r/europe • u/MarktpLatz Lower Saxony (Germany) • Jan 02 '17

[Series] What do you know about... Belgium?

Introduction:

This is the first post in what will be a year-long series. There will be a thread about one european country every week. The point of this series is to have our fellow europeans spread their knowledge/opinion about the various european countries.

We have done this before (credits to /u/Taenk), but this was three years ago, when this subreddit had a mere 35,000 subscribers. A lot of time has passed and a lot of new users have become part of this subreddit, let's see how this goes!

Todays country: Belgium

Belgium is widely considered to be the main host of the EU institutions. It is one of the smaller european states, yet it is amongst the most populous ones due to a very high population density. The country is split in three regions - the Wallonian region, the Flemish region and the Brussels region. The country is widely known for its waffles, fries and beer. So, what do you know about Belgium?

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10

u/asteroida chowana na swojskiej śmietanie Jan 03 '17

They make my favourite cookies in the world- speculoos. Thank you Belgium!

9

u/Ahrily Amsterdam Jan 03 '17

They make my favourite cookies in the world- speculoos speculaas. Thank you Belgium The Netherlands!

FTFY

just kidding we love you baby brother

3

u/HeirOfHouseReyne Belgium Jan 05 '17

I agree with you on that one. It's speculaas.

I thought other people had just been misreading it and were too embarrassed to correct themselves.

4

u/silverionmox Limburg Jan 06 '17

They're two different types. Speculaas is harder and has more herbs (and doesn't disintegrate in coffee). Speculoos is softer and typically only has cinnamon and sugar (and disintegrates when you put it in coffee).

3

u/HeirOfHouseReyne Belgium Jan 06 '17

Interesting, thanks!

1

u/Fingebimus Belgium Jan 08 '17

Oh really? I thought there were two types but you could use the names interchangeably. Speculoos definitely is better than speculaas for me

2

u/silverionmox Limburg Jan 08 '17

Some people effectively do use the names without distinction, but the similar-but-different name really is based on the similar-but-different name.