I'm not referring to the alcoholic kind. Don't drink that sort of liquor any more. Never really been into it although in the past, my arm might have been twisted by the offer of a small glass of Drambuie.
The extras I'm thinking about are the chocolates that come with your coffee. At least here they still do. When we're back in Bradford on Avon in the Fat Fowl for example, there's usually a something or other, resting in the saucer. Perhaps a small piece of home made shortbread, or a morsel of a chocolate brownie which by the time the coffee arrives, has already started to melt, so becomes a messy exercise. At least where I'm concerned. Chocolate and y.t., don't go together well. Which is why I seldom wear white. Just a few seconds, even when it's just an ordinary white t-shirt, and I get splashed and left with that tell-tale blotch requiring a machine wash or if I'm quick enough, a vigorous hand wash. The colour white and chocolate are for me, dangerous territories. So anything chocolatey I approach with caution.
Why I'm making such a fuss about it, I've no idea, given that I'm not a chocolate person. As I've probably mentioned in another blog, I can get marginally excited by a pack of maltersers even a cadbury's chocolate flake. A ferrero rocher chocolate is more enticing, but only because it has nutty outer coating, which I like to bite off before I get to the middle with the hazelnut. A friend of ours John, insists on bringing a box round whenever her comes for dinner. But as he's very partial himself it's usually six to him, two to Mike and one to me.
Over here depending on where you go, it's either a chocolate or a biscuit that comes with coffee. As far as the biscuit is concerned, there's a rectangular one, which is hopeless if you're a dunker, as it flops too quickly, and you end up with a ghastly brown sludge at the bottom of the cup, or there's the little galette. All butter, similar in every detail except size, to the large galette biscuits which you can buy in any supermarket and are often sold on Brittany Ferries, which we use for travelling to and from the UK. Then there's the chocolate coated almond biscuit. Must admit that is good. Think they've been rolled in a chocolate powder as the final touch, because when you unpack them, they are matt in appearance.
However a new alternative has emerged. Probably been used this way for ages, but I've not seen them before until a couple of weeks ago, when we were out in Chinon and stopped for a coffee. What was lurking in the saucer - none other than a Kinder Schokobon. It actually wasn't too bad. Probably the hazelnut filling helped make it acceptable as a coffee chaser. Only seen it this once though, so may be Schokobons haven't caught on - in Chinon.
While I think about it, the other small chocolate things that aren't bad are the baby toblerones. I'm saying this because in theory they are more useful. I admit one doesn't go very far if you're a chocolate fanatic, but enough of them make a decent chocolate sauce to go with vanilla ice cream. But then so do Mars bars - chopped up, with a little water and brandy in the pan. Over a low heat, stir the mars bar as it melts. Doesn't take long before you end up with a gorgeous sauce. It's the toffee that makes the difference. Been making a chocolate sauce this way for a long time, ever since I worked at a restaurant in Sussex, which it served on their dessert menu, only it was called the 'Work, Rest and Play' sauce, to use Mars's (at the time) own tag line. A great success.
For someone who doesn't like chocolate, I'm not doing badly.
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