Chocolates, chocolates everywhere

If you are a chocolate lover, Belgium is your mecca…no question about it! Belgium produces 172,000 tons of chocolate per year in over 2,130 chocolate shops. We stayed at Brussels for 4 days and chocolate savouring was definitely one of the high points of our short stay. They say, Henri Escher, Mayor of Zurich, drank his first cup of chocolate on the Grand Place in Brussels. Impressed with its flavour, he exported the recipe to Switzerland. So much for Swiss chocolates!! We strolled leisurely along the narrow streets of the ‘old town’, stepping from one chocolaterie to the other, mesmerized by the delicious variety lining the glass shelves…classic milk to almond praline to pure liqueur filled gourmet delights…countless types from the simple to the intricate… each with their own sophisticated flavours and heavenly textures. Apparently, the best Belgian chocolate pralines and truffles are still made by hand, often by small chocolatiers in rural villages in Belgium. And so we noticed, as we sampled the brown beauties at little local shops in the picturesque towns of Bruges and Antwerp… as mouth watering as the expensive delicacies that intoxicate you at exclusive stores of Neuhaus, Leonidas, Guliyan or Godiva. CALORIES? Who cares about calories????