I like to think that fries are our national pride, but foreigners call them French fries, and are confused when you explain they’re actually from Belgium.
So, what is our national pride?
Not a big waffle guy myself, so I guess chocolate then?
Definitely fries and beer. Switzerland gets away with being an excellent chocolate producer. But Belgian beer is renowned everywhere.
Fries may be associated with France, ours taste better because we fry them twice.
Sidenote: am I the only person offended by foreign mayonnaise? It’s somehow always sweet. What the heck?
Can confirm: foreign mayonnaise sucks.
Especially usa ones, soo much sugar
They would put sugar in their sugar
Belgium actually has a “mayonnaise law”, dictating how much fat and egg yolk is needed before it can be called mayonnaise on the jar.
If I remember correctly, that’s also one of the reasons Dutch mayo can only be sold as fritesauce here.
In holland they call their mayonaise “mayonaise” and they call our mayonaise “zure mayonaise”. Juste like we call our mayonnaise “mayonnaise” and their mayonnaise “zoete mayonnaise”. I’ve seen hollanders order zure mayonnaise.
That’s the one thing I cannot stand about eating fries in the Netherlands. Half the time I cannot even choose a sauce, and so I am forced to eat their disgusting mayo that is somehow so sweet.
The swiss have decent chocolate, but it’s a whole different tradition from ours. Bring them some decent pralines and watch them struggle to admit that yeah, this is gooooood 😁
Fries are called French in English, not because of their origin but because it’s the name of the cut… But few people know that.
As for mayo, yep. The French also have the good stuff, and i have to admit that murrican Helmans has ask the right ingredients and no sugar… But it still tastes off, somehow.
Beer
Complaining about everything. Alternatively, that things work best when we dont’t have a functional government :-)
Compromise
I’m not Belgian, and I know there are some heavyweight contenders, but I’d say beer. I’ve never seen range like it; variety, novelty, quality. For my money, Belgium is top of the hops.
I think objectively: cycling. We are punching way above our relative weight class in that sport. And sure, it’s a cultural thing, but still. The sport is no longer some niche playground for our country and a few of our neighbours. It’s a very competitive, popular international sport now, and still Belgian riders are a force to be reckoned with.