New Yorkers first met the Belgian waffle at the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing. Lighter and crispier than its flat American counterpart, the attraction was instant. In the forty years since, waffles have strayed from their roots, so much so that the Belgian King Albert II directed the Ministry of Culinary Affairs to send a Special Wafel Envoy to lead a movement to restore Belgian waffle credibility—or so the story goes according to the cheeky blog counterpart to the award-winning, internationally recognized, Wafels & Dinges truck.
While King Albert may not have had a direct hand in the inception of Wafels & Dinges, Brussels-born Thomas DeGeest did find the American version of his country’s national snack to be “very upsetting.” A former IBM consultant, Thomas left a jet-set, six-figure job to roam the streets in a temperamental 1968 Chevy box truck, changing culinary perceptions one waffle at a time. One of the first dessert trucks in the city, Wafels & Dinges was also a pioneer in social media connectivity. “In those days nobody really had Twitter. I would call my wife, and she would update our location on the blog.
Finally she got fed up—rightfully so—and that’s how I became the first truck to have a Twitter.”
Most customers are surprised to discover that Wafels & Dinges packs not one, but two different Belgian waffles. There’s the Brussels waffle—what most Americans think of as a Belgian waffle—and the Liège waffle—a denser yeast-dough waffle made with pearl sugar, which gives it a caramelized exterior and crunchy bursts of sweetness throughout. Though Belgians tend to be purists, adding minimal toppings, Thomas recognized the demand for customization and created an extensive menu of toppings known as dinges (ding-us), the Flemish word for “whatchamacallits.” Dinges range from Texas-style pulled pork with slaw to Kool-Aid–soaked pickles to real Belgian chocolate sauce, nuts, and seasonal fruit. For an extra two bucks you can turn your waffle into a WMD (aka “waffle of massive deliciousness”), adding as many toppings as you want. On Saturday mornings, the wide leafy sidewalks of Park Slope are packed with parents steering their Bugaboos with one hand and balancing their WMDs with the other, all smiles.
These days Thomas commands a waffle fleet that includes two trucks and five carts that turn up anywhere from Williamsburg to the Upper East Side. But he’ll never forget his humble beginnings aboard the original waffle truck. Within a few months of opening the business, the nearly forty-year-old Chevy stopped starting on its own. Since the truck had a manual transmission, Thomas would throw it into second gear and tow it each morning with his car—but that was only a temporary fix. “Because we were tow-starting it every day, the timing of the engine got out of whack. We started getting a tremendous amount of backfire.” One day the bottom of the truck caught fire somewhere on Park Avenue South. “I was a little more scared,” Thomas says, “so we decided instead of tow-starting it, we would just tow it.” For a couple of months they attached a big rope to the waffle truck and then coupled it to Thomas’s old Mercedes station wagon. “It was really scary when we had to make left and right turns. Pedestrians didn’t know the two were attached.”
“My life was ten days in New York, ten days in L.A., ten days in Paris, and ten days in Tokyo. Then repeat. I loved my job, but are you really going to do that for the rest of your life?”
After a few months, Thomas and his team were getting good at their covert towing operation, and everything was fine—until they got caught. One day as they were returning from a catering event, Thomas had a feeling that they were going to get caught. Within half a block, they heard the sirens. “They were like, What are you doing boys? It’s illegal to tow a truck in Manhattan,” Thomas says. Thomas and his employee were summoned to court. They put on their best suits and found themselves in front of a grumpy, old judge. When he saw their files, he brightened. “The judge goes, So boys, you guys sell waffles. So what do you put on these waffles?” Thomas told him about the various dinges, and the judge proceeded to cross-examine them with You put whipped cream on them, too? Case dismissed.
With towing the truck off the table and a new truck being built, Thomas roughed out a few months selling from a spot near his apartment, moving the truck only for street cleaning. Business was very slow. “My workers would give me the revenue from the day, and I would basically give it back to them as a salary.” Things finally turned around when they got the shiny new truck, but Thomas misses his old ride. “I so regret sending that old truck to the junkyard. I’m so upset with myself that I didn’t have the vision to keep the truck. I think one day I will buy a similar model on eBay.”
