THE OFFP Reviews:
French Belgian Fries:
Frituur De Nachtuil, Aspelare, Belgium
Our Belgian Fries Trip started in the small village of Aspelare which is a subsection of the only slightly larger village of Ninove. Both of these towns are a good half hour from the nearest cities any non-Belgian might've actually heard of, Ghent and Brussels (both about 35km away).
"Frituur De Nachtuil" |
"The Night Owl Fry Shop" |
Why here? For long-time readers it should come as no surprise that budgetary constraints had some bearing on our selection. We had free digs in Aspelare on account of our current assistant coming from this town and her mother being gracious enough to put up with us despite the fact that our talents for speaking with her in Flemish are somewhat lacking.
While there are other Frietkot in the area this one happened to be open. The fact that most restaurants and shops are only open for a few hours a day and only on a few days each week is something one quickly becomes accustomed to in Belgium. At the time of our visit, Frituur de Nachuil was open. They're also reputed to be very good.
For a place that basically serves Fries they sure had a large menu board. Belgian Fries shops have evolved over recent decades to serve all sorts of things which can be prepared in a tub of hot fat, many of which are pre-prepared (such as chicken nuggets and McRib-like breaded pork patties) but also meatballs, beef stew and shishkebaps (the latter of which are also deep fried).
When you walk into any restaurant with a camera and start taking pictures of the operation and equipment, you tend to get strange looks, especially when it's not a pocket camera. To be fair we did ask if we could. Andy, quite understandably, thought no normal person could be interested in such pictures and no competitor could be so blatant. Our assistant explained what we were doing. Andy, like all other shop proprieters we've reviewed before him, responded in the same manner: "You've got to be kidding." We don't joke about French Fries.
The shop was busy but we managed to get a table as we waited for our order: a small order with a side of stoofvlees (a sort of beef stew), balletjes (meatballs in a tomato sauce) and various dipping sauces. And a Jupiler beer. Along with the mayo (standard in Belgium) we were intrigued by the name "Pili-pili sauce" and figuring it for the Belgian version of the spicy "piri piri", added that to the order. While waiting we hastily scribbled out some questions in the hope that things would slow down enough to do an interview.
We ordered a snack, a "small serving". Even though most places in Belgium are only open two days a month, we'd planned to go elsewhere later for a proper dinner.
We were served enough food for half a dozen people. Note that the fries are piled up more than twice as high as the dish they're served in.
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And as we fielded more questions from the increasingly bemused shop owner we asked what other sauce he'd recommend. "Tartar sauce". We shuddered at the thought of that horrible, pickly stuff slathered onto fast food fried fish sandwiches but when in Rome... or Aspelare. The sauce was delivered to our table and they refused to accept the 40 cents, taking delight in teaching a foreigner about Belgian fries.
Belgians certainly know their fries. These were light golden in colour, perfectly crispy, soft and fluffy inside, and had nothing but potato flavour. They were larger than "French fries" but smaller than steak-cuts. The mayo was similar to that which we had at New York City's Belgian Fries, though we haven't yet been able to find "Fritessaus", not even in the supermarkets (although you can find at least half a dozen brands of mayonnaise in even a small shop).
The "pili-pili sauce" was sort of like a slightly spicy French dressing, not nearly as spicy as the piri-piri we'd hoped it was and as thick as the mayo. A very good choice but, sadly, not available in shops in jars to take home, so we're guessing this is one they make themselves although we could be mistaken.
Thicker than either of these was the tartar sauce which turned out to be quite tasty and nothing like what I'd expected. Similar to a remoulade it was more a super-thick, herbed mayonnaise. In addition there was the gravy from the Stoofvlees, a mild but hearty beef stew (with no noticeable vegetables). It's very common to get this on top of the fries like a Belgian version of Poutine but pieces of beef and no cheese curds. The problem with this is that the fries get soggy but this doesn't seem to bother Belgians. Clearly more research into this phenomenon is necessary.
We did our best to finish what we had but we didn't stand a chance. Nevertheless, guests at other tables were laughing at us. They'd ordered medium and large boats along with lots of other accompaniments like sausages, vol au vont, meatballs, chicken nuggets and more.
"The Heart"
Left side with baskets is for frying everything else, middle round section is for the final fry,
right side is for the par-fry, after which the strips are placed up on top to cool.
Andy was quite proud of his high-end Kiremko fryer and once he got over his initial disbelief of our motives (eased by our truly amazing lack of Flemish- and French-speaking abilities), he was happy to show us the whole operation. As he opened up the filter drawer underneath he insisted we shove our hands in underneath the vat where the flames are. Since we'd had two or three Jupilers (Belgium is also famous for beer, a subject for a different Web site), we hesitantly agreed to do so. The fryer is so well insulated and efficient that directly underneath the flames it was barely warm.
