The Chocolatier

Belgians take chocolate making so seriously that they have a title for those who make it: Chocolatier. Dan got a 10 minute brief on the differences of chocolate made from Venezuelan cocoa beans vs. Brazilian cocoa beans (luckily he didn't ask about the West African Beans). The Leonidas Chocolate shop actually had a chart showing the variations of their white and dark chocolates - they offer 5 versions of white chocolate alone! Chocolate shops line most streets, filled with incredible selections of chocolate.

The original Godiva and Neuhaus (along with lesser known but equally as good and, unfortunately, nearly as expensive Galler and Leonidas) chocolate shops are located in Brussels. We tried a Rick Steve's favorite at Neuhaus: a chocolate covered praline filled with vanilla cream which was divine.

It goes without saying that Allison and Ethan more than got their fill of chocolates. It took Ethan about 2 minutes to learn the word chocolate. Somehow he made a 4-word sentence out of "more choc-o-late." Usually we were happy to oblige the request since it afforded us 10 minutes of quiet time (admittedly it also led to 10 minutes of clean up time too).