Friday, August 13, 2004

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.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey, that's me, up on the screen! I said those things! I'm on a real web page! At last I'm a member of the wide web world!
Mmmmm, that velvety hot choc has a place deep in my heart now. I'm going to take only very special people to koko black, to keep the experience pure. As for max, i think you're right - I can miss the souffle and probably make a better one at home (I would expect now that nothing there is as good as it looks).
love bindyxxx

Anonymous said...

nah, max gives me jax...although I did then have a ymmy sort of ginger and cinnamon sample of his..but that could have been cos it was a nice pressie too...i think the hot choc is revolting and you can scoop the things out properly...i had fondue though and that was yummy...the stoopidist thing about oxford st store is that you can't really get into it...
by way of a chocoloate whinge, beware of the limited edition Lindt tins that are at Woolies at the moment cos they say they have the dark, a 60% dark, a coffee and a cinnamon ball selection, however, they are not in equal ratios, and so you might only get 1 each of the special ones, which is why you are buying it in the first place and its all a bit of a rip off and josh rang up to tell them off, and lindt dont even have a standard for it....reckon we should start a petition to make them bring the full range of Lindt ball flavours out here, not keep it for snooty Fifth av. stores...
tried a new choc with pink peppercorns in it, which worked in a way, but would not buy again, although it had appealing wrapping..couldnt face the indian masala combination..
will soon be making my first kilo of Lindt purchase for cooking...only $20!!!
yum yum