
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
This page of my travel diary finds Family Kiwidutch and our Singaporean friend “Velveteen” (her Internet nickname to protect her privacy) in Bruges, Belgium. Velveteen and I have just left the canal tourist boat trip, and gone to meet up with Himself and the children for dinner.
We arrive at the Church Of Our Lady meeting point at ten minutes to six in the evening and since it’s still raining hard, decide not to mess about looking for a restaurant too far away, which is how we ended up at the Maria van Bourgondie Restaurant just around the corner.
We are handed menu’s at five minutes to six and after greeting the older lady who comes to serve us I happen to mention in Dutch that I’m delighted to see Belgium Waffles on the menu and how very much we will be looking forward to dessert later on.
Imagine our shock when she replies with a stony face in Vlaams “No, there are no waffles after six o’clock”.
We look at her in amazement, and I ask her if it’s ok then if we please order both our main menu and our dessert right now, before six p.m. …we will have ordered before six, so surely that would be acceptable? My request is met with a flat “No’ and a look that tells me she is rather surprised that despite her spelling it out, that we are obviously rather slow to realise that no waffles after six, emphatically means no waffles after six.
Himself and I explain the difficulty to a disappointed Velveteen, who by now is seriously starting to wonder if her waffle wish is cursed after three failed attempts.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Suddenly as the waitress lady turns to leave I have a brainwave and call her back with a question… “Since it’s still a few minutes before six is it still possible to have a waffle right now please?” She looks surprised, but says, “Yes”. I instantly order five waffles and tell the kids they are ten seconds to order a topping or they will be too late making the order.
They are so delighted at the prospect of eating dessert before the main course that they uncharacteristically manage to make a selection in a nano second (I think they were probably more afraid of me changing my mind than running out of time).
So this is how Family Kiwidutch and friend Velveteen manage to eat an evening meal in reverse: dessert followed by the main course. Kiwi Daughter and Little Mr. of course can not believe their luck and can’t wipe the smiles off their faces.
Once Velveteen gets over the incredulously unyielding manner of the “rules” surrounding obtaining a waffle in Belgium, she is delighted that we found a way to still enjoy one. So what we act like crazy tourists and eat our meal back to front?
We eat our waffles with an extra large dose of satisfaction that we managed to “beat the system” albeit in an unconventional way… Now we can waffle on about the Belgium Waffle Saga with a grin on our faces and the taste of success in our stomachs.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Here are the links to our previous Waffle dramas…
https://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/?s=waffles
https://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/new-1248/