A taste of Russian chocolate

Russian chocolate is rarely seen in Hong Kong. Thanks to our relatives who joined a tour to Russia this August in giving us one packet of 75 percent of cacao chocolate. What interests me most are the Russian Alphabet (33 letters) in their language and the figure of a knight on a horse at the top of the packet!

The 20 chocolate chips are nicely packed in 2 layers in a rectangular tray which can be pulled out from a paper “pocket”. On the surface of each chip, 5 grams of dark chocolate, is chopped with a picture of a half-opened cacao pod of seeds and a leaf. It is first wrapped up with beautiful paper in light gold colour, then by a dark brown paper coat with the labels of “75% Kakao”, the type of chocolate and the brand name.











From the “shape” of a chocolate chip, I wonder if this confectionery in Russia produces “puzzles” of chocolate because each looks very much like a piece of puzzle.

To tell you the truth, the chocolate is a little bitter to me, but not to my wife and son. Perhaps they are real chocolate lovers who like the “roasted” taste.

Though I do not know the price of such chocolate from Moscow, I feel it is quite expensive in terms of their luxurious packaging and lovely picturesque leaflet.

Wild Turkeys have landed

“The Eagle has landed” is an interesting book I have read. The name of the book itself is actually a message written to Heinrich Himmler, Reichsfuhrer of the SS and chief of State Police on the morning of Saturday, 6 November 1943. It meant that a small force of German paratroops had landed safely at the moment in England and aimed at snatching the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, from the Norfolk country house near the sea where he was spending a quiet weekend.

Here comes a short description of the wild turkeys that have landed (better say resided) on a residential seaside site in the San Francisco Bay area. The birds have been there for 2 or 3 years. Obviously they have been multiplying, for now, to several generations already.

How interesting and orderly are they, in groups of 5 to 3, walking quite fast, like Hong Kong people, around the area on the pavements almost every day. To some extent, they are quite shy. At least they will walk away from people quickly when they see them.

In spite of their huge and heavy body, they CAN fly and fly all the way to the top of houses and stay at the roof to overlook the harbour, sea and hills. They must be living in their 'homes' among the trees in the adjacent country club golf course.

Several months ago people saw them going around with their chicks -- these must have grown already by now to adults.

They make noises, loud enough to wake up people who get short sleeps. One bad thing they do to the small community is to leave behind their faeces wherever they go.

Bonus peg-board pictures

While playing Diamond Dash game in my iPad, I suddenly find the frame of the peg-board twinkles with stars. In a few seconds, rays of lights fly towards a few squares and when the latter are clicked by the mouse, a simple picture will appear.It may be a “heart”, a “key”, a "star", a “house” or something else.

So far, I have collected eleven of these pictures. Can you recognize what they are?

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