We had a talk with Andy who took this interview much more seriously than he should have. Nevertheless, he did it with a smile, and that after having continually made orders of Belgian Fries (and other fried items) for some four hours non-stop. Our assistant started out with a bit of small talk to convince Andy we were serious and when things finally settled down, he came over to our table. Unfortunately he had to get up every five minutes or so to help his wife and assistant but he kept coming back to us.
| OFFP: | We get quite a bit of nasty mail from Belgium because the site is called the Official French Fries site. Please don't hurt me. |
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| Andy: | (laughs) I don't hate you. That's the English name. | ||
| OFFP: | So what makes a Belgian Fry so special? | ||
| Andy: | The oil, potatoes, quality. We make everything here, stoofvlees, balletjes, spaghetti, goulash, vol au vent, even some sauces. It's also t'Vriendelijk zijn -- the friendliness and service. | ||
| OFFP: | Is there a difference between fries from Flanders and those from Wallonia? | ||
| Andy: | Absolutely. Ours (in Flanders) are 8.5-9mm thick while in, say, Brussels, (technically Flanders but now a Waloon majority population) you get 10-11mm fries. Here they're much crispier. | ||
| OFFP: | Why is your "small" order a mountain of fries weighing almost a kilo? | ||
| Andy: | [Laughs again.] Here, that's a small order. Belgians love to eat their fries. What you had is ony a snack size. In Belgium. | ||
| Our assistant was not only Belgian but she grew up less than a mile from where the shop stands. She couldn't eat more than half of that "snack" size either. This was around two pounds of fries. We felt like we weren't going to be able to eat anything for the next two days and as it turned out, we were right, but this wasn't Andy or Gina's fault. | |||
| OFFP: | So how did you come to run a Frietkot? |
Fry Prep: shake off oil and distribute salt. | |
| Andy: | I was 18 and lived here in Aspelare. I took over the place from a man who'd had it for 14 years. Previously I was a mechanic but I worked at a disco in one of those wagons with Frites and Gyros (or "döner" or "kebap"). | ||
| OFFP: | And you've been here ever since? | ||
| Andy: | I've been here six years. But we were closed for four months because I was in an accident and was run over. The whole town waited for us to re-open. | ||
| OFFP: | Do you get a lot of tourists? (We can't make any promises!) | ||
| Andy: | Actually we do get a few. | ||
| OFFP: | What was the strangest order you ever had? | ||
| Andy: | A "Special" (which has mayo, ketchup and onions) with stoofvlees (beef stew). And then they wanted onions, andalouse sauce and mayo on top of that! | ||
| OFFP: | Do you still eat Fr... sorry, Belgian Fries? | ||
| Andy: | Every day. And twice on Fridays. | ||
Not just Andy but also his wife Gina and their daughter Amke who, rather than doing her homework, chats with other customers and occasionally puts on a floor show, as she did for us:
Other customers were taking an interest in us because, well, we were taking an interest in them. It's not every day that some foreigner comes up to your table in a fast food joint and starts taking pictures of what you're planning to put down your pie-hole. Couples came in, ordered twice as much as we did and actually finished their meals! Oddly enough they weren't 250 pounds overweight.
A sausage in a bun gets the Nachtuil treatment:
The interview took considerably longer to conduct than to read not only because Andy and our assistant would start reminiscing, but also because Andy had to get up every five minutes to go back behind the counter and help his wife and assistant. They're that busy.
Technical details
Unfortunately we don't have many. Andy gets his potatoes already peeled and cut but does all the cooking himself. He refuses to name his source. He's also very hush-hush about the oil they use, only letting us know that it's a shortening (hardened vegetable fat) which melts at 33°C (91.4°F), a few degrees below body temperature.
Based on this meagre information we expect his potatoes are the Bintje or Saturna variety (or their descendents) and we'd guess he's using a palm fruit shortenting which is about 50:50 saturated/unsaturated and which may not be artificially hydrogenated. This is only speculation; it's possible that Andy uses a hydrogenated cottonseed shortening but if we were risking actual cash, we'd go with the palm. It's a trade secret, Andy tells us, and he has competition not half a mile down the road.
Sadly, our Belgian Fries Tour was cut short due to an unrelated incident centering around the quality and safety of snails sold by street vendors in Ninove and complicated by the fact that all shops were closed for the next five days due to the holidays. We plan to return within a few months to review more shops, including at least one Waloonish shop as well as those shops which have contacted us over the years (yes, Michel, we'll be visiting you).
Page written 23 DEC 07. Updated 17 JAN 08.
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The Official French Fries Pages hereby gives two thumbs up to Frituur De Nachtuil Geraardsbergsesteenweg 400A 9404 Ninove (Aspelare), Belgium +32 054 32 06 01 Wednesday-Sunday, 1700-2300 (5-11p.m.) |
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