We Tried Belgium's Famous "Bolognese" in Leuven 🇧🇪 (our first time)

We're in Luffa, a lively university city here in Belgium, and the theme today is the letter B. Bolognese, beers, bowhead whale skeleton. Belgium. Oh yeah, Belgium. A few weeks ago we were in Meckelen and we were surprised by how many specialty coffee shops there were. Like, coffee coffee, not coffee shops in the Netherlands. So we decided to build one into the plan here in Luffa. Did you know that Belgium has its own version of spaghetti bolognese? Well we're going to be trying that today along with some of our favorite Belgian fry snacks. Fry snacks. Fry snacks. Well, they are fry snacks. They go with fries. I guess that's correct. Anyway, we're going to be trying our favorite fried snacks from a fry shop that's apparently 100% vegan. And I feel like something like that can really only exist in a university town. And I think we're about to visit the Museum of Zoology. Let's go. This is the only known specimen of a coelacanth. I think they thought that this originally went extinct with the dinosaurs, but then they started finding them off the coast of Africa in the 50s, which I think was probably like pretty bizarre for people, right? Look at it. In Stardew Valley this would be a legendary fish. Oh my god, it's so big. This museum was founded in 1817 as a part of the university and it's completely free to visit. And they have between 5,000 and 6,000 specimens, but there's just not enough room to have them all on display. But I mean like, there's a lot here. There's even a second floor upstairs too. The beloved vocal beck deer. He's so cute. Bird beak animal, bird mouth animal, whatever beck translates to in English, I don't know. And the grand finale is the bow-headed whale skeleton from Greenland. That's a bow-headed. Uh no, it's bow because it's shaped like the bow in a ship. Oh. I think, yeah. I was confused about that last night and I did some googling, so I think that's how you pronounce it. All right, Michelle, tell us your sluttiest college story, university story. Oh no, no, no. You're gonna have to subscribe to our Patreon for that. Just tell it. Okay, so there are a lot of like local bars in the area and I was definitely dancing on the bar top amongst a lot of... That's it? I think everyone does that. Oh, did you do that? No, but I mean I don't think that's your best story. I think that's my best story. Okay, wow. I was, you know, I wasn't crazy, just crazy enough. That's pretty nice. Yeah. This is just like the quad that was in front of the Institute of Zoology here in, I believe this is the KU campus. Look how foggy it is. I know. It's very atmospheric. Yeah, it is very atmospheric. Yeah, I love Luffa. Yeah. It's been so nice so far. Take off your shirt. It's too cold for that. I'm wearing your coat because I'm so cold. That's true. This is how nice Alex was. He was like, you can wear my coat until we get to like our third stop today and then we'll swap. Well, you're making it sound like my niceness has limitations. No, it doesn't. So all the street signs in Luffa are in two languages. One is Netherlands and then one is something that I can't recognize that is not French and Michelle is currently over here on the case. Okay. And I'm pretty sure it's not French because it's got the city name in both of the languages and it's got Luffa and it's got Liva, which is not Levant, which is what it is in French. I think it's based on Brabant. Let us know in the comments if you know the details though, because we are genuinely curious. Yeah. This is St. Peter's Church. It was built in the 15th century and I have two fun facts about it. They better be fun. They're so fun. Are you ready? I'm ready. Okay. So the first one is the layout on the inside is in the shape of a cross. Oh, okay. And the second fun fact is that it has a characteristically or an uncharacteristically low bell tower because it was never completed. And this beautiful building that I completely missed on our list is the historic Stadthaus. But we did miss on our walk. No, I mean, how can you? It's hard to miss. It's gorgeous. It's so beautiful. And intricate. I don't think this is the current Stadthaus. Evidently the inside of it is really, really beautiful, but it's temporarily closed. Yeah, but we can admire it from the outside. It's like my wife. I'm beautiful inside, but I'm temporarily closed. Oh, well, I was, yeah, I was, I was mostly focused on the last part, but yeah, sure. Thanks. What does it mean when you're, oh yeah, okay. What? Nothing. All right. This is St. Michael's Church. It was built between 1650 and 1671 and they just had a brand new organ installed inside. Oh, that's actually, that's actually a pretty good one. No, no, no. I don't have any new organs. All these organs are original, baby. This