10 posts tagged “chocolate”

I was in the mood to try something out: a very intense chocolate cream booster a while ago and came up with this chocolate cream that has 73,5% Dark Chocolate and a very small amount of fat.
This is the one:

  It was served cold, and it had a very creamy but firm texture. So what's in it?
I used whole milk, cream (both in small amounts), sugar and egg yolk, and of course the 73,5% cocoa chocolate bar.
Intense!

I also went to Friday's in Caracas, because they have one brownie on the dessert menu there:

Loud, unapologetic and messy-looking, this brownie was waaay too sweet but the chocolate flavor was great.
 A smaller serving with less fuss would be welcome.
It was warm too, which i liked a bit.See, that's why the ice cream was melting on top of it.

So, to shake things up a bit a long time ago (remember i still have to post things i did months ago) i went to this ice cream place in Caracas called 4D, located in La Castellana part of Town (or was it Altamira? the lines are blurry there) and it was rather empty which i liked a lot and saw that they had a brownie offering there called just plain "brownie flavor" so i went for it.

The ice cream was very good, it had chocolate sauce inside as well which i didn't expect. It was not too sugary either.
The quest will continue!

A while ago, i was with a hunger for something cold and sweet so i went to this (see title) and got this one:

sorry about the crappy picture quality but i was with new cell phone and i was a little shaky when i took it.
Anyhoo, I got on that very crispy cracker 3 nice flavors: Strawberries n' Cream, Chocolate Fudge Brownie and a local version of Eggnog called Ponche Crema. It was great!

Cheers!.
 

This time i went to a place called "Boston Bakery", here in Caracas...so it seems that people here like to name their business after foreign cities and in another language other than spanish, I didn't see anything particularly bostonian while I was there, and the people there didn't know if the owners hailed from Boston either..ah well...

Here's the front, it's kind of hidden, i had to look around for it...

Continuing with my quest, i went to this cafè place called "Arabica Coffee Company", which is located in the Chacao district of the capital.
I went there and the service was dismal, and it took a long time for someone to appear...
What did i ask for? A brownie, since they had one on the menu, i asked for one...what did I get?
This one:

Since I love chocolate, and i love brownies, I decided to get into this hunt for the perfect brownie here in the city, just to see what the city has to offer.
When i mean the "perfect brownie" is of course, the one I will like the best. I like my brownies to have a crust on top, to be soft and mushy at the center and to have not too many nuts, whatever they may be (walnuts, nuts, cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, etc). I also like them to be chewy and not insanely sweet. I also like the chocolate used in them to be of quality.

So I started off at some of the closest and allegedly best patisseries:
Fisrt it was the St. Honoré, in the Chacao district:

There was a very annoying queue inside that was very long and there were other queues that were for something else but i didn't know what they were for, there were no signals within sight to know for sure.
 I had to ask which one was the one for desserts and they pointed me to one of them, very condescendingly to boot. After i made it to the top of the queue, they told me i was at the wrong one, and pointed me to the other one.
 After all this very annoying waste of time, i finally got to the brownie i wanted:
Very crappy presentation, a cardboard plate and some not too clean napkins. And a plastic spoon. I hate them.
The sweet was ok in sugars, and it didn't taste quirky in any way. But there was no crust and the cake was too dry and not chocolate-y enough for me. It had a fresh half of a nut on to as you can see. All in all, i wasn't a fan. And of course the service was  dismal.

After that, I went to another one, called Maison Plaza (a sort of café, with a restaurant on the side) , which i have been there before and i like: a view of the fountain

When i got there (no queues), i asked for a brownie and the new lady there didn't know what i was saying, I sais again: a brownie, made of chocolate. And she said: chocolate? and i replied Yes, made with chocolate. So she went and got me this:
Yes, you noticed, it's a chocolate Fondant, NOT a Brownie. But this fondant (served inside a panetonne paper cup) looked better than the brownie that was showcased and it was more expensive too, but they charged it to me as a brownie, so needless to say, i was only too happy to try this one out instead of the other one. I asked for a bottle of water to tame my guilt as well.
Presentation was way better, with a real plate, with a logo of the place and Clean napkins. I had a very nice table all to myself. Didn't even mind the plastic spoon. A closer look:
It was wonderful! Chocolate was of top quality, soft, creamy and sweet but not too much and the cake part was just perfect, it had lots of moisture but it was firm.
That's all for now, but i promise to be on the lookout for some more brownie madness.
Until next time!

I was in the Netherlands exactly 4 years ago, and i thought it would be nice to remember and share those times and experiences and the things i ate.
First some sightings (all photos by myself):
In Maastricht:

A neighborhood in downtown Maastricht:
The Royal Palace in Amsterdam (on the side of the Dam Square):
The Rijksmuseum (side view):
The Van Gogh Museum:
My favorite breakfast there (chocolate shavings of course, called Hagelslag):
And i went to an Amsterdam restaurant once and had some food as well (forgot the name of the place):

Various Foods: (in order from top to bottom, left to right, photos from all over the net) a vending machine with local delicacies, Vla, "special" brownies, a coffee shop, a coffee shop stating that they sell drugs, dutch gaufres, Heineken beer, licorice, Muisjes(the blue version), croquettes with salad, crumb pie, Frikandel, Herring, Oliebollen, Slagroomtaart, Poffertjes.
and my favorite breakfast once more, with feeling:

This post was dedicated In Loving Memory of Annie.
Ik Mis U.
Marcelo.

That would be what did I have for lunch yesterday...I tried out a recipe: Trout Meunière, i cleaned and cut the trout myself, and prepared the Meunière sauce the classic way, but i did not use any kind of flour for the fish, i just fried it on a pan until crispy,and then added the sauce. The butter became lightly browned, but i thought it might go better in both taste and smell if i used the juice of a whole lime after it browned, and the sauce became clearer, which is ok with me.
Photo, preparation and eating by myself! I took a bite before taking the pic!:

I also had some dessert: Coconut ice cream, Rum and Raisins ice cream, Tiramisu Ice cream, chocolate chip cookie crumble, and a chilean chocolate cookie called Frac.

Over the past couple of days i have been tasting different varieties of "cold" sweets (pastry). They had no special names to them, and here i wanted to share some pictures of them. And a few comments.

This first one, made with strawberries and cream, was as great-tasting as it looks, but the cream seemed a bit solid(but not too hard) and the fruits were fresh and plump. Very nice. It didn't feel too sweet either so that was a nice touch. Presentation needed attention though, all i got was a little paper plate and a clear plastic spoon that broke off when i first used it. Must be my herculean strength...right?

This next one was ok tasting, but the peaches on the inside were from a can, not fresh and the one on top was all too much dried out and ugly-looking. The cream was just too lumpy and old. Didn't taste all that bad but could have been a lot better. Presentation was way better, napkins, a silver spoon and a ceramic plate!.

This one was the best of them all, the caramel with almonds top was just great-looking and wonderfully aromatic in all its sugary goodness. The little cake beneath was something that reminded me of a very soft, intense brownie made with quality chocolate and just the right amount of smokiness to balance the creamy caramel on top. Simpler than the other ones but better tasting. Napkins, plate but i got plastic spoon.

Cheers!.