what a day it was.
after getting a ride to work by the lovely gigiola (she’s in charge of the hotel i’m staying in), my first day at belcolade was fantastic.
today and tomorrow the chocolate centre is running a training course for international demonstrators from their parent company, puratos.
there are four others participating, two women from hungary, a guy from costa rica, and another from croatia.
we spent the day making carious traditional belgian fillings for bonbons and pralines, working with a number of different belcolade products.
the technical information i’m learning is excellent.
today we made 10 different fillings, and tomorrow we have another five, plus all the enrobing and molding.
a quick rundown of what we covered…
tomorrow will be piped ganaches for filling moulded bonbons, enrobing, and of course the preparation and use of the moulds with coloured cocoa butters.
then, more belgian hospitality at the end of the day – a ride home from a woman at belcolade.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
i got back to the hotel, and went down to the bakery for dinner.
unfortunately, they had just closed the kitchen, but offered to make me a sandwich.
i was more than willing to accept, and gigiola came to the rescue again, offering to drive me to a local supermarket – colruyt – to buy some groceries.
now, let me try to explain the insanity of colruyt.
this is like the belgian equivalent of costco.
the first stop, the butcher.
i have never shopped for meat like this.
everything is displayed behind a window.
you take a number and an order form, fill out your order and drop it in a box.
when it’s ready they announce it over the loudspeaker, and you return to pick it up.
sounds easy, doesn’t it.
now imagine this is all happening in flemish.
it was intense.
there are a certain few people with whom i used to leave who would have loved this place.
you guys thought costco was great for freebies?
well, at colruyt, they sell booze.
it’s like a full-blown liquor store, right when you walk-in.
and guess what…they have bottles OPEN for sampling!
totally self-serve.
instead of going for dinner, this place could easily be a replacement to a bar.
there’s no vegetable fridge, or dairy fridge.
but instead, a giant refrigerated room.
and the carts…they aren’t even carts!
they’re more like dollies you would use for moving.
if only i had my camera…
but, i got myself some food for the rest of the week (including green beans from kenya…?!?) and now i don’t have to worry about making it home before things close down.
all this driving around with gigiola has given me some insight into aalst as well.
the town itself is home to around 55,000 people, and the region to about 80,000.
it’s predominantly an industrial centre and they don’t see a lot of tourism (this might be the reason people were so fascinated by this twenty-something guy wandering into the bakery on a sunday morning, luggage in tow…).
there’s a sugar processing plant that makes glucose and a variety of other industrial sugar substitutes, honda are here as well, as is barry-callebaut (another chocolate company) and of course, belcolade.
the town sits on the dender river which meets up around antwerp with some other major river that i can’t remember the name of.
the family bakery (malpertuus) has been a fixture on the main street of aalst (the kattesstraat) for 54 years, and do they ever make delicious pastries.
gigiola’s father (the baker himself) even offered this evening to get me a tour of the callebaut factory.
i think they’re all fascinated with why i would come to aalst.
he had no idea i was from canada until he asked this evening.
he answered (in french) ‘you came all the way from canada to see aalst?!?’
on saturday there’s a big market, so i think instead of travelling to brussels for the day, i’ll spend the day here, wandering around, taking pictures, as i don’t think i’ll have much time before then, and i leave on sunday morning.
until then, it’ll be all pictures of belcolade.
i know a certain someone who wouldn’t be able to control herself if she was here.
i walked out of the building at the end of the day today and what could i smell….?
CHOCOLATE.
a chocolate adventure 