is Pepa's Frittur and they claim to be the first 100% vegan fry shop here in Belgium. All right. The food has arrived. It looks delicious. It does look delicious. Actually, the menu here is very extensive and pretty familiar to us. Yeah. It had a lot of options and they also have some options that they make in house here for special. And we got one of those. And by the way, they do have something on the menu that is like a Giuliancha, but we decided to save it because we're actually going to have the real thing for the first time next week. And we thought it'd be weird to try the vegan version without having the real version first. I was going to say hint, hint, but stay tuned for that. Yeah. All right. Let's start with their Ruby sauce, which is one of their house made sauces. What is this? What is this? It is a pink peppercorn sauce. And this is not normal, right? No, I think this is special to them. Great. Cheers. Oh, it's a very peppercorn. Oh wow. It's very peppery and kind of like a fruity pepper, like pink peppercorn is. Very good. It's also still really creamy because I'm guessing it's mixed with some sort of mayonnaise. Oh, you like peppercorn. Wow. That's actually. I love that. That might be one of the best sauces I've ever had. It's so unique. Let's have a little sample of their samurai sauce too. Very tangy. Oh yeah. Oh, it's a little spicy. It's pretty spicy. A little spicy. Even by samurai sauce standards, it's pretty spicy. Yeah. That's quite nice. It is nice. All right. So if you're not familiar with what a viendal is, it's kind of like a Frikandel or a sausage. Did you roll your R on Frikandel? Sometimes it comes out. It's like that, but with a crispy outer exterior. And I think that this is my new favorite snack. Gonna dip it into the samurai sauce. Oh, look at you. Can I have the first bite? Yeah, go for it. I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it naked. The texture is. The texture, texture is very different. It's like a croquette almost. Almost. It's very creamy in the middle. Yeah, it's less crispy on the outside and very soft on the inside. It has the same herb blend. I was gonna say the flavor is really, really good. You really put your lips around it when you eat it. All right, um, for the grizzly. A little bit on there. I don't wanna make a mess. Look at the little meatballs. So the texture of this actually looks pretty accurate. So it's got like the little meatballs inside with the onion and then the crispy exterior. It's not too greasy. It's not too heavy. It's not too salty. The meatball inside is like, has a bit more texture than the Fiondo. It's not quite as soft. Yep. And it's got the onions on it. This is better. I think it's better. Than a grizzly. I think it's superior. So what would you rate the fries with the ruby pink peppercorn sauce? Five waffles. Five waffles. This sauce is one of the best sauces I've had since moving to Europe. The Fiondo, how would you rate that? Two and a half waffles. Yeah, I'd probably give it two waffles. If I was vegan, I'd be super pumped about it. What about the grizzly? The grizzly, I would say, honestly, four and a half waffles. It's better than a regular grizzly. I would give it five waffles. It's really, really good. Okay. So we talked to the staff and we actually got, I think everything wrong. It was all flipped. Yeah. So the ruby sauce and the samurai sauce are not made in house. They do, they buy those. Um, and the croquettes are also not made in house, but the Fiondo and the grizzly are made in house and they were delicious. And they make a stouflace sauce and stouflace with fake meat in house. He was back there like cracking open cans of jupiter, making the stouflace. And then, um, they make a Bickey and they use the Bickey ketchup and then the Bickey hot sauce, but the yellow sauce isn't vegan. So you have to make their own yellow sauce. And I said, a representative from Bickey went in there and they said they couldn't taste the difference. This is Fons or Fonska and he is meant to represent the student body here in Luffa. The cup with water on his head is meant to represent him pouring knowledge into his brain. Yeah, it's pretty, it's not, it's not like super, uh, like you don't have to like sit back and be like, what was the artist? Yeah. How do I interpret this? It's pretty literal. Although some people say that that's not a cup of knowledge, but a cup of beer. He's so famous here. I was going to say you're holding a chocolate. Chocolate after him. Is there anything in it? There's like a little chocolate ganache filling. You're a little chocolate ganache filling. The chicken bone's still in the water over here. Oh yeah. Jel, I think we have to retire the take off your shirt gag after this video and I'm kind of sad about that. Oh man, what