Pudding wine and puddings at the Wine Society

The Wine Society, Stevenage.

At the wine and puddings event I tried about ten sweet wine and pudding combinations. 

Bread and butter pudding.

Mandorla is Italian for almond.

Hard biscuits containing almond pieces. I say hard, but they are good for dunking in coffee. Also, if you suck them, they do melt in the mouth.

Cantuccini - Tuscany is the home of cantuccini, says a website selling Italian biscuits or as they say, biscotti.

http://www.mediterraneandirect.co.uk/BISCUITS-CONFECTIONERY

Tiramisu

Tiramisu with the matching sweet red wine.

Chocolate pudding served with another matching wine.

I took a video of the melting chocolate centre oozing out when the pudding is cut. We looked up chocolate pudding and were surprised to find it's a lot easier to make than it looks. You simply cook it so that the outside is cooked but the centre is still soft. Then when's it's cut the melting centre emerges.

We reserved this event as soon as we were notified on line. Some people will be going to the overflow event, same puddings and wines a little later in the year. The next event, next year, is on our mental list of things to do.

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

French words of the day: fondant; fondue; sucre roux

French words of the day are sucre roux, brown or raw sugar.
Fondant means melting.

Fondue is popular in restaurants in Switzerland, the home of cheese and chocolate. Fondue is melting cheese or chocolate, served in a bowl over a small tea light, candle light or burner, usually with two or more people using skewers or pincers to pick up and dunk cubes of bread or vegetables in the cheese; or cake, or marshmallows or fruit such as strawberries in the chocolate.

Fondue sets are sold in supermarkets and department stores in the crockery departments, packaged as gifts at Christmas time. I bought what I thought was a fondue set. It is an oriental stir-fry set.

This set was sold in Tesco as an oriental gift set, with a stir-fry sauce.

English - French
Sugar-sucre
brown sugar-sucre roux

French - English
brun - brown
fondant - melting
rouge - red
roux - raw
sucre roux - brown sugar / raw sugar

Brown and white sugar served with coffee at Fulham Wine Rooms in London, England.

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

Chocolate show London Olympia this weekend

Unfortunately I missed the opening night. I was elsewhere but here are my pictures taken during the daytime later. If you go to the show, go early when it's quiet and you can get a front seat at the first show with tastings of chocolate passed around every five or ten minutes. By lunch time it's a queue to get in and crowds around each counter, whether you are tasting  morsel or buying.
See previous posts for details. It's at Olympia in London.

This mannequin has a chocolate miniskirt and top. To be interesting you can choose dark chocolate on a dark skinned girl, white chocolate on a white skinned girl or mannequin or doll, or make the outfit in one colour chocolate with contrasting border or central motif. To me the biggest challenge is not the idea but making something that is not thin and fragile and won't melt.

I'm not sure about the dress, because you are kept behind a barrier, but I could see that this mannequin has chocolate in her hand and wears a brown chocolate pendant. That's a great idea.

Make Your Own
You can make a chocolate pendant at home, ideally with silver foil backing. But you have to use a chocolate which won't melt in your hand nor on your skin nor over clothes.

I think Hersheys chocolate was made in America with a low melting point so soldiers could carry it in wartime.

The chocolate at the show is OK on a cool mannequin, despite the warmth of the room and lights. Wearing it is another matter.

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer, author, comic poet and speaker. See more by Angela Lansbury author on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and Lulu.com