Wednesday, May 02, 2012

My Life 365 - The Hunt for Chocolate Nirvana

Now when you are born a 'healthy' girl, chocolate cannot be your best mate or they say? But what do you do if after years of staying away from anything in crinkly, shiny wrappers, you discover goeey brown pools of instant nirvana that are not in packets that can be looked away from but are daintily set to seduce you. This post is for the chocoholics.

I am yet to sign up for the Chocoholics Anonymous, I can still look away if I try hard, but there are days when I can't. The mind is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Every city that I visit, I look for the chocolate confectionery that would stay imprinted in my heart as the sweetest memory of the city - pun was well poorly placed but well-intended!

After thinking long and hard, I came up with two of my all-time favourites - the chocolate and mandarin pomme frites of Amsterdam and profiteroles with cake and otherwise in Turkey. Now this isn't to say that the chocolate crepes with bananas that are available in every lane of Paris does not cut it or that Raymond Blanc's divine creations are not to die for, but remember this is My Life 365 and it is a post-let.

If you ever find yourself in Amsterdam, Prinsengracht is the place to head to. By the canal, you will not miss the Pancake Bakery. Head there for breakfast and devour the chocolate and mandarin pomme frites - they are mini pancakes, dunked in an obscene amount of heavenly Belgian chocolate sauce with succulent mandarins dotting the chocolatey puddly landscape of the deep dish placed before you. Remember to walk or cycle for the rest of the day - if the calories don't kill you, the guilt will. But I guarantee you will die a happy death! Now I kept hunting for my keepsake picture of that debauchery, but I'm hitting a blank, so here's how the Pancake Bakery in Amsterdam looks like. Just in case, you decide to head there!

And quickly to the second favourite - Turkish Profiteroles  at the Cigdem Bakery! They know their business, they have been doing just this since 1961 and they sure know how to whip a mean one that leaves you with little qualms about adding insult to the injury of a not-so-perfect-shape that doubles as your body. The profiteroles that lie in a chocolatey grave with a pista wreath over it leaves you with no qualms as you mutilate it and lick that last bit of chocolate left in the plastic bowl it is served in. And if you are braver, then the profiterole served on a bed of chocolate cake are a must try. Now look at this beauty and tell me if there wasn't a rush of pure lust!

Hmmm...and before I sign off, I can't resist reproducing these quotes that make me chuckle whenever I see them

"Never mind about 1066 William the Conqueror, 1087 William the Second. Such things are not going to affect one's life..but 1932 the Mars Bar, 1936 Maltesers and 1937 the Kit Kat - these dates are milestones in history and should be seared in the memory of every child in the country" - Roald Dahl came up with that heart-felt declaration!!


"Forget love...I'd rather fall in chocolate" ~ some clever soul who didn't want their name mentioned alongside said this, perhaps they did fall in love and chocolate - now that's a double bonanza!! :) 


Signing off in a chocoholic haze after devouring a chocolate baklava ( those are great too, but not as great as the two finalists who got honorary mentions on Life 365)

13 comments:

  1. Yum, yum, yum! What's the choc in the pic?? I love my chocolate and it's better if it's dark. I think till date, the best chocolate ever is the lindt dark chocolate...the round ones with the gooey centre that just melt in your mouth. *drooool*

    Chocolate baklava sounds interesting but I find baklava a bit too sweet so I'll assume even with the choc it might be too sweet.

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    1. Psych Babbler, the chocolates in Turkey are not sickeningly sweet like the baklava..I couldn't palate their traditional baklava..but the chocolate one ( as are all the other higher priced sweets are made with chocolate and honey and not glucose syrup..so isn't saccharine sweet).. This picture is of profiteroles..:) the one away from you is with the cake, the other one just pure chocolate yumminess!! Oh, now that you have got me chocolate dribbly, a friend used to get these designer bars of chocolate from Chicago that used to come in the most exquisite flavours - Wasabi, Indian Garam Masala, Mexican Chillies etc...it is actually so yummm and you realise chocolate is so flexible..:)

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  2. mouth watering pictures...
    all the best with your chocolate expeditions...

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    1. Jyothi: Lovely to hear from you...the expeditions shall continue..;)

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  3. You girl, make me wish that there was a way to ban such pictures on the internet..Gah! those are so so tempting boss! and here i am trying to start the month of May with a diet..which seems unlikely with those pictures you tempted me with!

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    1. Hehehe, trust me...this ephemeral tiny tiny life shouldn't be spent without some indulgences...let's fall in chocolate together, sistaaaahhh..:)

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  4. Will you ban my entry to your space if I admit that I do not like Chocolates in any form:0 The above freaky fact definitely does not mean that I do not have other sinful indulgences,ice candies being just one of them.Nice pics and super write-up!

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    1. Hehe, Sharmila, you are no way getting banished..Good dentists and loyal blogger friends are hard to come by..:) I dont see any contradiction in you not liking chocolate much, considering you are one to keep the whites pearly and bright..but then again, I'm foxed by your candy fascination..:)

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  5. choco doco.. I am all salvating on this post!!! I am totally crazy about chocolcate and this post has put in me such high spirits.
    I was in Amsterdam in 2009, but I never visited Prinsengracht .. sigh! I wish I knew you then!

    I am really enjoying reading your time in turkey! keep it coming :-)

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    1. Jenny, Thumbs Up! :) I had such a long post penned on Turkey, but I think I'm going to break them into little morsels and spread it all over Life 365 like Nutella...oooh, the Turks eat so much chocolate, you know for breakfast, in all hotels big and small, they keep a huge bowl of Nutella like hazelnut n cocoa spread...Turkish made...every morning, I think my diet went for a toss at the sight of that!! Giggle!!

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  6. Wow, I'm so craving some chocolate now. Love those quotes at the end. And you've described the dishes so beautifully! Who in their right mind can really ignore chocolate for long, no matter how 'healthy' they are??

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    1. Hahaha, I like the sweet way you say healthy...Im 'healthy', 'wealthy' and pretty unwise that way..;)

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