Like last year, Ashley’s Beer & Grill of Westland is doing its part to beat the winter blahs by organizing a Belgian Beer Festival. Expanded to 11 days (Feb. 9 through Feb. 19), the event will feature over 80 Belgian drafts and over 60 bottled Belgian beers, a special Belgian food menu, a prix-fixe Valentine’s dinner, a Belgian waffle breakfast and more. Most of the offerings require no tickets or advance signup.
However, for the hosted dinners where multiple courses are paired with different beers, as for the beer-blending seminar on …

By David Baeckelandt
The White House has a formal process by which one can petition. It is my belief that the Flemish have long gone unrecognized for their contribution to the discovery and settlement of America. If you share this belief please kindly click on the below hyperlink. If we reach 150 signatures it will allow us to keep the petition live. If we reach 25,000 electronic signatures the White House will formally review our petition. Please spread the word if you believe in this. http://wh.gov/2uD

By Elisabeth Khan
At Nancy VanOphem’s house in Washington, MI, a group of women are relaxing with a cup of coffee and dessert after a long day. They’ve come from near and far to immerse themselves in a topic dear to their hearts: lace. Their “guru” is Anny Noben-Slegers, a veteran lace instructor from Belgium who crosses the Atlantic   each year to lead workshops from Michigan to Florida. This is the 7th year Nancy hosts a class at her home, a place that reflects the passion they all share: lace is …

VRT News journalist Sabine Vandeputte was in for quite a surprise recently. Descendants of her grandmother’s sister, who had immigrated to America at the turn of the last century, had decided to pay her a visit. It was purely by chance that these far-flung relatives had been able to track her down. Their visit promised to be a very special occasion.

Read all about it on http://www.flandersnews.be.
Follow the link: http://www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/flanders%2Btoday/110604_SVDP

“Anneke Soetaert – Gisteren & Vandaag”
De langverwachte CD van Anneke Soetaert is eindelijk uit!
Marc De Vlieger
Op 7 november 1947, net na de tweede wereldoorlog, werd in Vlaanderen een pittige meid geboren : Anneke Soetaert. Klein maar dapper nam ze in 1963 deel aan het BRT programma “Ontdek de ster”. Met haar soul versie van “Knock on Your Door” sleepte ze meteen de eerste prijs in de wacht. Vier jaar later neemt ze deel aan de preselectie voor het Eurovisie Songfestival, maar in de finale wint Louis Neefs. Toch wordt …

EDDY AND PATRICK were his soul mates
The life of a Flemish-American cycling champion
By Robert Fossez
Nestor Gernay is an interesting guy. When you meet him for the first time you realize immediately that you don’t have to do with the average immigrant, but with someone who has devoted his entire life to maintaining the ties between Flemish and U.S. cycling and promoting everything else to do with Belgium and Flanders in this country. Now sixty-eight and very healthy, with a generous smile and deep blue eyes, when he begins to tell …

Not an April Fools’ prank, but joyful news for Metro Detroit: Dick Julian, owner of the Julian Brothers Bakery, a hidden gem tucked away in a nondescript strip mall off Rochester Road near 14 Mile, has been turning out a couple dozen of the delicacies – all but indistinguishable from the Belgian original – on an almost daily basis for several weeks now. (The extra touch is the almond on top, giving the American customer a clue as to the flavor of the pastry).
As the name “mattentaart” is protected in …

Het Nederlands van Anke Loh is net iets te goed, net iets te precies. Het doet me denken aan die scène in “My Fair Lady” waar professor Higgins vertelt wat zijn Hongaarse rivaal na het bal over Eliza Dolittle zegde: “Her English is too good, he said, she must be foreign,…” Maar af en toe komt er onverhoeds een typisch Antwerps “Amai!” naar boven.
GvD: Anke, jij staat bekend als een Antwerpse modeontwerpster, maar is dat een zweempje van een Duits accent dat ik hoor?
Anke Loh: Ja hoor, ik ben in …

De Post-La Poste, Belgium’s national postal operator, acquired a majority stake in MSI Worldwide Mail, a U.S.-based mail and parcel delivery company. The company will continue to operate as MSI Worldwide Mail and will be managed by its founding partners Richard Gerhardt and Christopher Taylor for at least the next five years.
De Post-La Poste said its business unit Belgian Post International will use the new partnership with MSI to further expand its retail operations in the United States and worldwide.
Peter Somers, member of the Executive Board of De Post-La Poste …