If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you. But you have no chocolate! I think of that again and again! My dear, how will you ever manage?
~ Marquise de Sévigné
Yesterday, T and I went to The Food Show. Lots of people, lots of food; and I was most pleased to see Caffe L’affare there by the entrance (I DO miss this place in Wellington!) Thank you, L’affare team, for the heady long macchiato.
Time passed quickly as T and I meandered through the stalls and people. There was a mozzarella man who demonstrated how to make mozzarella in 38 seconds; another man who sang recipes from a book. Every few seconds, it seemed, new food beckoned – mini samples of powdered Chai, Singapore curry, fancy crackers, Argentinian sweets made with dulce de leche, limoncello, elderflower cordial, oh it did not end… and we had random snippets of conversation with both stall owners and other Food Show attendees. I loved it when we stood at an oil stall and a man smiled at us and said, “it’s great oil – we use it in everything!” One of the things I most enjoy about New Zealand is the fact that a stranger will start a conversation with you while you both stand at a food stall (and does not do this to steal your wallet while you are distracted).
I picked up a few packs of salmon and luscious greens – and an interesting mini book on the Blood Type diet (not a new concept, but I have not previously looked into it). Also, T got us tickets to Annabelle White’s Whittaker’s Truffle Making Masterclass – just over an hour of chocolate…
My takeaway line from Annabelle is “taste it – commit that taste to memory.” Such a great concept, to commit a taste to memory. Imagine having a dependable mental catalogue of tastes to browse at pleasure! Less hungry moments and more success with cooking.
I tasted cocoa nibs for the first time in this session – they tasted basic, raw, full of potential. They brought to mind wood chips; Winter; straw; fair trade; and beginnings.
We were also asked to smell and eat bits of 72% cocoa chocolate – seriously, dark chocolate, please let’s stay intimately acquainted with each other for ever.
This class was warmly presented, with more than a few fun moments; and it eradicated all previous ideas that truffle making is impossibly hard (it is not). Also, we got a nice goodie bag to take home, which contained these (dangerous) gems:
I had a long-awaited rest day today, and tried the recipe for ganache truffles we got given in class yesterday. Just three ingredients in these – dark chocolate, cream, and cocoa powder to coat the truffles with. Simplicity!
I am now excited thinking about all the different flavours of truffles to make… what’s your favourite truffle flavour?
treehousekitchen 
Mmm, ganache truffles. I’ve never tried doing nutella-y ones but I can imagine they’d certainly ruffle my skirt. Whatever that means. Truffles with a touch of flaky sea salt would probably do it for me, as long as the chocolate isn’t too dark.
Mmm, nutella / sea salt both sound like excellent flavour choices! :-) Shall keep them in mind when I make my next batch of truffles…
Amazing post! x
Those look amazing!
Yummy truffles, I wonder how many food bloggers were rubbing shoulders at the class realizing it! I have read three post from the masterclass, I am jealous I didn’t get to be there.
Thanks Sophie and Greg :-)
Allison – hehe, that is hardly a surprise, though I wish we knew who each other were in the class!