The Belgian Dilemma (World Cup Woes)

As Team USA prepares to play the Belgium National Football Team in the knockout round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup this afternoon, American food and beer lovers face a dilemma.

Belgium is, after all, the country that gave us Belgian waffles (or wafels)...

Belgian chocolate...

Belgian beer...

And moules-frites...

Or what is known in my house as the four basic food groups.

The dilemma: Are we Americans being disloyal if we imbibe Belgian beer with our moule-frites, or anxiously pop Beglian chocolates into our mouths, while watching the World Cup? And if the Belgium National Football Team knocks out Team USA in this afternoon's knockout round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, do we show our solidarity with our beloved American footballers (aka the US soccer team) and boycott Belgian products? And if so, for how long?

More about Belgium here.

The best little chocolate shops in Paris

So many chocolate shops -- and patisseries -- in Paris, so little time. (Seriously, there must be a chocolate shop and/or pastry shop on every block.) That's why I highly recommend doing a Chocolate Walk and/or Taste of Paris walking tour next time you find yourself in the City of Lights and Chocolate.

We did a Chocolate Walk (with Paris Walks) on our last trip to Paris, in November 2009. So this time we did a Taste of Paris walking tour (again with Paris Walks) -- and made sure to visit a few chocolatiers and patisseries we didn't get to our last visit. My insulin is still recovering. But in the words of Edith Piaf, je ne regrette rien.

Following are some of my favorite sweet destinations in Paris.

With a name like La Maison du Chocolat, it's gotta be good, oui? Oui. And as per usual the truffles, and the chocolate eclairs, did not disappoint. (Bonus: La Maison du Chocolat has three shops in New York City!)














Another must-sample chocolate/pastry shop, Patisserie Stohrer, the oldest patisserie in Paris.


















However, my now favorite chocolate shop in Paris is L'Atelier du Chocolat, whose Feuillants d'or (dark chocolate covered in crushed pralines... shudder)... I have no words for (but my mother is seriously going to score major mom points if she brings me back a bag).


















And if you like your fine chocolates paired with a fine wine, look no farther (or further) than Saint-Honoré Paris Chocolats & Vins at 37-39 rue Saint-Honoré, the first chocolate and wine bar in Paris. (Quick, someone, get this business a website!) It was only because we had been gorging ourselves for two hours on fine cheese, fois gras, and chocolates that I could not choke down more than a couple of pieces of their delicious-looking chocolates and wash them down with a bit of red wine.














Finally, what can I say about the macarons and pastries of Ladurée (without sighing)? They are simply... heavenly. Sigh. (I lovingly carried back a box of two dozen assorted macarons on the airplane, which lasted but a few days.)














Honorable mentions: Jean-Paul Hévin (see my previous Paris chocolate post) and Pierre Hermé (though we prefer Ladurée's macarons).

[Amazingly, despite gorging myself on rich food and pastries and chocolates for eight days, I managed to lose a pound. Must be something about France.]

Death by Chocolate

Okay, maybe "death" by chocolate is a bit strong. But if I had had one more piece, bite, or sip of chocolate yesterday afternoon on our Boston Chocolate Tour of Beacon Hill, I would have surely gone into a sugar coma. Indeed, my blood sugar is still recovering. (My daughter, on the other hand, felt she had died and gone to heaven after spending 2.5 hours sampling all sorts of fabulous chocolates on our Boston chocolate tour.)

So how much chocolate did I consume over the course of 2.5 hours? Too much. But rather than describe each stop or chocolate confection in words, I will share with you some pictures I took on the Beacon Hill Boston Chocolate Walking Tour (because a picture is worth 1,000 calories).

Our first stop was boYO, for Boston Yogurt, where we were served oreo frozen yogurt (which the group felt was good but a bit too tart)...















The next stop on the tour was Beacon Hill Chocolates, a lovely little chocolate shop chock full of all milk, dark, and white chocolate treats, some of which are pictured below.

We got to sample the Beacon Hill Signature (Dark) Chocolate and the Gentille, a "rich and creamy milk chocolate mocha ganache mixed with coffee bean pieces and coated in Belgian milk chocolate" (which were gobbled up too quickly for me to get a picture of them).

















































A few doors down was Twig, a florist that also sells candles and... (wait for it) chocolate! Among Twig's several chocolate offerings was this heavenly smelling MarieBelle Aztec Hot Chocolate, which we didn't buy. But we did buy a package of the Taza Guajillo Chili Chocolate Mexicano (not pictured -- but which you can see and buy if you click on the link). OMG. Soooo amazing. (Talk about hot chocolate!)






















Just a couple doors down was Isabelle's Curly Cakes, a cupcake bakery run by Isabelle English, daughter of chef Todd English (which was good, but it paled in comparison to my friend Little Miss Cupcake's Sugar Daze in Paris).






















At Isabelle's Curly Cakes, we sampled the Triple Chocolate cupcake, which was topped with a Cocoa Puff streusel. (While I was not cuckoo for the Cocoa Puffs, I liked the chocolate butter cream frosting -- and thought many of Curly Cakes' other cupcakes looked and sounded better. But many others on our tour loved the cupcakes and bought some to go.)






















And just when I was absolutely positive I could not possibly eat one more piece of chocolate we arrived at 75 Chestnut for our Chocolate Soup (below) -- which is one of the most amazing chocolate desserts I have ever sipped (or eaten). Espresso? HA! That's for wimps.

















But we were not done! (Groan.) We still had two stops left on our Boston Chocolate Tour, including Boston's own Finale Desserterie and Bakery, where mercifully I only had to consume a single bite of brownie, albeit with chocolate ganache on top. (As delicious as they all looked, no way could I have consumed one of these delectable chocolate dessert pastries pictured below. Maybe next time.)















On the verge of going into a sugar coma (did I mention I'm hypoglycemic?), we arrived at The Melting Pot, our final destination, for... yes, more chocolate! Specifically, chocolate fondue -- four different kinds.

I bravely dipped some banana and strawberry into the dark chocolate and marshmallow fondue placed in front of me, but I drew the line at dipping the chocolate-covered (and regular) marshmallows and cheesecake and brownies on offer, or trying the other three chocolate dipping sauces. (J-THREE-O and her friend had no such qualms.)

Finally, chock full of chocolate, and barely able to move, we said our goodbyes, hiked back down Charles Street, retrieved our car, and motored home.















I will never eat chocolate again. (Or at least not for the next 24 hours. ;-)

Best chocolate snack EVER

I know: Yet another chocolate post. But I'm a firm believer in you can never have too much virtual chocolate. And this chocolate snack is simply too good not to share. (How good? Let me just say, I had originally planned on calling this post "Like crack, only chocolate.")

First, a little background: As many of you know, when not writing about truth, justice, and the American way -- and, okay, football, underwear, sex, cats, and pop culture -- I am a mild-mannered small business and technology reporter. And way back in December I wrote an article on inexpensive yet highly effective strategies small businesses were using to attract new customers (as well as repeat customers).

One of the businesses I wrote about, Koa Coffee Plantation, which is located in Hawaii, sent me some samples of their delicious coffees and chocolates as a little thank-you -- or mahalo -- present. (Note to my editors: Koa Coffee sent me the samples after the article was published, and they send little mahalo gifts to all journalists, as well as to their affiliates, at the end of the year. So my journalistic integrity is still intact -- or was until this blog post. ;-)

As a result of Koa Coffee's largesse, I now have two additional strategies to add to my list of inexpensive yet highly effective customer acquisition strategies: 1) give free samples; and 2) have a product so irresistibly good that people become instantly addicted and have to have more, becoming customers for life.

I also have a new favorite (highly addictive) chocolate snack: Koa Coffee Plantation Chocolate-Covered Macadamia Nuts.

Do not let that unassuming green wrapper fool you, my friends. Or put another way, don't judge a chocolate treat by its wrapping. Pop one of these semi-sweet-chocolate-covered orbs of Hawaiian goodness in your mouth (though you will not be able to stop at just one) and you, like the spouse and I, will be hooked.

Indeed, the Koa Coffee Plantation Chocolate-Covered Macademia Nuts were so good that to stop ourselves from instantly devouring the entire bag on the spot, I had the spouse place the bag on a really high shelf, where one (okay, I) needed a step ladder to reach it.

Ha!

Why "ha"? Because every time I walk into the kitchen, I find myself making a bee-line for the step ladder, dragging it across the kitchen floor to the cabinet where we stored the Koa Coffee Plantation Chocolate-Covered Macadamia Nuts, climbing up and grabbing the bag, ripping it open, popping one of those delicious orbs of chocolaty nutty yumminess into my mouth, savoring its semi-sweet chocolate shell for as long as I can, and then lasciviously biting into the crunchy macadamia nut center. (Sheesh, I sound like that owl in those old Tootsie Pop commercials.)

And for the record, the Koa Coffee Plantation Chocolate-Covered Kona Coffee Beans aren't too shabby either. Indeed, I still have a buzz from the half-dozen I scarfed over an hour ago.

God only knows what will happen when we start drinking the coffee Koa Coffee sent me, which Forbes called "the best coffee in America." (The only reason we haven't ripped into it yet is I am determined to finish off our current supply of Starbucks French Roast, which is almost depleted, first.)

All I can say is thank goodness Koa Coffee included a bag of decaf (which we have tried, and it may be the best decaffeinated coffee ever).

Btw, I am not getting paid to write this. Nor is there a free giveaway involved. (Sorry guys.) Their stuff is just that good.

Aloha for now...

Paris, city of pastries and chocolates

Warning: This post contains serious food porn.

On Friday, as is our Thanksgiving tradition (since last year) we went on a chocolate tour, given by Paris Walks, on the Right Bank of Paris. Our guide, Mary Ellen, an expat who has been living in Paris for 17 years, has a Master's in French History and teaches French school children English, was very good -- as were the pastries and chocolates.

If or when you next go to Paris, I highly recommend the Paris Chocolate Tour. In the meantime, here are some highlights.

First stop Boulangerie-Pâtisserie Gosselin à Paris (Jon and Kate bake great?):

















Note: We went to the branch at 125, Rue St Honoré, near the Louvre, and their Opera pastry was the best all of us ever had, which is saying a lot.

Next stop: Le Côte de France chocolatier at 25 Avenue de L'Opera:

Ensuite Chocolat Michel Cluizel:






















Et enfin Jean-Paul Hévin, where we tasted lime-infused chocolates (you put the lime in the choc-o-late you mix 'em all up...):

















Mon mari (aka "the spouse"), ma mère (aka "Granny"), ma fille (aka J-THREE-O), et moi also stumbled across a marvelous (and some say the best) macaron (and chocolate) shop in Paris earlier in the week, Pierre Hermé, where we sampled several different macarons:















Here's hoping you had a sweet (or at least tasty) Thanksgiving....

Next up: My Eiffel Tower obsession.

Is there such a thing as too much chocolate?

Rather than wax rhapsodic about turkey on this day of turkey, aka Thanksgiving, I thought I would discuss a food that we daily give thanks for, chocolate.

Ah, chocolate, made from the seeds of the tropical cacao tree, instrument of pleasure and even, occasionally, pain. Associated with virility and fertility, this product of the cacao bean has a long, rich history going back hundreds of years. And in Chicago this Wednesday, the spouse and I, along with our daughter, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and two fellow (unrelated) chocoholics got to experience if not the ultimate chocolate fantasy certainly a chocoholics dream afternoon.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a Chicago Chocolate Tour, 90 minutes of chocolaty goodness in the Windy City (aka Obamaland) condensed into one blog post.

After meeting up at the main floor Concierge Desk at 900 N. Michigan Ave., on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, we headed upstairs to Teuscher Chocolates of Switzerland, home of "The best Champagne truffles on the planet," per Zagat -- and the J-TWO-O family:

Then we braved the wind and cold to go to More Cupcakes, a feast for the eyes and tummy, run by a mother of five. There we sampled chocolate/chocolate cream and chocolate/vanilla bean cupcakes:

After stumbling out of More Cupcakes in a sugar- and chocolate-induced haze, our band of merry chocolateers headed to Sarah's Candies & Pastries, the creation of longtime candy and pastry lover Sarah Levy (who is only in her 20s -- and proof that chocolate is the secret to happiness), where we got to watch a nice man enrobe candied orange peel in chocolate -- and then eat some.

After all that chocolate, things began to get a little fuzzy (and a little too milk chocolaty) for me. We headed to Water Tower Place, to Lindt, where I vaguely remember standing in front of The Wall of Truffles and eating an extra dark truffle and being cajoled to eat/buy more chocolate, and then stumbling out of the shop in search of some water, in a chocolate-induced haze.

Then we headed downstairs to the Frango store, where I did not even attempt to eat the chocolate-covered minty creations, though my daughter gamely downed both the original and limited-edition candy cane variety of Frango Mint (which has just not been the same since Macy's took over Marshall Field's, a Chicago institution).

Stumbling out of Water Tower Place we headed across several blocks to our final chocolate destination, Argo Tea, where we drank what can best be described as "liquid candy cane" but was some kind of white chocolate mint tea concoction, and were given samples of brownies, which, like the Frango Mints, I shoved into my goody bag.

Engorged with chocolate we waddled back to 900 N. Michigan and to our car -- and headed off to Whole Foods to do some last-minute Thanksgiving shopping.

And speaking of Thanksgiving, as I sit here in my heart-covered velveteen purple pajamas, I wish one and all a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving (one hopefully filled with at least a little dark chocolate, which as we now know is filled with healthy antioxidants).