What to Eat in Ghent: Waterzooi, Cuberdons, and How to Order Like a Local

If you want to eat like a local in Ghent, start with three things: Gentse waterzooi (a creamy chicken or fish stew that was born in this city), stoverij (Flemish beef stew braised in dark beer, served with fries), and cuberdons (cone-shaped purple sweets called neuzekes, "little noses," sold from a stall on the Groentenmarkt). Ghent is a river city that grew rich on grain and cloth, and its food still carries that history: freshwater fish stews, guild-hall meat markets, a mustard shop that has ground the same recipe since 1790, and, more recently, a citywide weekly veggie day. Below is what to order, where the tradition comes from, and how to ask for it without sounding like you just got off the train.

The good news for a walker: nearly every dish here sits within a few minutes of the old core you cover on the Ghent walking tours. The Groentenmarkt, the old vegetable market where cuberdons and mustard are sold, is the same square as the Groot Vleeshuis, the sixth stop on the historic-center route.

Gentse waterzooi: the dish Ghent invented

Waterzooi is the dish most tied to Ghent, and it is the one to order if you order only one. It is a mild, creamy stew of chicken (or, in the older version, freshwater fish), built on carrots, leek, celery, and potato, finished with cream and sometimes an egg yolk or a splash of white wine. It is soup-adjacent, gentle, and filling rather than showy.

The origin is local and specific. According to Ghent's own tourism board, waterzooi is said to have begun near the former Braempoort, a former city gate, where in the thirteenth and fourteenth century the river teemed with fish because a number of grain mills stood there. The earliest versions used river fish like perch, pike, barbel, or eel from the Lys and the Scheldt, the same two rivers whose confluence built the medieval city. Later the fish was replaced by chicken, and today both versions exist. Menus distinguish them: waterzooi op Gentse wijze or kippenwaterzooi for the chicken version, viswaterzooi for the fish. Ask for "Gentse waterzooi" and you will usually get the chicken one.

How to order it like a local: it is a sit-down dish, not street food, and it comes in a bowl with bread. Do not expect fries with it. It is best in cool weather, which in Ghent is most of the year.

Stoverij and frites: the everyday classic

If waterzooi is the Ghent specialty, stoverij (also written stoofvlees) is the everyday Flemish comfort dish you will see on almost every bistro board. It is beef braised slowly in dark Belgian beer with onions, mustard, and a little brown sugar or bread to thicken the sauce, cooked until the meat falls apart. In a 2015 poll by Belgian chef Jeroen Meus, stoofvlees was named Belgians' favourite dish, ahead of classics like witloof, vol-au-vent, and steak-frites.

The way to eat it is with frites and mayonnaise. Belgian fries are their own institution: twice-fried, thick-cut, and sold from a frietkot or frituur (a fry stall or shack) as much as from restaurants. Order "stoverij met frieten." If you want just fries to walk with, ask for "een frietje" and pick a sauce; mayonnaise is the default, and locals genuinely eat fries with mayo, not ketchup.

A note on ordering fries: many stalls list sauces separately, and portions are generous. One order is usually enough for two light appetites.

Cuberdons: the purple "little noses"

The sweet to buy in Ghent is the cuberdon, a soft, cone-shaped candy with a firm sugar crust and a syrupy raspberry center, usually deep purple. Locals call them neuzekes, "little noses," in Ghent dialect, because that is what the shape suggests. In French they are also called chapeau-de-cure, the priest's hat.

The candy is a nineteenth-century Ghent creation. The most repeated account credits a Ghent pharmacist experimenting with medicinal syrup around 1873, who found that a batch left out had formed a crust over a still-liquid inside and turned the accident into a confection. Cuberdons are famously difficult to keep: the crust and syrup mean they stay good only a few weeks, which is a large part of why they are still essentially a Belgian, and especially a Ghent, thing rather than an export.

Where to buy them: from the stall on the Groentenmarkt, the old vegetable market square, sold fresh by the bag. This is the same square as the Groot Vleeshuis on the /belgium/ghent historic-center walk, so you can pick some up mid-tour. Buy a small bag and eat them within a few days; they are meant to be fresh, not stockpiled.

Tierenteyn mustard: 1790 on the same square

On the Groentenmarkt, look for the green-fronted shop of Tierenteyn-Verlent, which has made mustard on this spot since 1790. The mustard is still made in wooden vats in the cellar below the shop to a secret family recipe, and it is sharp, fresh, and nothing like the jarred supermarket kind. You can buy it by the pot from a stoneware crock, and it is the classic partner to a Flemish stew or a plate of cold meats. Even if you do not cook, the tiny old interior full of dried herbs and spices is worth stepping into.

Ghent's veggie day, and why the vegetarian food is genuinely good

Ghent has an unusual modern food identity too. On 13 May 2009 the city launched Donderdag Veggiedag, Thursday Veggie Day, encouraging residents and restaurants to go meat-free one day a week. Ghent was the first city in Europe to run such a scheme city-wide, and it left a lasting mark: the city has an unusually deep bench of vegetarian and vegan restaurants for its size. If you are meat-free, Ghent is one of the easier European cities to eat well in, and Thursday is when you will see the most veggie menus posted.

A simple ordering cheat sheet

• Waterzooi for the true Ghent specialty: creamy chicken (or fish) stew, sit-down, with bread.
• Stoverij met frieten for the everyday classic: beer-braised beef with fries and mayo.
• Cuberdons / neuzekes from the Groentenmarkt stall for a sweet, eaten fresh within days.
• Tierenteyn mustard by the pot from the 1790 shop on the same square.
• Frietje met mayonnaise when you just want fries to walk with.
• Thursday is veggie day, so expect strong meat-free menus if you want them.

Two rivers, a grain trade, a butchers' hall, and a candy born from a pharmacist's mistake: Ghent's food map lines up almost exactly with its old core, so you can eat your way through the same streets you walk. Pair a plate of waterzooi with the Ghent walking tours, and pick up cuberdons on the /belgium/ghent route at the Groentenmarkt.

Sources

• Waterzooi | Visit Gent (official Ghent tourism)
• Cuberdons | Visit Gent (official Ghent tourism)
• Tierenteyn-Verlent (official)
• Flemish stew | Wikipedia
• How this meat-loving city became the vegetarian capital of Europe | SBS Food