Monday, February 07, 2005

Girard Chocolate from Paris

Unfortuately, I did not photograph any of the massive quantities of food consumed during the super bowl yesterday. No guacamole, nachos, chicken wings or any of the three kinds of chili. They were just so good, no one could wait to eat them - take my word for it.
A friend was in Pasir last week and brought a little bag of assorted chocolates home. Instead of getting put out with the other desserts yesterday, I hoarded them for myself. How selfish, I know.



The chocolates are produced by Girard Chocolatier in Paris (I wonder if Clotilde has tried them?). With my decent, but limited, grasp of french, I was able to ascertain from their website that if I wanted to find out what goodies were in my little bag, I would have to try them because there was no tasting guide on the site.
Since I prefer dark chocolate, I selected this prettily decorated one to be my first victim.



It turned out to be filled with one of the most buttery ganache fillings I have ever tasted. It was bittersweet and quite dry. Thank goodness this one wasn't any larger - though it was among the larger candies in the bag - or it would have just been too rich for me.

For number two, I selected a much smaller dark chocolate piece that appeared to be garnished with three small bits of nut.



Much to my delight, the center was a creamy hazelnut-chocolate paste with a similar consistency to the inside of a Ferraro Rocher.
Yummy.



Chocolate number three was shaped like half of a geodesic dome, a polyhedron made up of triangular faces (anyone remember geometry class?). Again, dark chocolate with a ganache filling. This time the ganache was flavored very slightly of raspberry brandy - more brandy than raspberry, actually. Not my favorite, but I loved the shape.