20090123 Assorted chocolates

You may have noticed that I've added a few pop culture references below my web site title. It says:
Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.
Sometimes it's Savoy truffle, sometimes it's crunchy frog.

Well, I do'nt think I need to explain that the first line is famous for coming from the movie Forrest Gump starring Tom Hanks as FG. He often said that in the movie, a line he picked up from his mother played by Sally Field.


The next line is not as well known, but still I think lots of us know it. Savoy truffle is a chocolate in a song by George Harrison played by The Beatles.
Here are the lyrics:

Creme tangerine and Montélimar
A ginger sling with a pineapple heart
A coffee dessert--yes you know it's good news
But you'll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle.

Cool cherry cream, nice apple tart
I feel your taste all the time we're apart
Coconut fudge--really blows down those blues
But you'll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle.

You might not feel it now
But when the pain cuts through
You're gonna know and how
The sweat is going to fill your head
When it becomes too much
You'll shout aloud

But you'll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle.

You know that what you eat you are,
But what is sweet now, turns so sour--
We all know Obla-Di-Bla-Da
But can you show me, where you are?..

Creme tangerine and Montélimar
A ginger sling with a pineapple heart
A coffee dessert--yes you know its good news
But you'll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle.
Yes, you'll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle.

From http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=172 , where you can listen to the song: "This was inspired by Eric Clapton's love of chocolate. He and George Harrison were good friends. George Harrison got the lyrics for this from the inside lid of a box of chocolates. Montelimart, Ginger Sling, Cream Tangerine, and Coffee Dessert were names of candies in the Mackintosh "Good News" assortment."


Finding a recepie for Savoy truffle is not easy. The only really good one is at http://oggi-icandothat.blogspot.com/2007/03/george-harrisons-savoy-truffles.html, and that is where I took this picture. The comment of the blogger goes like this:

" I found Savoy truffle recipe but I'm not really sure if this is the one George wrote about, it looks more like the coconut fudge. (I tried to link the site but was not able to). Anyway, I made one recipe today, it's very easy to make. I like the subtle brandy taste although dried coconut is not one of my favorite things.

4 T butter
1 egg yolk
½ C icing sugar, sifted
½ C semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 T vanilla extract
1 T brandy
dessicated coconut

In a small saucepan, over very low heat, melt butter and whisk in the egg yolk until thick, add sugar and whisk until smooth. Add brandy and vanilla extract. Add the chocolate chips and stir with a rubber spatula until chips are completely melted and mixture is smooth and no longer glossy. Transfer to a glass container and cool in the fridge for 30 minutes. Shape into 1-inch balls, roll in coconut. Refrigerate leftovers."

Sounds good. I'll have to get some brandy.


Now, "Crunchy frog" is probably not well known to most of us. But fans of Monty Python's Flying Circus will know it. It's from one of their sketches, the one titled "Whizzo Chocolate Company". This is a transcript I copied from http://www.geocities.com/fang_club/crunchy_frog.html and pasted here (the whole thing is to be seen on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oyCXhiwulk):

WHIZZO CHOCOLATE COMPANY

PRALINE: (J.C) Hello again. I am at present still on film, but in a few seconds I shall be appearing in the studio. Thank you.

(Cut to studio. A door opens. Inspector Praline looks round door. )

PRALINE: (to camera) Hello. (He walks in followed by Superintendent Parrot and goes to desk) Mr Milton? You are sole proprietor and owner of the Whizzo Chocolate Company?

MILTON: (T.J) I am.

PRALINE: Superintendent Parrot and I are from the hygiene squad. We want to have a word with you about your box of chocolates entitled The Whizzo Quality Assortment.



MILTON: Ah, yes.

PRALINE: (producing box of chocolates) If I may begin at the beginning. First there is the cherry fondue. This is extremely nasty… but we can’t prosecute you for that.

MILTON: Agreed.

PRALINE: Next we have number four - “crunchy frog”.

MILTON: Ah, yes.

PRALINE: Am I right in thinking there’s a real frog in here?

MILTON: Yes. A little one.

PRALINE: What sort of frog?

MILTON: A dead frog.

PRALINE: Is it cooked?

MILTON: No.

PRALINE: What, a raw frog?

(Superintendent Parrot looks increasingly queasy.)



MILTON: We use only the finest baby frogs, dew picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in finest quality spring water, lightly killed, and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope and lovingly frosted with glucose.

PRALINE: That’s as maybe, it’s still a frog.

MILTON: What else?

PRALINE: Well don’t you even take the bones out?

MILTON: If we took the bones out it wouldn’t be crunchy would it?

PRALINE: Superintendent Parrot ate one of those.

PARROT: (G.C) Excuse me a moment. (exits hurriedly)

MILTON: It says “crunchy frog” quite clearly.

PRALINE: Well, the superintendent thought it was an almond whirl. People won’t expect there to be a frog in there. They’re bound to think it’s some form of mock frog.

MILTON: (insulted) Mock frog? We use no artificial preservatives or additives of any kind!

PRALINE: Nevertheless, I must warn you that in future you should delete the words “crunchy frog”, and replace them with the legend “crunchy raw unboned real dead frog”, if you want to avoid prosecution.

MILTON: What about our sales?

PRALINE: I’m not interested in your sales, I have to protect the general public. Now how about this one. (Parrot enters) It was number five, wasn’t it? (Parrot nods) Number five, ram’s bladder cup. (Parrot exits) What kind of confection is this?

MILTON: We use choicest juicy chunks of fresh Cornish ram’s bladder, emptied, steamed, flavoured with sesame seeds whipped into a fondue and garnished with lark’s vomit.

PRALINE: Lark’s vomit?

MILTON: Correct.

PRALINE: Well it don’t say nothing about that here.

MILTON: Oh yes it does, on the bottom of the box, after monosodium glutamate.



PRALINE: (looking) Well I hardly think this is good enough. I think it would be more appropriate if the box bore a large red label warning lark’s vomit.

MILTON: Our sales would plummet.

PRALINE: Well why don’t you move into more conventional areas of confectionery, like praline or lime cream; a very popular flavour I’m led to understand. (Parrot enters) I mean look at this one, “cockroach cluster”, (Parrot exits) “anthrax ripple”. What’s this one, “spring surprise”?

MILTON: Ah - now, that’s our speciality - covered with darkest creamy chocolate. When you pop it in your mouth steel bolts spring out and plunge straight through-both cheeks.

PRALINE: Well where’s the pleasure in that? If people place a nice chocky in their mouth, they don’t want their cheeks pierced. In any case this is an inadequate description of the sweetmeat. I shall have to ask you to accompany me to the station.

MILTON: (getting up from desk and being led away) It’s a fair cop.

PRALINE: Stop talking to the camera.

MILTON: I’m sorry.

(Superintendent Parrot enters the room as Inspector Praline and Milton leave, and addresses the camera.)

PARROT: If only the general public would take more care when buying its sweeties, it would reduce the number of man-hours lost to the nation and they would spend less time having their stomachs pumped and sitting around in public lavatories.



So, there you go. Imagine a box of chocolates with Savoy Truffle and with Crunchy Frog. A song and a sketch all in one box. The good and the not so good. That's what life is all about, all in one box.