My friend Natalie texted me back in January raving about the new Alain Ducasse shop in London’s Borough Market, and its chocolate.
So I met her at 5 Dirty Lane, SE1, a chocolate paradise. This would be intimidating, even to me, but the staff were really friendly. Would we like to try some almond praline? Now try the pistachio. How about coconut? The caramel? There is also an ice-cream shop. We promised to come back after lunch, which we did (giant salt beef sandwiches from the market).
This time we sat with some ice-cream: pistachio, stracciatella and three-vanilla. We arrived at these choices after tasting almost all the others. The herb sorbet was magnificent. I didn’t like any of the chocolate flavours of ice-cream (my dad made the best chocolate ice-cream and after his, mine is the best and I don’t see any immodesty in the truth), but the pistachio was as close to perfection as you’ll find: this is the flavour to go for.
The pralines are world-class. I love that there are bars of 75% cocoa (from £8) stuffed with praline, such as the pistachio which I didn’t personally like (it had an edge I didn’t get on with) but it’s great to see high cocoa content with interesting centres.
The caramel stuffed bar (also contains almonds) comes in 45% milk or 75%, is indulgent and delicious – the sort of bar to comfort after a break-up or breakdown, so if you’re on the verge of one, stock up. There are also small chocs with varying fillings of flavoured ganaches and pralines: the hazelnut and thyme one was magnificent.
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