oh delicious chocolate- i love you
so today I went to this really famous chocolaterie- (a chocolate factory) though technically it was more of a confiserie- just a candy factory. It was the shop of Alain Batt-- and is really famous throughout France, England and Switzerland for being super delicious. The son is the one who runs it now and it was really cool. It wasn't actually so much a tour as a demonstration-- of how the different candies and cookies are made. It was very interesting and I learned all about how chocolate is made!
We (Sonia, Silvina, Gesine, and I) went with a group from Sonia's lycee (high school) and the Spanish students who were there visiting. Unfortunately the spanish seem to have the same tendency as the french to just talk through anything and everything. A couple kids in front of me kept talking and I could hardly hear anything the chef was saying for the first couple of minutes! I was forced to give them the 'Serious Teacher Face' and they were kind of scared. haha-- I think I have arrived as a teacher!!!! woot. There were lots of degustations (tastings) and I think my favorite was the chocolate macaroons. I learned that in proper macaroons there is only egg, flour, and almonds- but that you have to mix it in a mixer for two hours to get the proper consistency!!!! The recipe that is officially used here in Nancy was created by two sisters about five hundred years ago, and the street that they lived on is now called the Rue de Soeurs Macaroons (Macaroon Sisters Street), haha.
I also learned that after the cacao beans are ground up- they take the powder and compress and heat it at the same time-- which forces the liquid of the bean out. This is cocoa butter. Then you recombine them to form dark chocolate-- adding milk will make it less percentage and when you don't add the cocoa powder to the mixture, but add milk and a little vanilla, it becomes white chocolate! Which, by the way, is the most fattening of all the types. Hmm,.. I also learned about Bergamottes- which are a specialty of Nancy. Bergamotte is a fruit produced in the south (think south of Italy, Sicily, Corsica) which is a combination between a lime and a mirabelle (a golden plum). So-- they take this fruit and then do something to it to get all the flavor-- the essence of bergamotte (l'huile essentiel de bergamotte) and combine it with sugar and water to make sugar candy. This.... is surprisingly easily done- he made it for us within ten mintues and we ate what he made right there on the spot! Unfortunately its very expensive to produce the Essence of Bergamotte- so its not used a lot. He said that one liter of the oil can cost 180 euro!!!! Anywayyy, Bergamottes, the candy, is famous for two things: 1. it is very soothing for an irritated throat- so people here in Lorraine use them in the place of cough drops. well, to each their own, I guess. and 2. they help digestion somehow. So also, at the end of the meal, if, as a guest, you don't take a digestif (some type of alcohol to help digestion) you are typically offered Bergamottes. Which is very considerate. haha. They taste ok-- but a lot of people don't like them. Though they are made with almost 70% sugar, the oil is very, very bitter. So in the end, it tastes a little bit citrony, a little bit gningery, and isn't sweet at all.
I guess I would just say: Pourquoi pas?(french shrug of the shoulders)
PS- look out soon for my adventures in Guilder!!! (yes, you heard right- Guilder!!!)
We (Sonia, Silvina, Gesine, and I) went with a group from Sonia's lycee (high school) and the Spanish students who were there visiting. Unfortunately the spanish seem to have the same tendency as the french to just talk through anything and everything. A couple kids in front of me kept talking and I could hardly hear anything the chef was saying for the first couple of minutes! I was forced to give them the 'Serious Teacher Face' and they were kind of scared. haha-- I think I have arrived as a teacher!!!! woot. There were lots of degustations (tastings) and I think my favorite was the chocolate macaroons. I learned that in proper macaroons there is only egg, flour, and almonds- but that you have to mix it in a mixer for two hours to get the proper consistency!!!! The recipe that is officially used here in Nancy was created by two sisters about five hundred years ago, and the street that they lived on is now called the Rue de Soeurs Macaroons (Macaroon Sisters Street), haha.
I also learned that after the cacao beans are ground up- they take the powder and compress and heat it at the same time-- which forces the liquid of the bean out. This is cocoa butter. Then you recombine them to form dark chocolate-- adding milk will make it less percentage and when you don't add the cocoa powder to the mixture, but add milk and a little vanilla, it becomes white chocolate! Which, by the way, is the most fattening of all the types. Hmm,.. I also learned about Bergamottes- which are a specialty of Nancy. Bergamotte is a fruit produced in the south (think south of Italy, Sicily, Corsica) which is a combination between a lime and a mirabelle (a golden plum). So-- they take this fruit and then do something to it to get all the flavor-- the essence of bergamotte (l'huile essentiel de bergamotte) and combine it with sugar and water to make sugar candy. This.... is surprisingly easily done- he made it for us within ten mintues and we ate what he made right there on the spot! Unfortunately its very expensive to produce the Essence of Bergamotte- so its not used a lot. He said that one liter of the oil can cost 180 euro!!!! Anywayyy, Bergamottes, the candy, is famous for two things: 1. it is very soothing for an irritated throat- so people here in Lorraine use them in the place of cough drops. well, to each their own, I guess. and 2. they help digestion somehow. So also, at the end of the meal, if, as a guest, you don't take a digestif (some type of alcohol to help digestion) you are typically offered Bergamottes. Which is very considerate. haha. They taste ok-- but a lot of people don't like them. Though they are made with almost 70% sugar, the oil is very, very bitter. So in the end, it tastes a little bit citrony, a little bit gningery, and isn't sweet at all.
I guess I would just say: Pourquoi pas?(french shrug of the shoulders)
PS- look out soon for my adventures in Guilder!!! (yes, you heard right- Guilder!!!)