Our first stop in Belgium was, naturally, for fried food. Hooiaard was still open when we arrived…read morelate last Friday, and we were able to get our fill of cheese krokets and sauce andalouse before indulging in beer. It's less of a friet cart and more of a friet-hole-in-the-wall: a well-established one with a standing plastic fry mascot and a giant waffle (though I didn't actually notice that they served waffles...)
We put in our order for cheese krokets, house fries (topped with cheese and jalapenos, with thin and heavily-fried bacon strips on the side), frikandels (our friend hadn't tried them before), and a cone of fries with sauce. Then we sat on the tiny table under the--very effective--heating lamps to keep warm while waiting.
I had been tempted to try a mitraillette, but was surprised not to see it on the menu. Oh well. I filled up on the cheesy fries and krokets. I wouldn't order those cheesy fries again, though. The best thing about them was the sliced peppers on top, though there weren't very many. I found the cheese a bit bland compared to my usual andalouse sauce, and ended up skirting the cheesy top to dip my fries in my friend's sauce. The cheese krokets were excellent. I usually prefer the rectangular ones that look more like a pillow than a pre-made hash brown because they have that extra crispiness, but the flavor in these oval ones was as expected.
Tummy satisfied and wallets still fairly full, we moved on to the next stop: a neighborhood bar for beer.