Best of Belgium
I have never been to Belgium. On every “10 most popular Belgium dishes” sites, there were mussels. I have never cooked mussels before either. Seafood is not my household staple. The only sea I was close to growing up was the Pannonian Sea, 600,000 years away. What was left was occasional carp, catfish or sturgeon swimming in the rivers.
The challenge was on! The recipe didn’t look too complicated and the preparation turned out to be true to what they promised. It was fun to see the shells opening up. The dinner was served with French fries and garlic bread. Waffles were an easy dessert.
Mussels and fries 
Yellow flesh 
Waffles with raspberries
Breaking bones
Beach to settle down to.
This is where I wanted to grow old,
close to the water,
relinquished to the sun and calmness,
where cold wind transforms
into an indistinct recollection.
To rub my bones against the sand,
sculpturing them into a perfect shape,
smoothing the sharp edges of ageing.
A pebble whose luscious roundness
is not from youth
but a body of time.
An invitation for a visitor
to carve that special word on it,
such as “Hope” or “Love,”
put it in his pocket
and carry away.
