h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That's what the Aztecs called it.

(NOT Fred the Incontinent Hamster, she added hastily. Food of the Gods. That's what the Aztecs called it.)

"I'll drink to that," I say.

I have travelled much and always make sure to have my towel and my chocolates with me. Here are some of the high, or more interesting, points.

The best chocolate in France: Caffe Angelica's CHOCOLAT AFRICAIN. It is a huge pot of chocolate that is so thick your spoon stands up in it. Drinking it is sort of like falling face down into a swimming pool full of dark chocolate and inhaling without drowning. It is impossible to finish a pot yourself; share it with a friend. Caffe Angelica also sells chocolate. They are located near the Tuileries and the Louvre on the Right Bank.

On the POISSON D'AVRIL (April Fool's Day) you are supposed to hand something fish shaped to your colleagues. I bought my French and American coworkers chocolate fish stuffed with chocolate bugs. The English assistant got only a bag of the chocolate bugs.

I also managed to purchase a CHOCOLATE WORLD at a famous patisserie in the Rue Lobineau. "IT'S A CHOCOLATE WORLD" is a great motto, isn't it?

The best chocolate in the USA: Both are in New York City. LI-LAC has been on Christopher street since the twenties. They make a truffle that is every bit as good as anything from B*****m or Switzerland. They have also been known to build the Statue of Liberty out of chocolate and leave it in the window.

The other best chocolate in the USA is the CHOCOLATE SMUSH served at the Serendipity II Cafe on 59th Street in Manhattan. This former hangout of the Factory crowd, Warhol and All, also features Aunt Bubba's Sand Tarts. A Chocolate Smush (or 'fr-r-r-r-rozen hot chocolate') must be shared with a friend. Or two. Or three.

The most interesting chocolate in England had to be the Military Chocolate I picked up in Richmond once. I thought the stuff had to have little epaulets. It simply had a high wax content so that it didn't melt. Sorry to say this, but I have never liked Cadbury's.

In Australia I purchased a Chocolate Bilby. They don't want kids in Oz to take a fancy to rabbits, since they are a pest animal there; so they instead feature Chocolate Bilbies, a local longeared marsupial. You can even purchase them on the Web but they can't guarantee that they won't melt when they are on the way over from Australia.

German chocolates: I was fond of Bahlsen chocolate cookies and HIT cookies as well. German desserts tend to be sickeningly sweet.

I will be going to the world's most oddball amusement park, Bonbon Land, this summer, and will certainly post a description to the Guide. It's sort of a candy store from hell, located in beautiful downtown Denmark. I have no idea if they serve chocs, but they have candies called Seagull Droppings, Rat's Vomit and Sewer Scum.

More anon,

Fred the Incontinent Hamster.

*faints*

*also faints*

~looks at the collapsed s~
~reads backlog~
*faints*

Have a bite of chocolate?

Is the entry a bit too rich?

I was in Christchurch New Zealand a few years ago and dropped in on DEATH BY CHOCOLATE, a serious restaurant for chocoholics.

The restaurant was near a hall where a bagpipe concert was being held. Now there's one thing about a bagpipe concert. There is NO need to worry about missing it as long as you are in the same country. I have no idea how the people in the hall managed to keep their eardrums from imploding. I heard the concert just fine as I neared the restaurant.

Death By Chocolate's menu is photographic. Or pornographic. It's Chocolate porn par excellence. All desserts are lovingly pictured and there is a description beneath. You turn individual pages for each dessert. There are no main courses. I felt myself gaining pounds just looking at the specialty of the house (the titular treat), which completely filled a fifteen inch platter.

I ordered an apple fritter. I was trying to behave.

A heavy set man passed by and said, sotto voce, "Weight Watchers is raiding this place tomorrow night!"

*opens very slowly one eye, followes Fred for a while, sighs, faints again*

~speechless~ ~places New Zealand on her "places to visit" for the very fist time in her life~;-) ~breaths into paper bag~ Birthday bash here.....:-P http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F41569?thread=118421&post=1012677#p1012677