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Are French chocolates (apart from a few) terribly overrated?
I was in the South West of France for a few days and of course paid a visit to the local chocolate shops. All of them a great disapointment selling same things as 10 years ago (mostly pralines)and regional or house specialties bought in from Francois Doucet (potatoes, quail eggs, chocolate in shape of beans, olives etc etc). Most people used Barry Callebaut which did not help. Quality of the bonbons was poor and marshmallows were like bike tyres. Makes me wonder if French chocolates (apart from a few- Roger, hevin, maison, etc) are not terribly overrated?Let me know what you think
I had the completely opposite experience. The chocolate I had was bar none, exceptional. As were the pastries & baked goods. Maybe because I was in Paris & Brussels? Stands to reason there would be regionalisms. There's a vast world of difference between Bay Area, CA food/chocolate and Upstate NY food/chocolate, for instance. The chocolate here in Buffalo is uniformly terrible (my god, the sugar!), but its considered "fountain" chocolate and therefore different from other chocolate. I think. I've never quite gotten clear on the logic, but its a regional specialty.
OhhhhhIts very bad..... Chocolates
This happened to me a while back, but with ice cream! I was told about this wonderful ice cream shop, probably the best in the world.Very disappointing! The ice cream was not even close to be as good as the ones I had at my home town (at that time), Rio de Janeiro.
Sad but not surprising. We went on a tour of bakeries in Paris a few years ago and had the hardest time finding a baguette as good as can get so easily in the Bay area or a croissant as good as Tom's own. Very disappointing.