The Alluring Taste of Temptation

A movie seeks to stroke your desires...through chocolate. Plus, chocolate cake.

You may have found me from my previous post. In case you missed it, here’s a refresh.

In Search of the Vegan Banh Mi

To give you a sense of what I generally write about—this newsletter was started during the pandemic back when I was a writer “still in the closet¹” and had a lot of thoughts but unsure of how/where to put those thoughts. Since then, I’ve written for several food pubs, including The Takeout, The Kitchn, and BooknBrunch (R.I.P) and have slowly had my essays published elsewhere, including Roxane Gay’s newsletter, Joy Sauce and Memoir Land which I’m really proud of. I’ve also slowly migrated into writing fiction, my first love. I even wrote my first book! plus a few short stories here and there.

Writing is a long term commitment and I’m fully aware of how competitive it is but I’m happy to do it, because I never thought I would be a writer. Growing up, the only evidence I saw of anyone doing any kind of writing was my dad, whom you may call “a starving artist” because he never made any money from his (beautiful) writing. Thus, I grew up thinking that people would not be willing to pay me for my words. Well, I was wrong.

This “blog” is (mostly) an exploration of food and related pop culture, including books, places, and people, written by me, Hoang Samuelson, a first generation Vietnamese-American who (ironically) isn’t very good at making dinner but is very much into baking and therefore, always in the mood for chocolate. Scroll all the way down for a perfect chocolate cake recipe.

It would mean a lot to me if you share this newsletter with your friends, family, colleagues—pretty much anyone whom you think might enjoy!

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All of my Portland friends know that we recently had a freak snowstorm which evolved into a ferocious ice storm that damaged a lot of things, including my inspiration to go outside. And so, on a very cold January night, while my husband was in Orlando enjoying 70 degree weather, I sat down and watched the movie Chocolat.

Released 23 years ago, Chocolat is about a woman named Vianne who arrive in a French village called Lansquenet-sous-Tannes (entirely fictional) with her daughter Anouk in 1959 to open a chocolate shop, or chocolaterie. Her timing couldn’t have been worse, because for the village people, it’s the middle of Lent, a period of fasting that lasts for about 40 days for Christians and Catholics everywhere. It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends right before Easter Sunday.

As someone who grew up in a highly Catholic environment, I’ve practiced the customs of Lent but always questioned the validity of this practice. Fasting is about sacrifice and repetence, I know, a way to test one’s self-control, or at least feel a bit of Jesus’ suffering. While I fully respect religious customs, I also wonder: if you’re not going to eat, or allow yourself some earthly pleasures, why not donate the money you’re saving by not eating (or not buying food) to real starving children in Africa and Asia?

Furthermore, I bet there are many people living in third world countries who would be glad to take on the task of eating for you. They’ll say, “We’ve been starving for months. How about you give the food to us?”

What makes the movie truly stand out for me is not its religious associations with food but rather how it introduces gastronomy coupled with desire by using chocolate as its medium. The movie is purely about pleasure and the denial of it.

According to this TED-Ed video, chocolate, ground from the cacao bean that came from Central America, was once a treat for royals and soldiers. Its purportedly high value later turned it into a form of currency. But it wasn’t until the 1500s when the bean crossed transatlantic borders that it became known as an aphrodisiac, and a central ingredient in this story. Not surprisingly, Vianne’s signature move is her curiosity, as shown below, where she takes out a mysterious spinning object and asks her patrons, “What do you see?” and depending on their reply, knows exactly what treat to give them.

Chocolat invokes a sense of desire, all without ever stating the obvious, adding a layer of mystery thicker than the history of the cacao bean itself. With the exception of two scenes, one briefly showing the outline of a woman’s naked back and the other the outline of Vianne and Roux, played by Johnny Depp (Roux is another nomad who shows up at her village with his band of boats and becomes her love interest) in a tent, a faraway shot, there are no evidence that this is a movie about sexual desire at all.

And yet, there is a scene that warmed me up on this particular night. In it, Vianne invites her favorite villagers into her courtyard for a nice, intimate dinner. Underneath the glow of soft lights, a variety of delicious French-inspired dishes are displayed.

Soon, chocolate is drizzled over everything, and the camera pans to show everyone experiencing their own version of gastronomic ecstasy. You can see it on their faces, and in return, my eyes were practically glued to the screen as I contemplated their varying degrees of pleasure. I pulled up my blanket and imagined the warmth of the chocolate sauce drizzled over my own dinner. What a delightful thought.

While many of the villagers gave in to their chocolate desires, there is one character who remains committed to fasting for Lent. The mayor, known as Comte Reynaud, have always ruled the village with an iron fist and since her arrival, adamantly disapproved of Vianne’s presence simply because she is not religious like everyone else, goes on a mission to stop Vianne from spreading her “bad seed” of influence. But not for long.

