I got yer horse right here

I have a rule that if I see something on a menu that I've never seen before, I should eat it. This is a dangerous rule in Europe. Then again on our last night in town, Steve and Sue took us to the Troubador in Leuven - a great place for traditional Belgian (Flemmish) cuisine. There I saw HORSE on the menu. Now many people would say "nay" to such an option.

There is no doubt I was hesitant. I learned, however from Sue that most edible horse comes from Canada from horses that actually had useful lives. I think she was telling me this to dissuade me, but I actually liked the idea that the animal wasn't bred explicitly for consumption and, in fact, lived out its days doing normal horse-things. Anyways, it tasted a lot like a really lean cut of steak. Not too sinewy and chewy, but not fatty at all. It had a little gamey taste, but nothing like venison. Here's all of us at dinner.


here's a picture of me cutting my horse into tiny pieces and moving it around the plate to look like I've eaten it (just kidding, it was delicious).

Here's a picture of the whole crew. Jess more wisely picked the pheasant, Steve picked a game bird only found in northern Europe, and I believe Sue had the venison. Notice also the belgian endive in the foreground. Apparently it grows really well in the dark, so people grew it in their cellars during WWII. It has an extremely bitter taste if eaten raw, but is super-delicious as it was prepared here.

Eating Horse wasn't the only surreal experience I had that day in brussels. We also got a chance to visit the Magritte museum (and pick up some friches and waffels on the way!).

Here's one of my favorite Magrittes. It was illustrated in Scott Adams' Understanding Comics to great effect to show that comics and other art really only depict real life, but in fact are not real life. Magritte took this understanding to great effect.

A sketch of  Magrittes "The treachery of images" the translated text reads "This continues not to be a pipe"

Magritte seemed to have an obsession with smoking. I can easily understand what he was getting at here.

Magritte and I agree that cigars smell gross.

One of the most suprising aspects of the Magritte museum was his "Surrealism in the Sun" period. Here he continued to produce very surreal paintings, but used more light and airy colors and media. He did this during WWII, perhaps because everything around was so gloomy and depressing there wasn't a need for art to emphasize that. I think it also shows his mastery of other styles, including impressionism. It's unfortunate this period was generally panned by art critics.

This is not a pig.

The surreality of the day spread to the outside world as Jess and I visited the Atomium - a giant structure meant to represent the crystal structure of a unit cell an iron molecule magnified 165 billion times. It was built for the world's fair in 1958 (four years before Seattle and the Space Needle). While I love the Space Needle (it's DEFINITELY my favorite needle-structure), I'm super-glad the Atomium was built. There are too many World's Fair, or other needles (like the CN tower, the Oriental Pearl Tower, etc). This is definitely a unique structure and was totally worth it to go see.

Here's me and Jess outside the Atomium.

Here's Jess standing directly under the Atomium.

Neither of these pictures give you a sense of exactly how big this structure is (102 meters tall, or about 33 stories). This picture of the lower ball by the entrance gives you a better sense.

Inside the Atomium, you can access 5 different balls. Another three are for private events. To get to the top ball, you can take an elevator. Here's a view toward Leuven from the top.

Here's a view of Mini Europe (1/25 scale) from the top. It looks even smaller from so high!

To get to the other balls, you take escalators or stairs in the connecting tubes. Here's a picture of Jess escalating up one of the tubes.

You can see the ports on the top of the tubes. Some of them have a real great view of the rest of the structure.

It can get really confusing how to find your way around the Atomium. Fortunately they have these crazy maps throughout. They look a little like something from the Death Star.

Here's a great view of the inside of one of the balls, to give you a sense of space and what it's like in there. This was a part of their temporary design exhibit, hence the crazy white benches.

To leave, you go through a super-trippy escalator. Pretty great light show and space music.

Finally on the ground level, you can see the original control and monitoring center. It looks super 50's and space-aged.

That's all for now. Over all a super surreal day, but overall super awesome. I guess I love surrealism in art, and in real life.