Carbonade flamande is a signature dish of France; we have verified places to eat it in Lille. Beef braised slowly in dark northern beer, sweetened with brown sugar and thickened by a slice of mustarded pain d'épices dropped into the pot. Start with where to eat Carbonade flamande in Lille.
Carbonade flamande · Lille
Beef braised slowly in dark northern beer, sweetened with brown sugar and thickened by a slice of mustarded pain d'épices dropped into the pot. Served with frites.
Carbonade belongs to the whole of Flanders, and Lille inherited it along with the language and the beer. It is mill-worker food: cheap shoulder cuts, a long fire and whatever brown ale was in the cellar. Recipes vary by household and by brewery, with oud bruin, abbey beer and Flanders red all in use. East and West Flanders add prunes; Lille estaminets mostly do not. The gingerbread is the trick, dissolving into the sauce and doing the work a roux would do further south.
Where to eat in Lille:
- Chez Raoul Estaminet
- Estaminet Au Soyeux
- Estaminet La Vieille France
- La Ducasse
- Le Barbu d'Anvers
- Le Porthos
Where to eat Carbonade flamande in Lille: the editor picks