Agatha was once asked which one of the best in the Poirot series she thought was the best, and she thought for a moment before replying, "I think it's 'The Orient Express** case." This answer comes 50 years after the first Orient Express train departed from Gare de l'Orient on October 4, 1883. At that time, Poirot's name was widely praised for a ** case related to justice and revenge.
However, it would not be accurate to call the case famous, as the "Orient Express" was not Poirot's debut. His debut occurred in the 1920 book The Strange Case of Stiles Manor. Before that, Grandma described him as follows: "He was no more than 5 feet 4 inches (165 centimeters) tall, but he was very dignified. His head is just the shape of an egg, always slightly tilted to one side...The neatness of his costume was almost unbelievable, and I believe a speck of dust was more painful to him than a bullet. ”
From then on, Poirot began his career as a gourmand hidden in the detective world, or rather his life as the most tasteful detective. Poirot has a penchant for food, and he once said, "The greatest pleasure of my age, and almost the only pleasure, is the pleasure of the mouth." Luckily, I have a good stomach. ”
Throughout his long career as a detective with 33 novels and 48 short stories, he has stayed true to his gastronomic principles and unique tastes. As for eggs, he said critically: "The size of the eggs laid by each hen is different, which is really intolerable. He demanded that the eggs in the mouth must be measured with a ruler first, and only the same size was eligible for him to taste. He also refuses to eat irregularly shaped bread, and in Death of a Cleaning Lady, he criticizes Mrs. Maureen for her poor cooking, and sees her coffee as an insult to the stomach.
But Poirot is known to have a real love of chocolate, which Hastings describes as "machine-like" and enjoys a breakfast of chocolate every day. In Mr. Davenheim's disappearance, he found the kettle boiling and a thick layer of sweet chocolate in a small enamelled saucepan next to it. In The Chocolate Box Mystery, Poirot sipps contentedly from the thick brown liquid in a pink porcelain cup.
Perhaps the Belgians also have the fragrance of chocolate in their blood. According to the data, Belgium consumes more than 10 kilograms of chocolate per capita per year, and the country has more than 2,000 chocolate producers with an annual output of more than 500,000 tons. In the 17th century, chocolate drinks took Europe by storm, and chocolate was introduced to Belgium around 1635, when hot chocolate was still a luxury. By 1900, Belgium had become one of the main merchants in the market, and in 1920, when Poirot debuted, Belgian nut praline chocolate had come into being. This chocolate with nuts and nut pits, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, was created in 1912 by the long-established Belgian restaurant "Neuhaus". The story begins in 1857, when the old owner opened a pharmacy and wrapped a thin layer of chocolate around the pills to make them easier to eat. In 1912, his grandson added soft ganache to the chocolate shell, and the praline was born.
Poirot, however, was fond of chocolate drinks, and he placed the thick, sweet hot chocolate under his impeccable beard and savored it carefully. His hot chocolate drink, which has a cocoa concentration equivalent to 70% of today's chocolate, is a sweet drink in a traditional continental version, first melted in a saucepan with dark chocolate bars, and is sometimes covered with cream, and the thickness is said to come from corn flour, which is considered to be delicious.
In Europe in the mid-18th century, chocolate was still a symbol of middle-class life, who woke up early in the morning with a glass of cold water and then a cup of chocolate for breakfast. However, by the end of the 18th century, tea had become popular among fashionistas, and since chocolate was loved by the royal family, tea became a symbol of freedom and civilization, with the old-fashioned people continuing to drink chocolate and the new-school people chasing the tea trend. The fashion trend also spread to Belgium, but Poirot maintained his love of chocolate.