Love of chocolate

__A visit to Belgium -- 'choclate heaven' -- where the sweet stuff pervades__

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and, if you're like me and most Americans, you celebrated with chocolate, some 60 million pounds of it collectively. But just because the holiday is over doesn't mean we have to quit celebrating.

It turns out there are a number of chocolate-coated holidays during February. The entire month has been designated National Chocolate Lovers Month. So it would be a shame, it seems to me, to confine chocolate binging to one day. And if you're going to binge all month, you might as well opt for the best chocolate in the world, by which I mean Belgian chocolate.

I've been infatuated with Belgian chocolate for decades, ever since I first discovered the Callebaut brand, which Mimi Sheraton, former food critic of The New York Times, says in her new book is one chocolate you must eat before you die.

Over the years I've sampled chocolates from many different countries famous for the stuff (a grueling effort all in the name of culinary scholarship), yet I always come away convinced that Belgium must be chocolate's favorite country.

Chocolate medallions like these are just one of hundreds of varieties of fine chocolate available everywhere in Belgium. (TOM HARTE)

On my last visit to Belgium, I decided to settle the matter once and for all and sampled the wares at some 67 chocolatiers. It sounds like a lot, I know, but keep in mind that there are about 2,000 chocolate shops in the country, around 40 or so just in the vicinity of the Grand Place in Brussels, perhaps the most glorious square in all of Europe. So I've only scratched the surface. Nonetheless, I feel comfortable asserting the superiority of Belgian chocolate.

After all, to Belgians, chocolate is a national treasure. Market penetration there is close to 85 percent. The average Belgian consumes more than 15 pounds of chocolate per year, and Belgians eat more chocolate bonbons than anybody else. Yet there's still enough left to export more than $2 billion worth of their chocolate annually.

In Belgium, every village has its own chocolate shop, and in the small town of Wieze, not far from Brussels, stands the Callebaut factory, the world's largest. Brussels itself, though the de facto Capital of the European Union, is even more so the World Capital of Chocolate.

Everywhere you look there is a chocolate shop, and it's not uncommon to see on the intersection of two streets a chocolatier on every corner. No wonder this is the country that invented the chocolate bar, the chocolate bonbon and the chocolate truffle.

No other country regards chocolate with such reverence, with the possible exception of Switzerland. Even the Swiss have not been venerating chocolate as long as the Belgians -- only since the 17th century after the mayor of Zurich, inspired by the chocolate served to him in Brussels, began importing it back home.

Burie, a chocolatier headquartered in Antwerp, is just one of some 2,000 such shops throughout Belgium. (TOM HARTE)

It's not surprising, then, that everywhere I went on my last sojourn to Belgium -- whether to old-fashioned shops like Mary's, or the legendary Neuhaus, or snazzy places like Peter Marcolini with a look (and prices) more befitting a jewelry store than a chocolatier -- I was in chocolate heaven.

Belgian Truffles

Belgian pralines or bonbons are not that easy to make, and, truth is, you are probably never going to be able to make them as well as the folks at Neuhaus or Godiva. Belgian truffles, on the other hand, are another matter, as this recipe adapted from Adrienne Welch's book demonstrates.

Tempting displays of confections like these, available at countless stores throughout nation, make Belgium chocolate's favorite country. (TOM HARTE)

• 2/3 cup Crème Fraîche
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 6 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate
• 3 ounces chopped milk chocolate
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons cognac
• *½ tablespoon room temperature butter cut in half
• powdered sugar
• 1 *½ pounds milk chocolate coverture (coating chocolate)
• 1 cup cocoa

Combine crème fraîche, vanilla and salt and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. Cool 5 minutes. Meanwhile, melt chocolates. Strain cream, whisk in egg yolk and then the melted chocolate. Add cognac and butter and blend until smooth. Cool, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze overnight. Using a melon baller, shape mixture into 1-inch balls, dusting hands with powdered sugar if needed. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until firm. Dip truffles into tempered coverture and roll in cocoa. Refrigerate to set.