As the movie reaches its crescendo, the Comte finally succumbs to his desires by breaking into Vianne’s chocolate shop overnight and devouring every single chocolate confection she has in the shop. The next morning, he wakes up to a perplexed looking Vianne who discovered that not only her window displays are damaged, but that the town’s mayor has gorged everything, leaving obvious traces along his mouth.

I found this scene, along with many scenes in Chocolat, to be utterly entertaining. Even Roger Ebert called it “charming and whimsical…a war between the forces of paganism and Christianity.” Based on the novel by British-French author Joanne Harris, Chocolat uproots traditionally-held beliefs about purity, temperance and morality within the confines of a conservative community. I loved Vianne for her progressive way of thinking and how she welcomes everyone, especially Josephine, a domestic abuse woman into her shop, by giving her a job and shielding her from her abusive husband, which in turn, empowers Josephine to stand up to the man and gain more confidence in herself.

Nowadays, stories like Vianne’s and Josephine’s are common in the media, but in in 1959, when the story is based, this would be utterly unheard of. A woman standing up to her man? A woman supporting herself and her child by owning a business? A woman who is both mysteriously alluring and accepting of others? Hardly likely.

Toward the end of the movie, an important lesson is imparted through the village priest’s sermon, in which he says:

“I think we can’t go around measuring our goodness by what we don’t do, by what we deny ourselves, what we resist, who we exclude. I think we’ve got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.”

We’re all human and we all deserve to be treated with respect, he says. Goodness is about embracing kindness and tolerance, just like Jesus once did. And in the culinary sense, goodness is about enjoying what life on earth has to offer, including chocolate.

A real life chocolate shop

Yumm…chocolates. Image credit: NYT Style Magazine

While thinking (and researching) about chocolate for the past week, I also stumbled upon a story about a real chocolate shop. Aigner Chocolates² based in Queens, NY, has been making chocolate confections in house for 93 years. What’s interesting about this shop is how they include a variety of secular and non-secular sweet treats, including a three-foot-tall rabbit for $1,000 (!).

Reading this story, I imagined myself swimming in a luscious, dark pool of chocolate, drifting away into the culinary abyss, just like the characters in Chocolat’s dinner scene. Go check it out. Perhaps it will entice you to visit a real life chocolate shop in your hometown.

The best chocolate cake recipe

All this talk about chocolate made me hungry—like I said, I’m always in the mood for chocolate. So the following day, I made the trek around the internet and found what I believe to the best chocolate cake recipe EVER. I don’t usually make absolute statements, but this one from King Arthur Baking really tops it for me. The result is an incredibly moist and decadent cake that will make your kitchen smell incredible. And it’s more of a “pan” cake than a traditional cake, but I digress.

The Best* Chocolate Pan Cake

adapted from King Arthur Baking

Ingredients

For the cake

• 1 1/2 cups (180g) all-purpose flour

• 1 cup (198g) granulated sugar

• 1/4 cup (21g) unsweetened cocoa (I used Hershey’s 100% Unsweetened Cacao)

• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used sea salt)

• 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder (original recipe says it’s optional but I think it’s absolutely a must. I used Trader Joe’s Ground Espresso Blend)

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 1 tablespoon white vinegar

• 1/3 cup (67g) vegetable oil

• 1 cup (227g) cold water

For the icing

• 1 1/2 cups (255g) chocolate chips (semi-sweet is fine)

• 1/2 cup (113g) half-and-half or whole milk

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly grease then line an 8 or 9” pan (square, round or any shape you got) with parchment paper.

2. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Then whisk the vanilla, vinegar, vegetable oil, and water in a separate bowl. Pour the wet ingredients in with dry ingredients and mix well (I let the kids help me with this step). Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for about 30 minutes on the middle rack or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (Note: depending on your oven, you may want to check it at 28 minutes, and increase time by a few minutes if necessary).

4. To make the icing, combine half and half (or milk) with the chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl or double boiler and place it on the stove**, turning it on with high heat for a few minutes. After about 2-3 minutes on high, turn it down to medium-low heat and keep stirring for approximately 6-7 minutes. You’ll get a smoother, more consistent texture this way.

5. Pour on top of the cake when it’s completely cool. Enjoy!

*best is all relative. I consider this one the best, but hey—maybe in the future I’ll find another recipe that’s even better than this one. In the meantime, this one is the best.

**I know some people like to melt chocolate in a microwave but I find that prior experience with (ahem) explosions makes it not a good method, at least for me. You can melt however you prefer.

I hope you try out this recipe—and watch the movie! it’s available on Amazon Prime, and probably at your local library too—and let me know how it went for you!

Until next time,

Hoang

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1. That just means I was writing here and there on the internet, but not really trying to get my pieces into anything; it was a part of me that I tried to keep separate from my professional life.

2. I’ll have to put this on my ‘to visit’ list the next time I go to New York.