Book excerpt: This Gourmand Award winner for Best Foreign-International Cuisine “will broaden your horizons to the left of La Belle France and you will thank it” (Mostly Food & Travel Journal). Ruth van Waerebeek’s wonderful compendium of Belgian recipes celebrates the country that boasts more three-star restaurants per capita than any other nation—including France. It’s a country where home cooks—and everyone, it seems, is a great home cook—spend copious amounts of time thinking about, shopping for, preparing, discussing, and celebrating food. With its hearty influences from Germany and Holland, herbs straight out of a medieval garden, and condiments and spices from the height of Flemish culture, Belgian cuisine is elegant comfort food at its best—slow-cooked, honest, and hearty. It’s the Sunday meal and a continental dinner party, family picnics and that antidote to a winter’s day. In 250 delicious recipes, here is the best of Belgian cuisine: Veal Stew with Dumplings, Mushrooms, and Carrots; Smoked Trout Mousse with Watercress Sauce; Braised Partridge with Cabbage and Abbey Beer; Gratin of Belgian Endives; Flemish Carrot Soup; Steak-Frites; Steamed Mussels; and desserts—some using the best chocolate on earth—including Belgian Chocolate Ganache Tart, Almond Cake with Fresh Fruit Topping, and Little Chocolate Nut Cakes. As the Belgians say, since everybody has to eat three times a day, why not make a feast of every meal? “Ruth is an engaging writer, plenty of stories and reminiscences pepper the text. . . . Bask in Belgian goodness, a cuisine that really deserves to be better known.” —Foodepedia