Fellow San Franciscan and blogger Steffy Chou has put up a post baldly telling people what she wants for her birthday.
It is quite the verbal portrait of an individualist, despite her claim that "ALL teenagers are alike". Perhaps so, but some are clearly far less alike than others.......
"Maybe another big book about Italian food? Or a copy of the Larouse Gastronomique in English."
The post is a remarkable document, as the people who read her blog have almost certainly never met her, and the people she knows personally probably have no clue that she blogs.
So it’s really an exercise in imagination, or wishful thinking.
EXAMPLE:
"Please do NOT get me anymore Hello Kitty stuff. When you’re not even five feet tall, Hello Kitty shit just makes you look infantile. Not feminine. It's kinda silly. Please think in terms of chocolate."
I have never met her.
But I think I can describe her pretty well.
“You are long-haired, and fairly small. You probably stick your tongue out at people often, mentally at least. You don't particularly like most adults, though there are some you get along with well - primarily if they aren't boring. None of the friends and relatives you described above are boring, though some are not entirely comfortable with your interests or obsessions; your burning curiosity sometimes gives them a feeling of disquiet - less so if they are older and have long been elsewhere in the world.”
For some reason I'm thinking of *CHOCOLATE* right now.
It’s probably a good thing that we’ve never met, as she would probably smack me fiercely in the face with a pie. Over the past year or so I’ve pushed several envelopes in the comments underneath her blog posts. Feisty teenagers do NOT react with equanimity when teased.
Still. Meeting a person like that would be fun. And despite the danger of ending up with sticky fruit-gloop all over my face and a broken jaw (say, what kind of pie WAS that?), it would probably be worth it. At the very least I could dare her to lick off the crumbs, after which I would buy her strawberry cake. She sounds ... nice.
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Showing posts with label Chocolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chocolate. Show all posts
Friday, September 10, 2010
Friday, July 31, 2009
CHEESE CAKE HOT LOVE
One of my regular Taiwanese spammers tried to post something here, under the rubrique of 'chocolate'. The links, alas, did not go to chocolate, which is why I did not let that comment through (I object to false advertising). Though one of them does go to a company that makes, of all things, cheesecake (乳酪蛋糕).
HOARD CHEESE CAKE
TEL:04-22520333 / FAX:04-22517563
地址:台中市南屯區河南路4段348號(惠文國小旁)
營業時間 11:00~21:00
The address (地址) translates as No. 348, Honan Road Section Four, South Station District, Taichong city, in Taiwan. The word I've translated as 'station' (屯) may actually also mean a military or police post - I'm not entirely sure in what context the Taiwanese use it.
This is the general link: http://www.hoard.com.tw/about_us.html
And this link shows the product in a fancy presentation box: http://www.hoard.com.tw/product_01.html
Along with a picture of the baker (Stanley), who developed it in 2006.
The product is brevitously appelled 'original taste cheese cake' (原味乳酪蛋糕). It is made with fresh dairy, eggs, sugar, and other fine ingredients.
I believe it comes in various flavours - tea, strawberry, mango, and 'absolute chocolate'. I must say, it does look yummy. I shall have to look for it in Chinatown. I hope that it is exported to the USA and is available locally.
------------------------------------------------------
From the 'about us' page:
HOARD這個品牌,2006年由Stanley創建。Stanley熱愛旅行與美食,他最初想從事乳酪蛋糕製作的想法,是1998年自英國返台後萌生的。Stanley一直在追求完美,並且形成了「禾雅堂」的概念。意思是指「堅持完美的細節,挑選最好的原料,以最完美的技術呈現產品本身的風味」。每年Stanley都要出國旅行,把一些新概念,新發現和靈感帶回來,充實自己的產品。
------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE NOTE: 禾雅堂 ('Harmonious Elegance Hall') is the commercial enterprise with which Stanley and the cheesecake are connected. They do have chocolate. And it looks to be very fine chocolate. But I'm much more interested in Stanley's cheesecake than the chocolate. Chocolate, there is no dearth of here in San Francisco. Interesting cake, however........ Cake is such a happy word.
The description 'hot love' (熱愛) is the literal translation of the two character combination that means 'passion'. Such as describes my interest in cake, and Stanley's enthusiasm regarding fine foods.
HOARD CHEESE CAKE
TEL:04-22520333 / FAX:04-22517563
地址:台中市南屯區河南路4段348號(惠文國小旁)
營業時間 11:00~21:00
The address (地址) translates as No. 348, Honan Road Section Four, South Station District, Taichong city, in Taiwan. The word I've translated as 'station' (屯) may actually also mean a military or police post - I'm not entirely sure in what context the Taiwanese use it.
