What to buy in France and Britain? French Macaroons! And British Chocolates.

 French Macaroons

What can you buy in France? Macaroons. For yourself. To take home as a gift. 

They are a French speciality. They have whole shops devoted to macaroons. One is in Gare du Nord.

See different colours. Cheaper than chocolates. Cheaper than other countries. More varieties. More sizes.

You can get them packed in pretty boxes. If they are a gift, tell the shop. Staff will usually wrap them in a fancy paper or box with a ribbon bearing the shop name. For free.

Storage

We chose pink and green and purply brown. We kept some too long. In a fridge. They did not go mouldy. On the contrary, lacking moisture, rock hard. They lose their flavour eventually, so don't save them too long. Eat them whilst they are fresh and tangy\ . 

Macaroons are popular worldwide.

British Macaroons

Macaroons are a big thing in Britain. Literally big.

Giant chocolate macaroons from Mrs Crimble. Currently (April 2024) reduced to one pound in Waitrose. Big enough to break in two and share as a snack with your morning coffee or afternoon tea.

Tesco also supply a box of assorted macaroons costing under five pounds sterling.

If you are prepared to spend more, for a special occasion, or gift, you can also get macaroons from French sounding British brand, Hotel Chocolat, not only chocolate. I was not thrilled by their macaroon, in their box, which was macaroon circular sandwich shape in contrasting colours but chocolate rather than macaroon in my opinion, but every other chocolate in their box was delicious. I recommend their chocolates.

If you are in France, or looking for French food and drink, to match a French theme event, such as Bastille day July 4th, 2024 and every year, in 2024 on a Sunday, there's Perrier Water.

Perrier from Wikipedia.

Useful Websites

Bastille day.

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CHOCOLATE! What's New At Chocolate Shows and Exhibitions? First London, then Perugia.

Perugia Etruscan gateway. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
This year's Eurohcocolate show in Perugia was last weekend, October 21-22.  The chocolate show in London at Olympia was the weekend before. What did you miss?

The show at London Olympia charged for entry.

Perugia's Eurochocolate Show
The Perugia chocolate show did not charge for entry. You could invest in a chococard which gave ten percent off various stalls and permanent shops in Perugia and around the region, for example, ten percent off a visit to a winery.

Chocolate Contest
The events included a competition to select the best chocolate maker.

Chocolate And Wine Pairing
Another event was about wine and chocolate pairing.

I went to a paid event at a chocolate shop in London, where we were served lots of chocolates and small tastes of wine to go with them. It really was remarkable that some pairings were particularly good. A heavy red wine with a dark or spicy chocolate. A white wine with white chocolate. And all shade in between. We tried each wine with the different chocolate flavours to see which went best. 

Chocolate Sculpture
The centrepiece of the Perugia show was a giant slab of chocolate, chipped away with what looked like an axe. What was the chocolate sculptor making? To me, it looked like he was making a heart to symbolize I love chocolate.

So, was it just lots of chocolate stands trying to sell you chocolate? Did you really get to see anything new?

Yes. An amazing number of different products can be made from chocolate. Chocolate can be made in different colours to enrobe nuts and cocoa beans. Not just dark chocolate, regular chocolate and white chocolate, also red and blue and other colours.

You can make chocolate into swirls like Catherine wheels on lollipops. Or a truffle served on a stick with coconuts or sesame seed, like a selection of canapeés or truffles on sticks.

Speaking of truffles, another speciality of the Umbrian region is truffles in chocolate.

Novelties include chocolate made in the shape of a CD.

For those with special diets, one stand offered gluten free and vegan chocolate.

To buy chocolate on line, there's an i-chocolate website. They were offering a smartphone cover which looks like a slab of chocolate, key rings with two chunks of mock chocolate, one with a bite taken out of it. You can also buy and wear ear-rings for pierced ears depicting chocolate ice cream in wafer cones. Other gifts for yourself or friends include tee-shirts with slogans about chocolate, and an umbrella with a white background and a pattern of chocolates scattered across it.

Their website was in Italian. I am learning Italian on duolingo.

What else is in Perugia?

