#108: kiosk radio, batch & nightshop
this is what to do in brussels
anyway, welcome back (okay, presumptuous of me!!!) to sent from my iphone with love <3
i went to brussels and this is what you should do there if perchance you should also choose to go
the first tiktok i watched when i looked up what to do in brussels started with a series of slow pans across squares filled with sketcher-wearing tourists taking selfies and potholed waffles swamped in swathes of silky chocolate. “everyone else says that brussels is boring and they wish they skipped it on their trip. i disagree.” this was a good start.
we had decided to go because there was a party we wanted to check out. we’d never been, there were cheapish eurostar tickets, and all of this seemed like a good reason to invite anyone we’d ever met for a weekend away in the buckle of europe’s economic belt.
this is a sizzle reel of recommendations - a fair warning, all we did is drink and eat and have coffee and make party and be merry. if you’re looking for an art gallery guide; i’m sorry. i can direct you over to nerd.com instead.
for lunch we met ben and daisy at batch. for some reason if you talk to anyone, they have a bunch of recommendations for brussels, and for good reason batch seems to be on all of them. lily and i shared a soup (pumpkin) and a salad; a soft breast of burrata sat amongst a garden of roasted vegetables. lily described it as an “excellent interpretation of burrata” and we all looked at her like she’s a dickhead, which she is for that comment. apart from that, delicious.
friday night we dined at nightshop, which is one of those small plate restaurants that seem to have no definitive global starting point. if you told me it was italian inspired, i’d be like sure. if you told me it was actually a modern take on cook island cuisine i’d be like interesting, i can see that. all the dishes have a melange of flavours and textures that as a whole feel elevated and taste delicious and make you do definitively unelevated things like running your finger across the plate and shoving it deep into the recesses of your slobbery mouth. we ordered the whole menu; tuna steak, some beautifully concertinaed potato, creamy mussels, a yonic assembly of ricotta, melting scallops, a series of wines with different levels of fizz that all sat somewhere between orange and raspberry in colour, and that all tasted very good thank you. we paid €55 each which felt extremely reasonable. sorry about the photography.
there’s heaps of cute opp shops near marché aux puces. you know they’re good when the whole group scores. the other day a guy in mine and lily’s workout class was wearing a polo and looked honestly phenomenal. they’ve been on the collective radar since. unfortunately they make me look like an ageing pe teacher instead of a sexy eshay or beautifully mentally unwell skins character, but both my boys picked one up. bella found a mint condition praying hoodie. economic belt of europe, i’m fucking telling you. the markets themselves are filled with utter rubbish; memorabilia of somebody’s grandparent’s trip to gibralter in 1987, swords, watches, busted dolls, glass light shades, handy cams, celebratory plates, ugly jackets, etc, etc. perfect. and j’adore.
on saturday afternoon we went to kiosk radio. it is a (shock horror) kiosk that has a (wait for it) decks and a booth for a little dj to be locked up in. the dj cage is located in a park surrounded by benches and conveniently placed tree stumps that you can sit around/on as if you are a techno loving neanderthal. i cannot tell you how much it’d go off in syd. minimal fuss, cheap natty wine and yum beers, hotties a-plenty, autumn leaves crisping off the trees, perfect date spot. actually if you lived in the city it might be a bit too scene-y for it to be a good date spot. but i don’t, so it works for me.
we came to go to horst club hosted by gay haze & cocktail d’amore. it was easily one of the best parties i’ve ever attended. the music, the crowd, the set design, the energy, the facilities, the whole thing was amazing. after a summer of average parties i felt excited, inspired, satiated, etc. more horst events! more!
now unfortunately, after all this i would have thought you can’t put a price on memories, on culture, on experience, but turns out you can. 50 minutes on pt and a €23 entry fee turned out to be a hard limit for our merry band of travellers and therefore mini europe (a theme park of miniatures of europe’s most iconic attractions) was guillotined from the itinerary. this was a shame, but it is important to leave something to return to. mini big ben, i’m coming for you next time.
kissy xxxx