My New Year's resolution was to blog more often, and obviously that's been working out just swell! Not only have I managed to glide by the Jan. 1 deadline (with almost no guilt pangs associated, I must say), I have also outdone myself and ignored what could have been the redeeming loophole of Chinese New Year on February 18. I feel that this displays my ever stronger ties with italian culture (when we were trying to get work done in the house, one contractor offered to come up with a cost estimate by Easter... unfortunately he didn't divulge exactly *which* year's Easter he was aiming for, and we have yet to hear from him. I aspire to this level of professionalism.)
So, the news is that we had opening night of a new production of Handel's Ariodante at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and it went quite well.
The *big* news is that I am well on the way towards cataloguing the best "chocolat viennois" in Paris, and have another foray planned this afternoon. It's been a challenging venture, as not every place I've tried actually *has* chocolat viennois (a dense hot chocolate served with thick whipped cream on the top), so I've had to develop a B-plan which involves trying different kinds of cake. In some cases I've been lucky enough to have been able to combine plan A with plan B in the same location, and though the sugar rush is a bit intense, I know it's for a good cause.

So, my recommendations thus far for chocolat viennois in Paris:
#1. Le Café Marly, located in a wing of the Louvre museum. The thickness of the chocolate was just right, and the whipped cream fabulous!!!
#2. Angelica, on rue de Rivoli between the Tuilleries and Concorde stops on the metro line 1. The chocolate is *incredibly* thick (almost overwhelmingly so) and kind of spicy, and they serve the whipped cream on a separate plate so you can add as much as you like.

Plan B awards go to:
#1. Angelica: you *must* try the Mont-Blanc, a major glob of whipped cream on a meringue base, covered with spaghetti-like strands of chestnut paste... has to be experienced to be believed. I'm a firm believer in the philosophy that any dish involving a high quantity of whipped cream can automatically be classed as "diet" (it's mostly air), and chestnuts are a great source of protein, as is the meringue, so this could easily become one of my staple foods.
#2. Gérard Mulot (76 Rue de Seine, in the 6th arrondissement): I had already tried several of their cakes before going to the store, as this is one of the most popular and chic dessert makers in Paris. They only have a very small seating area in the corner, but they do a great business in "take out". Most of the dinner parties I've been to this trip have included Gérard Mulot cakes for dessert... oh, the suffering. So, here I've tried a chocolate fudge cake that was so intense I couldn't finish even one piece (that's a compliment in itself), a prune tart that was *almost* as good as the ones I remember from Basel, Switzerland when I was a kid, an Opèra (a chocolate cake with a mocha creme filling... just *super*), and the crowning glory thus far: a lemon-curd tart that was out of this world!!! They do have coffee as well, but no decaf... sigh.

So, be sure to catch these places on your next trip to Paree!!!!


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