Belgium Series - I - Belgian Chocolate

What better way to start this series than with what seems to be one of the most famous products of Belgium - the CHOCOLATE.

It is not the first time I am talking about chocolate (see here), but this time it will be another approach. I am not talking just about raw chocolate, but about chocolate in general and why Belgian chocolate is so famous.

The term of chocolate probably derives from Yacatan Mayan words "chokol"(=hot) and "atl"(=water). From times older than 1400 BC chocolate was used as a drink, a spicy drink. It was a mesoamerican luxury, drunk initially by Mayan and Aztecs. The beverage was done by grounding cacao seeds and turning these into a paste to which water was added so that this mixture would turn into a bitter drink.

In the 16th century, a missionary who lived in Peru and later on in Mexico writes the following about chocolate: "The Spaniards, both men and women that are accustomed to the country are very greedy of this Chocolate. They say they make diverse sorts of it, some hot, some cold, and some temperate, and put therein much of that "chili"; yea, they make paste thereof, the which they say is good for the stomach and against the catarrh...".

1585 was the first recorded shipment of chocolate to Europe for commercial purposes. It was still served as a drink, but in order to reduce the bitterness, cane suggar was added and chilli was removed from the mix.


In the 17th century, while being ruled by the Spanish, Belgium was introduced to the cocoa bean. The drink was highly appreciated and a favourite place to enjoy it was the Grand Place in Brussels. Brussels was the place where the story of Swiss chocolate also began: the mayor of Zurich, Henri Escher, experienced chocolate for the first time in 1697 and took this discovery with him to Switzerland, which is now a primary competitor of Belgium in terms of chocolate production.





Being so much in love with chocolate, the Belgians searched for their own supply and found it in Congo with the help of King Leopold II. Unfortunately, chocolate history in this chapter is very bitter for the population of Congo.

However, the Belgians managed to surprise the world in the domain of chocolate, so nowadays only this part of history is remembered. 1857 saw the opening of the first chocolate shop in Brussels, by Neuhaus, which still exists today. Neuhaus' grandson invented 1912 the first praline, by filling an empty chocolate shell with sweet substances.

What makes Belgian Chocolate nowadays so unique, so luxurious, is the fact that these gourmet products are confections by chocolatiers who use the highest quality of ingredients and Old World manufacturing techniques. It is in the ingredients and the craftsmanship that the quality lies.

There are more than 300 chocolate companies in Belgium, and thousands of shops around the country, and when you walk the streets of Brussels like I have done recently, you will see how many shops offer you chocolate, you just need to turn your head to another direction and there you will see the next place selling chocolate. My advice: go with brands such as Neuhaus, Godiva, Cote d'Or, Guylian or Leonidas.



I have noticed a lot of shops selling you extra offers of "six pralines boxes for the price of ... Euro" or "special offer, only now 6 boxes for the price of 2", and most of them are in very touristic areas, such as next to the Grande Place in Brussels. There was another shop I entered, which was packed with Chinese tourists who bought around 10 boxes each of pralines,... next to the famous Manneken Pis statue, and once they went out of the shop I could see that even the price tags where in Chinese and so was the sales assistant. It was probably a place to stop for the tourists from that region of the world, and a place where they thought they would buy the real thing as a great deal. I must repeat the fact that I advise against it. Just across the Manneken Pis statue is also a small Godiva shop, and when you see the people inside the shop, creating then and there the chocolates, by hand, then you notice the difference.

I am not much of a hot chocolate drinker, but it was a very frosty day when I wandered the streets of Brussels and I must say I had my taste of hot chocolate heaven at Godiva. When I drank that "potion", I understood why that population fell in love with it - it was a drink that surprisingly raised my happiness level, without intoxicating me (as alcohol could do to you), and it makes me smile even now when I think of it. It made the snow which was falling down on me seem nonexistent and the humidity which was going through one's clothes, disappeared as well. Even the grey sky didn't seem to bother me anymore. Maybe all these feelings were also there due to the fact that I was on vacation, but I am positive that the chocolate had a great contribution to my well being.

