Restaurant Den Dyver
About 50 miles north of Watou is the medieval city of Bruges, a UNESCO World Heritage Center since 2000. The city center is a maze of winding alleys and canals. Whether explored on foot or on water, it’s an architectural delight. And then there are the beers and the restaurants.
Chef Guido Vandenbussche runs the kitchen at Restaurant Den Dyver in Bruges, and his son, Achim, handles the front of the house. They specialize in cooking with beer and pairing food at the table.
“I usually prefer to drink beer,” Achim said, “but on the table I prefer wine—except I drink beer with a sauce made with beer. Then there is an explosion in the mouth.”
Chef Vandenbussche spoke of specific ways in which he cooks with beer.
“I create meals from an entire animal,” he said, “such as lamb. I cover the legs with dark beer and seasonings for four hours at 55 degrees C in the oven. This tenderizes the lamb. For duck, I use old wood for smoke and soak it the same way as lamb. Salmon, however, requires whiskey. For fish, I use a wheat beer or a blond beer. I make a meringue with gueuze, and for a chocolate mousse cream it’s a Trappist beer. I try to use beers in different ways. You can do a lot of things with beer.”
The house beer at Den Dyver is a sweet, blond ale brewed by Brasserie Dubuisson Frères in Leuze-Pipaix, known for its beer called Bush, which for legal reasons is renamed Scaldis in the U.S. so as not to infringe on the Anheuser-Busch name. There is no beer list. Instead, the Vandenbussches pair specific beers with each course.
On an early spring beer tasting menu, Chef Vandenbussche served a three-course meal that consisted of:
• Amuse Bouche: octopus, cucumber and tomato sauce; gazpacho garden peas; and fish apple radish tapioca.
• Redfish fillet, cauliflower mousse, grilled welsh onion, wood sorrel popcorn with cloves served with Urthel Saisonniere (6.0 percent, Brouwerij de LeierthLeyerth online), or asparagus and basil, grilled beef carpaccio, herring cavier, smoked hay oil served with Dormaal Wit Goud (8.0 percent ABV), Brouwerij Hof Ten Dormaal.
• Baked Norwegian codfish and monk’s liver with lemon thyme asparagus, nettles, radish, bacon crumble served with Poperings Hommelbier (7.5 percent, Brouwerij van Eecke), or duo of lamb, Arabica sauce, Jerusalem artichoke, turnip tops, rye toast, mash of sweet potatoes with chili pepper served with Adriaean Brouwer Dark Gold (8.5 percent, Brouwerij Roman).
• Strawberries with rhubarb verbena ice cream, Gueuze meringue served with Rodenbach (5.2 percent, Brouwerij Rodenbach).
