DRAGEES OR PRALINES?

Our enterprising group here have been doing a nice trade making candied cashews and dipping them in both dark and milk chocolate. We put them in brown paper bags, marked them CASHEW DRAGEES and sell them at the Ramadan Bazaar. They have been doing well enough for us to make fresh batches every other day.

Our pensive friend from Carrefour turned up, bought a few bags,bit into several and appreciatively said "Ah Pralines!" The lady in charge who does not like her brand interfered with said, "Dragees". The pensive man from Carrefour said, "Yes Pralines."
"No Dragees" said our lady.

It appears that both were right. The French call them either dragees or pralines. The Carrefour person then told us the story. Pralines were named after Marshal du Plessis-Praslin(1598-1675). A long life in those days and remarkable because the Marshal spent most of his adult life fighting wars. But he was smart enough not to fight them in France. Most of his bickering was done in Italy.

Pralines (pronounced pra-leen in French, pray-leen in English)was actualled invented by his cook, Clement Lassagne. Pralines then were simply candied almonds. Chocolate was yet to be discovered in France. He later founded Maison de las Praline in Montargis, a town almost the the center of France. It still exists today.I mean both the town and the Maison de las Praline.

Montargis is actually rather famous. Joan de Arc passed through the town on her way to Gien. But being rather early, she didn't have the opportunity to pop into the Maison de las Praline.

But Deng Xiaopeng and Zhou Enlai, who lived in this town were probably regular customers. Which explains their amicable demeanor which subsequently made China and the world pretty pally.

Coming back to pralines, in Germany and Belgium they are any filled chocolate. The Italians wanting to be different called them giandja. In Louisiana, Texas they screwed it all up. Pralines there are flat, round cream candies dotted with crunchy pecans.