another day, another truffle.

what with the late morning spent meeping at squirrels, and then chasing first ducks, and then the royal horses, up and down the length of st james park, and then giving up on the non-event that was the changing of the guard, we were quite ready for lunch… when the baby gave up fighting the pram straps, and fell asleep.

in such a situation it is best to keep moving, so we found ourselves trundling up piccadilly just as the london drizzle kicked in. fortuitously we were right by fortnum and mason.

one of my favourite touristy things to do is to go to supermarkets in new cities, and gawk at packaging, and fondle bags of exotic potato chips, and buy interesting-flavoured yoghurts. i had been feeling quite slack, because it had taken me a whole week (and a day) before setting foot in the sainsbury’s down the road and round the corner from the apartment. true, i had already been to the food hall of the local marks and spencer, but we were in a rush to get somewhere else, and there was only enough time for a cursory supermarket sweep of the aisles, a pathetic exercise that yielded just a bottle of orange juice with crushed raspberries.

note to self: go back to M&S food hall.

note to self: and, um, waitrose?

but here we were, stepping through the heavy doors of fortnum and mason, and finding outselves sandwiched between tea on the left and chocolate on the right. i was immediately troubled because i wanted to buy it all. the fancy honey; the ten drinks coaster-sized tablets of single origin chocolate (from ten places of origin), individually wrapped in coloured tissue and bound in twine; the majorcan sea salt with crushed hibiscus petals… you see? it’s crazyfood, and i was slightly crazed, quite addled, as i stood before the truffle counter (chocolate truffles, although the pig-digging sort is also available, in little glass bottles, in a locked glass cabinet, for a rather large sum of money) trying to figure out which ones i really wanted.

four hours later (an exaggeration, you think?) i handed over the equivalent of $36, for two dozen pieces of chocolate, which doesn’t sound too bad, innit? i also bought a canister of convivial yorkshire crisps — “luxury hand made crisps” in the almost exotic flavour of sourcream, dill and mustard. and some promising biscuits: clotted cream shortbread and marmalade oatmeal, with no hydrogenated vegetable oils, and instead, about one quarter butter!

my question now is, which truffle shall i have with my cup of tea? after which the question will be, when shall i make a return trip to fortnum and mason to buy all that tea which i managed not to today?