Je Me Souviens - Le Chocolat

Locally produced ingredients make Quebec City a fascinating place to eat chocolate. Wild blueberries, honey, and maple syrup (of course) find their way into many of the city's confections.

At Praline & Chocolat, one of the food kiosks in the endless Marché du Vieux-Port (7874 Av. Royale, 418-978-0528), you'll find chocolates made with honey from the Musee de L'Abeille (Bee Museum)., which is a short trip outside the city. (The kiosk also sells lovely pastries and dark-chocolate-bottomed meringues.)

Les Délices de l’Érable, or Maple Delights (1044, rue St-Jean, 418-692-3245) serves up treats like maple brownies and chocolate royale maple mousse. Customers are allowed to taste and compare all the different bottled maple syrups. The ubiquitous syrup, which was originally discovered by the Algonquins, also turns up in the chocolate-maple bars at Cupidon Chocolatier (Chateau Frontenac Hotel Shops, 1 des Carrieres, 418-692-3340). Cupidon also sells wild blueberry chocolate bars.

No chocoholic's trip to Quebec City is complete without a trip to the Choco-Musée Érico. This delightful boutique is home to a small museum where you'll learn lots of chocolate trivia (did you know that early chocolate apprentices were required to carve their own molds?). At the adjacent store, order a warm chocolate-chip cookie, some chocolat chaud, and truffles made with pure maple butter or Quebec apple ice wine.

Finally, if you're interested in what Québécois pastry chefs can do with chocolate, make sure to visit the highly regarded Le Saint-Amour restaurant (48 rue Sainte-Ursule, 418-694-0667). The Distinction dessert, which features six delectable mini-creations (including dark chocolate creme brulee), will bring your vacation to a sufficiently chocolaty close.

A Day In Victoria

I had never seen a make-your-own Belgian waffle station until I stayed at the Magnolia Hotel & Spa (623 Courtney St., (250) 381-0999) in Victoria, BC. When my companion and I walked in for the complimentary breakfast, there was a push-button batter-dispensing machine next to a large waffle iron. Various syrups, fruits and a big container of whipped cream were at hand to increase the temptation! (If the prospect of all-you-can-eat Belgian waffles leads you to make a reservation at this nice little hotel, please be advised that there's a very noisy bar next to it. Ask for a room on the opposite side.)

After breakfast, I went exploring on my own. As I wasn't yet hungry, I looked for indulgences of a different sort. First, I stopped in at Free Spirit Botanicals (549 Johnson St., 250-382-1003) to check out the chocolate-mint lip balm, chocolate raspberry candles and vanilla tea. The company does a brisk mail-order business, as their natural products have fans all over the United States.

Now, I wanted to find a place where I could sit down, sip some coffee and study my map of Victoria. I ended up at Habit (552 Pandora Ave., 250-294-1127), a very Manhattanish cafe. A great selection of magazines covers one wall, there are comfy couches in the back, and a blackboard near the entrance announces local music events. But most important, the coffee is terrific! If you're an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe fan, this is your spot.

My next destination was the aromatic Silk Road (1624 Government St., 250-704-2688) home of the "essential oil bar," beautiful ceramics, a spa, cast iron teapots and a tea-tasting bar! When I entered, a lovely young woman offered me some lychee black tea, saying it was good for the circulatory system.

I turned my attention to the essential oil bar, where I sniffed neroli and pine needles to my heart's content and learned about which aromas should be mixed together. I was inspired to purchase a metal oil warmer and a vial of lavender oil. (Now if only they could bottle that Victorian peace of mind so I could bring it back to New York!)

The adjacent room was full of rooibos, green, white, black and pu-erh tea. Big tea blossoms bloomed inside glass teapots. I wish I was going to be in Victoria during the Chinese New Year, because Silk Road will be hosting an Asian Tea & Food Pairing on February 8 to celebrate. Oh well. Looks like I'll be doing a lot of Internet shopping this year!

Now that my wrists were nicely lavendered and my lips were chocolate-minted, it was finally time to seek out some grub. I trekked over the bridge to Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub (308 Catherine St., 1-877-838-2739), where I was to enjoy one of the best meals of my whole vacation (and a lovely waterfront view). The rustic brewpub, which was established in 1984, takes pride in fresh, high-quality ingredients, which are sourced from local farms and fisheries. Incidentally, Spinnakers was voted Best Brewpub in B.C. by the readers of Northwest Brewing News.

Before being led to my table, I admired the display of handmade truffles made with Guittard chocolate. There were some wild flavors like tequila-lime-salt.

Now I was really hungry. I wondered, should I order the beef pot pie with root vegetables tossed in butter? Or the apple BBQ pork baguette with mustard seed aioli? I decided to start with a bowl of the "West Coast style" seafood chowder. I was intrigued as to what this might be, since I was only familiar with the Manhattan and New England varieties.

Instead of being cream or tomato-based, this amazing thick chowder packed lots of potatoes, as well as white wine, butter, clams, salmon, onions and a bit of dill... I could have eaten another bowl! I sopped up the last bites with a slice of homemade white bread.