Make sure to see the underground city, dating from way back. For years it was filled with rubble. Then one day they found the interest and the money in clearing it away. You will now find shops underground in the passageways. Impressive. Historic.

Perugia underground. 

It's free to enter. Just look for the escalator going down, leading to the passage way underground. One end is near the large hotel above. Another end is down by the gate. Anybody in Perugia will tell you where.

Useful Websites:
The Eurochocolate website is in Italian. It has accounts of all the past chocolate shows in Perugia, as well as directions for getting to Perugia by all kinds of transport.

This is an annual event in Perugia, one of the largest in Europe, attracting a million visitors every year. So plan on going next year. Try chocolates to eat, drinking chocolate and chocolate liqueurs. Mmm! More events are held in Rome, Turin, Naples and Sicily.

You can like eurochocolate on their Facebook page and see photos of visitors sitting in front of a giant chocolate piano.

Italian Chocolate
Perugia is the place where they started the best known Italian chocolate, from the Perugina company, now oned by Nestle. Their product which you will see in the Perugia shops is the Baci, Italian for kiss. It is a chocolate with a hazelnut in the centre. The chocolate is wrapped with a foil which has blue stars. The chocolates have a love message in one of several languages: English, French, German, Greek, Spanish, or Portuguese. They are sold loose or in small quantities, very expensive. Better value is a larger box.

My first thought was that I didn't know any Italian chocolate makers. But, of course, I do. Ferrero Rocher and Nutella are also Italian, and worldwide favourites. Time to try some more Italian chocolates, of which there are many.

Great Hotels
For major events, book early to get a good hotel at a good price.
For this chocolate event, my first choice would be Chocohotel. But they might be fully booked.
http://chocohotel.it/en/

I stayed at the Hotel Monterone See my other posts. A restored castle. Great for a romantic break.
https://www.castellomonterone.com The outdoor pool is open in summer.

Always check if the pool or spa at a hotel will be open if that is on your list of must haves.

I tried the spa at another hotel. Maybe lose some of those calories. It's called the Borgo Brufa Spa Resort. We sat in hot water outdoors in November under the fading sky with an underwater jet massage. Heavenly.
http://www.borgobrufa.it

They say, 'it's not what you know but who you know'. If you are in the restaurant business and buy truffles from this region, be sure to take up an offer of an introduction to meet those in the truffle business. Not the truffle chocolate but the savoury truffles, like mushrooms. I loved their chocolate covered truffles. I haven't seen them for sale anywhere. They are an acquired taste. I wasn't sure I liked the first one. So I kept trying them until I acquired the taste!
http://www.urbanitartufi.it

Truffle chocolates from http://www.urbanitartufi.it

CHOCOLATE INFO
https://www.baciperugina.it
https://www.perugina.com/it
www.Eurochocolate.com (Info on the 2017 exhibition in Perugia, the next one in 2018 and others before and elsewhere.)

TRAVEL & TOURISM INFO
Next year's Eurochocolate in Perugia, Umbria, Italy, runs from 12 to 21 October 2018.
www.umbria.it
www.duolingo.com
www.visititaly.it
http://www.eurochocolate.com/news
https://www.alitalia.com/en_gb
www.ryanair.com (flies to Italy from Stansted, England, UK)
http://www.comune.perugia.it/pagine/siti-tematici
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g187907-Activities-Perugia_Province_of_Perugia_Umbria.html

Author,
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

My favourite foods at The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick

Photos by Angela Lansbury.

In previous years my favourite food was the Bakewell tart. In Bakewell you get Bakewell pudding. I missed not having Bakewell Tart in 2017. (See later post.)

This year we had several excellent desserts. A carrot cake had slices of orange as decoration. The gluten free cake was delicious. The chocolate cake was moist and chocolatey.

Cream was in large jugs, and in abundance.

 I even liked the banana blancmange or mouse - hard to define what it was. Looked a bit like solid custard. Tasted creamy and full of banana flavour.

http://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk

Author
Angela Lansbury. See previous posts on The Hayes; Bakewell tart. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Billingsgate Mural and Lunch Time Offers In Hatch End

Hatch End - restaurant capital of North West London. What's the latest. I noticed a mural of Billingsgate market inside Sea Pebbles which serves take away fish and chips as well as sit down meals. They are now open seven days a week and have a sign saying Gluten free Mondays.

