proceedings, although I thought they were far too small to be proper Belgian chips, which are normally about the size of a quarter of a large potato.

Dessert arrived in the form of Crème Glacée à la Leffe, ice cream made from Leffe Beer, topped with Sirop de Liege, and pralines. The beer pairing was a small bottle of a strawberry-flavored brew called Frühli, which was reminiscent of Kriek, but much sweeter. The flavor of the Leffe in the ice cream was very subtle, and worked well with the stronger taste of the syrup. Oddly enough, the pralines tasted more of beer than the ice cream did.

All in all, a wonderful meal (and not just because it was free). Throughout our repast, Will regaled Chris and I with Anthony Newley's life story, and spoke of his efforts to put on a star-studded tribute to this amazing talent on the 10th anniversary of his death. Save me a front-row seat, Will!

In other news, I also had a lovely pub lunch with Mr. and Mrs. Cartoonist last Saturday, and spent 4 sun-drenched days with good friends, on the beautiful Mediterranean island of Mallorca. Photos of my visit can be viewed at my Flickr account.

Cheerio!

Mr. BH