At the Diamond Museum ( www.antwerp-tourist-guide.com/antwerp-diamond.html ) in Antwerp, Belgium you will learn that diamonds first came from India in the 16th century, and that situation lasted right up until the 18th.
Who would expect to find a hidden elegant café in the Antwerp train station? Behind the magnificent facade of the old station (built by Leopold II in 1895), facing the tracks go to your extreme left hand corner. Inside the doors of the fancy looking café you will find sandwiches and 5 kinds of croque monsieur (variations on grilled cheese) without fancy prices.
You can buy real diamond jewelry right in the central train station in Antwerp, Belgium. The most important world diamond trade center is just right outside its doors.
In Antwerp, when you walk through the world diamond center which sports four diamond exchanges (and 2 police stations), you will see men walking with their briefcases attached to them with chains.
SP The brand sparkling new Museum Ann de Stroom, nicknamed MAS (www.mas.be) , is an eye-catching edifice and the new 
must-see spot in Antwerp, Belgium. Designed by Dutch architects from the firm Neutelings Riedijk, it is made of grids of rectangular stone and astonishing rippled glass walls. It is free to ride the escalators all the way up and then ascend 2 flights of stairs to view the city from its rooftop panorama. The building is an open house and there is a fee only to access the museum rooms.
The museum is a salute to the city, the river, its trade and shipping, the port, Antwerp and the world. Along the escalators there are display cases by eighty young people. In-house composer Eric Sleichem created sound sculptures for each floor. The musical pieces can be heard in the first area of each level. The best view of Museum Square is from the 5th floor MAS Boulevard. There you can get an overall view of the 1,600 piece mosaic by Luc Tuymans called “Dead Skull”, which refers to the commemorative plaque for painter Quinten Metsys on the facade of the Onza-Lieve-Vrouwekanthedral (Cathedral of Our Lady).
SP The brand sparkling new Museum Ann de Stroom, nicknamed MAS (www.mas.be) , is an eye-catching edifice and the new must-see spot in Antwerp, Belgium. Designed by Dutch architects from the firm Neutelings Riedijk, it is made of grids of rectangular stone and astonishing rippled glass walls. It is free to ride the escalators all the way up and then ascend 2 flights of stairs to view the city from its rooftop panorama. The building is an open house and there is a fee only to access the museum rooms.
The museum is a salute to the city, the river, its trade and shipping, the port, Antwerp and the world. Along the escalators there are display cases by eighty young people. In-house composer Eric Sleichem created sound sculptures for each floor. The musical pieces can be heard in the first area of each level. The best view of Museum Square is from the 5th floor MAS Boulevard. There you can get an overall view of the 1,600 piece mosaic by Luc Tuymans called “Dead Skull”, which refers to the commemorative plaque for painter Quinten Metsys on the facade of the Onza-Lieve-Vrouwekanthedral (Cathedral of Our Lady).
There must have been great chocolate DNA in their blood because famous Belgian chocolates brands Daskalides and Leonidas were created by family members from Ghent, Belgium.
Leonidas Daskalidès or Leonidas Kestekides (1876 – 1954) was born in Turkey and he was the founder of Leonidas chocolates in Belgium making pralines (chocolate shells with soft fillings) famous.
In 1910, he was a member of the Greek delegation from the US competing at the 1910 World Fair in Brussels. He won a bronze medal for his chocolate confection, and a gold medal for his patisserie. On a return visit in 1913 ( World Fair in Ghent), he met a young woman from Brussels and settled permanently in Belgium. He opened tea-rooms in Brussels, Ghent and Blankenberge, and the business expanded from there.
In 1935, Basile Kestekides, the founder’s nephew succeeded the founder and created a whole range of new chocolates, including the well-known ‘Manon’ of Leonidas. Still to this day the most popular chocolates are the manon, manon café, gianduja, dressé noisette, manon blanc and manon blanc café.
There are 350 Leonidas shops in Belgium and and almost 1500 throughout the world in over 50 countries. Leonidas is still privately owned by family
In 1931, a Greek couple Daskalidès-Kestikidès opened a confectionary in the centre of Ghent. Home made pralines by Daskalidès become famous and their tearooms and chocolate shops grew.
During the sixties his son Jean advised him to devote himself to the production of luxury pralines for connoisseurs which led them to conquer markets abroad. In 1987, Daskalidès was awarded in France the prestigious Laurier d’Or de la Qualité from France thanks to the exceptional quality of chocolate, the beautiful shape and the delicious taste
Dr. Jean Daskalides became famous for his chocolates under the names Daskalidès and Leonidas. He was also a gynecologist, film director, jazz musician, hospital director and lecturer at the University of Ghent.
You can buy Daskalides and Leonidas chocolate in Ghent or anywhere in Belgium or nowadays, all over the world.
Tags: Belgium, Brussels, Chocolate, Daskalides, Ghent, Kestikides, Laurier d'Or de la Qualite, Leonidas, praline, tea-room, World Fair
Laurent Gerbaud, Belgian chocolatier, was so good that he was sent to Shanghai for the World Expo to show off the sweet talents of his country. However, when he got there he soured on chocolates. Gerbaud discovered that the Chinese were not used to so much sugar so making use of his creative skills he revised his recipes and started to work on tart and bitter tastes.
He searches purveyors for ingredients such as South African Barrrydale apricots, Persian cranberries, Turkish figs, pepper, spicy ginger and orange peel, and mixes them with his dark dark 70 % chocolate recipe using chocolate from Madagascar and Ecuador. The Turkish figs are crunchy, chewy and just slightly sweet. One with Greek pistachios blends salt, sweet (milk chocolate) and nut crunch. There’s a salute to Belgians love for specoloos (gingerbread) by rolling a truffle in the crumbs.
Gerbaud is really a chocolate pusher because once you get addicted to his intense flavor combos, it is very hard to go back to sweetened chocolate.
Tags: apricot, Barrydale, Belgian, bitter, Chinese, Chocolate, cranberries, dark chocolate, fig, ginger, gingerbread, Greek, Laurent Berbaud, milk chocolate, nut, orange, peel, pepper, Persian, pistachio, Shanghai, South Africa, specoloos, tart, truffle
Every other shop in Bruges, it seems, is a chocolate shop – 50 or so but who’s counting? Bruges, known for its medievalness, has a playful side when it comes to tourist museums, with one for chocolate and another for fries. The chocolate museum started out as a private collection of everything to do with the history and making of chocolate.
You will learn that milk chocolate is 45% sugar, and that when chocolate made its way to Europe by the Spanish explorers, it was a drink with a secret recipe for making it – til the 1800’s. The process of conching was invented around then, which made it possible to create hardened chocolate for eating. You can see the cups they drank it in, and they sure were super-sized. Fries with that?
Chips (fries) were created in the US in 1852 in Saratoga, NY all because of a dissatisfied customer. When he complained to George Crum about his potato, Mr Crum sliced it into little pieces to annoy him. Instead he loved it! French fries were possibly misnamed during WWII when American soldiers, hearing Belgians eating fries and talking French, thought they were French food.
Potatoes around the world are covered too – see if you can find the pink and purple ones. If all this fry talk has gotten you a bit hungry, don’t worry, there’s a fries shop in the basement where you can have them with the traditional mayonnaise or pickle sauce, mustard or curry ketchup.
Tags: Chocolate, conching, customer, french fries, George Crum, mayonnaise, medieval, Museum, potato, Saratoga, soldier, WWII
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