From Costa, an offer of cake for £1 with certain drinks.

From Chuck, delivery from Deliveroo.

From Izgara, Turkish, and Mosfilo, Greek, more offers.

Finally, Fellini, open all day seven days a week.

And that's just one side of this section of The Broadway.

More restaurants further along the road past Grimsdyke Road towards the station. Cross over and more coming back on the other side of The Broadway.

Billingsgate Fish market
https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/business/wholesale-food-markets/billingsgate/Pages/default.aspx

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
type in Angela Lansbury, author or travel writer or poet. Fortunately there are only four people with my name. Most people I look up on Facebook and google and linkedIn have twenty namesakes worldwide. As for people called Patel, Cohen and Levy, Singh - several million of those.
Follow me on Facebook and like my pages here and there and everywhere including linking to me on LinkedIn, Watching me on YouTube

Want a pick-me-up snack whilst shopping? Yogurt, fat free, sugar free, gluten free, at Watford and elsewhere

Walking uphill from Watford High Street station, you cross on the triple crossing towards the shops. Take a detour into Boots and try to avoid buying. (I ended up with three nail varnishes, which I wanted, at least I wanted one or two but the offer was three for two.) The Boots entrance brings you out at the lower level passing the toilets, baby change area with the drinking water fountain. As you pass towards the escalators on your left is the Yogurt kiosk. They often have a free taster of their yogurt or you can ask for one.

If you like the yogurts, take a card which gives you a free topping after five separate purchases, and a free yogurt after ten.

I tried the yogurt with the granola and blueberry topping. De-lish.

Want Calcium?
I'd previously avoided the kiosk and went to a coffee shop because I'm wary of sugar in smoothies. However, I love yogurt, and think I need calcium more than caffeine, calcium to build nails, teeth and bones - if you've ever had a cracked nail, broken tooth, or broken bone or backache you may share my concern.

How Much Sugar?
So reading the literature and claims on the signboard about the sugar and fat and gluten content, I was reassured I was getting calcium, without too much sugar. However, do read all the literature and check for yourself that what you are choosing, whether in a coffee shop or kiosk suits your needs in general or on that occasion. If you bought a low calorie coffee from a coffee shop, but added sugar, obviously you end up with more calories and more sugar. So if you buy yogurt, then add honey, you have to take into account what is added.

Onwards and Upwards at Intu, Watford
If you are aiming for a second storey shop, you are right by the escalator. If you want to sit in the shopping mall, Intu has lots of seats. You can eat the yogurt and read the literature.

Location, location, location
As Hilton used to say about a successful hotel, Location, location, location. Where can you find Yog yogurts?
Their website lists outlets in: Intu, Watford; Brent Cross; London - several including Greenwich; Brighton and more. You can also buy their products from Tesco.

More details and locations from:

yogyogurt.co.uk

ANGELA LANSBURY AUTHOR is a travel writer, speaker and English tutor and speech coach.
More about Angela Lansbury author on Youtube, Lulu.com, Amazon, LinkedIn, Facebook.

Bread or cakes, including gluten free - let them eat cake, here are some suppliers

Lauran Bush is the heart and mind behind Kind Cakes, says their leaflet. And a lovely smiley lady she is.

Her brochure explains she made a cake for a little boy whose mother said he had allergies and had never had a cake. His smile was such a reward that she decided to go into business and provide the opportunity, spread the joy to everybody. (Let them eat cake.)

Kind cakes make a range of sizes, my favourites being the let me try another flavour little canape size cupcakes, 'approx 25 grams in weight once frosted' mini cakes, not quite calorie free but free-from, swetened from fruit.
The six flavours are lemon, vanilla, berry, chocolate, chocolate caramel and orange.
They can make eggfree cakes on request.
www.kindcakes.co.uk
info@kindcakes.co.uk
facebook.com/kindcakesltd
tel:01372) 878706