travel
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Plan B: Swiss Chocolate for Rosh HaShanah
After trying for weeks to get confirmation for our Rosh HaShanah reservation at the Pines in Fire Island–to pray in a new setting, to be with friends, to be at the beach, to have a break–we decided we had better go to our fall back option: Switzerland! So it was chocolate that ultimately escorted us
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Things are seldom as they seem
“Things are seldom as they seem” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore rang true as we explored England’s chocolate in Oxford, Birmingham, the Lake District and York in March of 2009. Our search for historic and significant chocolate had us schlepping 262 miles to the beautiful but rainy town of Kendal in the Lake District
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The Chocolate Princess: Chocolate’s Arrival in Israel
The hot chocolate I tasted in December 2009 in Israel struck me as pretty flavorless. At Nona’s lovely chocolate boutique near the King David and YMCA in Jerusalem, the melted marzipan addition compensated for the chocolate deficit. That, in a proudly French style chocolate purveyor using mostly Valhrona chocolate, rather than the generally Israeli preferred
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Winning Some Chocolate and Losing Some Chocolate
Martine’s We recently tagged chocolate field trips to our errands and other excursions. One weekend stroll in the neighborhood took us to Martine’s (East 82nd), a very pricy outlet (not in the discount sense) of the house chocolates molded and sold at Bloomingdale’s from Belgian Callebaut. The attendant treated us to an unusual cream filled
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Family Fun Day: Gomez House, Teaneck and Chocolate
Last weekend on a stormy June day (2009), Mark and I packed our barely awake Brooklyn based adult kids into a rental car for what our 26 year old called a “family fun day,” an outing to the Gomez Mill House, the oldest extant Jewish homestead in America of 1714 built by the Gomez family,
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Chocolate in Mexico
Tired from the long flight from NYC to Mexico City, via Cancun , my energy level spiked as I meandered into a Mayordomo chocolate shop at the airport. Smelling the recently ground chocolate, marveling at the piles of cocoa beans I aimed directly for several small dishes set out on the counter filled with dark,
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Got Gelt?
In early December of 2006, my husband Mark and I discovered the roots of chocolate Chanukah gelt. That winter we drove a rental car from Brussels to Liege, Belgium, searching for a chocolate museum in the nearby town of Eupen. As we descended the hilly road that took us into downtown Liege to our hotel,
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Cocoa-dar
Chocolate has entered my life at fun and surprising moments, causing me to suspect cocoa-dar. One such experience occurred as my husband Mark and I traveled in 2006 in our van from Paris south on a small road to Carpentras via the towns of Dijon, Lyons, and Avignon. As Mark drove, I usually read or
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Chocolate Travel
Wherever I travel, I seek out chocolate connections with Jews. In the last couple of years, my trips to Belgium, to the southwest of France, to Spain, to Israel, to New England and elsewhere, have revolved around my chocolate research. My interest in Jews on the Chocolate Trail started with travel. Around the time that
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Return to Madrid
July 13, 2007 Mancerinas in Madrid Back to Madrid, examples of beautiful mancerinas—first developed by the Marques de Mancera (1639-1648) in Peru—displayed at the Museum of Decorative Arts.
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Ávila
July 10, 2007 Ávila There are great pastries here, but this hot chocolate was foul.
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Burgos
July 9, 2007 Burgos In Burgos, a little restaurant recommended by The Lonely Planet and even more…
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Astorga
July 8, 2007 Astorga A chocolate center in the Maragateria area, with at least five chocolate stores crowded on one block. Astorga also hosts another chocolate museum! We wanted to buy this chocolate pot set, but it was not for sale. At stores everywhere these small tiles could be purchased. The Astorga Chocolate Museum, created
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Salamanca
July 6, 2007 Salamanca In Salamanca a Valor store again, one of several all over Spain where the menu offers hot chocolate from a mancerina. Despite trying very hard to find a mancerina or a chocolate pot or both at antique stores, flea markets, other chocolate stores, houseware outlets all over the country, it became
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Sevilla
July 5, 2007 Sevilla Is it too hot here for hot chocolate?? Our Cadiz chocolate friend recommended this Sevilla store to us. We, along with others, were very disappointed that it was closed, despite the fact that the hours posted indicated it should be open…
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Cádiz
July 3, 2007 Cádiz Here we enjoyed the Granizado de Chocolate, chocolatey and refreshing, prepared by the owner, a Russian born Israeli, now living with her Argentinian husband in Spain.
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