Sizzling Brain: The Chocolate Experience

I would consider myself a foodie. I'll eat pretty much anything put in front of me, but I also harbor an intense appreciation for the culinary delicacies of the upscale dining industry. This can become somewhat upsetting, because it is an industry that I am completely excluded from as a poor college kid. Despite this, I am completely enthralled by the dining experiences of the one and only Anthony Bourdain. I watch his show and yearn to be put in his shoes, if only for a day.

Bourdain travels the world, scoping out the best local places to eat. Many a time, these places turn out to be local dives or backyard barbecues at private residences. These are places that only a person of his status and culinary knowledge would know about, or have an invitation to. Bourdain also visits some of the upscale venues, where he often gets to speak with world-renowned chefs and talk one on one about their inspiration. The way these chefs describe their food makes the culinary world really seem like its own unique art form.

The next time I plan to go on vacation, I have limited myself exclusively to countries that Anthony Bourdain has already visited. That way I will know exactly where to eat when I get there. The only tricky part may be trying to weasel my way into that private barbecue.

On a recent trip to Spain, my mom brought me back a sampling of Spanish chocolates. One of the chocolate varieties happened to come from esteemed chocolatier, Enric Rovira. It was a solid dark chocolate bar with 70% cacao. It screamed for me to tear it open and taste the sweet, but bitter flavor. When my mom mentioned that this chocolatier had been featured on an episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, I had to wait to try the chocolate until I could see what Anthony Bourdain had to say about it.

In the episode, Bourdain introduced Rovira as "the reigning king of artistic chocolate," who draws inspiration from the Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi. Bourdain watched as Rovira constructed a batch of his signature egg-shaped chocolate sculptures. Rovira allows these sculptures to melt under the heat of the sun just long enough for their conical crowns to collapse and create a skillfully crafted work of edible art. They are almost too pretty to eat. Almost...

After watching the episode, I was disappointed that Bourdain never once put a sampling of chocolate anywhere near his lips. I could only imagine his rich and poetic description of the chocolate as it melted onto his tongue and released a combination of delightful flavors. Sadly, I can only give you my non-expert account:

I opened the square cardboard box to reveal a matrix of sixteen dark chocolate quadrilateral pieces shimmering in the clear plastic wrapper. After gingerly tearing the plastic open, I snapped off one of the squares with a loud "CRACK" as it fell into my hand. The rich earthy sent of chocolate wafted through my nasal passages as I lifted the morsel to my mouth. I took only a small bite off of a corner to start. The rich flavor exploded onto my taste buds, leaving the surprisingly fruity after taste of a mildly dry red wine.