Sunday, February 10, 2008

Treats for the Sweet


" They do not love that do not show their love." William Shakespeare

What better way to show your love than with chocolate, the food of the gods. By open admission I am a chocaholic so I have a special place in my heart for holidays that center on chocolate. Here comes one this week, Valentine’s Day. Already I have made the trek to the red barn shaped Fudge Shop on Route 202 South in Flemington, a hub for chocolate delights that I have frequented for years. Here is my first line of defense to appease the craving. The Fudge Shop prepares much of its candy and does wonderful things with chocolate molds. One Valentine favorite is the heart shaped, chocolate shell filled with more chocolate candy. It comes in milk chocolate or dark in different sizes. You really need sweet tooth to meet this challenge.

The young man who waited on me this time around told me that on the day immediately preceding Valentine’s Day the Fudge Shop serves several hundred customers and even more around Easter. It’s easy to believe given that the shop does its own traffic control on Route 202 at times around these holidays. The chocolate displays are awesome with their molds and decorative red heart boxes in various and sundry sizes. And there are the chocolate covered fruits--- berries and pineapple that tempt you all the more. You cannot go wrong here.

Still I have also fallen for those Harry and David truffles you can snap up at Liberty Village…moist and creamy and reasonably priced as opposed to those exorbitantly priced Godiva’s. Years ago when my husband heard the price of a box of Godiva chocolates his response was---“I want to eat these not worship them”.

The movie “Chocolat” starring Johnny Depp opposite Juliette Binoche popularizes the tangy ingredient added to chocolate that seems to make it an aphrodisiac. The town’s people who frequent the newly opened chocolate shop have only one thing on their minds after a few bites. Whether it works or not, Lindt has a chocolate bar " infused with red chili ". And that little tang...it’s not bad. Not bad at all.

Now you know, it’s good for you, this dark chocolate. It is filled with those anti-oxidants that keep you heart healthy. Those lovely serotonins just blossom after a chocolate fix. That’s this year’s take on chocolate anyway.

Hearts and flowers and sweets for the sweet, where would we be without chocolate? Didn’t Ben Franklin say something like we know God loves us because He made chocolate?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Stay tuned.

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