Finding, getting and delivering Irish food in Belgium

Here at 365things, I sometimes get a big goo on me for a bit of Irish food. I’ve done a quick search for mail order companies that deliver Irish goodies here to Belgium and the rest of Europe. Most of these are English companies, but they have some Irish products, or at least familiar ones, in their range. If you’re planning a St Patrick’s Day shindig, order early to make sure you get it in time. One big thing to remember: I have not ordered from all of these companies, so I cannot comment on how reliable they are, so caveat emptor.

You can find some Irish and British products in some of the larger supermarkets in Brussels and in the areas where a lot of us live, like Waterloo and Tervuren. You can also go to Stone Manor, who have shops in Waterloo and Everberg. They have some St Patrick’s Day dressing up goodies for the kids (or yourself).

If you’re not able to get to these shops or if there is something you particularly want but cannot find, check out www.justlikehome.ie, who deliver all over the world. They provide hampers, usually with Tayto crisps, Cadbury chocolates, Barry’s tea, Jacob’s biscuits or Ballymaloe relish. There are special hampers for St Patrick’s Day and Easter. Another site, www.youririshshop.com, only delivers to the UK.

These websites are more for British products: www.britsuperstore.com and www.britishcornershop.co.uk but they also deliver direct to your door.

If you want one specific product and not a week’s grocery shopping, you can buy directly from your favourite brands.

Starting off with savoury stuff, naturally, fresh products are not available on-line. If you happen to be reading this from the UK, or if you have friends or family living there and who are coming over to Belgium soon, you can get Clonakilty pudding, sausages and bacon delivered to them. I checked out Kerry foods (Denny’s, Galtee, Low Low…) and, as have a lot of fresh products, they don’t have an on-line shop. Try Jack O'Shea's butchers on Rue Franklin in Brussels for a great selection of fresh and preserved Irish food, from sausages to cheese to brown bread to sauces and chutneys, including Ballymaloe relish. 

For chocolate lovers, Cadbury’s also have an on-line shop that delivers, but only to the UK. However, Lily O’Brien’s (www.lilyobriens.ie) deliver their goodies to the rest of the world, for a price. Those purveyors of happiness (their words, not mine), Butlers, also deliver, also for a price (www.butlerschocolates.com). Tayto sell on-line and deliver to your door (www.taytocrisps.ie).

Barry’s tea have an on-line shop and they post the tea to you: www.barrysteashop.ie. I had a look at the Lyons (www.lyonstea.ie) but there is no on-line shop. I also searched for TK’s red lemonade on-line, and there is one place that sells this outside Ireland, but delivery is only to the UK: www.theirishshop.co.uk.

You could always try making your own brown bread – the recipe I use is here. I know opinion is divided, but I love coddle, so if you fancy giving this easy dish a go, you could try this recipe.

Is there any particular Irish food that you miss? Have you found it easier to find Irish products in the last few years, especially compared say with 10 years ago? What do you ask visitors to bring over to you when they come? Is there anything that you have to sample when you go to Ireland? For me, it’s a simple sandwich… there is something about how sandwiches are made in Ireland that nowhere else is able to replicate. I think it has something to do with the bread. Hubs always gets a proper triple-decker club sandwich with chips or crisps when we go to Ireland. Mmmm – I’m hungry now for a white bread sandwich with stuffing and cranberry sauce… with turkey, and maybe a bit of melted brie… and a little salad… with crisps on the side... 

First, catch your kangaroo

Many thanks to all of you who voted in 365things first ever poll. The resounding winner of what I should cook this week was something Australian. I did a quick google search for Australian food. It’s pretty much food from all over the world, recognising the multicultural nature of the country. So, I turned to Hubs and in exasperation asked “what’s Australian?” “Kangaroo!” he said with a smile. Right. Thanks hun...

So where do you get kangaroo in Belgium? Someone told me you can get it in the GB at Pl Jourdan. That is completely off my route, so I tried the Carrefour in Waterloo (Mt St Jean).  I asked with the friendly butcher behind the counter if they had any, which resulted in the typical type of conversation I frequently have with salespeople in this country:

Me: est ce que vous avez du kangourou?

Butcher: huh?

Me: est ce que vous avez du kangourou?

Butcher: du quoi?

Me: c’est un grand animal qui vient d'Australie, et qui saute (hand gestures to indicate jumping).

Butcher: de l’autruche?

Me: kan-gou-rou !!!

Butcher: ah, kangourou! Oui, bien sur!