(C) text and pictures by author, Ingrid Sabine Weber
Pictures taken with HTC phone camera

Belgium Series - Preview

Ahhhhhhhh Belgium,
first time I visited you, you offered me a lot of what I had wished for in this vacation: great company, wonderful food and a lot of new discoveries. So much commerce and wealth, politics and craftsmanship, beauty and sad reality...all in one place.
So stay tuned for what is going to be the Series about my Belgium travel - 4 cities, many museums, different food dishes and beers and stories that you might find fascinating. I know I was!

KARL by Karl Lagerfeld Released

The long awaited KARL is (being) released at this very moment, with a premiere on net-a-porter. After having had a collaboration with the Swedish Brand H&M, Karl Lagerfeld now offers his own name as a fashion collection which should be more affordable to the masses (prices ranging from 24 to around 1000 Euro).

The collection will be available for four weeks and has 70 pieces, including dresses, pants, shoes, bags and T-Shirts.

I find it very KARL, very sleek, straight lines, well-defined shape, KARL colours (or non-colours), Karl accessories, leather, studs... a piece of the designer's image - and it's all affordable. So go ahead and check it out on net-a-porter.com and let me know about your favourite piece.

(Pictures sources: Pics 1-5 via http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk and Pics 6-9 via net-a-porter.com)

Russian Lunch

I have recently acquired a book by the author Wladimir Kaminer. For those who haven't heard of him, he's a writer in Berlin, with Russian origins (he received his citizenship for some years now in Germany), and he has a funny-sarcastic-ironic but very clever way of telling short stories, many related to the life in the East and contrasts to the Western life...differences between communism, socialism and capitalism etc.

One particular chapter in his book I found appropriate to connect to a really nice lunch I have had with friends and my mother recently. It is the chapter where Kaminer discusses about the thornfish. His neighbour Andrej drags him to the opening of a new Russian food store in Friedrichshain and there the shadows of the past embrace the author while his neighbor buys the thornfish. The thornfish used to be one of the basic and most common fish in the socialistic Russia. You would eat it yourself but also feed the cat. But besides the function of nurture, the thornfish gave a feeling of freedom and of unity with the rest of the world, because it was fished from seas next to Australia.

Yes, indeed, food has more functions. It makes people creative at times (using the same basic ingredient, you have to think of how to transform it each time so that you don't have the same result), it makes them remember the past (taste has a wonderful way of telling stories you thought long forgotten) and it makes people come together.

My mother tells stories about the Russian hospitality and how, if you were a guest in someone's home, you would never have to feel that there was not enough food. People would go borrow from their neighbors what they were missing, only to make the guest feel special and "at home" in their home. It's like making you feel warm around your soul too and not only around your stomach.

If we look at traditional Russian food, its main purpose is to provide a lot of energy and warmth. The weather we now have outside has been blamed on Siberian "winds", so imagine how it has to be there and what you must eat in order to stay fit. Soups are very common, followed by dishes based on meat or cabbage, just like these Pelmeni below (some would say they are similar to tortellinis), which usually contain a mixture of two meat types.


Here you can see the Piragi, a type of buns filled either with a mixture of minced meat with onions or with a mixture of cabbage and eggs. I prefer the second ones. All of these dishes are accompanied by good, fatty, sour cream (smetana), because energy is also built on fat.



My mother picked the dish mix above, a varienty of salads of which many contained cabbage, beans and beetroot (which is a rich source of antioxidants and nutrients and very important for cardiovascular health).

Pickled vegetables and fruit are also a fine way the Russians complete a dish, and I has small wild pickled apples to accompany my venison steak and my elk roast. Below you see a venison roast our friend got. It was so yummy he finished first.

To complete a real meal, one must enjoy a really nice black tea (черный чай) which is served usually in fine glasses in a finely decorated glass-holder.



In the recipient above, the sugar was "served". I loved the presentation in that restaurant and using trays and bowls and dishes with traditional pattern also gave a feeling of belonging, because you could eat like people would have for ages and would be considered part of the "family".

To end the lunch in the most traditional way, the tea is made with the samovar (самовар) and next to it you get some small sweet pretzels (бублики) or some chocolates which contain wafer (generally called конфекты).


