batter from Belgium, but that's no concern to those of us who lived in
Belgium as teenagers and used to pick up Liège-style waffles on the way to and from school. To us, these waffles
taste just about right ― thicker
than Brussels-style waffles, and studded with chunks of sugar that melt
as the batter cooks.
However, the stand, set out as it is on breezy Market Street, actually exacerbates problem number two we've occasionally found once we've tracked down Waffle Mania: prebaked waffles. The waffles cool off quickly outdoors, and when they're cool, the sugar hardens, the marvelous crispiness of the crust fades, and what was, for several seconds, a miracle of Belgian baking turns into just a waffle you're walking around the Tenderloin eating.
Back in Belgium, on the rare days when we'd catch the woman who ran the stall by our school with an excess of prebaked waffles, she'd kindly reheat the waffle in the iron before handing it to us, which wasn't quite the same as encountering those explosions of just-melted sugar, but definitely helped. Perhaps Waffle Mania Kiosk guy could do the same.
Waffle Mania Kiosk 1022 Market (at Golden Gate); open Tues-Sat.
