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| - My first choccy festival! I've longed to be part of this "affaire" since reading of its existence in the spring of '03, the year I moved to the valley. I finally went, and I'm already looking forward to next year's!
Planning on grabbing something to eat before attending the festival, and not able to spot anything intriguing on my way to 59th and Glendale aves, I parked at the free public garage an hour before the event's commencement. No sooner than when I exited my car did my brain register that yes, I'll be consuming a lot of chocolates this afternoon :D The aroma of chocolates was definitely evident, even though the lot was relatively void of attendees. Oh, this is going to be fun! But first, I had to get some nutritious sustenance.
First tent I spotted was for the making of chocolate pizza, with Cerreta's providing the tempered chocolate. There was already a line of people waiting to make theirs, and it was only 4p; My chances of scoring some food looked pretty good! However, it wasn't going to be chocolate pizza, since the chocolate contained * (I asked). A-ha! I spotted some food vendors just ahead...
Funnel cakes, Euro Gyros, Crepe Tyme, Alice Cooperstown's Coop-zookies, hot fudge brownie sundaes, and The Big Unit... whoa! Anthony Bourdain did a segment on this hotdog, but I hadn't realized how big it really is! (16"?!?) Too bad I left my cell in the car (I retrieved it after I had something to eat), or it would be among the pics above. Cooperstown also had BBQ pork sammies ($6 ea.), *-free, but I'd have to wait since they weren't quite ready, so I kept walking. There were chile burgers, corn dogs, teriyaki chicken 'n pork on sticks, lo mein, and chocolate-covered potato chips. Honey Bear's BBQ too was there, but their one BBQ sauce contained *... pass. (Hmm... is it me, or don't the choices of vendors present seemed odd to pair w/ chocolate? I wondered, "What selections would I encounter if I were to attend San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival?")
Beverage-wise, there were snow cones, cherry-lemonades, hot and cold cocoas, lattes, frappes, Budweiser beers, and Kokopelli wines. There was even Zemer's homemade rootbeer, made w/ genuine sassafras from trees planted by the current owner Chris' grandfather. (I didn't approach Chris until after stuffing myself w/ samples 'n goat milk fudge, pecans, 2 pork sammies, 2 glasses of wine, a dark-choc. pecan patty ($2 ea.), and not one, but TWO smore's on sticks ($3 ea.), so I couldn't even imagine ingesting anything else at that point. Shame, since who knows when I'll cross paths with Chris' *-free concoction again?)
Since I was striking out on food, I approached a few chocolate vendors hawking samples. Corn ingredients kept me out of the game from the first few already: Cerreta's caramel apples, Belgian waffles and ice cream, Mackinac Island fudge. Wei of Chocolate was a delectable possibility, but I was looking for more... oomph. I found it in Fossil Creek Creamery's goat milk fudge (2 boxes, $6.50 ea.) and Amour Chocolates. I tried samples of the bars: dark choc. chile, dark choc. cherry pecan, white choc. espresso crunch, white choc. chile, etc. All quite good! So good, in fact, that I bought 20 bars! $1.95 per, or buy three or more @ $1.75 each. (I'd post pics, but it seems like all of the choc bars are aesthetically defective. Update: Trisha called back and said I can return and replace them, postage-free.) Next came Nutz About Nuts! Oh, the aromas from this tent sent me reeling in a state of bliss! One moment I was sampling a cinnamon-anonanon pecan and a sweet jalapeno pecan, and the next moment I was forking out $20 for 4 packs (or $6 ea.). OK, back to real food, please!
Corn, corn, everywhere forced me to have Cooperstown's BBQ pork sammy and a glass of Kokopelli Winery's merlot. Wanted a glass of their pinot noir since samples of cabernet sauvignon and merlot did not impress, but the "wine only" side didn't have any pinot noir to sell (??). One complaint: A sign stated "Glass of wine $4, $5 Wine with souvenir wine glass," and yet, there weren't any glasses to take home. Many attendees were bummed about that. Me, too, But only for a sec. Who wants a plastic wine glass, anyway, and hey! Chocolate smooths out ALL the kinks, if you ask me :D
Must go to sleep (it's 4a!). What a fun-filled second-half of the day I had... I was there for almost 6 hours!!
P.S. Awesome tunes, too! All of the performers rocked!
2nd Amour choc update: Was told last week not to send chocs back, but that defective chocs would be replaced as soon as new batches were made. Still waiting.
3rd Amour choc update: Received batches of chocs. in great condition!
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