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This is a vaguely seasonal post that falls under the things part of On dance, art and things.
Here is the opening paragraph of Harold McGee’s section on chocolate in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (p.694):
Chocolate is one of our most remarkable foods. It is made from the astringent, bitter, and otherwise bland seeds of a tropical tree, yet its flavour is exceptionally rich, complex, and versatile, the product of both fermentation and roasting. It’s consistency is like no other food’s: hard and dry at room temperature, melting and creamy in the warmth of the mouth. It can be sculpted into almost any shape, and its surface can be made as glossy as glass. And chocolate is one of the few examples of a good whose full potential was first revealed in industrial manufacturing. The chocolate that we know and love, a dense, smooth, sweet solid, has existed for only a tiny fraction of chocolate’s full history.
In other words, chocolate is awesome.
Happy New Year to my three readers (including Mum).