are we going to do next? I don't know. What are we going to do next? Take off your pants? Take off your pants? That'd be a little bit more vulgar, I think, in the video. I don't know. And also difficult to pull off. I mean, you're always wearing underwear. I mean, most of the time. Are you? When it's cold, I'm always wearing underwear. Okay. You gotta keep the bits warm, you know? Hey. Hey. Take them off. I was wondering how far she was going to take that. I had a whole observation that I wanted to talk about. You ready for the observation of the video? Did you already tell me? No. Okay, go ahead. It's new to you. I'm excited. So, in the Netherlands, when you order flat water, you ask for a Spa Blauw. And when you ask for sparkling water, you want a Spa Rood, which matches the color of the spa brand's bottle for each of those. Even if it's not the spa brand. Even if it's not the spa brand. And, which is funny, because in the Netherlands, generally, people don't ask for a Coke. When they order a Coke, they ask for a Cola or a Galacha. Anyway, but in Flanders, Flanders, Floms, Flemish, you actually say it more literally. So, say, like, plakvatter for flat water, and then sparkling water, it's like brr. Brous. Brous? Brousvatter? Is that right? Actually, I don't know. I'm not used to saying it. It's like, it literally is sparkling water. That's it. Bonzo. About to, about to have a fight with that pipe back there. Geez. You're gonna fight with... No, I'm not. That's too much. I almost said it. I know. I had to stop myself. Yes, I know we are the horniest vloggers on YouTube, but... Whoa, whoa. You haven't watched all the horny vloggers on YouTube. We're also the silliest vloggers on YouTube, and I think when those two things combine, it really just ends up being, like, stupid, like, teenager humor. Which is actually, I think, pretty accurate. We're very not serious people. Yeah, we're so un-serious. Yeah, like, we're not, like, I'm not in my day-to-day life trying to get Michelle constantly to flash me. Although, I wouldn't be upset if she did. I mean, honestly, sometimes I just do it. That's true. Okay. That's right. Okay. That's true. Sometimes I'm just kind of like, yep. Michelle said turn on the camera. Said turn on the camera. Look at this. Yeah? You need to go back there to get it. Oh, I actually don't think... My camera's not wide enough. Look. Yeah? These are the hanging gardens of Lupa. Okay. So, basically, these are 19th century urinals that, uh, interesting and unique plants grow in now. You know what we haven't seen today? Yes, I do. I just, I was just actually complaining about that. Aside from that. Okay. A cat. We haven't seen a single cat today. Not a cat city. I don't know. You never know. Yeah. Never say never. We're still, we're still here for a few more hours. You know what? It's after 12. Let's go get a beer. Oh, okay. Is that, you can have beer for breakfast. All right, fellas and ladies. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, oh, so sour. We are at Hobson Moor, which is, like, half a beer store slash half a bar. When you're inside of it, it's 100% a beer store. Yeah. When you're, but there's seats. Yeah, you gotta, like, squeeze into the back and they've got, like, a few beers on top back there. Yeah, it's very, it's like, I got a very, like, tangy finish. This is actually really nice. So, um, this is actually the street that we got dinner at last night. Um, we went to a place called, um, I want to say Lenizio and, uh, it's like a, a walk up and they make, like, authentic Italian pastas. And if you want to learn more about our experience arriving in Lupa, eating our dinner last night, and even talking, like, showing you our hotel that we stayed at. Yes. Showing you the socks I'm wearing right now. Oh, yeah. I know. I'm giving the people what they want. You need to go over to our Patreon, patreon.com slash buncharted. The link is in the description. But that was an unexpected, but well done, well executed plug of our Patreon. You're welcome. I didn't say thank you. Oh. Hey, Michelle. Hey. I'm drinking a non-alcoholic IPA, American style IPA from Poland. Oh. While sitting in Belgium. That is, that is multicultural. The next thing we're doing is something that we've actually been wanting to do in Belgium for a long time. Yeah. Like a long time. I've been eyeballing it for months. Yeah. It could be anything. It could be. It could be anything. Can we give, uh, another hint that might narrow it down? Only if it's something that could be taken completely inappropriately. Yeah. It's going to involve more beer. Okay. And a lot of slurping. Is that good? That's pretty good. It's very loud here because I think they're setting up for some sort of a concert this weekend, but we had some extra time to kill. So we