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Recently I was talking about chocolates with my brother. Specifically, Lindor Chocolates, and how he should buy some because they are delicious. On the box, it says "Milk Chocolate Truffles." What the heck are truffles?

My first encounter with truffles came in the form of a Tail Spin cartoon episode where a female bear and a pig were looking for truffles in the forest. She loved them so much and would eat them whenever she could. The cartoon depicted truffles as lumpy mushrooms so I always thought they were mushrooms.

According to Wikipedia, truffles are the "edible fruiting body of a subterranean fungi." So it's buried fungus fruit. Interesting.

The origin of the word truffle appears to be the Latin term tuber, meaning "lump"...

They say a pound of truffles can be about $4,000. Why grow corn when you can start a truffle farm?

So are chocolate truffles chocolate with truffles in them? That's what I thought, but if they cost $4000 a lbs, it's unlikely. Actually, chocolate truffles are called "truffles" only because they are "shaped" like a truffle. As in lumpy. So it's just a fancy word for "lumpy piece of chocolate." Well, at least I now know that I'm not eating fungus fruit.

But then, there is one more mystery. Why is it called a truffle shuffle? My theory is that when Chunk does his infamous dance, his belly gets lumpy.