Truffles in the Rain

12 June 2016

This is rainy season in Guatemala.  The beginning of rainy season for much of Central America, and the Caribbean.  (And rainy season in West Africa, which is part of why the Atlantic gets hurricanes in the summer and early fall.)

Anyway, we can hang out in our room and read, which we do.  We can watch tv, often in Spanish - and we do that too.

But sometimes, we need to get out and go somewhere.  Do something else.  Something fun.  Something creative.

So I signed up for another truffle making workshop.

I know, you'd think it might get boring.  But for anyone who enjoys cooking, this is way fun.

The other four people in the workshop were from California and Kentucky - the parents, their daughter, and her good friend.  They were pretty funny, and we had a great time.

Orlando, who taught the truffle workshop the last time I attended here in Antigua, made me his sous chef today.  Yeah, not that chocolatiers normally have a sous chef.  But I kind of knew what we were doing, so I was named sous chef.

My truffles today have plain chocolate ganache centers, rolled in a tiny bit of ground cinnamon, then covered in dark chocolate couverture, and garnished with a few cacao nibs for crunch.  

Yeah, they're pretty tasty!

Plus, on Sunday, there were a lot of tourists coming through - so we were sort of the entertainment!  Definitely had an audience!  My favorite were the little kids who were almost drooling, watching us working with all that chocolate!

Because it was a cold rainy day, Richard and I went for a hot lunch.  He headed back to the hotel, and I went to go play with chocolate.  But had a hot chocolate to warm up, before the workshop - chocolate caliente.  I opted for the Maya chocolate, which comes with a bowl of molten chocolate, a bowl of honey, a small bowl of ground hot pepper, and a carafe of steamed milk.  My directions, in Spanish, were pretty simple:  First, all the chocolate in the cup.  Then all the honey.  Next, a little pepper.  And then the milk.  Mix.  Drink.

Wow!  Amazing, delicious, warming.  Really, try a little cayenne in your next hot cocoa.  Warms you from the inside out!  Fabulous!

Our next blog should be from up north, unless something exciting happens tomorrow.

Oh, and for friends who were concerned about the ash in the air - it seems as if the daily rain is washing the ash out of the air.  So when we go out walking, we don't notice any ash.  Which is a really good thing for our lungs! 

Here's the website for the Choco Museo in Antigua Guatemala - definitely worth a visit!!!

http://www.chocomuseo.com/english/our-locations/antigua-gua/