Belgian Bakeries

This is the eventual story of a charcuterie (delicatessen) I discovered on Friday. Before I can tell you about that experience and why it delighted me, I have to back up a bit and tell you a memoir first that has more to do with bakeries. It will explain my elation about stepping into Choux Choux Charcuterie...
My earliest memories of Belgium, the country where I was born, were of my grandmother, who lived in Antwerp. Early every morning, before the rest of the household had even begun to stir, my grandmother threw a trenchcoat over her nightgown, and with a basket over her arm, would set out for the bakery and the charcuterie. It wasn't a long walk, only a block or two, and I believe that is the case with many homes in Belgium. She would soon return with fresh bread, croissants, and danish's from the 'Bakker', and a selection of deli items from the 'Charcuterie'...rillettes, pates, ham, (and my favourite, 'Kip met Curry' a mixture of chicken, curry and mayo) and more. It was certainly different fare from the scrambled eggs or breakfast cereal we usually had back in Canada, but I embraced the cultural differences with natural appreciation and carried it with me forever more. There were many visits 'back home' during the summers of the 70s and early 80s. My parents had emigrated to a small, but booming, forest-industry town on Vancouver Island, and I happily bounced back and forth between the two countries that were so unlike one another in many ways.
My sisters and I wondered, at first, then laughed at, the 'camper' size refrigerators in Belgium, when back home in Canada, every family I knew had full size fridges. Canadian fridges seemed gigantic and superior to us kids, by contrast. Why, we could fit up to two weeks of groceries in our fridge, we boasted to puzzled cousins. We soon figured out for ourselves the reason why the little coolers were deemed more than adequate. My Grandmother bought only enough food for the day, and there was little to keep cold, save for some milk and butter, it seemed. Every day we had the freshest of fresh food. The quality of the charcuteries, butchers and bakeries in France and Belgium were, for the longest time, wholly acknowledged as unequalled in the world of foodies, but this I knew already at a young age - so many years ago.
And today when I go back to Europe, the fridges are bigger, yes, and there are supermarkets like our own, yes, but the neighbourhood 'bakker and charcuterie' persists nonetheless, no doubt due to the quality and high standards it has offered so steadfastedly throughout the years. I have sought out and patronized many delicatessens and bakeries (that are wonderful!) here in Canada, which leads me to the next part of my two-fold story...that I will share tomorrow!