Then it was fish and chips time. (My original plan had been to try this dish at the famed Barb's Place, but the season doesn't start until March.) I had a choice of wild Pacific salmon or B.C. halibut, and I went with the latter. A puffy browned hunk of battered fish, looking very much like a loaf of bread, was sprinkled with a mixture of ground peppercorns and sea salt. It lay atop a large portion of Kennebec fries. (The server also brought by a bottle of the house-brewed malt vinegar!) With a fork, I cut into the crispy covering; inside was a halibut fillet as moist as if it had been poached. The beery aroma of the batter was intoxicating; I can honestly say that I've never eaten better fish and chips.

Unfortunately, I was much too full for a beer ice cream float or a chocolate-and-beer tasting! But I was well fortified for my walk back to the Magnolia Hotel.

Koko Chocolate Creations

I spent all afternoon searching for the Frommer's-recommended Death By Chocolate. I went to Broad Street. I went to West Pender Street. Finally, I called another location to hear the sad news: "All of our downtown locations have closed." (From now on, I will not blindly trust those Google search results!)

So, I made my way over to Denman Street, where True Confections resides. This dessert cafe serves cakes so large that I'm actually frightened by them. They had a guava cheesecake, but I really longed for an all-chocolate environment. I walked a bit further south until I found exactly what I was looking for: Koko Chocolate Creations, which opened up just two weeks ago.

I breathed in the heady chocolate aroma, retrieved a pen and set about scribbling some notes. Unfortunately, this aroused the suspicions of the owners, who asked to see my press credentials. As I am just a humble blogger, and am on vacation, I did not have any business cards on me. But I still managed to get some good chocolate-sampling in and had a lovely time, and I am now going to impart the following information to you in case you are in downtown Vancouver and miss Death By Chocolate.

If you're just craving a bit of chocolate, go for the "Chocolate By The Shot": a couple sips worth of delicious dark, white or hot chocolate (all chocolate is of Belgian origin). Also to drink are more styles of hot chocolate than I can remember... Turkish with cardamom, Canadian with maple syrup, whipped cream and pecans, and Mexican with nutmeg and chili. Oh, and Scandinavian with caramel toffee... and that's just to drink! To eat, there are chocolate pizzas, fondue, explosive molten chocolate cake, smores, mudslides, cookies, chocolate peanut butter mousse... and then there are boxed chocolates in exotic flavors like coconut curry and peach ginger. Enjoy!

Koko Chocolate Creations: 1118 Denman Street, Vancouver, (604) 669-1887.

A Cheese Sandwich Never Tasted So Good

As I've written, I'm not very athletic, except when it comes to competitive eating. I've never even skied before! But the promise of a charming teahouse 1,000 feet up a mountain was incentive enough for me to attempt a 6.5-mile hike.

A friend and I planned to visit the Plain of the Six Glaciers Teahouse, where food supplies are trucked up by horse. Granted, if there hadn't been a meal involved, you wouldn't have caught me hiking away while munching on dry trail mix. And if I'd known what was involved in this excursion, I might have stayed at ground level and sipped tea at the Chateau Lake Louise!

It was an overcast day. I was dressed as if I were about to walk down a New York sidewalk instead of hiking up a snowy mountain. On my feet were Dansko clogs, not hiking boots. My attire consisted of a T-shirt and a leather jacket, for I was totally unaware that temperature drops as you ascend a mountain. Even worse, I wasn't carrying an umbrella.

Walking around the lake, I marveled at its gorgeous aqua hue. The scene of the lake between the mountains was so picturesque that I ignored the drops of rain that were beginning to fall. For some reason, I was certain that the drizzle wouldn't intensify.

How wrong I was. While I navigated the sharp stones with my clogs, the clouds opened and the rain began to pour. The trees provided no cover; instead, they acted as colanders. The ground turned to mud, painting my black clogs brown. Since it was the very beginning of the season (and a very rainy day), the mountain was almost empty of hikers. So, I was glad to pass a rare group of seasoned hikers, although I envied their umbrellas, rain ponchos and walking sticks. "How much farther do we have left to go?" "What do you want to hear?" they laughed. "Well, you're probably about one-third of the way there."

They didn't tell me that a large part of the trail was covered with snow. As I haltingly ascended, I tried to avoid the melting ice streams, thinking that snow would provide a more secure surface on which to walk. Unfortunately, in one instance I miscalculated, stepped on a snowbank, fell, and got a legful of water. Then, I tried not to slide back down the mountain as I walked up a slippery, snowy hill. The footprints of the few earlier hikers provided footholds. My hair was now soaking wet, and I was freezing in my wet T-shirt and jacket.

In the middle of my ordeal, I wondered about the teahouse. What was the menu like? My friend opined that only tea and bread would be available. We were both extremely hungry (although, in lieu of trail mix, I had my trusty Belgian chocolate bar). Would there be souvenir sweatshirts available so that I could change my wet clothing?

The rain eventually stopped. We slowed down to appreciate the abstract designs the snow made on the dark grey mountains. The air was the cleanest I've ever breathed.

And then, we turned to the right and there it was... the teahouse! A two-story log cabin, it could have been the Ritz-Carlton as far as I was concerned. Our tired legs carried us up the stairs and we deposited ourselves at a red wooden table.

