Brussels - Chocolate Heaven!

Happy Easter and hope you will all enjoy your chocolate Easter egg!

I must talk about fabulous chocolate experience in Brussels. Yes my husband kept his promise and has taken me to a long weekend break to Brussels the other day and I have absolutely enjoyed it. There are so much to talk about what you can eat in Brussels but I shall keep it to Belgium chocolate today.

In Brussels there are so many chocolate boutiques everywhere, not to mention famous Godiva and Neuhaus. No wonder as I have heard that there are approximately 2,000 chocolate shops in Belgium, and 22 Neuhaus in Brussels alone!!!  Every show window was fabulously decorated with chocolate eggs and they are also seriously not-cheap....

Godiva's show window - fabulous!

Neuhaus's huge chocolate egg on their show window.....

Corn Port Royall's show window

Mary's show window

Godiva's hand-dipped chocolate strawberries....

Another Godiva's chocolate-dipped strawberry corns...
I wish I had this when I was there... Look at the sizes of strawberries!!

Another show window of a chocolatier in Brussels.... Mmmmmm

Anyway, my husband and I were walking through Les Galeries Saint Hubert, beautiful glass roofed arcade in the centre of Brussels and found the original Neuhaus shop and cafe, Salon de Chocolat. We decided to go in for an afternoon dessert.

Les Caleries Saint Hubert

Neuhaus's Salon de Chocolat

Inside of the cafe

Chocolate menu....

I was really excited as soon as I seated - chair, table, table mat (although it was a paper, not linen cloth) and menus are all in light to brown chocolate colours, really enticing you to want to eat chocolate!

We then both ordered Chocolate Treat (10 euro) from the menu, which consists of a hot chocolate, a patisserie and a praline from Neuhaus selection. 

Hot chocolate was lovely smooth and silky, accompanied by Neuhaus light tea biscuit. For patisserie, I had Eclair au cafe (choux pastry with coffee cream filling and coffee icing) while, I think, my husband had Tartelette au chocolat (sweet pastry, dark origine chocolate ganache).

And for their famous pralines, I had Cornet dore (piped almond and hazelnut gianjuja) whilst my husband had Suzanne (a raspberry ganache on a fine layer of praline). The latter was a tribute to Suzanne Neuhaus-De-Gavre, the daughter of Jean Neuhaus Junior (the founder of Neuhaus chocolatier and the inventor of praline and a famous opera singer who is most remembered for the 1942 production of Manon Lescaut at La Monnaie Opera House in Brussels. 

All was really delicious but by the time we left the cafe both were totally chocolated-out! As we were leaving the cafe, I was looking at beautifully made patisserries and macaroons and really wished I could eat everything in the cafe. 

Well, one of my 'to do list' in Brussels was to go to the ultimate chocolate boutique or Haute Chocolaterie, Pierre Marcolini (http://www.marcolini.be) in Place du Grand Sablon. Pierre Marcolini was named the World Champion of Pastry in 1995 and he is one of the few chocolatiers to make chocolate from the ben themselves. . His shop looks more like a sophisticated jeweller than a mere chocolate shop and his chocolate comes with expensive price tag.

Chocolate boutique at the corner of Place du Grand Sablon.

Window display for Easter delights!

You can't buy Pierre Marcolini's chocolate at Duty Free so my husband bought me a box of Malline Decouverte -  containing dainty sizes of 34 original chocolates assortments.  

Jewels of chocolate....

So far I have only had a few, savouring as if they are precious jewels and they really are for the price !!!  I should however eat them all soon as apparently they should be best eaten within a month, which is a great excuse to eat chocolate!

I have not forgotten to get some little souvenirs for Emily and Maria from Neuhaus and their boyfriends (well, Craig is now Emily's fiancé really...). I also got them chocolate spoons from Corne Port Royal.

Back home now, my manager has given me a box of Linden Lady's hand-made chocolate fudges for Easter. They are so pretty to look at as well as delicious to eat. As soon as I came home, I could not wait to try them and now half of them have already been consumed by my family. Yummy. 

After we came back from Brussels, I have heard on the radio that Belgium post office have started selling the series of five stamps with chocolate flavour for Easter. Apparently an infusion of a little cacao oil in both the ink used to print the image and the glue that you lick on the back, wow! Both the sender and the recipient get some of Belgian chocolate. I wish I knew and I could buy them for postcards, but for the numbers of postcards we sent whilst we were in Brussels, I might as well spend that money on real chocolate from Neuhaus or Godiva or even Pierre Marcolini, so just as well.

Happy Easter and that's all forks!