Confessions of two choco-holics

MILLIE: My best friend’s sister-in-law, Helen Silva, asked me recently what  food item I can’t live without. I could not answer but it bugged me for, like, a week because I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. I do have cravings often but I don’t think there’s any one thing I can’t live without. More than 30 years ago, I went on the Atkins diet for about six months and lost 40 lbs. Imagine, no starch and no sugar but I survived!  Sometime during the six months, I must confess I cheated a bit. I  attended a tourism and travel congress in Berlin and took a  side trip to  Switzerland, the land of chocolates. I could not resist those delightful Swiss treats: Lindt, Cailler, Toblerone. I succumbed to temptation when I walked past a tearoom I used to frequent a stone’s throw from the Hotel Beau-Rivage in Geneva where I did my apprenticeship. They had gorgeous homemade truffles and my mouth wouldn’t stop salivating, so I just had to have a mouthful.

The truffles were fresh, smooth, chocolatey and literally melted in my mouth.

Sweet tooth: Karla Reyes at one year old modeling for Sweet Shoppe’s white chocolate lollipops

The next day, I found myself at the Place St. Francois in Lausanne, reminiscing about my days when I was a student and went to see if the tiny chocolate shop Teuscher was still around.   Happy to see it again, I could not resist and bought 100 grams to satisfy my craving for chocolates. I had no regrets because it was worth every bite, every Swiss franc and I didn’t gain a pound! Haha!

One of my favorites from Lindt is the red Lindor balls which I would hide from everyone, eating one ball a day. My best friend Verne Reyes would always bring home a bag as pasalubong. Verne and I share the same passion for food, wine, the good life and Cresta, our favorite bar of Lindt chocolate with a creamy hazelnut filling and crunchy bits of almond brittle! But it’s not easy to find so, occasionally, when I travel and chance upon it, I buy a few bars. Another favorite is the red Frigor by Cailler for that “ultimate taste experience,” its creamy filling of freshly roasted hazelnuts and almonds with the finest milk chocolate.  The good news is that it’s now available at Santi’s. I will never compromise Swiss chocolate with any other; for me, it’s the best.

I also love Galak white chocolate . . . yummmmm.

I remember a fun trip to Hershey Park in the USA when Karla was five years old. We went with my cousin Rosemarie Pettersson, her son Hans, my niece Twinkle and we all had such a great time with the rides and the chocolates, of course.

My entire family loves chocolate, even my brothers-in-law  Bongo Feraren and Benjie Guingona. Lucky for Benjie, he prefers dark chocolates so whenever we have a box of mixed chocolates, he ends up getting all the dark chocolates.

Even my parents both loved chocolates. My Dad’s room in his later years was the ultimate chocolate store. He had a whole cabinet full of chocolates, candies and other sweets. It was everyone’s favorite stopover! Lucky for Dad, he didn’t have diabetes. Any family member who went on a trip would always bring home chocolates for him. Even close family friends who knew his fondness for chocolate would gift him with treasured sweetness from all over the world.

My dream was to learn how to make chocolates but, unfortunately, it never materialized. I’m glad that Karla and I both shared that dream and that she had the opportunity to learn how to make truffles and pralines when she was in New York.

KARLA: In chocolate class, I learned that there are Theobroma cacao trees within 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the equator. This is why we also have chocolate here in the Philippines. But from bean to bar, there are a lot more processes the cacao has to go through. The beans are fermented and dried, then shipped to a chocolate factory where they are roasted to develop their aroma and flavor. Then the beans are crushed and after, put in rollers to be crushed even finer until smooth and paste-like. Then additives such as sugar and dried milk powder are added into the paste to make couverture and eating / baking chocolates. Chocolate bars usually have a percentage written on the bar. This means that it is the percentage of actual chocolate, not including the additives. In that case, it is true that chocolate is an antioxidant but you also have to know what kind of chocolates to choose. It is best to get the chocolate bars with the higher percentage, meaning that it contains more real chocolate rather than additives.  My Tito Pol Chavez, who is a pharmacist in LA, says that chocolates increase levels of serotonin, which gives a sense of fullness, happiness and contentment. Chocolate also contains xanthine derivatives called theobromine, which falls in the same class as caffeine, which is found in coffee and theophylline, found in tea. All of which are stimulatory and perk you up.

People say that white chocolate is not real chocolate. This is because before putting in the additives, the paste-like form is separated into chocolate and the cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is mainly what white chocolate is made of. Usually is around 31 percent is the cocoa butter and the other 69 percent consists of sugar, milk solids and flavoring. Cocoa butter is also used for lotion, lip balm and other beauty care products.

 Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always been fond of chocolates. Not only because of my mom but also because of my Lola Meldy. Every summer, lola would have all of her grandchildren participate in the Flores de Mayo festivities in church. But before mass, sometimes, we would go to the grocery to buy some chocolates and goodies she would give to me and my cousins. Lola had a sweet tooth and especially loved Almond Roca, Turtles, and Kit Kat. When we would go on trips to Hong Kong, she would always find time to drop by the See’s Candies store for her favorite Rocky Road chocolates. Because she was a diabetic, she would hide her chocolates in her office table at home. I, of course, knew her secret hiding place.

Thom Warren, the resident director of Disney’s The Lion King who also alternates as Zazu, Pumba, and Timon, also joined the chocolate class with Karla.

Mom realized early on that I was a chocolate monster. She even made me the model of my Tita Dorcie’s chocolate lollipops. All they had to do was give me a piece and I’d have a big smile and do anything they asked. With this, every time we would go to Hong Kong, one of our first stops would be the Peninsula Hotel Cakeshop. Mom would get a box of assorted milk and white truffles. While shopping during the day, sometimes she would notice that I was slowing down or getting tired or bored. She would bring out the box of chocolates to bribe me to go shop with her longer. We would stop for a minute or two, pop a truffle and recharge. Of course I would never refuse such bribe.

Unlike other kids at that age, I would eat it slowly to actually appreciate the treat instead of gobbling it all up.

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Send e-mail to milliereyes.foodforthought@gmail.com  and karla@swizzlemobilebar.com. Find us on Facebook and read on articles you might have missed: Food for Thought by Millie & Karla Reyes.