In 2009, with the new truck in place, they took home the Dessert Vendy Award. The win was especially sweet because the previous year they had been unexpectedly scratched from the competition after the old truck broke down the night before. Thomas still can’t believe that they won. “Big Gay Ice Cream (page 184) had a phenomenal product and a very strong following. I think what we did well was we had a very good operation going that could pull it off to serve a lot of people that day. It was great—it really put us on the map. It was a very big boost. The aftershocks are still being felt now.”
Next to the Vendys, one of the biggest moments for Wafels & Dinges came in 2011 when Belgium’s Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde made a surprise visit to the cart. “I had no idea that was actually coming. They were on a trade mission to New York, the prince and princess. That day I was on a trip to China with my wife. I suddenly saw it on the blogs.” The prince and princess had planned a tour through Central Park. “At the end of Central Park at 60th Street and Sixth Avenue, they saw the Belgian flag, and it was kind of hard for them not to stop and get a waffle. I’m still waiting for the king and the queen to come. They’re invited.”
Adapted from Thomas DeGeest’s recipe
Thomas DeGeest likens the Liège waffle to the Belgian equivalent of the hot dog. “It’s street food. You get it in a little kiosk. Belgians eat it with no toppings. It’s soft. It’s sweet. It’s chewy.” While the Brussels waffle is “the Belgian equivalent of a bratwurst. It’s eaten inside in tearooms, a little more formal. It has to be very light and crispy. Very airy.” With this recipe, you can make authentic Brussels waffles at home that would even impress King Albert.
1½ teaspoons instant yeast
1 cup warm water (between 105°F and 115°F)
1 tablespoon sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs, whites and yolks separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
confectioners’ sugar, for dusting, if desired
Belgian Chocolate Fudge Sauce (page 121), for serving
In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 5 minutes to activate.
In a large bowl, whisk the flour with the salt. Whisk in the activated yeast mixture, milk, butter, egg yolks, and vanilla until smooth.
In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold them into the batter, cover and let stand for 20 minutes.
Move oven rack to center position and pre-heat the oven to 225°F. Prepare the waffles according to your manufacturer’s instructions, cooking them until golden brown. Transfer each waffle to a pan in the oven to keep warm until serving. Repeat with the remaining batter. Dust the waffles with confectioners’ sugar, if desired, and drizzle with the Belgian Chocolate Fudge Sauce, and serve.
TIP: For an epic dessert (or true breakfast of champions) try these waffles topped with Coolhaus’s Browned Butter Bacon Ice Cream (page 156).
Adapted from Thomas DeGeest’s recipe
This decadent chocolate sauce recipe demands real Belgian chocolate.
10 ounces 70% cacao Belgian chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
Chop chocolate into small pieces and add to a medium bowl. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, bring the cream to just a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and slowly pour the cream into the bowl of chocolate. Let stand for 2 minutes, then whisk until the chocolate is melted. Add the confectioners’ sugar and whisk until smooth. Drizzle over waffles before serving. Refrigerate any remaining sauce in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Adapted from Thomas DeGeest’s recipe
Though Wafels & Dinges may be on an international culinary mission, the Special Wafel Envoy is not afraid to buck tradition with nouveau waffle concoctions, like their popular corn waffles. Slightly salty, slightly sweet, these make for a lighter riff on cornbread when served up with your favorite chili recipe. Thomas suggests top-ping with vegetarian or beef chili, grated cheese, sour cream, and fresh cilantro.
1¼ cups all-purpose flour 1½ cups yellow cornmeal
½ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 large eggs
¼ cup canola oil
1 cup canned corn kernels, drained
Move oven rack to center position and preheat the oven to 225°F.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate bowl whisk together the milk, eggs, and oil until just combined. Whisk wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until combined, then stir in corn.
Prepare the waffles according to your manufacturer’s instructions, cooking them until golden brown. Transfer each waffle to a pan in the oven to keep warm until serving
TIP: For a sweet, breakfast take, pair these Corn Waffles with the Cinnamon Snail’s Pine Nut Butter (page 164) and fresh maple syrup.
