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Monday, September 17, 2012

Chocobibliophile, for the love of books on chocolate

Aside from tasting, reviewing and blogging about chocolates, one of my chocolate related interests is collecting stories and books about chocolate as well. The books I have gathered so far is shown in the photo below.


1) The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling - a children story about a boy who would eat nothing but chocolate and found magic of becoming a chocolate Midas, moral of the story - for kids  and story-tellers to find out.

2) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roadl Dahl - adapted into film (2005) where Johnny Depp was Willy Wonka. The moral of the story, well  you ought to read the short novel and then watch the film to fully taste its chocolatey flavour.

3) The Discovery of Chocolate by James Runcie - I've been wanting to make a review of this novel, I find it very interesting, a time travel novel to different generation of the evolution of chocolate drinking and finding love.

4) Chocolate Unwrapped by Sarah Jane Evans - a good backgrounder on chocolate and those dark chocolate bars, the book serves as my autograph book for chocolatiers, pastry chefs, and anyone associated with  chocolate.

5) The New Taste of Chocolate Rev.(A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes) by Maricel Presilla - an interesting resource book cum recipe book of Latin American dishes that uses cacao.

6) Chocolate Bar (recipes and entertaining ideas for living the sweet life) by Alison Nelson and Matt Lewis - a chocolate lifestyle book of folks from New York's West Village, fun, very hip and cool book with interspersed  information on chocolate.

7) The Chocolate Readings Compilation - different resources downloaded online

a) Cocoa and Chocolate (Their History from Plantation to Consumer) by Arthur W. Knapp, 1920 - downloaded from Project Guttenberg, the study/research might have been commissioned/funded/aided by Cadbury Bros., Ltd. The photos appearing in the book looks ancient - turn of the century photos. A very nice resource that uses very ancient book for its references.

b) The Medicinal Use of Chocolate in Early North America  by Deanna L. Pucciarelli and Louis E. Grivetti, 2007/2008 - well as title suggests, it should be noted that early on in 16th-17th centuries, cacao/chocolate was sold by pharmacist as a prescription drug/medicines by doctors.  Perhaps also since the chocolate recipe was well guarded product and recipe for chocolate drink until it became a popular chocolate bar.

c) Chloe Doutre-Roussel: Chocolate Connoisseur (and liar) by Samantha Madell, 04-10-2008 - I printed (I need to ask permission from the author for having it printed) this scathing review of the book  that can be found online with this link - http://www.chocolatereview.com.au/book_reviews/why_the_chocolate_connoisseur_by_chloe_doutre-roussel_is_the_worst_book_i_have_ever_read

The review is an eye-opener to always verify and make a cross-reference of those books you read. Through my research online I found about this great controversy. Well through my readings also I can validate whether Ms. Madell's assertions are also the truth. Still I feel like getting a copy of the book of Ms. Chloe Doutre-Roussel to find for myself those mistakes.

8) CHOCOLATE, History, Culture and Heritage, edited by Louis Evan Grivetti and Howard-Yana Shapiro, published by Wiley, 2009, pp975 - I consider it my Chocolate Encyclopedia containing 56 articles and 11 appendices. With contributions coming from experts and scholars in different fields like archeology, chemistry, medicine, food history, etc, covering the entire globe and made or labored over a span of decade.

Now I have enough to read about chocolate, perhaps even create summary and blog about those that I will read while tasting and eating left-over chocolates.

So what books, journal or documents have you read about chocolate (on/offline too)? Share it with me and I'll include it in my Chocolate Reading list.

And by the way, if you like a chocolate novel reading list - check out this site:

http://www.readinasinglesitting.com/2010/09/12/list-fiction-for-chocolate-lovers/

Want some more....

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