Amsterdam to Bruges need help with restaurants, beer & chocolate

Favorite chocolatier is Moeder Babelutte. Their Brugge store sits down the street from the Gruuthuse museum. My favorite Belgian brew is Chimay Grand Reserve, but because it's pretty widely available in the US, I would recommend saving your sobriety for beers that you can't find back home. Some of my other favorites include Maredsous, Hoegaarden's Verboden Vrucht and Grand Cru, Westmalle, and Grimbergen. If you want to splurge on an amazing Michelin 3 star restaurant in Brugge, look up De Karmeliet... and bring dress clothes. In the Netherlands, try your fries with the peanut satay sauce.

We stumbled across this place in Bruges last summer(thttp://www.cambrinus.eu/english.htm) and really enjoyed it. It's a beer brasserie with a menu that included over 400 beers! The rabbit with prunes was to die for. I highly recommend it.

You guys are wonderful. Keep them coming. Thanks to all Joanne

My favorite chocolates are from neuhaus, who have shops throughout Belgium. They specialize in pralines and also sell wonderful macarons (cookies, but no relation to American macaroons). Pierre Marcolini is another great specialty chocolatier, although it's also one of the priciest. It looks like they've got a store on Lexington Ave in NYC so I guess they've found their way to the US! You might also want to check out some of the more commercial brands that you can find in the grocery stores. When I go home to the US for Christmas, I bring grocery brands like Galler, Jacques, Dolfin, and Cote d'Or which go over very well with friends and family. For beer, I happen to love Kriek (cherry). There are a few different brands available - I think Timmermans is the best but any that you find should be OK. If you aren't freaked out by fruit beers, you could also try Framboise which is raspberry flavored.

Five of my favorite cities. Love Ghent - we ended up at the Troll Bar late night every night - all sorts of beer. http://www.trollekelder.be/loc.html Brussels - Mort Subite - liked the vibe here. http://alamortsubite.com/ Also Brussles - Delirium - sort of a hole - backpacker bar http://www.deliriumcafe.be/ Bruges - my sister and I got hit on here - that's about all I recall - good beer. http://www.brugsbeertje.be/index_en.htm Haarlem - sit on the square and have beers - can't recall anywhere specific that we ate in Haarlem or Amsterdam - been there lots. I think I exist on beer and croque mosieur sandwiches on all my trips - give me a tasty cheap sandwich and a beer and I am happy!

For chocolate in Brussels try Laurent Gerbaud, on rue Ravenstein, near the Bozar museum and theatre complex -- he's young and up and coming, likes combining chocolate with bitter orange and interesting fruit or Asian flavours -- and his shop serves a wonderful hot chocolate too! Also try Belgian brand New Tree which you can find in grocery stores -- things like milk chocolate with lavender, dark chocolate with hot pepper, and even blends like 'Sexy', 'Cocoon', you name it, they've got it! Your big problem in Belgium will be not finding chocolate! Enjoy!