Forget the vigilantes, here come the bond foodies

Hotel Chocolat, a UK confectioner, is seeking to raise £5 million ($7.2 million) by selling "chocolate bonds" to loyal customers, who will receive their coupon payments in chocolate, equivalent to a yield of 6.7%. It’s a novel idea in these cash-strapped times, a kind of hybrid barter system, so Euromoney decided to come up with its own mock menu for the European sovereign bond market. Greece could pay in moussaka, the Spanish perhaps in paella, Portugal with bacalhau, and the French in duck confit. As for Germany, well the obvious dish would be sauerkraut, but given its attempts to battle the forces of the financial markets head on, that might be too much of a double entendre.