Before ...After ...The bottom of the cup,
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Enjoy a glass of cicciolata calda on Piazza San Marco, just watching the world go by. It's best taken early in the morning before the tourists, and the pigeons, descend.
There is often a beautiful light as the shadows shorten and the buildings are brightened by the rising sun. The early sweeping in the piazza ceases and the chairs are placed in orderly rows, ready for the day's madness. The calm before the storm! Hot chocolate in Italy is inevitably thick and most often requires a spoon to get those last remaining dregs that stick to the bottom of the glass - tilting and licking the inside of the glass can be very undignified. Often the chocolate is so thick a spoon [cucchiaino - a great word!] is mandatory and will stand upright if placed in the cup or glass. A distinction is sometimes made between 'hot cocoa' that is made from powder by removing most of the rich cocoa butter from the ground cacao beans, and 'hot chocolate' made from slabs of chocolate that already contain cocoa, sugar, and cocoa butter. The major difference between the two then is the cocoa butter, the lack of which [apparently] makes hot cocoa significantly lower in fat than hot chocolate but still preserves all of the antioxidants found in chocolate. [!! Perhaps hot cocoa is the healthier alternative but I know which I prefer, avero!] |