Last Weekend: Food

Last weekend was one full of delicious meals and baking adventures. I shall summarize below:

Marble Swirl Chocochip Banana Bread (CCK Recipe) - baked
with AA while we caught up on life and drank tea.

A sushi-filled double date with the sister and our novios!
Sushi Topia is captained by a pleasant man who makes
very delicious food - even for us veggie-heads!

It was Waffle Gone Wild!'s 1-year anniversary event -
we just happened to stop by for brunch on the right day!

We were allowed to burst a balloon to find a giveaway
inside - we ended up with free ice cream.

J and M both ordered the Banana
Nutella waffles - mmmm, chocolate.

Delicious Bombay Chai tea.

 

I went for the Cinnamon Apple option!

(Not quite the weekend...) On Monday, I baked vegan cookies for my council meeting! Which was followed by my first full staff meeting as a future advisor - I got to meet my future team! It was very exciting, and all of my future colleagues seem like fun and kind people. The cookies were also great - adopted from a CCK recipe with added Ener-G Egg Replacer to see if they would fluff up. They did!

A tour around campus to take some
photos the other day led me to what
I consider a sure sign of impending
Spring - blooming daffodils! =D

HoCho Fest Day 19: Hera's Habit

Thursdays are long days, and long days call for a reward. Luckily, I can count on every day holding a reward of some sort during the hot chocolate festival! Today I reaped my day's prize at none other than Cocoa Nymph, who is into their third festival item introduced this week.

"Hera's Habit"
Made from 50% deep milk chocolate with malted milk balls.
Served with vanilla bean cinnamon shortbread.
($6.55)

As is usual, I ordered my beverage with a dairy-free alternative to reduce the effects of existing milk in the drink's components. It was delicious. The "deep milk chocolate" was smooth and added weight to the lighter almond milk's body. The chocolate's flavour was really excellent. 

Malted milk ball.

 The malt ball on its own was grainy - and good! Particularly with the hot chocolate becoming mixed in with it. I learned what malt is so that I would understand what I was consuming before I mixed it into the drink - and I suppose it is basically grain that has been "steeped, germinated, and dried", and reminded me of eating cereal that had been left for quite some time in a bowl of milk - which is DELICIOUS (personal taste). 

Once it was all mixed in, I found the malt added new texture and weight to the drink, and allowed the taste to settle and linger on my tongue for longer and really gave all of my tastebuds the opportunity to experience the drink.

As for the cookie, it was distinctly cinnamony - it was not moist (since it was a sugar cookie), and therefore begged to be dipped into the hot chocolate. This of course led to the blending of vanilla, cinnamon, and chocolate; all of which get along very well.

After a long Thursday, this full-bodied drink with gentle flavours that seemed to give my tongue a hug with every sip was just the ticket to carry me through the rest of the evening's obligations. As well, to celebrate the successful completion of the most tedious part of my academic week.

The shop is warm and cozy-feeling, and I hope to return to try their final item, which sounds amazing! I had actually hoped it had come out today, but I am by no means disappointed by what I had. Come Saturday, I may return. In the meantime, I will look fondly upon my solitary time spent in Cocoa Nymph today as their only customer at the time, as I enjoyed what was a delicious treat.

Hmm, I kind of like this font again...

HoCho Fest Day 6: The Hive

Oh yes, today was a good day. Today was accented with delectable, bittersweet chocolate delight. 

I had intentions to go to Bel Cafe, and I did, but their beverage was made with whole milk that could not be separated from the recipe itself, so I subtly said I'd buy something else instead and then promptly left... Awkward.

My change of plans took me about 15 minutes away to Gastown, where I discovered East Van Roasters and their featured item for the first two weeks of the festival: The Hive.

'Hives for Humanity' honey dark drinking chocolate.
Served with a honey nib caramel.

($5.50)

The presentation was so elegant and simple! I had also not expected a full beverage, but rather what apparently is referred to as "Belgian drinking chocolate", which is when you basically drink melted down chocolate ganache (that is what I got from the lady from whom I ordered the drink, at least); I learned this was not the case when I was served what looked to be regular hot chocolate and I had to buy a new one with soy so my stomach didn't rally on me (take note of this if you go visit which you SHOULD!). I also appreciated the glass of water to help with cleaning my palette. 

I should also note: East Van Roasters was designed to train and employ women residents of the Rainier Hotel, a hotel that had attempted to provide a radical treatment approach to addiction and substance abuse. Unfortunately, the program's funding was terminated, but women have been able to work at EVR. EVR creates organic "bean-to-bar" chocolate and coffee that is roasted and prepared on site! Say whaaat?! That was quite exciting to me - IS quite exciting to me.

Moving along, the drink came with a "honey nib caramel" - hmm? I wasn't sure what to expect this to be, but I was pleased to find a small treat inside the wrapped wax paper!

It was full of sweetness and was chewy and delicious. There were cocao (that is pronounced "cah-cow") nibs on the inside that made the texture experience quite exciting.

The drink itself? Well, it was very creamy with the soy milk (recommended over almond milk by the barista), and by creamy I mean smooth and full-feeling in its texture; its flavour matched this description as well. It almost seemed salty at the tip of my tongue, but as it crossed through my mouth I realized it must just be the dark chocolate bitterness resembling salt (but salt and chocolate are delicious when combined), and it broke up the smoothness of the drink overall in a pleasant way. It was full-bodied, and had a dark and smooth taste that was really helped along by the sweetness of the honey throughout the entire drink. It was overall an extremely pleasant experience to consume - would HIGHLY recommend! They have drinks something like this all year-round, it would seem. I look forward to trying the Earl Grey version during the second half of the festival.

I'm disappointed that my hours spent studying in this cozy shop distracted me from taking my "completion" photo, so here is a complimentary photo of finding my delightful caramel nib inside its wrapping paper.

Visit this one for sure! It was created for a good cause to boot.