The Best chocolate ever

Love these guys, just a few km’s from my house there is something wonderful brewing. Two Dutch guys Rodney and Enver are making the most wonderful artisanal chocolate with African cocoa beans.

I not such a fan of sweets and certainly not milk chocolate- but their version has made me rethink.  The taste and texture are sublime- the best description I can come up with is..  Its more “chocolaty” than any chocolate bar I’ve ever tasted.

They call them Gorilla bars as the beans come from Virunga- East Congo, and that gives them their rightful position on this site.  There is a whole agricultural rehab. project going in this area to assist impoverished farmers and to manage and protect the old rainforest

Please try a bar - available at selected stores in Amsterdam but also online.

Visit them www.chocolatemaker.nl

A new year

This is going to be a bumper year- for starters and most importantly – we’ve got a publisher! 

Kosmos Netherlands has taken our project on board and together with Oxfam Novib we embark upon very exciting African food collaboration. So, this month has already had us scrabbling to keep up with deadlines – planning’s, recipes, meetings- Carole, Sean, Peninah and I have a few busy months ahead of us- but boy are we up to it. 

In January I took a short trip to Angola and South Africa and got a good dose of  what was hip and happening down south. Saw fashionable Jo’burgers nibbling injera and designer bunny chows  at Arts on Main in downtown Joburg.

And everything from scarlet eggplants (next post), avocado “batida” milkshake, traditional palm oil beans (yum) funge –cassava porridge(acquired taste) to the just about the best sushi outside of Tokyo..  at Oondah

in the craziest city in the world- Luanda.

 Oh yes, in Angola we got ourselves on national TV..

A good start to very busy food year!