This is the general link: http://www.hoard.com.tw/about_us.html
And this link shows the product in a fancy presentation box: http://www.hoard.com.tw/product_01.html
Along with a picture of the baker (Stanley), who developed it in 2006.
The product is brevitously appelled 'original taste cheese cake' (原味乳酪蛋糕). It is made with fresh dairy, eggs, sugar, and other fine ingredients.
I believe it comes in various flavours - tea, strawberry, mango, and 'absolute chocolate'. I must say, it does look yummy. I shall have to look for it in Chinatown. I hope that it is exported to the USA and is available locally.
------------------------------------------------------
From the 'about us' page:
HOARD這個品牌,2006年由Stanley創建。Stanley熱愛旅行與美食,他最初想從事乳酪蛋糕製作的想法,是1998年自英國返台後萌生的。Stanley一直在追求完美,並且形成了「禾雅堂」的概念。意思是指「堅持完美的細節,挑選最好的原料,以最完美的技術呈現產品本身的風味」。每年Stanley都要出國旅行,把一些新概念,新發現和靈感帶回來,充實自己的產品。
------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE NOTE: 禾雅堂 ('Harmonious Elegance Hall') is the commercial enterprise with which Stanley and the cheesecake are connected. They do have chocolate. And it looks to be very fine chocolate. But I'm much more interested in Stanley's cheesecake than the chocolate. Chocolate, there is no dearth of here in San Francisco. Interesting cake, however........ Cake is such a happy word.
The description 'hot love' (熱愛) is the literal translation of the two character combination that means 'passion'. Such as describes my interest in cake, and Stanley's enthusiasm regarding fine foods.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
MY COMPUTER HAS A KIPPAH
On one of the mailinglists, the question was raised about permissible activity during Chol HaMoed.
[Chol HaMoed: חול המועד - the intermediate days of an eight day festival such as Peysach or Sukkos.]
What one MUST do is enjoy the holiday. But is one allowed to work?
Well, yes. Within limitations.
The five types of permitted work are as follows:
1. Davar HaAveid: Work which is necessary to prevent loss or damage provided it does not require overmuch effort (tircha yeteira).
2. Tzorchei HaMoed: Work that is necessary for yom tov or chol hamoed needs.
3. Bishvil po-eil she ein lo ma yochal: That which enables another to earn money for food or other yom tov essentials during chol hamoed.
4. Tzorchei Rabim: Work that benefits society.
5. Maasei Hediyot: Simple tasks, including makeshift repairs that are necessary.
Work that involves much effort, or professional competence, is discouraged.
Whether these conditions are d'oraisa or d'rabbanan is a matter of considerable debate - the Tur holds insists on the latter, Rabbi Yosef Karo opines the former. The Rambam waffles considerably on the issue, and the machlokes continues.
I have been at the office everyday during chol hamoed. I am, as you may have guessed, not a shomerish type person. But on the other hand, nothing I do really qualifies as work. Even during the rest of the year I am here to be entertained. This is my living room, my cockpit, my window on the universe.
Especially now.
There's a drawer full of chocolate hidden in the Accounting Department. All kinds of chocolate. A surfeit of seasonal goodness. And I know where it is. Not everybody does, but I do.
I am zipped to the eye-brows, all day, everyday. Life is very good indeed.
But, in honour of the season, and so that at least part of me is Peysachdik, I have placed a kippah on my computer. As a zeicher of the zaman. But also because without the computer I might as well be a half-wit.
This thing does a lot of my thinking for me, and there is much kedoosha within.
Caffeine. Theobromine. Sugar. Wheeeeeeee!!!!!! Chag sameach.
[Chol HaMoed: חול המועד - the intermediate days of an eight day festival such as Peysach or Sukkos.]
What one MUST do is enjoy the holiday. But is one allowed to work?
Well, yes. Within limitations.
The five types of permitted work are as follows:
1. Davar HaAveid: Work which is necessary to prevent loss or damage provided it does not require overmuch effort (tircha yeteira).
2. Tzorchei HaMoed: Work that is necessary for yom tov or chol hamoed needs.
3. Bishvil po-eil she ein lo ma yochal: That which enables another to earn money for food or other yom tov essentials during chol hamoed.