There were no sweatshirts for my shivering frame, but there were T-shirts. And fortunately, there was more than bread on the menu (although there was homemade bread). There were tuna, cheddar, "handmade hummus," and PB&J sandwiches, vegetable soup, chips and salsa, fresh scones, chocolate cake and apple pie, fair-trade coffee, tea and hot chocolate. According to the menu, all food was made fresh on a propane stove and water came from a pristine underground stream.

The tea arrived lukewarm, but the coffee was strong and hot; I asked for seconds to try to warm up. The vegetable soup was hearty and filled with pasta. Corn chips and salsa were store-bought and lackluster, but I really enjoyed my sharp cheddar sandwich on thick fresh bread. (It more than made up for the gummy apple pie!) I downed all food with abandon; it's amazing what hiking can do for your appetite! (As if I needed any help in that department.)

The Plain of the Six Glaciers Teahouse: Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada.

A Peak Experience at the Banff Springs Hotel

Although I appreciate the grandeur of the mountains, I'm not much for hiking. However, I have no problem making my way up a three-tiered platter of edibles. Today, at the Rundle Lounge of the Banff Springs Hotel, a spectacular view of snow-capped peaks was the backdrop for such an indulgence.

The Rundle Lounge, which overlooks the Cascade, Rundle and Tunnel Mountains, is a great place to enjoy the Canadian Rockies without too much exertion. The cafe features assorted soups, salads and appetizers, as well as a couple of options for those who like their treats in triplicate. There is the afternoon tea, which involves three plates of chocolate-covered strawberries, white and dark chocolate mousses and assorted tarts, scones with Devonshire cream, and finger sandwiches. Afternoon tea is served only from 2-4 p.m., but the amazing "3-tiered sharing platter" is served all day. My friend and I indulged in the latter since we arrived at noon.

The bottom tier includes the popular potato flatbread with red onion, creme fraiche and British Columbian smoked salmon, and a few pieces of jumbo shrimp tempura with wasabi mayonnaise. Moving on to the middle plate, there are crab cakes, crispy spring rolls with sweet chili jam, and a mini-assortment of dim sum (pork dumplings and the like).

The "peak" of the experience is a plate featuring four Calgary cheeses (our favorite was the Camembert), ripe grapes and strawberries, crackers and flatbreads, chicken liverwurst and wild game pate. This plate was definitely the highlight for me!

Although I would have availed myself of the trio of white chocolate Brie cheesecake, Guinness chocolate cake and chai custard, my friend wanted to take a walk down the Bow River Valley trail. (For once, exercise took priority over dessert.)

Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel: 405 Spray Ave., Banff, Alberta, Canada. (403) 762-2211.

Bernard Callebaut Chocolates

In one of life's minor injustices, there are presently no Bernard Callebaut stores in New York. Several years ago, there were two in suburban Rye and Scarsdale, but they closed for lack of business. I think the chocolates would have been wildly successful in NYC, but I don't know if there were ever plans for an NYC store. So, the only U.S. cities where you can find Bernard Callebaut chocolates are Scottsdale, AZ, Portland, OR, and Chicago. (Fortunately, there is a thriving mail-order business, with contact information below.)

Bernard Callebaut, the fourth generation of the famous Belgian chocolate family, creates chocolate truffles with distinctive fresh cream fillings. Some popular flavors are mokka (a dark chocolate half-moon filled with coffee and pear fondant), leaf (a milk chocolate leaf with black currant and milk chocolate ganache inside) and la flamme (dark chocolate with orange and caramel). More exotic flavors include petale (dark chocolate with oil of flower petals and bittersweet ganache), and in summertime, there's a truly amazing apple-raspberry truffle with a layer of fresh cream.

Bernard Callebaut Chocolates: (800) 661-8367.

Montreal: Hotel Gault

If you're looking for a gourmet escape, I highly recommend the superb Hotel Gault in Old Montreal. Picturesque, romantic Old Montreal has been experiencing a renaissance of late with the construction of several boutique hotels, of which Hotel Gault is one.

Breakfast is included in the cost of the room, and you can either enjoy it in the modern lobby or have it delivered to your room. I opted to eat in the lobby, as there is an all-you-can-eat buffet in addition to the regular menu. The buffet features a beautiful assortment of fresh fruit, viennoiseries (French pastries) and a changing array of soft-ripened Quebec cheeses like Brie Manoir and Mi-Careme. It is difficult to decide between a fresh herb three-egg omelette with a shredded potato rosti or a stack of buttermilk pancakes with real Canadian maple syrup and sausages. The strong, smooth coffee is fair-trade.

You'll probably want to dine at one of Montreal's excellent restaurants, but if you decide to stay in, you'll delight in the eclectic dinner menu at Hotel Gault, which includes specialties such as grilled salmon with fennel salad and caviar cream, duck-leg confit, honey-glazed quail, and partridge fir jelly garnished with celeriac puree.

Each night, complementary squares of Valrhona Guanaja chocolates will send you off to dreamland.

Hotel Gault: rue Sainte-Hélène, Montréal (Québec) Canada, 1-866-904-1616.