So, kangaroo ‘caught’. To save you the embarrassment of repeating this conversation in your local supermarket, here’s a photo of what pre-packaged kangaroo looks like. In the local store, it's kept in the fridge with poultry. Incidentally, there was also some ostrich there too. 

Kangaroo, as for sale in your  local Carrefour. Possibly. 

Fun fact: in researching kangaroo I found out that Australians don’t eat a lot of kangaroo. In fact, Belgians eat more than the Aussies do.

But back to the kitchen… Roo is very low in fat, so according to all the reading I did, you only need to cook it for a very short time, and it’s best eaten medium rare. I thought I’d cook it like a steak – pan fried for a short time. I did about 8-9 minutes in total on a hot pan. Everything I read said that you should let the meat rest well after cooking.

I made a sauce in the pan while the meat was resting, with a little red wine (about a glass) and a teaspoon each of onion jam and fig jam. I also boiled a few potatoes and served some mange tout on the side.

Verdit? I thought it was quite good. I certainly would eat it again, and would buy it if it were on offer in the local shop – I think I paid about €4 for around 200g. Its tasty and low in fat. It has a strong taste however, kind of like venison and with an iron tang. Hubs thought it was good, if a little too strong tasting for him.

As I am cooking today to celebrate Australian Anzac day, I cannot fail to mention Anzac cookies. I found loads of recipes for these, and they are very similar to the chewy cranberry oatmeal cookies I regularly make. As I’ve already blogged about them and make them regularly, I decided not to make them again this week. If you fancy some yummy treats (and you could argue that they are good for you will all those uber-healthy oats in them!), you can find my recipe here.

I’ve written three posts on grocery shopping in Belgium (on-line and in real shops) and what to do with some of the goodies you can find here that you cannot find in supermarkets at home (boar and venison).

Pork bhuna – easy weekend Indian food

Long before I moved to Belgium, I loved spicy food, which often meant Indian. Nothing’s changed, except nowadays it’s a lot easier to find Asian/Indian food here. However, finding something sufficiently spicy hot can be a challenge. I have used jars of sauce and added a bit of chilli. Unfortunately, these are usually very high in calories and fat, so I started making my own curries a few years ago.

Pork bhuna with spicy rice

Many people think that making curries from scratch is difficult. In fact, the most difficult part is finding the spices you need. You can find many of these in supermarkets and for the more ‘exotic’ ones, check out the Asian supermarkets at St. Gery in Brussels city centre (near St Catherine and de Bourse) or the many ‘ethnic’ ones dotted around the city (such as the Chaussee d’Ixelles, etc…).

The list of ingredients in the bhuna here can appear daunting, but once you have the basics, you’ll find you can make a lot of other curries. A huge plus is that you can make your curry as weak or as strong as you like. Also, with this curry, you put everything in the pot and leave it to cook, making it low-maintenance.

I served this with spiced rice and homemade naan bread. The recipe is from Madhur Jaffrey’s 100 essential curries. A * marks the spices I’ve found in supermarkets.

2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds*

4 teaspoons whole coriander seeds

2 teaspoons whole mustard seeds (I used black mustard seeds)

2-4 whole chillies* (you can used fresh or dried, the quantity depends on how hot you like it)

2 teaspoons whole fennel seeds*

2 teaspoons fenugreek seeds

Oil (the recipe says peanut or corn oil, I used olive)

3 large shallots (I used a large onion)

4 cm grated fresh ginger (tip: use the side of a teaspoon to peel it; also, if you’ve no fresh ginger, a good teaspoon of ground ginger is fine)

5-6 garlic cloves

10-15 curry leaves (you’ll get these in an Asian supermarket)

2 medium tomatoes (I used 200ml passata as I had some in the fridge to use up)

900g shoulder of pork (for 4 people – I used 400g filet pork (for 2 people), chopped into bite-sized chunks (you can use chicken, lamb or beef either)

Unorthodox ingredient: about 150g mushrooms (upping the veggie count, cutting the calories of the dish, and they had to be used up)

In a dry, heavy casserole or pot (ie: don’t add any oil) and over a medium-high heat, toast the seeds and chillies for about 2-3 minutes, until they start releasing their smells. Keep a close eye on them so that they don’t burn. When they are done, either grind them in a pestle and mortar, a coffee grinder or a small food processor until they are powdery.

In the same pot, heat a teaspoon of oil and cook the chopped shallots, garlic and ginger for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and the curry leaves. Cook until the tomatoes have broken down and are a bit gloopy.

