I have to thank a very good friend of mine for introducing me to this extremely affordable, yet sadly unattainable delicacy.
Royce is a brand of Japanese chocolates which rivals the likes of Godiva. It's smooth, it's rich, it's surprisingly light.
The milk chocolate is intricately wrapped to ensure freshness. No, I take that back... it is obsessively wrapped, just like those Japanese rice crackers that are individually wrapped and adorned with layers upon layers of plastic and paper. The package recommends storage at below 10 degrees Celsius, mainly because one of the main ingredients is fresh cream. It comes with a cooling gel pack to ensure that the chocolates make it from the shop to your home intact.
No pictures of this product are available - the two boxes swiftly disappeared before my very eyes. One has found a home with my sister Najwa. The other made its way to Johor Bahru.
What I do have is pictures of Royce's pralines. The texture of the pralines is not as smooth as Godiva's truffles, but it does have a certain addiction factor to it. It's milky smooth with a crunchy coating of nuts - it's almost like eating M&Ms, but better! Before I realised it, I had three in one sitting... I promptly repacked the pralines and hid it behind a bottle of jam in the fridge.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about the chocolates is the very Japanese influence to distinguish it from its European counterparts. The Japanese has yet again succeeded in mass producing quality - no irregularly shaped handmade chocolates here - each morsel is exactly the same size and consistency. For the quality and taste, you would be expecting to pay through your nose. The box of milk chocolates retail for SGD11 (sorry kids, can't find them in Malaysia, yet!) for a 6" x 6" pan - many many times cheaper than chocolates at Godiva.
[Also posted on www.makansakan.com.]
Posted by Najah Nasseri at 2004年04月28日 19:52 | TrackBackThe ones on the main page of the website resemble Meltykisses, these rather bizarre chalky chocolates you can only purchase around winter in East Asia.
The Japanese make mean desserts, actually. I still daydream about this superb white chocolate biscuit (a longue de chat I think?) I consumed two months ago. And like all Japanese food products, the biscuits were individually wrapped and had a French name.
Posted by: Shryh at 2004年04月28日 20:36where can we find this in singapore???
I have a feeling the next time fische comes to KL, he'll be bogged down with tonnes of Royce chocolate! :p
On the other hand... anyone interested to set up a distribution channel for this stuff in Malaysia? $-) $-)
Posted by: KaZ at 2004年04月28日 21:44KaZ: Always keen on money-generating biz
Najah: I got choccies today, from my boss who just returned from HK but nothing like Royce..Toblerone and macadamia clusters...jadilah....boleh pesan kat Fische tak?
Posted by: Zsarina at 2004年04月29日 13:57Chocz made it in the Star's Food section. It seems everybody's into chocolate now. MUST..HAVE...CHOCOLATE!!....
Posted by: Najwa at 2004年04月29日 14:50I've tried them and they are daamn yummy. Yummy is an understatement! Though when i had them i was um, kinda, um..intoxicated so i just gobbled them down without realliy relishing it. BUT not intoxicated enough to not take pleasure in its yumminess!! *yyaaammmmmyyyy*
Posted by: annu at 2004年04月29日 17:23http://www.pierremarcolini.co.uk/
best belgium chocolates ever...now available in london
Posted by: toru at 2004年05月01日 02:37I couldn't locate your email address anywhere on your site (Is that an overlooked omission, or entirely intentional?) hence had to search for the latest previous entries on chocolates
Who else to think of when itching to share a link on chocolates???
http://maki.typepad.com/justhungry/2004/05/masala_chocolat.html
Apparently available via mailorder but not over summer.