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In the days I worked within the Dilbert engineering cubicles of downtown SF, my colleagues and I took every possible excuse to flee those gray halls. "lunch break", "smoothie break", "coffee break", "post office", "ATM run", "McDonald’s bonus toy break (not the ‘food’ just the toy)", and of course: "fresh air".
Some days might even neccesitate 2 coffee breaks, or the occasional "cookie break". It didn’t hurt (anything besides our productivity, that is) that minutes from the office we could find ourselves sucking in ocean breezes at the Pier, going to see an IMAX movie at Metreon, or shopping at Union Square. I think we topped ourselves the day 4 of us got on a bus, participated in a political protest with the Indonesians, strutted around with protest signs on TV, then came back to work. Mostly though, we would sit outside catching sun, avoiding pigeons, and watch the entire row of cars get towed off the curb at 4 p.m. sharp.
Accompanying a friend during a "sugar break", he suddenly asked me "All chocolate is good chocolate isn’t it?"
Au contraire! Oh, HELL no, you didn’t.
I went into a lengthy discourse about oil and sugar and filler contents and country origins of cacao beans and quality or fair trade and organics, nibs, percentages of blends, judicious use of additional ingredients, blah, blah, blah.
Like most Americans, my innocent friend was perplexed. "Hershey’s tastes good to me" he said. sigh. Ah, my friend, once upon a time, perhaps 1992 or so, I thought a Hershey’s kiss or Cadbury’s bar was pretty good too.
But such as with love, and lovers, or books or cheese; thus is chocolate-when you’ve had the goods, and I mean the GOODS…nothing else compares.
It will burn into your head and your tastebuds like cocaine and you will never forget it…addiction of sorts follows complete with the passionate pursuit to obtain ever more, and the growing hole in your wallet.
Previously, ventures for the good stuff were limited mostly to S.F. Especially:
http://www.fogcitynews.com/home.html
Today P and I stumbled across a small storefront on College ave.
I wouldn’t have stopped at all save for the small clapboard sign written in front: fine gourmet chocolates.
Oh, really. "I’ll just see about that." Countless times I have been oh so dissapointed with the confectionary standards and selections of retail establishments.
The upshot: Lulu Rae had 2 out of 3 products that render a place a haven for foodie chocolate lovers (by totally arbitrary H standards): They had Fran’s gray salt caramels AND the Vosge’s Goji Bar.
Although I must add a caveat about Vosge’s: that Goji bar and their exotic caramels kept me sane through this last long cold winter. Absolute 5 star winners in my gustatory world. I can not however vouch for many of their other products. Some of them just baffle me , such as the $495.00 bathrobe, red fire chocolate tortilla chips, chocolate with curry and coconut, and Woolloomooloo bar(what in hey is Woolloomooloo and god knows how its truly spelled for that mattter). Other treats are just so out of my budget I haven’t had a sample. (I don’t think I could justify joining a $515.00 13 month lunar chocolate club…if I even knew what that was). I also can’t figure out why there is a flirty nightie and robe for sale on the chocolate site, but what they hey, it’s really cute and Purple is my favorite colour. But back to chocolate.
(Last week I chose a cream puff over shoe shopping. Wow, now I know in what order my addictions lie.)
The one thing lacking at Lulu Rae was Amedei (I’m gonna work on them for that…) This place also had petit fours shaped like bunnies, fresh single serving chocolates like jewels, and a mind boggling array of hot chocolates and gelato. If I sound like a commercial it’s because I feel like a starving woman who just tasted manna. Such as the turkish delight samples we took seconds of, as P recalled how said turkish delight lured Edmond into the evil clutches of the Queen in Narnia. Lately he seems to rival me with non sequitirs and random tangents.
Anyways-
If we lived near here we’d be utterly doomed to financial and caloric demise. Take a taste for yourself sometime…you won’t regret it.
http://www.lulurae.com/main.htm
http://www.chocosphere.com/Html/Products/amedei.html
http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/
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