4. Tzorchei Rabim: Work that benefits society.
5. Maasei Hediyot: Simple tasks, including makeshift repairs that are necessary.
Work that involves much effort, or professional competence, is discouraged.
Whether these conditions are d'oraisa or d'rabbanan is a matter of considerable debate - the Tur holds insists on the latter, Rabbi Yosef Karo opines the former. The Rambam waffles considerably on the issue, and the machlokes continues.
I have been at the office everyday during chol hamoed. I am, as you may have guessed, not a shomerish type person. But on the other hand, nothing I do really qualifies as work. Even during the rest of the year I am here to be entertained. This is my living room, my cockpit, my window on the universe.
Especially now.
There's a drawer full of chocolate hidden in the Accounting Department. All kinds of chocolate. A surfeit of seasonal goodness. And I know where it is. Not everybody does, but I do.
I am zipped to the eye-brows, all day, everyday. Life is very good indeed.
But, in honour of the season, and so that at least part of me is Peysachdik, I have placed a kippah on my computer. As a zeicher of the zaman. But also because without the computer I might as well be a half-wit.
This thing does a lot of my thinking for me, and there is much kedoosha within.
Caffeine. Theobromine. Sugar. Wheeeeeeee!!!!!! Chag sameach.
Monday, May 26, 2008
KITTENS AND PORNOGRAPHY
A few weeks ago I discovered imageboards. As you may suspect, the discovery relates to manga (Japanese cartoons) and anime (Japanese animation).
Imageboards are a wonderful invention - the idea is, like much in the modern age, a logical development of computer culture. An imageboard is a place where users post pictures rather than texts. Think of it as a visual blog maintained by several different people.
Sadly, unlike text sites and youtube, imageboards are often warehouses of pornography. Almost every site seems to have a resident smut-poster, some sites are utterly repellent.
THE INTERNET IS DEVOTED TO THREE THINGS, AND ONLY THREE THINGS
It seems like most people do indeed use the internet for only three purposes: Pornography, scamming money, kitten pictures.
The pornography is pretty much self-explanatory - people like pictures, and some people like pictures so much that they obsess. Heck, a nice healthy bit of cheesecake is somewhat like finding candy in an unexpected place. If it's nicely wrapped and lint-free, it's like winning the lottery.
Scams are also pretty intuitive. Human history is a continuing tale of one person pulling a fast one on another person, or on several. Cheating is part of human nature. Kinda like the sexuality which underlies the pornography mentioned earlier. Instead of pictures, descriptive prose.
But the kitten thing is utterly baffling.
I like kittens. But my affection for the little furballs is easily satisfied - if I meet a kitten I'll poke it with a feather or throw a crumpled scrap of paper at it, and both of us will be happy. This needs to happen at least once a decade to be effective.
Some people are a little "different" in that regard.
KITTENS COMING OUT THE WAZOO!
There are hundreds of imageboards and blogs out there devoted to kittens. Kittens. Descriptions of the cute things that kittens have done. Kittens. Photos of little furry kittens. Kittens. Links to videos of kittens. Kittens. Animations, movie clips, pop-ups. Kittens. Sound files. Kittens.
Other than being baffled at the obsessive quality displayed by kitten people, kittens, I have little issue with them and their imageboards. Kittens. Heck, they're a refreshing change from the imageboards that have videos of big-breasted women doing odd things with small nude men interspersed with 'normal' manga pictures, kittens.
Finding a video of physically talented twenty year-olds performing tricks with fat old men in between rather charming anime clips is somewhat disturbing. Kittens. Small people and large people whipping each other before and after pictures of mecha or gundam heroes from boys' manga? Kittens! Not unusual. Kittens. Medical-manual quality reproductions of regenerative organs punctuating scenes from high-school comedy adventures, kittens, precision close ups of breasts and buttocks, kittens, better than life textural photos of conjoined perverts, kittens, scenes of wetness and sweating bestiality, kittens, spanking the fat degenerate? Kittens, kittens, kittens.
Smooth fleshed young girls? Kittens. Pretty boys with tanned legs? Kittens. Curvaceous college co-eds? Kittens. Long legs, blond hair, ferrari? Kittens. A tarpaulin, a sheep, and a bucket of melted chocolate? Kittens, kittens, kittens.
Kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens!
Miao.
Fortunately for kitten people, kittens and pornography don't really go together. Most perverts instinctively react to kitten boards the same way normal people react to images of child-pornography - by physically starting back with a nauseated feeling. Utter repulsion and disgust. At least I imagine so (I also hope that the kitten pictures give them nightmares and haunt their waking moments).