But whatever you eat and wherever you are and no matter what nationality you are, it is important to remember that food can unite people for life and that the joy of sharing something with the person you love, be it family or friend, can never be taken away from you. Nor can your memories be stolen...I can still see the way my mother was traveling in time with every bite she took from that lunch.

Chinese New Year - China's Top Luxury Gifts

(Picture Source: http://www.learnthailanguage.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Chinese-New-Year-2012-Dragon-288x300.jpg)

We all know that the Chinese New Year is one of the biggest migrations there is, but it is also a time when commerce flourishes for some, because gifting is very important in the Chinese culture. The colour red has to be somehow included in the gift, and this year very valued are the Dragons, but what are the top brands to give gifts from for the Chinese?

According to the Hurun Report, these are the brands that get the most bought from the luxury industry:
1. Louis Vuitton 14,9%
2. Cartier 10,3%
3. Hermes 8%
4. Chanel 6,2%
5. Moutai 5,9%
6. Apple 5,7%
7. Dior 4,6%
8. Prada 3,9%
9. Rolex 3,6%
10. Armani 3,4%

World's Most Expensive Business Cards

(Picture source: http://cdn.trendhunterstatic.com/thumbs/black-astrum.jpeg)

Have you ever wondered how much first impressions count in creating business contacts and hence business opportunity? Have you ever put thought into how you do a handshake, how your table manners are, how you dress to impress (and to fit the occasion) or how your face loos like and what a smile can do for you? I am sure you did, because, even if you are not a freelance and even if you don't work for a brand, first of all, you should be your own brand and building "YOU" takes time and effort.

So let's say you have given all the above a thought - and you meet someone really influential or someone you want to do business with...or just someone who you admire a lot and you want to stay in touch with - and you want to introduce yourself - and then you pull out this business card from Black Astrum: a bespoke diamond-encrusted statement business card - which come in sets of 25, 50 and 100 cards, a full set containing around 30 carats of diamonds.

Now this is a card that can say something about you without any words: it is a signature card targeting the ultra high net worth individuals of the world, which you get access to by invitation only (so privileged high net worth people), with an average price of around 1000 pound sterling per card - which the individual just gives to introduce himself - so he puts more accent on other values than money (money is easily spent) but still wants to make a statement. It also tells about the importance the person receiving it has to the owner of the cards.

And it has just been launched in London. So when will you receive it from someone? Or when will you use it to make a statement?

(Picture source: http://www.instablogsimages.com/1/2012/01/12/black_astrum_business_card_qvsbw.png)

Emporio Armani Campaign Spring-Summer 2012

Dear all,
today I present you the Emporio Armani Campaign for the Spring-Summer 2012 season.
Out of all the bands of the Armani Group, Emporio Armani seems to be the best sold one. It is nr 3 most expensive one in the group and it targets young adults with its fresh and sleek design.

For this campaign the pictures were shot in Hong Kong, with Armani himself as the creative director. Alasdair McLellan, a London-based photographer and one of the leading fashion photographers of his generation, took the shots. Alasdair believes that photography should be personal and I believe these pictures reflect just that - they are not just product presentations, no, I believe that Alasdair has captured the models' expressions so well and Armani has made them integral part of the surrounding while still standing out with their personality.

From the Emporio Armani page we read that the photographer has "captured the elegance and the romance of the city, as well as its urban sophistication and the unique cultural mix of Eastern and Western influences". I say he has captured reality, a world full of contrasts which coexist wonderfully, the development towards Eastern countries, the mix of Western attitudes with the Eastern world etc.,...and the choice of models also helps in doing so.

As for the clothes... I just adore them! I am a fan of classical style, and this is modern classical with a twist. The straight lines highlight the sleeknes of Armani's style, while geometrical details make the outfit fresh and bold, in a way making a statement for the wearer: "I am confident - and I feel good!". This architectural design of the clothes and accessories is also made more sophisticated through accents such as a nice cleavage (the cut), a snake print (the material), a heel of a shoe (the concept)...

All in all - this is a campaign I really like and I am sure it will be very successful. What do you think?

(Source of pictures: http://news.armani.com)