Re-read Joanne Harris’ ‘Chocolat’.
Suddenly have a very strong craving of munching chocolate.
Milky Way Chocolate Bar
There was this bakeshop up the road where I used to live in Taipei, has the yummiest cake and baking snack on the whole Taipei city (to a little 11 year old’s knowledge). Everyday after school, I usually stopped by the bakehouse, drooling over the sponge cakes, cheesecakes, ice cream cakes (surprisingly enough, they don’ t have them in NZ. I learned the sad fact years later), almond shortcakes, chocolate cookies, Ferrero Rocher, and of course, Milky Way Chocolate Bar.
My pocket, most of the time, only had NT$ 10 by the end of the day. So I could only buy one Milky Way Chocolate Bar. Also my mother absolutly hate me snacking before dinner. The shop was less than 5 minutes’ walk from our apartment. So it was the only thing that I can manage to stuff into my mouth and finished chewing them when I get home.
Occasionally, if my brother accompanied me home. We managed to combine our money (he rarely spend his pocket money. He usually saved them up to by Lego toys) and get Ferrero Rocher.
Swanson’s Chocolate Sundae
The roundabout near my junior high school (I think it is now the one and only roundabout in Taipei City) has a American restaurant called Swanson. The front of the shop was the reception and a small counter that sells some cakes and biscuits, and the back was a little restaurant. One summer when I was 15, I entered the restaurant one day (to enjoy the air conditioning. Look...Taiwan could be extremely hot in summer). To avoid the embarrassment of just one glass of water on my table (I couldn’t remember, I think there was a minimum order in that restaurant), I ordered a Chocolate Sundae (NT$50, my whole week’s pocket money. And it was the cheapest on the menu. You can tell it was way out of my dining range).
I can still remember the shock of sweetness on the first taste and the heavenly scent lingered in my mouth afterwards.
It was a very large sundae. Ended up I didn’t have my lunch and almost couldn’t finish dinner.
Death By Chocolate
For those who’s living in Auckland, not sure if you still remember it. There was a restaurant down at the Mission Bay called Death by Chocolate.
The restaurant was selling nothing but dishes including chocolate. Like most average chocolate in New Zealand, it was a lot sweeter than those in Taiwan. But for chocolate worshippers like me, it was pure heaven. I fell in love with it as soon as the spoon placed into my mouth. From then on, almost every time I visited Mission Bay I would go there.
Waffle
One of my favourite dishes in Death by Chocolate was chocolate banana waffles. Heart shaped waffled sandwiched sliced bananas, caramels and toppled with two scoops of chocolate ice cream. Very high calories yet satisfying.
So I started to enjoy waffles. I was a poor university student then, almost all my hard labour money went straight to rent and necessity spending. Plus I am a creature of extreme comfort, if I can do everything by lifting just one finger, I would do just that. So most of the time I bough this ready made waffle boxes from the supermarkets, stacked them up, added with two or three scoop of ice cream, and enjoyed them alone in my student dorm.
In the final year of the uni I discovered a nice ice cream stall in a food court in a business building. It was run by a very nice Taiwanese couple. They have a special waffle topped with variety of chopped fruits, yoghurt ice creams and chocolate sauces. Genius.
One of the wedding presents Steven got me was a waffle maker. I only used it once, out of my then dear friend’s force persuasion. Now still stored high in our kitchen cabinet.
“Chucky Dan-Dan!” (Kinder Surprise)
I know them before I came to New Zealand. But somehow I wasn’t particularly interested in them. Probably because those little toys inside had never interested me.
But Horatio loved them. From the first time he discovered this egg shape little things (he also loved eggs), he harassed me every time we went to the supermarket. No, he also not interested in the toys inside much. But he was very found of unwrapping, crack opening it and found out what’s inside.
Ferrero Rocher
Then he learned about these tiny golden balls. It doesn’t mater how may times we told him we will have to share the packet (usually of three) or hide it from him (for Steven and I to have it later). He never failed to find them or bully us to donate our shares to him, and scoop them down in a flash so fast, you thought perhaps you never bought them at all.
Before we go:
Are you a chocolate worshipper?
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