Brussels, Belgium

Au Stekerlapatte sits in the Marolles, the old working-class quarter at the foot of the Palais de Justice in Brussels. The restaurant has been serving traditional Brussels cuisine since 1980 in a room full of old enamel signs, mismatched chairs, and the particular noise of a place that does not try to be anything other than what it is. Bloempanch appears on the menu here when almost nowhere else in the city still serves it. The kitchen treats it as a living dish, not a heritage exhibit — grilled, with the usual accompaniments, on a plate without ceremony. The Marolles dialect, brusseleer, used to be spoken in these streets. The food remembers it.