- All about Unite Against Hunger - The smell of vanilla - The best thing for sliced bread

Food news

It's chocolate, what else?

Alex Brown bares her soul on that decadent temptation.

Even for loved and protected children, there are some little tragedies and humiliations that can stay with you forever. Friends who gang up on you, pets that die, teachers who act unkindly, being busted playing 'I'll-show-you-mine...' with the boy next door.

Or having your precious chocolates eaten up by the Airedale.

It happened to me.

I have a sister who's strongly into the joy of the moment. I, however, was and am a delayed gratification kind of girl. At birthdays and Easter I used to gaze impassively and with steely resolve at my sister as she wolfed through the eggs and bunnies, marshmallow and chocolate and sugarcoatings, coloured foil discarded and nothing to look forward to. My stash whenever chocolates were forthcoming would be packed and counted and hoarded in a doll's cupboard, to be visited at contained and fantastic moments for an ear here, a sugared flower there. It would take weeks – OK, maybe three days, to get through it. Then, when I was about seven, the Airedale got wise to the treasures that lay at just about nose level in my bedroom.

Cruelly, thoughtlessly, he broke in. What he didn't eat, he slobbered on; what he missed, he smeared on the parquet. By the time he died, some five years later, I had forgiven him. But I've never forgotten.

The message in all this? If you're a chocoholic, hide your stash very, very well. You know how you need it when men let you down, you've had a bad day, or simply because it's a good time for it.

But it's my experience that there is no cupboard high enough; there is no shelving deep enough; there is no private space sacred enough to deter someone who's on a serious chocolate hunt. So when it comes to the good stuff, it may be a better plan simply to embrace the moment.

Here are three moments to live for:
1. There are some places where, when you order hot chocolate, you get something life-changing. You can do it yourself, at home, when you've got a heart you want to melt. All you need is a jar of Nutella, a heatproof glass, and hot milk. Smear the Nutella as liberally as you dare around the inside of the glass. Place a longhandled spoon in the middle. Heat the milk just to boiling point, and pour it into the glass. Die happy as the chocolate swirls and smudges its way into the milk.
2. Here's a dessert drink that's almost as much fun in the making as it is in the consuming. You need a couple of big bars of dark chocolate, fi nely grated (try Superfi ne, with almonds); half a bottle of plain vodka, and a bowl of boiling water that's as deep as the level of vodka in your bottle. Immerse the bottle in the boiling water to warm up the vodka. After a few minutes, take it out and spoon grated chocolate into the neck of the bottle. Shake to dissolve. Carry on spooning and shaking until the vodka stops 'absorbing' the chocolate. Replace the boiling water, immerse the bottle again, and repeat the process until the vodka absolutely refuses to absorb any more chocolate. Add a splash to almost anything for a great, rich, chocolate kick!
3. This is an old favourite – so old you might have forgotten it. And it deserves reviving. Split a banana lengthwise, leaving the rest of the skin intact. Pop a couple of blocks of dark chocolate into the slit. Create a foil 'boat' for it. After you've taken your supper off the coals, nestle the banana boats on the grid. When you're ready for them, they're ready for you – eat with a spoon, sigh, and be glad you're alive.