Apart from discovering and savoring all the glorious food, the other best thing to do on all my travels is stashing up on gourmet products you can find in every city. These two are my favorite buys on my recent trip to Europe:
L’artisan du Chocolat
Gordon Ramsay called them “The Bentley of Chocolate” and serves their chocolate at his 3-Michelin stars outlet. I couldn’t agree more. One bite into their best-selling sea-salted caramel chocolate (picture above left), I thought I have died and gone to heaven. The sensation of the very moment the chocolate ball burst and the salty-sweet liquid caramel flows in my mouth and twirls around my tongue is nothing I imagine it to be judging from the plain chocolate ball appearance. It is simply the best chocolate I have ever eaten. This was originally created in 2003 for Ramsay’s menu at Claridge and has since been on top of L’artisan du Chocolat’s best seller list.
Another of my fave from the same store is the liquid sea salted caramel saucy spread (picture above right). I totally regretted not buying more bottles of it because the caramel sauce simply go well with almost everything I tried it with- crepe, pancakes, French toast, ice-cream, etc. The precious little bottle is sitting in my fridge and I really can’t bear to finish it off anytime soon.
Lártisan du Chocolat is at 89 Lower Sloane St Chelsea London (UK) Tel: +44 (0)20-7824-8365
Pierre Marcolini Chocolate
Mr. Marcolini is a genius in chocolate. I passed by his boutique in Ginza Tokyo a couple of times but never had the chance to try his creation. There is forever an endless queue at his Ginza boutique. So I was really excited to be able to visit his flagship store in Brussels, the city where it all began. There is no lack of good choices of chocolate boutique to pick from in the city of chocolate, but Marcolini is definately a par above his competitors with his magical truffles, pralines and home-made ice-cream. But if there is one thing you got to try from Marcolini, is definitely his famous marshmallow (picture above right) that comes in seasonal flavors. I bought a few boxes back and even friends and family who don’t usually eat this sugary treat loved it. It will totally change the way you feel about marshmallow forever.
Marcolini is at Rue du Minimes, 1 Place du Grand Sablon 1000 Bruxelles (Belgium) Tel: +32 (0) 2-514-12-06