Most kitten boards are clean. Boring, but clean.
DOCTOR ZOIDBERG
In between the islands of kittens and continents of pornography on the imageboards one can occasionally find something wholesome. I recently found an animated clip of Dr. Zoidberg (the hero of Futurama) doing a crab dance. When I grow up I want to be just like him!
I can't remember where I found it, though. Sorry. Be very careful looking for it - if you type "thumbnail crab dance" as your search criteria, you'll find a lot of sites devoted to incest or inter racial gay sex. Crabdance as one word gets you ethnography, Russian pornography, and kittens.
Imageboards are a wonderful invention - the idea is, like much in the modern age, a logical development of computer culture. An imageboard is a place where users post pictures rather than texts. Think of it as a visual blog maintained by several different people.
Sadly, unlike text sites and youtube, imageboards are often warehouses of pornography. Almost every site seems to have a resident smut-poster, some sites are utterly repellent.
THE INTERNET IS DEVOTED TO THREE THINGS, AND ONLY THREE THINGS
It seems like most people do indeed use the internet for only three purposes: Pornography, scamming money, kitten pictures.
The pornography is pretty much self-explanatory - people like pictures, and some people like pictures so much that they obsess. Heck, a nice healthy bit of cheesecake is somewhat like finding candy in an unexpected place. If it's nicely wrapped and lint-free, it's like winning the lottery.
Scams are also pretty intuitive. Human history is a continuing tale of one person pulling a fast one on another person, or on several. Cheating is part of human nature. Kinda like the sexuality which underlies the pornography mentioned earlier. Instead of pictures, descriptive prose.
But the kitten thing is utterly baffling.
I like kittens. But my affection for the little furballs is easily satisfied - if I meet a kitten I'll poke it with a feather or throw a crumpled scrap of paper at it, and both of us will be happy. This needs to happen at least once a decade to be effective.
Some people are a little "different" in that regard.
KITTENS COMING OUT THE WAZOO!
There are hundreds of imageboards and blogs out there devoted to kittens. Kittens. Descriptions of the cute things that kittens have done. Kittens. Photos of little furry kittens. Kittens. Links to videos of kittens. Kittens. Animations, movie clips, pop-ups. Kittens. Sound files. Kittens.
Other than being baffled at the obsessive quality displayed by kitten people, kittens, I have little issue with them and their imageboards. Kittens. Heck, they're a refreshing change from the imageboards that have videos of big-breasted women doing odd things with small nude men interspersed with 'normal' manga pictures, kittens.
Finding a video of physically talented twenty year-olds performing tricks with fat old men in between rather charming anime clips is somewhat disturbing. Kittens. Small people and large people whipping each other before and after pictures of mecha or gundam heroes from boys' manga? Kittens! Not unusual. Kittens. Medical-manual quality reproductions of regenerative organs punctuating scenes from high-school comedy adventures, kittens, precision close ups of breasts and buttocks, kittens, better than life textural photos of conjoined perverts, kittens, scenes of wetness and sweating bestiality, kittens, spanking the fat degenerate? Kittens, kittens, kittens.
Smooth fleshed young girls? Kittens. Pretty boys with tanned legs? Kittens. Curvaceous college co-eds? Kittens. Long legs, blond hair, ferrari? Kittens. A tarpaulin, a sheep, and a bucket of melted chocolate? Kittens, kittens, kittens.
Kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens, kittens!
Miao.
Fortunately for kitten people, kittens and pornography don't really go together. Most perverts instinctively react to kitten boards the same way normal people react to images of child-pornography - by physically starting back with a nauseated feeling. Utter repulsion and disgust. At least I imagine so (I also hope that the kitten pictures give them nightmares and haunt their waking moments).
Most kitten boards are clean. Boring, but clean.
DOCTOR ZOIDBERG
In between the islands of kittens and continents of pornography on the imageboards one can occasionally find something wholesome. I recently found an animated clip of Dr. Zoidberg (the hero of Futurama) doing a crab dance. When I grow up I want to be just like him!
I can't remember where I found it, though. Sorry. Be very careful looking for it - if you type "thumbnail crab dance" as your search criteria, you'll find a lot of sites devoted to incest or inter racial gay sex. Crabdance as one word gets you ethnography, Russian pornography, and kittens.
Monday, May 21, 2007
MY GAST IS VERY MUCHLY FLABBERED!
A comment which Muse (http://me-ander.blogspot.com/) left underneath one of my posts about bank scam spam alerted me to the fact that I made it to the finals in the JIBS.
