Small Calamities

Your Calamities

They Call Him Mister Chocolate
February 14, 2006 | permalink

I took advantage of the post-fashion free time and met Turtalia for lunch and chocolate yesterday. Well, to be completely truthful, we met for chocolate, and decided that we should probably have lunch first. Yes, it's like that.

For lunch we hit the Sullivan Street Bakery, which, shockingly, is on Sullivan Street (at Spring). It is not, as Turtalia warned me, a lunch place so much as a place with lots of tasty breadstuffs. (I personally don't see why that would disqualify it as lunch, but I am obsessed with the breads.) It was warm, tiny, smelled good, and everything looked soooo delicious. We settled on the Potato Pizza, which is actually much lighter fare than it sounds. There is no sauce or cheese involved; just thinly sliced and oiled potatoes baked onto thier fantastic focaccia bread. Tasty. We had the added bonus of entertainment- a UPS truck trying to extract itself from the clutches of the snow and slush with very little effectiveness.

The chocolate part of the afternoon was spent at Jacques Torres Chocolate Haven (350 Hudson at King Street). If you have never been, you must go. The chocolate is all made there by hand in their glass walled kitchen, so you can watch; and it comes in so many fantastic shapes, tastes, and colors that you might go into overload. We bought a bunch of various bars to tide over ourselved and our worthy loved ones until we get there again. Then we sat down and had some of the hot chocolate, which is why we were there in the first place.

I don't know how to truly describe the hot chocolate. Picture a chocolate bar melted in heavy cream and you have an idea, but that's still not it. It's so thick that you need a glass of water to go along with it, and if it cools too much it will begin to solidify. (Mmmmm, chocolate sludge....) And it comes in regular and wicked, which is full of 'Aztec Spices' like allspice, cinnamon, sweet ancho chili peppers, and chipolt chili peppers. If that doesn't sound good to you, then I think you should have your head examined.

Seriously, if you are a chocolate person and you haven't been here, you owe it to yourself to go.