blanche de bruxelles, if that's what the kids are calling it

I want to get this posted before I forget, because this is important. Sort of.

There is a beer that, in this country, is called Blanche de Bruxelles. This is not the name of the beer. This is what they call the beer in a country where the liquor boards have no sense of humor.

If you clicked that link, you already know the punchline. If you didn't, don't. Trust me, it's good.

This beer -- a beer known in this country by a name so bland that it translates roughly to "D.C. White" -- is called, in Belgium and other civilized countries, Manneken Pis. Sound it out. And then compare with this photo of a fountain statue that is the Belgian answer to the Statue of Liberty, or so I heard more than once during my weekend in Brussels. Yes, it's named for a rather hilarious statue that's just down the street from my favorite waffle stand in Brussels and, if memory serves, kitty-cornered from a bar of the same name. Yeah, everyone wants to capitalize.

This came up when I met some new friends at the Flying Saucer tonight, a group that had migrated somewhat recently from Memphis. One of them ordered the Blanche de Bruxelles, leading to a brief discussion of how to pronounce Blanche de Bruxelles. I'm pretty confident that my suggestion (which I'm honestly not even sure how to transliterate) edged out the second-place "Blanch dee Brucksells," but I also pointed out that this is not even the real name of the beer. Even our waitress, with whom I had discussed the finer points of a few different imperial stouts earlier that evening, seemed a little incredulous.

But I am correct, and I want this documented.