Beer for him and chocolate for me. It's just perfect.
My life has certainly been 'filled' with top-quality chocolate in the past week. Considering chocolate contains pheryletylanine (which is supposed to make a person feel good)., it has certainly been a joyful week for me :P
When we were in Belgium, the shops are still selling special Easter chocolate. The most common sight is two HUGE chocolate shell 'stuffed' with small chocolate eggs. These shells are then tied together with ribbons. It is a lot of chocolate.
According to 'statistics', Belgians eat on average 20kg of chocolate confectionary every year, and these eggs must be at least 8kg each!
Just to give you an idea of the size of these HUGE chocolate egg:
Another chocolate art:
So, is the chocolate in Belgium REALLY that good?
The following are some of the larger players (chocolatiers) in Belgium:
Wittamer - great praline. I don't like their dark chocolate though.
Neuhaus - the creator of praline. Personally, I think the chocolate is good but it's not THAT special.
Godiva, well-known internationally. It's always packed with tourist, and rumour has it that it is US-owned.
Also Leonidas, which I don't have a photo of. The chocolate is selling at about 1 pound a piece at Selfridges (in London). In Belgium, it's about 0,30 euro a piece! I'm not going to buy chocolate from Selfridges.....for a while :P
Then, there are the less well-known ones like:
]
Filip Martin, which also makes cakes.
Pierre Marcolini, which is always packed with people.
I guess the most important thing is: which chocolatier captured my heart? Well, it's the first chocolatier we visited:
Mary - they make excellent dark chocolate and milk chocolate. Excellent truffles and chocolate ganache. There is a box of it right in front of me now. It is only going to stay 'fresh' for a maximum of two weeks. So I think there is a real need for me to consume it NOW :P
For more information:
Mary Chocolatier
http://www.marychoc.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment