Thursday, August 4, 2011

I shall dream in chocolate tonight. . .


So I have been the negligent blogger because I mostly blog about baking and it's been in the triple digits here in Socal., so needless to say there's no baking going on in my kitchen, but there are other things happening, which I'm happy to report on.
Sometimes, I forget that it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to, cry if I want to. . . .but in all seriousness I need to get out of this singular mindset and make my blog more multi-dimensional. I really enjoy baking, but I like to read and take pictures too, (now that I have a snazzy new SLR) among other things.
As of late(ever since I read A Moveable Feast) I've been on this Expat kick, wishing I could just pick up and move to France for a year and immerse myself in the culture of alfresco cafes, lovely chocolats,  absinth and kir at night and the Louvre and the Musee d' Orsay somewheres in between. But alas it's not meant to be, but a girl can dream, can't she? Anyways, speaking of Expats I am now reading The Sweet Life in Paris , by David Leibowitz, a famous pastry chef come author who discusses what he learned from living as an American in Paris. Although he seems frustrated with the French in regards to certain cultural habits, he does an eloquent job of conveying the beauty of their love for food, particularly desserts and chocolate and the great chocolate to be had well only in France.
Anyone who knows me, knows I have such a sweet tooth and chocolate like coffee is the bane of my existence, so I decided life is too short to waste my hard earned dollar on cheap chocolate, so I am now on a mission to find not just a superior quality chocolate, but one that's the most pleasing to my own palate. So I ordered chocolate from several chocolate producers, four to be specific( because the experts say not to sample more than five at one time because it will overwhelm the palate.) I bought some Pellegrino to cleanse the palate in between tastings. Out of the four makers, two were my favorites for different reasons: The Amadei, Porcelana is made from the Criollo cacao and more rare than the other beans which I found to be more smooth, silky and delicate in flavor, although 70% cacao no bitterness to be found. The other, the Domori, Il Gianduja was creamy, milky almost genache-like and might I say addicting. I will be doing this again until I find my favourite and will post my findings until then. . . bientot!