Between the « Maison du Heaume » (Den helm in dutch) with its ground floor occupied by the "Brussels Brasserie" and the « Maison du Petit Renard et du Chêne » (building made up of two houses grouped under the same roof, at 36 the restaurant « El Greco » but closed ! facade coated without decoration) you penetrate in the establishment.
LE PAON (De Pauw in Dutch)
Grand Place 35
Opening from 11H00-00h00
Brewery located in the « la Maison du Paon » north of the Place.
House repainted in white in 1984, the only one on the Grand-Place with its neighbor.
Restoration of the interior of the building by the owner.
All the establishments located on the Grand-Place invite you early in the morning, for dinner, the "supper" of its framework to feed your stomach and your spirit.
Classic menu offering mussels, burgers, pasta, etc..., in an enchanting setting! Note its dish « Le tour de Belgique / De Ronde van België » (Meatballs-Carbonnade-Bouchée …)
Meatballs with tomato sauce?
Meatballs are a true Belgian culinary heritage.
Brussels, Charleroi, Liège... Each Belgian city has its own recipe for meatballs.
In Brussels : the ballekes à la marolienne (gueuze), see blog épisode 13
In Charleroi (en wallon Châlèrwè), name chosen in honor of the young king, Charles II (known as « l'Ensorcelé », 1661-1700) : the vitoulets. Also known as « vitolets » or as « vitolèts ».
Emblematic dish, minced meatballs (at the beginning, made of veal only).
Minced = Walloon deformation of the word hachis, reduction of "minced meat" into a word "le haché".
Watch as this meat contracts with the heat in your oven.
"Hachis", a name wrongly used by our butchers?
They are eaten with French fries or, to make it more local, potatoes al pelate (cooked with the skin)... Can be eaten cold.
Etymology: probably from Latin vitulus ("bullock, steer") / calf.
Before the war, when you received someone unexpectedly, you offered him a drink. If one wished to receive this person a little better than "Mr. Anybody", one quickly sent the kid to seek meat "with the butcher" to prepare in speed a small "quickly turned" snack (popular etymology which is not correct).
Since 2017, the Fêtes de Wallonie in Charleroi are the occasion of a good-natured contest rewarding the one who proposes the best recipe of vitoulets, noted by a jury that takes its task very seriously.
Philippe Nonclercq published in 2015 a book of popular and traditional recipes, "Quand le pays de Charleroi se met à table". (more than 200 recipes and anecdotes).
Not to be confused with « la boulette de Wallonie » which is a cheese made in several dairy farms of the "plat pays" since many years.
This cheese made from skimmed cow's milk using a unique process can be enjoyed in a variety of forms.
The boulette de Nivelles is the well-kept secret of the famous "tarte al'djote".
It is not a pastry but a dish (lean white cheese, chard (djotes in the local dialect), onions, parsley and butter.
All the boulettes of the various producers are grouped under the name of "Boulettes de Wallonie".
The word « paon » also reminds me of the one on the front door of the Art Nouveau house (listed) of the architect Édouard Frankinet (1877-1937), in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert.
Do you know the Brussels-based (pop/rock) music band « Paon » formed en 2012?
Ben Baillieux-Beynon (ex leader of The Tellers) and Aurelio Mattern (from the band Lucy Lucy) have launched « Paon » their first album with eleven pop tracks with touches of melancholic hindia. An album to listen to over and over again?
Paon in the ears ?
Brussels like a peacock "doing its wheel"?
Place Poelart …..with its permanent Ferris wheel overlooking the city ?
Attraction to orient tourists in the Sablon or Marolles or to allow you to look for the Aris Grand-Place and Alma Grand-Place hotels as in a "made in Brussels" puzzle?
Paon in the stomach!
