August 7, 2003 - 9:13 pm

I am currently feeling incredibly fat. Not phat; but fat. Why? Well, because I have just indulged in more chocolate than I should have. Actually, I didn't really eat *that* much. But it feels like I did because everything was just so rich. But damn, it was good.

Rewind to 6:28pm

So I'm cruising down Queen Street looking for a place to park and I notice the parking signs all say that parking is allowed after 6:30pm. So for $3.75, I can basically park until tomorrow. Better than flat rate of $5 in a lot and tons more convenient, so I take a spin around the block (which at 6:28 pm *does* take 2 whole minutes) and then conveniently park in the frontmost space on that block before Caban. What a sweet space.

I now have a little bit of time to kill. So I walk over to Chapters (yes, at Paramount) and I go up to Starbucks and get a Mocha Frappuccino. Yes, there is a Starbucks right in front of my car, but I wanted to go for a walk. I was planning to peruse the bookstore too, but ultimately decided against it because the staff were kinda slow at making my Frappuccino. I had to walk by the black pimp dressed in a hideous green leisure suit twice, but he didn't say anything to me so it doesn't matter. Mind you, I didn't appreciate the way he oogled me. But it's okay. I'm not special. He did that to every girl that walked by.

So I head over to Caban and discover that a line has formed. Luckily, it's not incredibly long. I truly despise being at the end of a very long line. During my wait in line a friend of mine (who's with a friend of hers) passes by. I call her and we start chatting a bit about generic stuff. I convince them not to feel bad about butting in line since I actually had 3 extra spaces on my guestlist so in theory it shouldn't matter. Rationalization at it's best.

I could talk about all the people that walked by inquiring about the line and why the store was closed but that's just boring. Basically, the Thursday event was by invitation only. The Saturday event (which was supposedly the same as the Thursday event) was to be open to the public. Isn't it great to be VIP sometimes?

So we finally get to enter and wander around. My friends and I make our way towards the chocolate fondue setup at the back of the store. Ladden on the counter are trays and trays of fresh fruit. I was mildly disappointed to see that they had tastelessly put out a bowl of marshmellows (real chocolate connoisseurs do NOT include marshmellows as a part of their chocolate fondue dippers) but just turned a blind eye. I pick up a skewer and a couple napkins and stab a couple pieces of fruit and hand it to one of the many employees who are standing around the bowls of simmering chocolate. After they dip the delectable strawberry and pineapple chunk into the chocolate, the hand the skewer back to me and I try to keep the chocolate from dripping all over. It just looks so good.

Again, a bit disappointed to discover that they were using milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate. This is just a preference thing. I'm preferential to dark chocolate.

Wandering around the store, we various employees carrying bowls or trays of food. There were lots of great appetizers, but I must say my favourite was the (now don't get grossed out... this was by far the best) creamed chicken liver and carmelized onions on dry bread. I know it sounds disgusting and like bad breath central, but it really did taste good. I'm not gonna try and convince anyone. But it was good. Maybe it's an acquired taste.

Aside from the chicken liver, there were also peppered beef and breadsticks, jalapeņo and beef nachos, and other appetizers, but these being the most memorable. The also had a couple of blenders going upstairs making frothy, cold chocolate drinks. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, these were NOT virgin drinks. There was the rum, and creme de cassis, sitting in plain view. And it wasn't just visible. You could taste it in the drink too.

Bear in mind that what's special about the food this evening is that all of them include chocolate as an ingredient. Yes, even the salty food has chocolate in it. And yes, it was very good.

From the more conventional chocolate regime, there were pralines, truffles, and chocolate covered nuts. I'm not much of a praline fan since I always find them too sweet. These were no exception but I can at least say that they were creamy and flavourful. But too sweet. The were, however, these chocolate covered hazelnuts that I just could not resist. It was pretty bad because it got to a point where it looked like I was stalking the guy who was carrying the bowl. I took two when he was wandering around on the first floor, stopped him as he was passing me on the stairs (I was going down, he was going up) and took too more, and then a few more later on when we were both on the first floor again. And that's not the total number of yummy chocolate nuts that I had. I had picked up a couple others when other employees were walking around with a bowl of them too. I most definitely ate more of these chocolate nuts that I bought. I did end up buying two boxes since I felt it was very wrong of me to have consumed so many and not buy anything ($5 per box, 7 nuts per box). Insanely expensive. But I figured considering the number of chocolates I ate, it probably works out to the same as a box of Glossets.

In my personal opinion, this event was very enjoyable and a lot of fun. I'm glad that I ended up running into people I knew. Our idle chatter and anecdotes made the time more fun. I doubt I would've had as much fun if I was just going from food station to food station without chatting with anyone. It's unfortuante that every single person I invited to this event bailed on me. Unfortunate for *them* not for me. They really missed out. I really hope that I get invited to more events like this.

For more information about the showcased chocolate, please see www.maxbrenner.com.

For more information about Caban, please see www.caban.ca/caban.asp.