too high from chocolate overload

bindy and me have long talked about doing a chocolate crawl. today was the warm-up.

koko black (royal arcade, city).
this is my new favourite treat place. it's totally snobby which just adds its appeal. as bindy said - they make you feel like you're not worthy of their chocolate. great staff uniforms. any place that calls itself a "belgian chocolate lounge" better have the goods to go with the attitude and they do.

the hand made individual chocolates are awesome - better than a whole block of lindt. the dark choc earl grey praline and the cinnamon and gingerbread are both damn fine. you can watch them being made by their belgian "chief chocolatier" in the front window. bindy was especially taken by the sliding tray that comes out of the display cabinet with all the little chocs on it - kind of like a jewellers. we were there for the hot chocolate though and it didn't disappoint. thick but not gluggy. made with chocolate not cocoa powder. very smooth and very chocolatey. if you go when it's not too busy you can sit in big fancy armchairs upstairs and look down over everyone in the arcade.

max 'the stoopid bald man' brenner
we thought we might do some reconaissance for our full tour so we headed over to QV to check out max brenner's. this place is like the starbucks of chocolate - telling you all about their special blends while being totally fast foody and full of merchandise. the lines were out the door and the service took forever. so we were ill disposed already and the hot chocolates didn't cheer us up. watery and over sweet. nice crockery can't save you max. especially when bindy described the 'hug' cup i was drinking from as a chamberpot. it did have a very vaginal shape. bindy had a suckao - where you mix chocolate buds and milk together over a tea light burner. nice gimmick but it tasted waxy to me. the burner kept blowing out and bindy got very bored - making your own is way overrated.

if max brenner is "creating a new chocolate culture in the world" then i'm worried for the world. oh, that's right - i already am worried for the world. they were playing "feelingssss" for god sake. the best bit was when bindy got chocolate on her nose and looked really cute. she wants to go back to check out their souffle and the danish toffee chocolate that the girl next to us was having (she said it was very rich and chocolatey) but i'm not sure i want to visit max again anytime soon.

other exciting news - dropped into the city library and checked out their cookbook range - heaps of good stuff. copied out flo bjielke petersen's pumpkin scone recipe. we used to make them all the time when i was little until the tea towel with the recipe printed on it went missing. i'll post the recipe once i've had a chance to test it.