shinomaster's observation that

[oracle]

those Belgians can just do no wrong!

seems to me not wholly inaccurate.

beer, eddy merckx, fries&mayo, the koppenberg, general bicycle madness, cyclocross madness, pretty belgian girls, what more could one want? do the belgians do any wrong?


oracle

[djg]

Men's tennis. Women's tennis, they seem to be getting the hang of. Men's, not so good.

By the way, you left out chocolate--they make some seriously good chocolate over there.

[shinomaster]

well if their weather is anything like it is here in portland then that could be it! my friends lived in Belgium for a while and said they are not an outwardly friendly peolple either. the rest is all good though!!:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

they have steak with tarragon cream sauce too!

[jerk]

having lived in the great flat tank route between germany and france for many years the jerk can tell you many things the belgians do not do very well:

1. drive. germans want to be in front of you, frenchmen want to be behind you and belgians want to be where you are. small country syndrome has produced a condititon which turns the normally reserved flem or walloon into a maniacal blood-thirsty dictaitor if you put a windshield in front of him. even the great eddy merckx is not immune from this. the jerk travelled over 160kmh on a cobble stone road in eddy's mercedes. it's a good thing the jerk's God was driving. Couple this driving ability with awesome laws like "priorite a droit"...(rule whereby anyone entering a road from the right has priority) and its a good thing belgians are required by law to keep fire extinguishers in their cars.

2. work. a hgher percentage of belgians work for the state than east germans worked for the DDR. this is not to say they actually work. go into any ministry or place of business and at least half the people who work there we'll be out of the office excercising their right to "conge"...which is sort of like a vaction you can take anytime for a few hours or a few weeks. where beamte ickyx you will ask trying to get a phone...eh......il est conge...je pense....then the door willl shut in your face because the person who just told you ickyx was conge is about to go on a 3 hour lunch break....not that it matters since ickyx was only person who could get you a phone anyway since your last name ends in a vowel other than i and your street addressis a number greater than 12 but smaller than 17.

3. track racing. a couple naturalized buddies of mine like matty gilmore being the exception....belgians suck attrack racing....i once saw tom steels fall off the top of the bank while practicing PURSUIT! Now a guy who puts more watts than the schaerbeek powerplant should be able to do well in pursuit....but alas he is belgian.

4.getting along with eachother...flems versus walloons aside...iis there any reason why belgians need to surround their homes with 12 foot high fences and shrubs? or is there any reason why they pull steel shutters down over all of their windows at night? belgium has one of the lowest crime rates anywhere in the world and the germans haven't invaded in at least 10 years...nonetheless belgians will not speak to their next door neighbors and unless your marrying their daughter or conducting business don't ever be expected to be invited over to belgians house. if you are, you are officially best friends forever...the jerk made the mistake once of inviting a guy he raced with to his home for some american barbecue. he gave me a botttle of johnie walker blue label....and still won't shut up about the great meal. (it was a ****ing hamburger.)

5.music....eversince they invented the saxaphone and jacques brel moved to paris, belgium has produced the worst music this side of sweden....case in point: TECHNOTRONIC.


the jerk
who actually loves belgium, belgians and still has a belgian passport and an expired pro-card.

[shinomaster]

the Jerk has spoken. I've never heard of a good Belgian Potter either!

[MadRocketSci]

maybe it's because I was a cheap hostel hopper with a backpack, but I pretty much lived on those sidewalk waffles and saved my money for the beer and occasional pot o' moules. They'd make my top 3 in the "if you could only eat one thing the rest of your life" question. I don't know how we americanized them into some kind of taste-free batter made from pancake mix requiring you to use half a bottle of mrs butterworth, but in their homeland they come as balls of dough containing roughly 80% butter cooked in a hand-turned iron heated over coals. They kick any donut by themselves (no syrup, jam, honey etc) with like 3x the calories. My personal fave is a la mode with cheap soft serve vanilla on top.

No idea if real brussel-ites actually eat them, cuz none could tell me how to make them, as the dough-balls come ready to press out of a box, but still searching for a reasonable recipe here...

[Russell]

fries & mayo - that just gave me the chills. fries/chips should be eaten with s&p, malt vinegar and/or old bay.

[oracle]

if you've never tried it , make yourself some (unless you're a vegan) but use only the finest eggs, with the most golden yolks that you can find. you will perhaps never think of hellman's as 'mayo' again.
:beer:
oracle

[Too Tall]

Russell...spoken like a true Maryland man.

OK. Horses. Nobody does it better. Belgian draft horses were good enough for American farmers. It's understandable you'd not want to invite one to dinner.

[BdaGhisallo]

If you want to get a great insight into Belgium and its people check out the book "A tall man in a low land" by Harry Pearson. It's available on Amazon. Very entertaining.



As an aside, I thought it was great that the belgians went back to their old national strip of the shy blue with the red, yellow and black bands. It always look so classy.

[shinomaster]

the new Cycle Sport I just got has a special section devoted to the greats of Belgian racing! What timing!

[shinomaster]

My friend who grew up in Belgium says that Belgians were friendly towards their Neighbors but not to anyone else...She also says those waffels are the Bomb and nothing at I hop comes close to not being complete and utter horse Merde.

[MadRocketSci]

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/2830/bbwaff.html

[shinomaster]

thanks mad rocket Man I'm gonna try to make a Liege Waffel!! My ex is always getting mad when Americans think they know what a Belgian waffel is. "thats not a Belgian waffel, that's crap " she says!!!

[oracle]

i'm guessing that from your handle, as well as the master of shino bit, that you do some shino glazing? are you a modern day bernard leach? do you make good fakes?

:beer:
oracle

[shinomaster]

No. It is as you said so hard to fake the clay. Especially because they used local clay which was often unique in character. Today almost all american potters use a clay body which is mixed by a big company, and you can always see bits of fireclay and it usually looks gray and ugly. I can make a clay similar to Mashiko clay though..

Warren Mackenzie makes both good Hamada and Leach copies! Ha ha... Actually I've never been too inspired to copy Leach. In college I tried so many times to copy Hamada Tea Bows, just becaus they were so beautiful.
I make good copies of Korean and Japanes folk pottery like Onda or Celadon korean Pots, but not the Misima style.
I have never handled a Leach pot. I have handled a few Hamada pots in the Freeer Gallery in DC. A real treat. Also Old Momoyama tea wares I had seen in Books!!

If you wan't I'll make you a fake leach pot for fun..Nothing to big though...as I am rusty.

[oracle]

have you heard of or used a material, a spray on powder, i think, which after being fired gives a given clay a completely different color?

sure - i would love to see one of your fakes - leach or otherwise!

oracle

yes rasputin is good

too good

it may cause brain damage

oracle:beer:

[shinomaster]

every ceramic material is in a powder form, be it a clay , or a stain. One may brush a high iron clay over a lighter clay to mask the original. I suppose you could just as easily spray it with water as a slip. I've done something similar myself actually.
When I move and get a digital camera I will send you a few pictures....
Old shino is almost impossible for americans to emulate. Even for this shinomaster!