Moeder Babelutte

Moeder Babelutte is the Ostend branch of a sweet-shop name that belongs to the Belgian coast. The brand tells the story of Rosalie, nicknamed Mère Babelutte, who sold home-made butter sweets to English and French children on holiday by the sea; the Roelens family revived her recipe in 1970. The shop sits at the Wapenplein end of Adolf Buylstraat, right in the middle of the shopping streets.

The thing to buy is the babelutte itself, a butter toffee that the brand says is cooked over an open flame from unrefined sugars, butter and glucose (there is a soft version too). Alongside it the shop lists nougat, cuberdons, pralines and its own chocolate, plus old-fashioned sweets such as sour smoeletrekkers and Onze-Lieve-Vrouwtjes marshmallows, and gift jars shaped like mussel pots.

The shop says it is open seven days a week, and it also sells online. Good for a souvenir that is genuinely of the coast rather than generic Belgian chocolate; if you cannot decide, a bag of babelutten is the classic choice.