Add the ground spices, 250ml water and the meat. Season, stir and reduce the heat to simmering. Cover and cook for at least 20 minutes if you’re using a filet. If you’re using shoulder, the meat will need longer cooking, so around an hour and a half. Check the sauce. If it needs thickening (it should cling to the meat), remove the lid and cook until thicker. If you need to adjust the chilli heat, do it now too. If it’s too hot, add some (low-fat) yogurt to cool if down.

For the spicy rice

100g long grain rice (recommended guidelines state 125g for 2 people, but as I was serving the naan bread too, I didn’t need a whole lot of rice)

One onion

Oil

A couple of cardamom seeds

A stick of cinnamon

One teaspoon turmeric (‘curcuma’ in French)

Peel and chop the onion into rings. Fry this on a low heat, in a little oil, for about 10 minutes, until soft and golden. From experience, don’t think that upping the heat will cut the cooking time; it doesn’t and the onions burn. Long n slow is the name of the game here.

Meanwhile, pop the rice and everything else into a pot with some salt and loads of water and cook according to the instructions. The rice will go a lovely radio-active yellow colour.

Once cooked, drain the rice and stir the cooked onions through.

Shopping

Oh grocery shopping, how do I love thee, let me count the ways…

Let’s get things straight. Grocery shopping is not the most exciting thing in the world, and shopping in a strange country can be difficult and time consuming.

Here, I hope to bring you news of where you can buy some UK/Irish goodies ‘locally’, or where you can get them delivered to your door. As this topic is quite broad, this is just a taster. I will expand on some of these topics some other time. If all goes well, I may also be able to decipher what some of those strange things in the supermarket are and what to do with them.

Of course, my experience is limited, so if you know of somewhere of interest to expats, send me a mail or tell the world about it in the comments below!

Internet

First up, there are internet-based companies that import goodies from the UK to Belgium. One of these is the Internet Grocer, which stocks a wide variety of those little things that you miss. Order by Tuesday evening and the lovely Giles will deliver it on Friday.

Brussels and surroundings-based shops

There are several dedicated expat shops around Brussels that sell Irish and UK store-cupboard foods. Catering for fresh food enthusiasts however, is Jack O’Shea’s butchers on Rue le Titan (corner of Rue Franklin). As well as excellent Irish beef, lamb, pork and chicken, Jack’s also stocks Irish cheeses, home-baked goods, fresh brown bread, Tayto crisps and a wide range of condiments to complement everything they sell. The staff are very friendly and knowledgeable.

Grocery shops and chains are finally copping onto the fact that there are a lot of expats here who like buying food that reminds us of home. The big supermarkets are getting better about stocking ‘foreign’ food and many, particularly in areas with a high expat concentration, now have ‘foreign’ food shelves/aisles. The range of goods is fairly much the same everywhere. On my travels, I’ve spotted English goodies such as Coleman’s mustard, Dorset cereals, Digestive biscuits, Cadbury’s chocolate and the like.

Carrefour (Kraainum and chaussee de Bruxelles, 299 Waterloo for example) seems to have the biggest range, without having to go to a specialist shop. The Carrefour at the Mont St Jean in Waterloo (chaussee de Charleroi, 579) has a dedicated long aisle. The GB in Merode also has a selection, albeit much smaller. The fruit and vegetable selection in this store is the best I’ve seen in this country, with a vast selection of exotic and not so exotic (parsnips anyone?) fresh* produce. You also have the charming experience of having someone weigh your choices.

Of the Delhaize’s I’ve visited, the choice of expat food stuffs is more limited. Saying that, the Delhaize in Braine l’Alleud is the only shop in which I’ve seen halloumi for sale.

Things I’ve never seen for sale

I’ve never seen fresh breadcrumbs for sale, so you will have to make your own or talk nicely to your local baker. Supermarkets do sell boxes of ‘chapelure’ which is balls of some unknown (to me) hard substance, which translates into breadcrumbs. Make your own. I've also never seen bags of frozen sweetcorn in the supermarket. 

I’m still on the look-out for a fishmonger that sells fresh fish at an affordable price. And that doesn’t weigh the fish, offer to gut it and then tries to sell it to you for the pre-gutted price.

Markets

There are many food markets in Brussels and its environs. You can find a list here (in French).

Non-grocery shopping

On a more interesting note, many more UK and Irish high-street shops are now delivering to the continent. The list is ever expanding. Mind the conversion rate, and if possible buy in GBP as (usually) the Euro price is much higher.

* usually it’s quite fresh, and keeps for a few days. As with most supermerkets everywhere, you may be better off shopping little and often.