Floor me with a feather.
I didn't even know I was in the running.
See the bottom of this page:
http://www.jibawards.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=193
Where you will see the name of this blog listed among the Best Kosher Food/Recipe Blog - Finalists.
[Time for a brocha: "Baruch atta Adonai Eloheinu, Melech ha olam, asher flabberei et-gasteinu".]
Someone must have nominated me. I don't know who you are, but thank you.
The other finalists are :
http://rjmedwed.blogspot.com/
Because I'm In My Twenties And It's What You Do (Robbie - think about Coca Cola and brisket, among other things).
http://glutenfreebay.blogspot.com/
Gluten Free By The Bay.
http://fireinmykitchen.blogspot.com/
Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen - single dad, kosher food.
http://humus101.com/EN/
Humus 101.
http://inmolaraan.blogspot.com/
The Chocolate Lady - In Mol Araan: A blog about food and words in Yiddish and English including but not limited to cooking, recipes, culinary lexicography, delights and curiosities of the plant world, and cookbooks.
http://jcarrot.org/
The Jew And The Carrot - Jews, food, and contemporary issues.
http://www.me-ander.blogspot.com/
Me-ander. Three contributors: Sarah, Muse, and Isramom. All three of these are multi-bloggers, being contributors elsewhere besides.
http://twoheadsoflettuce.blogspot.com/
Simple recipes for vegetarian potlucks by: Ezer K'negdo, Ruby K, BZ, Suz, shamirpower, General Anna, Ahavatcafe, Amanda M, EAR, Sarah Chaya, Feygele, bgp, abunaftali, granola bard, ZT, MR.
Considering the excellent company I find myself in, I am humbled.
And I realize that I have some standards up to which to live. Uuuuy.
Floor me with a feather.
I didn't even know I was in the running.
See the bottom of this page:
http://www.jibawards.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=193
Where you will see the name of this blog listed among the Best Kosher Food/Recipe Blog - Finalists.
[Time for a brocha: "Baruch atta Adonai Eloheinu, Melech ha olam, asher flabberei et-gasteinu".]
Someone must have nominated me. I don't know who you are, but thank you.
The other finalists are :
http://rjmedwed.blogspot.com/
Because I'm In My Twenties And It's What You Do (Robbie - think about Coca Cola and brisket, among other things).
http://glutenfreebay.blogspot.com/
Gluten Free By The Bay.
http://fireinmykitchen.blogspot.com/
Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen - single dad, kosher food.
http://humus101.com/EN/
Humus 101.
http://inmolaraan.blogspot.com/
The Chocolate Lady - In Mol Araan: A blog about food and words in Yiddish and English including but not limited to cooking, recipes, culinary lexicography, delights and curiosities of the plant world, and cookbooks.
http://jcarrot.org/
The Jew And The Carrot - Jews, food, and contemporary issues.
http://www.me-ander.blogspot.com/
Me-ander. Three contributors: Sarah, Muse, and Isramom. All three of these are multi-bloggers, being contributors elsewhere besides.
http://twoheadsoflettuce.blogspot.com/
Simple recipes for vegetarian potlucks by: Ezer K'negdo, Ruby K, BZ, Suz, shamirpower, General Anna, Ahavatcafe, Amanda M, EAR, Sarah Chaya, Feygele, bgp, abunaftali, granola bard, ZT, MR.
Considering the excellent company I find myself in, I am humbled.
And I realize that I have some standards up to which to live. Uuuuy.
Monday, March 26, 2007
ALAS! ALACK! OH WOE! AND SOMETHING CHEESY
On the way to the Indian restaurant yesterday evening we passed by the cheese shop. Savage Kitten snorted angrily, but did not say anything.
An hour later, as we waddled home replete, we passed the cheese shop again. And now she howled. A long kvetching ranting wail, though not so loud as to draw any attention from any passers-by, relating that she had gone there recently to buy some Schokinag, but all... they... had... was... Scharfenberger!
Which, apparently, is crap. Her opinion. Utter crap.
Despicable overpriced snob white twenty something yuppie ignoramous rotten garbage crap.
Can't say I particularly disagree.
Schokinag is good stuff.
[See here: http://www.worldpantry.com/schokinag/home.html]
Scharfenberger, while highly reputed among the snobnoscenti, just ain't right. Good chocolate is more than advanced chemistry and math. There is no inspiration in Scharfenberger.
Tain't bad, but it ain't exciting either.
