_ r Page 2-Sunday, January 27, 1980-The Michigan Daily T The Michigan Daily-Sundt Free space Eat to the Beat- VAN GOS/s PAI T(NGS Bey ond the Hershey I VAN GoCHA * EAR* 0 The story of chocoli . tl By Katie Herzfeld F t It Nye. cr-) a0 poetry -a Ballad The rain darkens the sidewalk and washes streaks onto the concrete walls the clatter of voices the thud of car doors The girls walk so pretty city city Ispend the day in the public library I don't need anyone. Day comes up across the city and I've lived it all before your handprint on the wall I watched you turn to stone. I won't die for you again rain in ugly streaks on the concrete walls the red print of a hand Istopped the noise I stopped your walking I leave your memory running into the street. B ETWEEN MOUTHFULS of bittersweet ambrosia, a friend of mine once confessed, "Chocolate is levels above orgasm." No doubt there are those who would disagree, but among chocaholics, and my friend is an addict, there is no substitute. Chocolate is the food of the gods. Ap- propriately, the-cocoa bean-producing tree was named Theobroma by 18th century Swedish botanist Carl von Linnaeus; theos means God, broma means food. Latin Americans were the first known consumers of chocolate. They used the cocoa beans as currency (a rabbit was worth ten beans, a slave could be bought for a hundred), and would mix them with spices and liquid to make a peppery, foamy broth. They drank the "chocolatl" cold, sometimes adding fermented corn mash and wine to make it an intoxicant. The Aztecs claimed that their god Quetzlcoatl gave the seeds of the cocoa tree to mortals, and that his peers banished him from earth for this deed. Quetzalcoatl promised to return. When Hernando Cortez, the Spanish explorer, arrived in Veracruz in 1519, he was greeted with great hospitality because the Aztecs con- sidered this Quetzalcoatl's second coming. Mon- tezuma, who supposedly drank 50 cups of chocolatl daily, generously shared with his guest. Before leaving Mexico, Cortez established a cocoa plantation under a Spanish flag, and he took more beans with him. As he traveled, he planted them on Trinidad, Haiti, and Fer- nando Po, an island off the western coast of Africa. Two hundred years later, almost all the chocolate used in Europe still passed first through Spanish hands. The Spanish tried to keep chocolate secret from the rest of Europe, and for a while they succeeded. English and Dutch navies, having captured Spanish ships, would even dump the "worthless" cocoa beans, un- suspecting of the gastronomic delight. After a few royal marriages, however, the chocolate secret spread. France began its love affair with the-substance when the Spanish Princess Marie Theresa gave chocolate as an engagement presdnt to her future husband, Louis XIV. A royal chocolate maker was quickly appointed, and the drink soon became quite the rage of Europe's upper class. Casanova claimed to use chocolate instead of cham- pagne to induce romance; Brillat-Savarin, a gastronomic historian, called chocolate a panacea for all forms of mental stress. In 1648, in A New Survey of the West Indies, Thomas Gage wrote: "A Cup of Chocolatte well confectioned com- forts and strengthens the Stomach. For my self I must say, I used it twelve years constantly. Drinking one Cup in the morning, another yet before Dinner between nine or ten of the clock; another within an hour or two after Dinner, and another between four and five in the afternoon; and when I was purpos'd to sit up late to study, I would take another Cup about seven or eight at night, which would keep me waking till about midnight. And if by chance I did neglect any of these accustomed hours, I presently found my stomach fainty." Until 1828, chocolate was usually consumed in the Katie Herzfeld is a member of the Daily Arts staff. same manner as Cortez first found it; it was drunk un- sweetened, spicy, and chilled. In that year, Coenraad van Houten, a Dutch chemist, created "chocolate powder" by squeezing the cocoa butter from the bean. Essentially, the cocoa powder we know today is the same product it was in 1828. In the middle of the 19th century, an English company introduced "eating chocolate". by combining chocolate liquor, cocoa but- ter, and sugar. The Swiss later created smooth, milk chocolate as we know it today through a process called conching. Today, most of the world's cocoa beans are grown in Ghana, Africa. Their theobrama trees are descendants of the one Cortez planted 350 years ago on Fernando Po. Per capita, Switzerland out-chocolates the rest of the world; each Swiss citizen consumes an average of 22 pounds yearly. In the U.S., we trail far behind the rest of Europe, eating only an average of 10 pounds per person each year. Nutritionally, chocolate has only 135 calories per ounce. It's a good source of Vitamin B, as well as calcium, phosphorous, and iron. Combined with milk, eggs, and nuts, a chocolate dessert could even be considered healthy. Whenever I read a new cookbook, I always look first at desserts. And so I being this food column with chocolate, the most decadent of desserts. The following recipes, while not guaranteed to bring gastronomic orgasms to your guests, should satisfy a wide variety of palates without much effort. Enjoy! Brownies These fudge-like, extremely simple to make, and the best I've ever tasted. 2 or 3 squares bitter chocolate (according to taste) 4 oz. (1 stick) butter 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1% cup pastry flour* (or scant 1 cup all purpose) 1 t. vanilla cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional) Melt the butter and chocolate together in a medium sized saucepan. Remove from heat, add the other ingredients in the order given. Pour into an ungreased 9" x 9" pan, and bake at 3250 for 25 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Serve with vanilla ice cream. *Pastry flour, sometimes called cake flour, has less expansive gluten than all purpose flour and therefore bakes to icrumblier texture. Hot Fudge Sauce Untellably better than any commercial brand. 4 oz. butter 6 squares bitter chocolate 13 oz. evaporated milk 2 cups sifted powdered sugar Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler. (You can rig one up by placing a large bowl in a smaller sized pot). Add milk and sugar alternately, stirring after each addition. Let cook % to 2 hours, stirring oc- casionally. Serve with chopped nuts over ice cream. Reheat in the double boiler. Makes 15 servings. Ken Parsigian's Chili Bittersweet chocolate is this recipe's secret; it adds to the meat base and cuts through the spices. Serve chili in crepes, over pasta, or. just in a bowl with lots of cheddar and raw Spanish onions. Any way you do it, it's good stuff. 2 large onions, finely chopped 1/8 lb. butter 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 lbs. ground beef, ground twice if possible 4 T. chili powder ' 7 ,1 L*L Y 'I ia i rr r ' 'I'l , r ' .;- 4 '1 I ' "_ . 4 - - ,.F -Karla Hafner Upper Peninsula poet Karla Hafner is a junior majoring in English. She has won a H-opwood A ward for poetry. '.4,4. N tS -~.. - r-' v-. 1.- , See CHOCOLATE -Page,& ,'yt,' t