Monday, 9 January 2012

Hoorn's Hot Chocolate at Bagels & Beans

I was in the medieval shipping town in Hoorn to visit a friend whom I have not seen in two years. Last year she left a voice mail when she was in Holland but I never heard the voice mail until a few months later. Sometimes no thanks to technology which is not reliable 100 percent!

We searched for a Chinese food in Hoorn. However the two Chinese restaurants we passed by  after lots of walking were closed. Given that it was a Monday afternoon, restaurants in the city centre were slow to open, following only the shopping hours.

So we ended up eating in the cold. We had passed by a fish shop and it was more of a takeaway shop but gave us the choice of sitting under a tree with tables and chairs. I was cold but my friend, not. Having just arrived in the Netherlands, she triumphed in the cold. She said she loved the weather. The less sun for her, the better. I did however miss the sun a lot. The last time the sun shone for more than an hour a day was two weeks ago. These days it is just cloudy and rainy; not to mention cold and windy.

After the fish meal of shrimp, prawns and fish fillet, we went to the nearby Bagel & Beans for a hot drink. I was dying to sit somewhere warm. We both ordered hot chocolate.

When our order came, we were surprised to receive just warm milk and chocolate beans. Where was the hot chocolate? The waitress said we had to mix the beans into the milk. This way we would get our hot chocolate.

I wondered if they ran out of the real hot chocolate itself or whether this was their novel way of serving hot chocolate. In any event, the chocolate beans melted straightaway into the warm milk. The taste of the mixture was good, just like hot chocolate itself.

Warm milk with chocolate beans. 

So no complaints here. Tried and tested something new today. Next time when I make hot chocolate, I will do the same. That way it is fresher than instant hot chocolate and it seems like an ingenious way of making hot chocolate from scratch. 

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