The Birkenstock Conundrum

Do you ever browse through magazines and blogs dedicated to fashion and stumble upon a trend you can't understand and swear not to adopt?

I am having a situation and this situation is called Birkenstock.

In layman's terms, it's the ugly pair of shoes your grandfather wears with socks (or without if the weather is warm). It seems that post-modernism has reached its limits with fashion and nobody knows what to recycle anymore so they decided to raid your lambda 60+ grannie's closet and make Birkenstock shoes trendy.

Zara, 39.99€

To be honest what people wear is none of my business and I encourage people strongly to get a fashion style they're proud of and if you love Birkenstocks then more power to you. Honestly. I guess it's a continuation of the normcore trend : become so normal that you become fashion-forward. 

My problem lies in the fact that I will forever associate these sandals with my childhood and my family in Morocco. Everybody wears that kind of shoes because they're cheap and open (to let your feet breathe u kno) and perfect for scorching weather. But if you're a person of color like me and you are still close to your roots (I'm saying this because I've never heard a white person relating to this peculiar memory), you know that these sandals aren't only used to wear at your feet.

Granted those are flip-flops BUT STILL. Don't tell me you've never seen a pair of flying sandals!! I will forever associate these shoes with shoe tossing incidents. Which makes them irremediably unwearable to me. 

I guess some of them are pretty, which I can admit if I am on a very good mood and feeling compliant (do I even have to tell you guys that this doesn't happen a lot? The compliant part I mean). I've seen some cute pairs here and there but sometimes a woman has to stick to her word and I have some values (lol). I can recognize the somewhat aesthetic contribution that kind of sandals can give to your overall look but I am simply not ready to adopt a pair into my shoe closet.

TL;DR - Birkenstocks are a huge no-no to me. The summer version of Uggs. Nu grandpa hipster chic. Or nah.

What do you think of this trend? Do you have any fashion pet peeve that you cannot move past?

Frunch at BIP

Food is one of my favorite things in life and I spend a lot of money on it which is why I am fat and poor but a full stomach makes a happy Imane! Today for lunch my friend convinced me to try something new, a "frunch".

What the hell is a frunch, you are probably wondering. Well it's a weekly event created by the Brussels Info Place, also known as the BIP. The idea is to gather three food trucks in the front court of one of the beautiful buildings of the Royal Square (aka the Place Royale), from noon to 2.30 pm. "Frunch" comes from the contraction of the words "Friday" and "Lunch" because it's a lunch taking place every friday since the 4th of April. Each week, three different food trucks offer a wide variety of semi-chic sort-of-bio not-too-expensive fast food, from vegetarian burgers to vitelotte crisps (this sounds so fancy I love it) and healthy-looking taco/crêpe hybrids, and you can take a seat outdoors with your friends or your colleagues while listening to music and take advantage of the miraculously nice spring we are currently having in Brussels. There's a room inside the building in case of rain but let's hope the weather keeps on being this good!

My friend and I ordered the "Brussels Burger" from the Co-Kot food truck. It's a beef burger with mayonnaise, pickles, cheese (I think it was raclette aka the best kind of cheese on a burger) tomatoes and salad (very classic but so efficient) on probably the best whole wheat hamburger bun I have ever eaten and vitelotte (dark purple potato) crisps, which is a nice change from the usual burger/french fries combination. Though for some reason eating crisps with a burger made me feel like an even more fatty fat ass than usual haha. But there isn't much difference, is there? Junk food lover loud and proud.

I particularly enjoyed the general atmosphere of the frunch (this word seriously cracks me up. Say it. Frunch. Frunch frunch frunch. Ridiculous word lmao). Today was a very sunny day so it's the ideal weather to seat outdoors while listening to music and eating what I like to call "fancy nu junk food". 

As far as the price is concerned, I think that 8€ is very reasonable for what really tasted like a gourmet burger (which usually cost over 10€). It was definitely worth it and after posting on Facebook, I got a lot of messages asking me where I ate. Frunch at BIP is still a little-known concept with a niche market and I would probably have never discovered it if it wasn't for my friend working in the area.

Next time I'll try something new from a different food truck (though I believe they change the menu/food trucks every week so I don't really have a choice lol). I'm ready to ruin myself in alternative junk food haha.

If you visit Brussels and are in the area (which is very likely since it's next to the Magritte Museum and a bunch of other museums and you HAVE to go  visit them!!), you definitely need to try this concept! Since BIP is an information spot, it's very tourist-friendly and their frunch will probably become a major event in the future.

Frunch at BIP

Every friday at the Brussels Info Place

2-4 Place Royale

1000 Brussels