Merry Christmas to all...

...and it's almost good night for us. We're currently sitting back drinking some nice port to cap off a lovely London Christmas. We have the webcam (handy gift from my bro) setup and have been chatting with friends and family most of the afternoon, so it's almost like being at home! But to those we haven't spoken to today, we hope you're having a wonderful Christmas and look forward to seeing you in 2007!

Do they know it's crazy time at all?

December is always a busy month, and moving to London hasn't changed that at all. Work always tends to go a bit manic, and right now the only thing keeping me from working 29 hours a day are the actual fun things happening! We had a work engineering party that included a visit to the Science Museum's video game exhibition. Seeing all the games that I grew up with behind museum glass tends to make one feel prematurely old... It was amusing to see how massive the early GameBoy boxes were compared to today's (I think you could probably fit all of a PS2's hardware inside of one). That, in good English workplace form, was followed by a trip to the pub.

My brother and his wife just recently paid us a visit - we had a great time! Austin and Hank had some guy-time at which Hank discovered Austin's limit of alcohol intake (shockingly low... wuss) with a rum tasting at a Soho Cuban cigar & drinks bar. I ordered a fig and vanilla daquiri which was a very girly thing to order, but OMG that was tasty. So between that place and the local Tiki bar (called the Trailer of Happiness), we've definitely scoped out nice local watering holes. Janine is also a fellow knitter, so we scoped out a couple of knit shops, then went out for a lovely cream tea (cream tea = scones with jam & devonshire cream + tea) at Kensington Gardens. The boys avoided such frivolous girlish things and went...Drinking! Duh.

Hank and I are staying in London for Christmas, and our friend and co-worker Amy has kindly adopted us for the season. Christmas eve dinner is at her mom's, and Boxing day lunch is at her aunt's! I'm still learning about a lot of the differences in traditions here around Christmas, such as that you light Christmas pudding on fire with brandy but not Christmas cake. And Christmas crackers are *seriously* better than the cheapy little ones we'd ever get in the US. Harrods had boxes of crackers for the hefty price of £799 for 5 crackers. Apparently Tiffany also makes custom crackers... I wonder if Santa's still taking requests? ;)

Belgian Beers

I tasted a few different Belgian ales while living in the states. Local stores had a few of the more well known ales in stock (Chimay and Duvel).

Our trip to Brussels was a chance to find some less known and hopefully more exciting brews from small family breweries.

After our trip to Bruges, Danielle was in dire need of a nap (editors note: Danielle is napping at this exact moment in time), so I decided to head down to the hotel bar with a book and a Partagas SD#4.

I talked to the bartender for a few moments about local beers and such and he pulled a Tripel Karmeliet from one of the fridges.

"Try this one. If you don't like it, I will pour a different beer for you and you will not have to pay for it," said the bartender.

An offer like this is not one to refuse, at worst you end up eating a nice pile of olives to mask the flavor of bad beer.

This brew is a bit of a darker malty ale and went down very smoothly and paired well with a few olives.

I also discovered a nice surprise at our restaurant this same evening. They had Jenever on the drinks menu. Jenever is the national spirit of Belgium and started out as a spirit distilled from rainwater. The rainwater was ditched in favor of treated water during the plague years.

Jenever has a nice floral/herby flavor and is best served cold like Sake, Vodka and Gin. Generally I think of it as a cross between Sake and Gin.

The next night led to the moment of the trip for me, Beer Mania. BM is THE place to go for beer in Belgium. It is a very comfy spot with a lovable drunken dog and a great staff.

The back of the store contains some nice wooden tables and a huge wooden bar. The staff will pour beers to your taste. I really enjoy bright and hoppy beers, so he poured a Bink Blonde for me. This was dead on my sort of beer. No chemical tastes. Just a smooth bright beer flows down nicely and leaves a tingle in your mouth.

Danielle likes a more malty beer, so the staff poured her a Mea Culpa, which was created by the owner of BM. She really enjoyed this beer and said it was exactly what she wanted as well, plus the glass is beautiful.

Next we wanted to try a lambic and we wanted to try it in its raw state (no sugar added). They poured a nice bottle of Girardin Kriek. Kriek is a cherry lambic and this brand was light, crisp and very tasty. Danielle, who is usually a very slow drinker, managed to polish off her glass and part of mine very quickly.

On your next trip to Belgium, take my advice and visit Beer Mania first. This will give you the lay of the beer land and make the remainder of your dinners much easier as you will have idea of what beers will go well with your next meal.