Secrets & Sweets.

Feed your mind, tummy and travel bug with these goodies

EIS MACQUARIE WORDGENIUS
Ditch all the Americanisms that have crept into your everyday Australian English – the EIS Macquarie WordGenius software package is now out. The package, comprising a true-blue Macquarie dictionary, thesaurus and spell-checker, even has a built-in audio pronunciator guide for each word. A great tool to help you write better and communicate more efficiently. Available at www.wordgenius.com. au. RRP AU$89.95.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO CHOCOLATE
Chocoholics take note! While everyone is scoffing chocolate bunnies (or koalas or bilbys), you could be behind the wheel doing your very own Easter tour of the choc shops. New South Wales abounds with gourmet chocolate makers. Start with the Blue Mountains where you’ll find Café Josophans at Leura and Blue Mountains Chocolate Company at Katoomba. Go further out to the Tweed Valley for chocolate pudding fruit at Chocolate Fruit World. Check out the NSW tourism site for more melt-in-the-mouth goodies.

The Bittersweet World of Chocolate
The first-ever Fair Trade chocolate recipe book is not only filled with great recipes (50 of them) and mouthwatering photography from a top studio, but you can also dip into the not-so-smooth history of the cocoa trade – it’s been a long journey from the Aztecs. If you’ve always wanted to know how molé is made, the recipe is in here. Someone once said: “There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate and chocolate truffles” – we couldn’t agree more! In paperback this month. Published by New International. RRP AU$45. ISBN 978 1904456254 Currently on sale at the New International online shop at www.newint.com.au/ catalog/bittersweet-chocolate.htm

KEEPING SECRETS
We like to hit the ground running in a new destination, which explains the proliferation of guidebooks available. Rediscover Melbourne with the release this month of the nifty third edition of Shopping Secrets Melbourne and second edition of Bar Secrets Melbourne – City Fringe by Deck of Secrets. Both published as a pack of 52 cards, they’re handy enough to tuck into your jeans’ back pocket and are just AU$9.95 each.

A MIXED POT
Next time you wing your way over to Bangkok and want to know where to eat out, this Europe-based restaurant guide on the web may be able to point you in the right direction. Written by a group of friends living in various cities (now, doesn’t that sound familiar?), every restaurant on this site is handpicked and commentary comes in four languages. Read what they said about Vanilla, Bangkok’s newest restaurant: “For all fans of English teatime… there are many delicious things such as… crêpe suzette.” Take it with a pinch of salt, we say. www.hotchpots.com