decided we are going to stop by the university library, but we're not going to climb the tower. I just, I just feel like we just did that in Mechelen. I'm sure it's beautiful. It does look very beautiful. And one of our concerns this morning, but I just, I just can't imagine climbing a tower right now. You ever just not feel like climbing a giant tower, but I've heard the library's beautiful. You just wake up one morning and be like, I just don't think I'm going to climb a tower today. That was today. Let's go look at some books. There we go. But that is a Belgian chain dedicated to Bolognese. It turns out that Bolognese is kind of like the unofficial comfort dish of Belgium. And for that has 15 restaurants dedicated to it. I'm drinking a Stella Artois because it's from Lufa. I had no idea. And like there for a hot minute in the United States, this was our beer of choice or was it just mine? That was probably yours. I'm not a big drinker. I definitely, yeah, I definitely drank a lot of this when we lived in Baltimore, which was like 10 years ago or something like that. It was more than 10 years ago. Oh my gosh, this is so cute. The menu is on a record and there's a record inside. That's so fun. Also, we're sharing our meal and he gave me this child's dish. It comes with a bib. People aren't using it. They're just putting the food on it, but it does come with the bib. Yeah. I want to see you wearing nothing but the bib. We got the, it was Kenny's Revenge. Is that right? Because they also have an, oh my God, you killed Kenny or we killed Kenny. It'd be weird if they said we killed Kenny. They killed Kenny? They're bastards. We couldn't decide what to get. We got the Kenny's Revenge, which is a mix of the traditional bolognese with a side of creamy tomato sauce and mushrooms mixed in. Traditional Belgian bolognese. Traditional Belgian bolognese. Yes. You've been mixing it for like a solid two minutes. I really have. Just take a bite of it. Okay. All right. The people want the bite. The people want the slurp. Oh yeah, that's right. You did promise a slurp. I did. Oh yeah. Oh, all right. This is going to be a messy bite. That's slurp. No, I'm not a slurper. I just can't. She's not a slurper. She's a biter. This is so good. Savory, slightly sweet with crunchy bacon and like a very strong thyme flavor in it and really, really cheesy. This is insane. It's like literally a bowl, like the sloppiest spaghetti. Okay. This is going to be unrelatable to anyone except for Alex. This tastes like an upscaled version of my grandma's cheesy bake. Oh, I don't like your grandma's cheesy bake. Oh no. But would you like an upscale version of it? Um. Oh no. Slurp. Slurp. There we go. Slurp. Slurp. No. Your grandma's cheesy bake had like zero flavor nuance. It was just tons and tons of cheese and like poorly cooked spaghetti. This is very, very good. It's so good, isn't it? You know a really good way to make sure that your shirt isn't going to get any sauce on it, even with the bib? It's like a fail safe. What? Take the shirt off. If you aren't wearing a shirt, you can't get sauce on your shirt. Yeah. Yeah. See what I'm saying? Yeah. So, um, I did a little bit of research on bolognese before this video. So I was curious what the difference between like Italian bolognese and Belgian bolognese is. And basically Belgian bolognese has more vegetables and is a little bit sweeter. And it's served with like a melty cheese on top instead of maybe like a parmesan or like a pecorino or something like that. And it became popular in the 20th century with students and just like as a cheap comfort food that was like really, really filling. It's really good. Look at that. I don't dare to lick my plate because it's a bowl and I'm pretty sure it would get all over my face. And you can see the tiger. We did it. We have successfully consumed a portion for one person together. Time for dessert. All right, Michelle, that is about to be a wrap of our day here in Luffa. Yes. What do you rate the bolognese? Four and a half waffles. Oh my God, really? It was delicious. How could it not be? Really? Yeah, I'm going to give it five waffles. Why is it four and a half waffles? Um, I don't know. I just, I think like getting it like homemade, homemade could just add that little extra. Well, I had a great time in Luffa and I would love to come back soon and spend more than 24 hours here. Yeah, there's so much to do, so much to eat. Yep. Well, we have about an hour to kill before our train and we're going to go look at some of the cute little shops that we saw around when we were, we were out vlogging earlier, but we're going to put the camera away and that's a wrap on our day here in Luffa. So as always, thank you so much for watching and we'll see you all next week. Cover the lens, cover the lens.