HoCho Fest Day 23: Monkey's Uncle

Happy B.C. Family Day!

To celebrate the day, some of the folks I love came out to my end and we all went for "Italian soul food" at the restaurant Incendio. My pasta was delectable, and the crusts of my family members' pizzas were as well.

S and N's pizza.

My rotini pomodoro pasta.

Mom and J's pizza.

 












After our lunch, we made the journey over to the hot chocolate location for the day - the second trip to Bella Gelatería! I thought it would be a good spot to showcase some of the festival's creativity and unique locations to my family.

Monkey's Uncle: gBAR made from banana liquer and swirls of "To Die For"
banana bread crumb. Served with a slice of Erin Ireland's "To Die For"
Banana Bread.

The gelato gBAR for this drink tasted SO GOOD! It tasted exactly like banana bread, except it was in a popcicle form. S and N tried this as well, but tried it instead in a cone and dipped it in their white hot chocolate (with moderate success). 

Dipping our banana bread gBAR into the dark almond milk hot chocolate made it melt, and the oozing flavours tasted oh-so-yummy. The hot chocolate was dark and nutty from the almond milk, and was quite filling. Similarly to my last experience at BG, the gBAR did not flavour the hot chocolate very strongly, and the flavours of it were hardly present until the last quarter of the drink, where it became thicker with the gelato and hints of banana crept up.

As was the case last time, the "To Die For" banana bread was delectable, and I think that everyone enjoyed their hot chocolate experiences as well. 



I personally think that last year's hot chocolate at BG was superior because of how strong the flavours were. However, this year's is very unique in how you come to have the specialty drinks - to make this year's top last year's, I think the drinks should be smaller so that the gBARs can flavour the hot chocolate more effectively (maybe 12oz drink cups instead of what appear to be 16oz ones would help).

HoCho Fest Day 8: The Evita

Ah, the beautiful day arrived when it came time to go to Bella Gelatería! This was probably my favourite stop from last year's hot chocolate festival, and this year it seems they somehow stepped up their game.. In a couple of ways.

gBAR flavoured with salted caramel - Argentina style. 
Served with Erin Ireland's "To Die For" Banana Bread. 

(~$8.50)

The "gBAR" mentioned in the description is the frozen gelato bar; this is where the specific flavours of each of the 6 available hot chocolate festival items come from. The beverage comes as a more-or-less basic hot chocolate of varying darkness with soy and almond milk options available, and the gBAR is then stirred into the hot chocolate. My company and I each chose a different beverage flavour - Mine, the Evita; hers, Monkey's Uncle; his, the London Foggy.

The gBAR reminded me of a Fudgsicle in its texture - perfectly frozen and creamy and biteable without hurting the teeth! It was smooth with caramelly flavour, and it melted easily into the hot chocolate as I began to stir.

As for the almond milk hot chocolate on its own, it was not particularly smooth. This was not bad, though, as it was "rough" with almond, nutty flavour and dark chocolate. After I mixed in the gBAR, it seemed there was too much hot chocolate for the flavour to be strongly mixed - and part of my bar fell into the bottom! I figured this may serve me well later, but in the mean time I could not continue stirring it with my tiny gBAR stick. There was a subtle caramel flavour at this point, however.

3/4 of the way through the beverage, the lost and unstirrable chunk of gelato could be swirled into the hot chocolate with a couple swooshes of the cup. The caramel now became evident and cancelled the rough dark chocolate texture and the drink became smooth and creamy.

The hot chocolate was delectable, and my company seems to have similar sentiments - we were VERY satisfied when leaving! Partially due to satiation as well, I would recommend going without being too full beforehand (but have something nutritious to absorb the chocolate blow!).

There seemed to be a majority vote to return for gelato (a particularly strong vote from M to return for lavender gelato), so I imagine those photos will crop up one day. We ended our day with sushi and then headed back for football to make use of the deliciousness (it worked, we won).

For more information about the "To Die For" Banana Braed, check this link.