a girl denied chocolates

g had very sweetly taken me on a walking tour after dinner on saturday to minimize the probability of me getting lost on my way to work. it was very sweet of him. I take after my father, and I have very bad sense of direction – everything looks the same to me (sorry pa – it’s true. mom’s the human compass in our family). i did my best by committing the route to memory along the lines of “walk past the horrendously expensive and pretentious shops, turn left at the humongous horse, walk past the palais royale, see the park and bob’s your uncle.”

g took me back along a different route, lest I get bored of walking past the very grand palais royale. and wisely pointed out where pierre marcolini was as we walked through Sablon. the geography of central Brussels fell into place. I wouldn’t get lost now.

so my first day at work today. and I headed straight for notre dame au sablon and took a sharp right.

“I’m sorry madame, we’ve closed the upstairs early today because we need to count the chocolates, you cannot choose which chocolates you want…”

panic. horror.

“you don’t understand. I need chocolate – I’ve had a bad day.” wallowing in self pity as I thought of my trip out to the sticks during lunch to pick up my replacement emergency american express card (who no doubt are one of the best credit card companies in the world and they don’t have to pay me to say that).

“… you could take one of these boxes which have a selection of chocolates…”

that’s no good. i had planned on filling half the box with those hazelnut ones. I briefly contemplated buying a jar of chocolate spread and eating it with a spoon.

then I remembered. they have a pastry counter. I finally manage to smile at the guy behind the counter, who i now realise is gorgeous. had I not been so hungry I’d have blushed. I choose the Oveido, which is, according to the description given, “Sabayon de chocolat au lait avec des notes de caramel, croustillant de noisettes caramélisées et praliné noisette sur un biscuit vanille aux éclats de noisettes et crème à la vanille fraîche de Tahiti”

or in my dodgy translation - sabayon (fancy french speak for egg yolks with sugar) of milk chocolate with notes of caramel, crust of caramelized hazelnuts and hazelnut flavoured praline on a vanilla biscuit with hazelnut vanilla cream. or something that tasted like that. I’ll let the picture speak its thousand words for itself.

“this won’t cure all your troubles, but I hope it makes you feel better” says the gorgeous chocolate man.

I picked up a jar of salty caramel confit too. I couldn’t help myself.

and I’ve joined a gym. as my master slavedriver put it to me before I left for brussels: “how are you going to keep your weight down?”