Comments on: Museu de la Xocolata, Barcelona

By: Marketman

Marketman — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 13:11:44 +0000

Heeheehee.

By: Apicio

Apicio — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 12:36:52 +0000

Yes, that is the correct Tagalog term for the bamboo pole. I skirted using it in deference to the Spanish and Portuguese speaking MM fans. It is their ribald term for another sort of pole.

By: Manila streetwalker

Manila streetwalker — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 03:08:15 +0000

That photo of the chocolate Sagrada Familia is outrageous! but nothing comes close to seeing the real Gaudi thing…

Apicio,

I was informed by the last tablaea maker in Binondo that in the old days, his grandfather would sell chocolates using the pingga- bamboo pole as you so correctly described it- and if you wanted the sweetened version, then they would have haul big blocks of sugar to crush and sweeten the cacao seeds, whew!

By: Larees

Larees — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 19:22:48 +0000

Hi Mr. M! Thanks for replying to my question on a previous post! I just might make Spain my next destination; I’m in need of a good vacation. All your posts about your trip are just superb. Happy weekend!

By: Marketman

Marketman — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 13:28:06 +0000

I have handled dozens of boxes of the stuff and NEVER once thought about that logo on the dark brown boxes of La Maison du Chocolat. I have learned something tonight…

By: Apicio

Apicio — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 10:52:17 +0000

For the longest time before the introduction of the corn mill, urban Filipinos fixed their chocolate fix by hailing itinerant moledores, men walking about balancing on poles on their shoulders on one end a heavy piece of stone whose hewn profile resembles a Scandinavian lounge chair and on the other a sturdy work table on which he sets the metate and proceeded to laboriously crush your toasted cacao with a torpedo shaped pin also hewn out of stone called the metlapilli. My grandfather mused whether it was not the sweat of the poor Chinaman that gave their hot chocolate that ineffable taste dimension. You see, the Spaniards introduced cacao to their far-flung Pacific out-post attached to the technology of its use. If you ever wondered, Robert Linxe imaginatively employed the silhouette of these pair of chocolate implements as his logo for Maison du Chocolat.