Chocolate - Belgium

Chocolate is another of Belgium's specialities that cannot be ignored having for a long time held a special place within its gastronomy.

In Bruges, aside from the informative Chocolate Museum, you'll find a range of chocolatiers selling all sorts of specialities at very attractive prices. One of these, the Praline, has so many different varieties that there is no legal definition! It exists with cream, butter cream, ganache (a mix of crème fraîche and chocolate), praline cream, liquor, coffee, dry fruit, nuts, caramel, pure chocolate and marzipan. The most famous are the Manons, the Giandujas and the Truffes.

Previously spelt 'prasline', it is said that the delicacy finds its origins in the name of Field Marshal de Plessis-Praslin, ambassador to Louis XIII, who saw one day one of his kitchen boys scraping and then nibbling on melted sugar, from which he came up with the idea. But it wasn't until 1912 that Jean Neuhaus started to make to praline in the form that we know today, namely a mouthful of stuffed chocolate which he would commercialise in a sweet wrapper.

  Glorious gables

The Church of Our Lady