I don’t know what you were thinking from the title of this post, but I’m talking about caramel and salt.  Chocolate with caramel and salt, that is.  If ever there were a trend to take off unanimously, this would be on top of that list.  With macarons and designer cupcakes just below.

As you all know, I have my chocolate radar on 24/7, always on the lookout for new chocolate bars, whether in my local Coop or around the world.

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To bring this month-long Belize series to a close, there is clearly one element that was missing.  I talked about the extreme sports and the local cuisine, I shared recipes to introduce you to Belizean cooking and show you how the locals satisfy their sweet tooth too.  Hopefully you have gotten a good taste of what a trip there would be like, and you may even have added Belize to those forever growing travel wish lists that we all have.

When I travel, there is always one thing I come back with.  It may even take up a largely disproportionate amount of space in my luggage.  It always does when I come back from Paris and Lyon, and simply from neighboring cities in Switzerland.  Even when in Croatia, I was on the hunt for it, and succeeded.  There is a particular drawer in my kitchen devoted to this one item, and it has packaging from Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Italy… and now Belize too.  Yes indeed, you guessed it,… I’m talking about chocolate.

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During my few days in Belize, I had more variations of the key lime pie than I can ever remember.  For one thing, I used to shy away from lemon or lime. Secondly, I live in Switzerland, not quite the Florida Keys.

As you may know, I am a huge fan of meringue. And I tend to gravitate toward any dessert that is made with soft, sweet meringue. There was no hesitation on my part at Ka’ana Boutique Resort in San Ignacio, where a lemon meringue pie was on the menu. Out came an oversize triangular slice of pie with tall meringue piled atop a tart crust and lemon filling, a diner classic (accompanied by a scoop of that bright pink dragon fruit gelato). Citrus and meringue showed up next at Elvi’s Kitchen, where Ms. Elvi is keeping her key lime pie recipe a top secret. But just up the road in San Pedro, another chef was busy in the kitchen perfecting his take on the dessert as well. And his recipe… is below.

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As much as I love discovering new restaurants and the thrill of hanging with the chef and being behind-the-scenes, I don’t want to spend all my time in the kitchen.  I also want to get outside and explore.  To me, that means visiting the town – taking a stroll on Main Street, which oftentimes is the only street around.  That’s the way to get a feel for what the locals do during the day, where they hang out, how they dress, the dialect they use amongst themselves and of course,… what they eat.

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It certainly was a blast hanging out in the kitchen of La Ceiba restaurant in Belize.  When you have a chef as down-to-earth as Sean Kuylen and as passionate about cooking as he is, it seemed like it was a true pleasure for him too to have me by his side.  Between flipping flour tortillas on the griddle, he ran over to have me smell fresh herbs just collected from the garden.  After placing banana leaves on a row of plates as presentation, he quickly scurried over to lift the lid from a pot so I could breathe in the fantastic aromas of coconut milk and paprika.  But best of all was when we started talking about dessert.

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You just had a little photographic taste of my trip to Belize and are now raring to go with a list of must-do activities too.  But as many of you expressed in the comments, there’s something else you’re keen on reading about here.  What was I eating while in Belize?  It wasn’t all rice and beans, that’s for sure. So let’s head right into the kitchen!

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Traces of snow and ice may not have completely melted away on the Zürich sidewalks, but at my computer here with endless folders of photos of tropical scenes, exotic fruits and extreme water sports, it’s anything but winter.  Looking at my notebook pouring out with exclamation points and excited comments about the unbelievably turquoise water, the sand between my toes and my triumphant feeling after parasailing, I almost expected to see fishing boats in the distance when walking out of my apartment the other day, instead of the pure white skyline of the Alps.

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Many of you reading this post in perhaps Australia or South Africa, may be hoping for a few snowy pictures of Switzerland, to give you a breath of fresh, cool mountain air while the temperatures soar to sweltering back home.  But what I’ll be doing for the month of February in fact, is melting some of the snow and ice here in Zürich with images and stories of my time in Belize just a few months ago.

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To say that there has been buzz about a certain Paris-Brest in France’s capital is an understatement.  You may already be seeing pink just at the mention of it – which can only mean one thing: You’re familiar with La Pâtisserie des Rêves, Philippe Conticini’s “pastry shop of dreams” that opened in September of 2009.  (Bravo to those of you who correctly identified it in the Paris sweets quiz!)  Ever since the opening, Parisians and visiting foodies have been flocking there to see (and taste) Conticini’s masterful reworking of France’s classic pastries, including the Tarte Tatin, Saint-Honoré, éclair au chocolat and au café… and the Paris-Brest.

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It was several years ago that I first spent time in London, visiting my sister-in-law.  Long weekends there meant staying at the house, enjoying quality family time, cooking and baking together and playing with our nephews and niece.  I did however once find myself with a few hours to roam different neighborhoods and discover London on my own.  What struck me were the colors – however ironic considering the gray, rainy weather I had.  Those fabulous black taxis aside, what I recall are the brightly colored doors and facades of brownstones, streets resembling color swatches in a paint store.  Not to mention the fun red double-decker buses, of course.  The sweetest memory of them all – pastry shop windows with meringues the size of rugby balls in bold colors like hot pink (recipe below).  I tasted a raspberry meringue in Notting Hill, devoured another near the Borough Market, and covered my clothes in crumbs after a chocolate-marbled meringue in Islington.  I loved London!

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