Chocolate

I love chocolate. But I have to keep away from it because I'm a true addict. Eating a whole large block in one sitting is not impossible for me. I'm not the sort of person who can have one piece and then put it away to come back to later. No, no, if I do that it calls to me from the cupboard. So I've learnt, to my sorrow, I have to keep away from it.

I think there are two types of chocolate people. One loves the 70-80% dark cocoa chocolate that can give you a caffeine hit with one piece, and the other loves the creamy, sweet, sensuous experience of chocolate in your mouth. I'm one of them. I love milk and white chocolate, which of course, the chocolate purists deny is chocolate at all.

Knowing my love of chocolate, a friend gave me some for Christmas not realising I'm a reformed addict (yeah, sure) and have seen the light. My heart sank a bit when I saw the packet, because I knew I'd be unable to resist it. But when I opened it and saw it was dark chocolate, I thought I'd be safe. I can resist dark chocolate because I don't experience the same pleasure of that sweet, smooth, totally comforting feel of melting chocolate in my mouth. It must be related to some oral phase of babyhood.

The chocolate my friend gave me was from New Zealand and I have to say, it almost made me hooked on dark chocolate. Lime and chilli chocolate. It was an explosion of taste in my mouth. First I could only taste some fairly restrained sugar, then the lime kicked in and then the chilli. Woaw! Schoc Chocolates. You can get them in NZ and a couple of places in Australia. From their web site they also do some New Age stuff with chocolate therapy but you can ignore all that. I'd kill for some of their white and cardamom chocolate.

The best chocolate shop in the whole world though, is Belle Fleur at Rozelle in Sydney. They are stunning. If you go to their web site you'll see pictures of chocolates with white tops and a tiny design of bars of music. Divine.

I will be strong. I will be strong.

Happy New Year!