Chocolate Shopping

 We've just been to select chocolate for Easter. What a terrible day - Not!
A certain grocer to the Royals once advertised for a chocolate buyer by posting an ad in The Times saying "the best job in the world".
You can imagine the people who thought they could do this job! I had teacher, lawyer, and waitress friends sending in their CV's. It went to someone who did have some knowledge in chocolate but I think many other people would have had enjoyed the (heavenly) job a lot more. I have always had an interest in food production and chocolate comes high up the scale. I am becoming more and more discerning and would rather go without than eat just anything. When P puts his chosen bar under my nose I often refuse, and if I don't refuse I quite often regret (think of the wasted calories!!) I have a fair few friends who have enjoyed my previous (and this) job roles for the simple reason that I provide them with lots of goodies....chocolate, cheese, artisan bread, cake....the list goes on. But chocolate is always a favourite and is where you can really tell the difference. Coffee is quite hard, unless the beans are burnt.....or in fact they're not beans but that other strange drink - instant coffee.
Chocolate is so mass market and familiar to us that people don’t bother to look at cocoa content and fat. Next time you go to a decent chocolate shop or deli buy a small bar with high cocoa content (60%ish for plain and 35%ish for milk) from a good maker Audrey's of Hove, La Masion du Chocolat, Fortnum's, Charbonnel et Walker or Valrhona....the difference is less calories and more taste.

Don't just book it.....plan it

I'd love to book my years worth of holidays and weekend breaks right now. I am an avid planner and love to plan every detail, I enjoy the research and drooling over the guide books nearly as much as the holiday itself. I like to book restaurants (or at least know where I must not miss), plan days events, museums to check out and those to avoid, day trips (usually involving castles - P's hobby), find areas to shop for food and wine, areas to shop for clothes, book more than one hotel (variation is key), check out the weather, find the best bars....dreaming already. But where to go. I pulled out some holiday books this morning and looked at where I'd been recently. Sooooo many food photos. Here's a few of my favourites.
Of course food/wine/restaurants are the most important parts of the holiday planning. Hence I've not been to Eastern Europe....I'll have to give it a go, if only for the beer!

January Snow

The snow we've had has made the British a little mental. They have closed the schools, taken time off work, shut roads, found bin lids make great sledges, worn all their wardrobe at once, made some quite rude (but very impressive) snowmen but most crazy of all they've emptied the supermarkets of milk and bread. Did people think that the cows would freeze and not be able to produce milk?
If you shop locally (as my friend quite rightly told the BBC) you would not have had the worry of no milk, your local shop would have got from their local dairy which would have delivered by whatever means (or they'd go bust!) as they are reliable and want the business. Stuff the bloody supermarket shop and get down to your local deli/butcher/grocer and support them. They'll close down if you don't and then you'll wonder why your high street looks a mess. Please, please will people start shopping local.......not just watch Hugh or Nigel and agree.....but DO IT.

Motorway Food Tourture - The NEW and Improved Food Stop

We had a whole day free on Christmas Eve to get from the South Coast to the Yorkshire Coast. So after loading the car with suitcases, pressies and cheese board for Boxing Day. And a breakfast of porridge with honey we set out on our way. The roads were not too bad at all. I was very pleased about this as had booked into a gastropub for lunch at 1.30pm.

After some research I found The Cock in Hemingford Grey, near Huntingdon which is just off the A1. Perfect. And it was. P was going to have steak until the waitress told him the specials, beef stroganoff, his favourite. I had the venison which was so tender I didn't need to chew. It was more than worth the 15min detour off the motorway. The snow was much worse there and the traffic was a little slow when we rejoined but we were so content that the next 3.5hours drifted by with only a brief loo break and no need for entering the dreaded food (ahem!!) service station. I'm usually happy to drive an hour to get to good food anyway, so this made our journey food mile heaven.