Belgians makes the finest, most complex beers in the world. There can be little argument about that. They've been perfecting the craft -- many would call it an art -- for centuries. But just because these brews have a tradition dating back to the era of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, that doesn't mean they don't belong just as well in the new millennium.

By the same token, just because countless generations of Flemings and Walloons have accompanied their daily quaffings with prodigious quantities of sausages, steamed mussels and pommesfrites, that doesn't mean these are the only foods you can match with gueuze, lambic or those rich Trappist beers.

What's to stop you pairing them with recipes of rather greater distinction and sophistication?