A lady came into the shop today asking for bonbons. Had we been in a large city or another country, I would have shown her our truffles. But I could tell that raspberry, ginger and mocha truffles were not what she had in mind. These are our mocha truffles.
I was so right. When I pointed to the truffles in our display case, she told me "those are NOT bonbons." In fact, she went on to explain that she was looking for those "old fashioned" candies like chocolate covered cherries and "stuff like that." Along the lines of "Cracker Barrel" bonbons, which is where I sent her.
The term "bonbon" has many meanings. According to Wikipedia, "bonbon" can refer to several types of sweets, including chocolate covered ice cream, but also any confection with a soft fondant or fruit center (the infamous chocolate covered cherry), and even a hard candy with a soft center. In Mexico, it is a common name for cat (fluffy bonbon?) and in Australia, it is the word for English Christmas Crackers. In France and Germany, the term "bonbon" refers to any bite size confection.
I like the French version, and immediately thought of French singer Jaques Brel and "Les Bonbons". (Isn't YouTube wonderful?) but I'm sure she was probably thinking Lucille Ball and "Bonbons Gone Wild". In any case, we sent her on her way. And she called later to say "yes, Cracker Barrel has bonbons, thank you so much."
There you go.
At least she got what she was looking for. I tend to think of chocolate covered ice cream. Which sounds good right now! I guess I've heard chocolate covered cherries called bonbons too, come to think of it. But I wouldn't think of truffles. Although now I want one of those too. ;-)
Posted by: Chrissy | September 26, 2008 at 12:50 PM