A Belgian Dinner

Last Wednesday the couple that owns our building had all of us girls down for dinner. We're pretty sure that it was mostly because they wanted to have us sign the housing contract but it was nice of them anyways.
So the first thing that we did was sit down in a little sitting room. We were positioned on a couch directly across from the Del Pierres and there were little snacks on a tray between us. They poured everyone a glass of champagne. I tried telling Monsieur Del Pierre that I don't drink but he wasn't paying attention so I got a glass too. So for this whole part of the evening I was switching glasses with my roommates so that it looked like I was drinking it, so as not to offend anyone. We found it a little weird to have adults offering us alcohol. The appetizers were pieces of sausage, an assortment of nuts, and a little cracker combination. The cracker thing consisted of a mustard cracker topped with banana slices and fish (anchovies?). I'm not going to lie, it was pretty gross. The fish had like little hairs on it or something. I ate one of them just to be polite. A couple of my other roomies ate two to be polite. I couldn't have done it. We signed the housing contracts as we ate the appetizers and talked.
Next we moved on to the table. First everyone was poured a glass of wine. There was maybe a second that I contemplated trying the wine, just for the cultural experience but then I decided that religious convictions were more important. This time I got across the message that I would just have water. So I opened the bottle on the table and poured myself some. It was carbonated and oh, so gross. It was better than nothing though. Then they brought us out a little plate with a bit of salad and a slice of kische. I've never had kische before. It wasn't terrible but it's not something that I would actually seek out to eat. I was glad that the salad was made with dark leaves rather than ice berg lettuce. The dressing was basically just oil though so it wasn't very appetizing. I finished everything on the plate though. The main dish was chicon au grata. When Madame Del Pierre first told us about it I thought she said 'chicken' and I got really excited. When she actually brought it out, it looked like enchiladas. Sadly, neither of these things were the case. The dish consisted of some mystery vegetable (we think they were leeks but I have no idea what one of those looks like?) wrapped in a slice of ham and covered in some kind of cheese sauce. I was determined to eat the whole thing so I did. I also had a side of boiled potatoes. For dessert we had a bit of yogurt with a side of cream/milk stuff, all topped with raspberry sauce. I don't even like yogurt in the states so I had to make myself eat that too.
Needless to say, this wasn't one of my favorite meals ever. I know that I sound really picky and I guess I kind of am. I'm one of those people that finds something I like at a restaurant and that's basically what I order every single time. So meals in Belgium have been a bit out of my comfort zone because I don't know what to order and whenever I do think that I know something, it never ends up being the same as back in the States. I guess that's all part of the experience though.