Several of the famous and popular brands have outlets at Galleries Royales St. Hubert, an ensemble of glazed shopping arcades in Brussels.
The beautiful building was built by Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer between 1846 and 1847. The gallery has two sections, the King's Gallery and the Queen's Gallery. There's a smaller side gallery called Gallery of the Princes and this is my landmark towards the hotel I was staying at.
Several chocolatiers and chic cafés are in the premises.
Neuhaus is a notable Belgian chocolatier founded in 1857 by Swiss immigrant Jean Neuhaus.
The present shop at Galleries Royales St. Hubert with its pink marble signage is the original store.
His grandson, Jean Neuhaus II, invented the chocolate praline which is considered to be the original ganache-filled chocolate.
The senior Jean Neuhaus first opened an apothecary shop and coated the medicine in chocolate to make them more palatable. His chocolate inventions became too popular and so, the pharmaceuticals business ended.
The business is still family owned and has selling points in around fifty countries. Aside from the praline that was instantly successful, the descendants of Jean Neuhaus created a gift box in 1915 known as the ballotin.
The show window display is enticing and hard to resist.
I bought a few pieces and requested the shop assistant to choose for me.
The chocolates came with a pamphlet for reference.
Starting with the one with the cone and clockwise, the pieces I had were Cornet Doré ( hazelnut gianduja ), Manon Noir ( chocolate mousse ) Satan ( almond praline ), 1857 ( speculoos praline ), Classic ( chocolate butter cream dusted with cocoa powder ), Suzanne ( raspberry ganache on a fine layer of praline ), Criollo ( intense extra dark chocolate with fresh butter ). The one in the middle is Passion Amande ( praline with caramelised almonds ).
I consumed all with gusto at the hotel while watching YouTube. These were very delicious, creamy and just might convert me into a chocolate lover.
Mary Chocolatier is another fine chocolatier of Belgium. Mary Delluc's first shop in 1919 developed into a tea salon that was popular for lovers of chocolate bonbons.
On display are chocolate-covered meringue which I thought was her original creation. Scottish chef Boyd Tunnock is the one who came up with the idea of covering a meringue on top of a biscuit with milk chocolate and named it " chocolate tea cake ".
I purchased four pieces, two milk and two dark.
The chocolate displays are too hard to resist so from Mary I got three pieces.
The three pieces on the plate are 1919 ( dark chocolate mousse ), Framboise ( raspberry ganache ) and Windsor ( dark chocolate ganache ).
Of course, the meringue-filled chocolate tasted much better than the chocolate mallows I would sometimes buy in unlabelled plastic. Price-wise, the disparity is also wide.
When I was looking for information online about Belgian chocolate, Pierre Marcolini would always be part of the list. The Belgian chocolatier was born in 1964 and started his career as a chef-pâtissier and in 1995, he won the " World Champion Pastry Chef " in Lyon.
He has luxury shops in Tokyo, London, Paris and Brussels.
A reasonable way to taste his creations is to get a box of La Découverte with eight pieces.
Packaging is beautifully done, too.
A pamphlet naming each piece comes with the box.
From top to bottom : Pierre Marcolini Grand Cru ( ganache made with cocoa beans from Ecuador and Cameroon ), Pavé de Tours Lait ( hazelnut and almond praline ), Praline Café ( Java coffee and Avola almond praline covered in milk chocolate ), Coeur Seduction ( dark chocolate ganache with fresh raspberry pulp, covered in white chocolate ), Câlin Lait ( almond and hazelnut praline with Madagascan vanilla caramel ), Torsade ( avola almond praline gianduja with caramelised Piedmont hazelnut crisp ), Pate D'Amande ( marzipan and praline coated in dark chocolate ) and Balle De Golf ( hazelnut praline, caramelised nuts and creamy caramel in white chocolate ).
As of this writing, I still haven't tried any of the pieces since I've had my fill of chocolate for now. I will savour these back home. I will surely enjoy tasting these while reading the exotic-sounding descriptions.
Price of Chocolates : € 7,20 or Php 429.88 at Neuhaus, € 17,00 or Php 1,014.99 at Mary and € 9,90 or Php 591.08 at Pierre Marcolini
0 Comments