Welcome back, friends

Nothing with an RSS feed every truly dies.

-- Karl Gyllstrom, Just Now

I return to Leuven Groovin' after a multi-month hiatus. Perhaps the dry spell has starved the least interested readers, and now I'm left with the fervent ones. Selection at work.

The last few months have been a bit of a blur. An explosion in the mines left me jobless and deaf, and we put Dudley to work on the farm to help make ends meet. Most of our meals now consist of cabbage and chicken feathers, but times can be good amid the squalor.

In all seriousness, there have been some notable events. A trip to the US in December. Weekend retreats to Brugges, Gent, Brussels, Poperinge, and The Hague. Several failed attempts at significant bike rides. Cold days and snow. A trip to St. Thomas Virgin Islands for a wedding. Back to Leuven today, 60s and sunny.

All of these events deserve posts of their own, but for now I'll leave it at "jet lag sucks" as I retire to bed, shy of 9pm. I will be better about updating in the future.

Cheers!

Queso del Chimay

I bought Chimay cheese from a garden variety supermarket tonight. It came in a cheap plastic container. Whatever remained of their trappist mysticism has been purged forever.

Delhaize and Confused

Delhaize is the Food Lion of Leuven. I am not speaking figuratively: Delhaize was founded in Belgium and owns Food Lion in the US, and uses the same logo.

It is also the highest quality supermarket in Leuven. This is not relative; it is actually a high quality store here.

Sorry, North Carolina: that store at which you would never deign to shop is actually the offspring of a fancy European market.

Chew on that.

Dislikes #1: Crazy-ass bikers

"If you leave for work early to beat the morning bicycle traffic ... you might be a Leuvener"

-- Jeff Foxworthy

Ok, ok. Jeff Foxworthy was not responsible for the above quote. (He'd be a southern pariah for even knowing what a Europe is.) But the quote is spot on.

A bit of role-reversal here: Cars in Leuven are the most harmless large objects in the world. They approach bikers with sheer timidity: "No, you first. Yes, I insist. Please go now. Don't make this harder than it needs to be".

No, cars are not the danger here. The bikers are lunatics from which the fear-of-God was purged long ago.

Bikers travel with a cruel efficiency that expends individuals for collective expedience. Games of chicken are as common as lanes, as one hurried biker attempts to pass another to gain a single forward placement. Corners are taken with little hesitation or deceleration. A few inches are considered a safe lateral distance for passing, even when the "passee" has no awareness of the passer. Helmets are non-existent, night or day. It is a lawless frontier.

I am very, very scared.

Beer #2: Signature Glasses

Pairing glass to beer is simply not done in the US. I've considered the bartender's serving of my Yuengling in a Yuengling glass to be a kitschy novelty. The pint glass is pro forma, and logo alone accounts for all perceivable differences, with most of them involving whether or not the Bud Light label has a backdrop of the Nascar checkered flag.

In Belgium, there are as many glass shapes as there are beers. And I'm beginning to see why.

There are some physical qualities to the glass which influence both the objective and subjective perception of the drinker. For instance, a curled lip delivers more beer to the tip of the tongue where bitterness is perceived, while a flat lip bridges the beer to the sweetness detectors on the back of the tongue. Round chalices collect aromas, while flatter walls offer a more uniform foaming.

As I think about it, I believe there is much more to it. Beers like Chimay, Westmalle, and Duvel have been around for ages, and are almost universally served from bottle, ensuring that a fixed amount is poured each time. The glass, then, is designed with the understanding of the amount being poured (as well as the shape of the vessel pouring), and seems to perfectly account for this in delivering color and foam to the glass. The images of Duvel-in-chalice for the ads, with the top half covered in heavenly foam, are in no way doctored to enhance the appearance. Duvel, poured into its signature glass, will appear that way every time, even from a bad pour. This experience has been carefully choreographed. For a pre-estimated time (which is nearly invariable among pours) the beer remains undrinkable as the foam hesitates to subside. It is a calculated delay that beckons the drinker to pause, inhale, and reflect upon the drink they will soon enjoy. The Westmalle Tripel pour, on the other hand, seems to absorb and accumulate the various strands of light within the room, reflecting them back to the drinker as a divine, ambient glow.

It is a part of an overarching philosophy. Beer is not the liquid that was poured into the glass before you. It is a work of art, being presented to you in the way the artist conceived it.

Beer #1: Duvel

I will use this category to describe the various beers I encounter in Belgium.

Today's offering is Duvel.

Duvel is one of those entities that achieves both elite credibility along with the love of the masses. Like the Beatles of beer, perhaps. It is easy to see why it's so popular: it tastes great, and, at least in Belgium, is about as cheap as water. It is also omnipresent: it's featured as the sign on more places than Coca-cola in the US, and can be purchased at nearly any restaurant, convenience mart, bar, or even school cafeteria.

Duvel is a very lightly colored, clear beer, with a mild-to-medium hopping, and finishes drier than just about anything. The dryness allows for a very cool finish: the alcohol actually manifests as sweetness. So, we get the (contradictory, by some definitions) heavenly mix of dryness and sweetness. The Belgian yeast is also apparent with the cloves on the finish.

Unfortunately this beer is a bit strong while being highly drinkable, meaning you should switch beer if you want more than one. In this case, I would suggest the Leffe Blonde, the subject of a future post.

Ultimate

I played with the advanced ultimate club team last night. Wow! Talk about some great ultimate, and super athletic players. Practice is every Wednesday night under the lights. It was primarily drills and lots of running. Suicides/laps/cuts, even punitive pushups during the throwing drill. I am hoping my performance was due in part to a lingering cold; I was having trouble keeping up in the running drills. In the end, we had a scrimmage, with an interesting half vertical/half horizontal stack.

After the game we went to the park bar (yes, the park has a bar) for multiple rounds. Everyone is really friendly and seem to be a tight-knit, but welcoming, group.