after dinner sneeze

t says:  I love chocolate.  For real.  Consequently, I’ve had many a recent chocolate experiences that I feel like sharing.

First up:  Vosges Chocolate in NYC.  g and I were in NYC this past weekend for a lovely wedding (more on that later).  We decided to run down to Soho and do a bit of shopping.  As the dedicated bag mule, I was perhaps a little whiny, as it was very warm outside and I am fairly heat intolerant (I’m actually sweat intolerant moreso than heat intolerant).  g decided to placate the 6-year-old in me with a trip to Vosges chocolate.  Now I know that in the world of real chocolate, perhaps Vosges isn’t the best, maybe some will view their chocolate as nothing but over-priced Hershey’s with upscale marketing – but who cares?  It’s chocolate.  And I like it.  So back off!  Oh … yes … back to the story at hand … This is what I saw outside.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

Ice cream, eh?  Ok, that’d hit the spot nicely.  So I went in and it was a glorious glorious place.

A peak inside Vosges.

There were a few items in particular that caught my eye …

A classy way to do bacon + chocolate ...

... and a not-so-classy way to do bacon + chocolate.

And then there were pre-made cookies (but they were pretty hard and likely stale – bad form, Vosges!), and baking mixes, and so much more!  In the end, I had no choice but to go with the ice cream – after all, it was hot outside.  I went for the “Pandan”, which incorporated some kind of Asian leaf that added a nice nutty flavor (something between a peanut and a hazelnut) to the chocolate ice cream, which was rich and velvety and not the least bit icy.  It was truly an excellent ice cream.  It did hit the spot nicely, and I’d be happy to carry shopping bags in Soho in the future if promised some more.  Thanks Vosges!  You saved g’s shopping adventure!

And writing this post reminded me of another Vosges bar I recently had which was pretty darn good.

Can it beat out the Chocolate + Bacon bar?

From a post of Vosges chocolate we did a while ago, you can see that I do like the Moe’s chocolate bacon bar a lot.  This was a very close second.  The chocolate squares have a layer of sweet caramel inbetween which is a nice contrast to the bitter chocolate.  The only problem is that it’s a smidge too sweet, so when I first stick it in my mouth, all I get is that super-sweet caramel flavor.  Fortunately, the chocolate and salt kick in and restore balance a few seconds later.  Overall, I was also happy with how intense a flavor this confection had, as it allowed me to pace myself and eat the bar over a few days … unlike the bacon bar … where I can’t help myself.

Moving on from Vosges … there’s another good chocolate-centric thing goin’ down as well.  But this time, closer to home …

Milkshake at Village Whiskey!

g and I dined at Village Whiskey for lunch today.  I had the BBQ pork sandwich and g had the veggie burger – no surprises here.  BUT, we did get some milkshakes, which are either new, or at the very least, something we had never noticed on the menu before.  They took forever to come out – not appearing until we were 3/4 the way done our sandwiches.  But they were worth the wait.  What you see above is the s’more milkshake which was fantastic.  The shake part was thick and creamy and not icy at all.  There were some toasted marshmallows and graham on top (which I crushed up and put in the milk shake) and some chocolate swirls.  This is not the most chocolatey milkshake ever, but it was delicious.  My only critique is that it is unbelievably heavy – I think I could only tolerate 2/3 of it before crying uncle.  I feel like I should go there for a milkshake dinner or something (mmmm … get an order of fries and a milkshake and call it a night … that … sounds … amazing).  g had one as well – caramel malt – but it had no chocolate in it, so I didn’t bother with a picture (but g says it was “deeeee-licious”).

And there is one more chocolate thing that I encountered recently that I’m going to hold back until later in the week.  This is a lot of typing for now.  So tune in soon for the exciting conclusion.  Hint: it’s going to be weird …