[Unless your taste runs to overpriced snob white twenty something yuppie ignoramous chocolate.]
The cheese shop has recently changed hands, and the food maven wot run the place is no longer there. Now it is uninspired as far as anything which isn't cheese is concerned (the cheese selection is sterling - hence the nickname 'the cheese shop', it is actually called something else).
Good drinking chocolate is hard to find in San Francisco (Ghirardelli is not nearly as good as the tourist brochures claim). Schokinag drinking chocolate has fragments of ground chunk-chocolate in among the prepared cacao, which give the hot beverage made with their mixture a wonderfull mouth-feel and aroma. And a depth of flavour. Most hot chocolate mixes are little more than mediocre generic cacao with essences and stabilizers. But Schokinag is indeed special. Luscious.
[Mind you, I am not going to tell her that because of me her supply of Schokinag diminished quite a bit more rapidly than it should have. There are some things one's significant other does NOT need to know. Like about the afternoon that I had a furious argument about wild clover honey with her teddy bear. She does not need to know that either. I do not wish to pay with my life for speaking firmly to the Ms. Bruin about honey, nor for stealing Schokinag.]
We still have Cadbury's. And Droste in a pinch. One can always melt some fine bar chocolate and whip it into the scalded milk. Add a pinch of freshly grated cinnamon (not cassia but real Ceylon canela).
Some vaunted Mexican cacao mix is also available at the cheese shop. It costs nearly twenty dollars for a tin. What kind of price is that? Does anybody really think very many Mexicans will fork over twenty bucks for cacao? Any Mexicans? Any at all? Hmmmph!
----------------------------------------
For more on chocolate, and the important soul-soothing qualities of a good cacao fix, please visit this site: http://goingslightlymad.blogspot.com/
Browse until you stumble over Maltesers.
There's chocolate in them there hills.
An hour later, as we waddled home replete, we passed the cheese shop again. And now she howled. A long kvetching ranting wail, though not so loud as to draw any attention from any passers-by, relating that she had gone there recently to buy some Schokinag, but all... they... had... was... Scharfenberger!
Which, apparently, is crap. Her opinion. Utter crap.
Despicable overpriced snob white twenty something yuppie ignoramous rotten garbage crap.
Can't say I particularly disagree.
Schokinag is good stuff.
[See here: http://www.worldpantry.com/schokinag/home.html]
Scharfenberger, while highly reputed among the snobnoscenti, just ain't right. Good chocolate is more than advanced chemistry and math. There is no inspiration in Scharfenberger.
Tain't bad, but it ain't exciting either.
[Unless your taste runs to overpriced snob white twenty something yuppie ignoramous chocolate.]
The cheese shop has recently changed hands, and the food maven wot run the place is no longer there. Now it is uninspired as far as anything which isn't cheese is concerned (the cheese selection is sterling - hence the nickname 'the cheese shop', it is actually called something else).
Good drinking chocolate is hard to find in San Francisco (Ghirardelli is not nearly as good as the tourist brochures claim). Schokinag drinking chocolate has fragments of ground chunk-chocolate in among the prepared cacao, which give the hot beverage made with their mixture a wonderfull mouth-feel and aroma. And a depth of flavour. Most hot chocolate mixes are little more than mediocre generic cacao with essences and stabilizers. But Schokinag is indeed special. Luscious.
[Mind you, I am not going to tell her that because of me her supply of Schokinag diminished quite a bit more rapidly than it should have. There are some things one's significant other does NOT need to know. Like about the afternoon that I had a furious argument about wild clover honey with her teddy bear. She does not need to know that either. I do not wish to pay with my life for speaking firmly to the Ms. Bruin about honey, nor for stealing Schokinag.]
We still have Cadbury's. And Droste in a pinch. One can always melt some fine bar chocolate and whip it into the scalded milk. Add a pinch of freshly grated cinnamon (not cassia but real Ceylon canela).
Some vaunted Mexican cacao mix is also available at the cheese shop. It costs nearly twenty dollars for a tin. What kind of price is that? Does anybody really think very many Mexicans will fork over twenty bucks for cacao? Any Mexicans? Any at all? Hmmmph!
----------------------------------------
For more on chocolate, and the important soul-soothing qualities of a good cacao fix, please visit this site: http://goingslightlymad.blogspot.com/
Browse until you stumble over Maltesers.
There's chocolate in them there hills.
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GRITS AND TOFU
Like most Americans, I have a list of people who should be peacefully retired from public service and thereafter kept away from their desks,...
