Chocolatey Chocoholism Revealed

Yesterday, with a group of good friends and in honor of Valentine's Day, I went to Café Fleuri, which is in the Langham Hotel in Boston, for their Chocolate Bar.

Proof:

Quote: "There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate."

It's a buffet of chocolate. Many, many items. Lovely, delectable items. Crêpes. Truffles. Ice cream. Bread pudding. Many, many things, is my point.

Here is my first plate again.

I must confess that I have forgotten what many of them were already. I know that the ramekin held mocha crème brûlée (which was a little bland, but beautiful), followed clockwise by a Boston cream cake, a cannolo*, a chocolate mousse in a chocolate cup, and a profiterole.

*Did you know that was the singular of cannoli? I didn't! Learn something new every day.

This one has a lot, doesn't it?


Let's see: at the top, a few pieces of pineapple (not dipped in the chocolate fountain), a pretzel below (no chocolate involved, but a good palate cleanser), a chocolate-dipped strawberry, and the red-topped one is some sort of red currant cake. The circle to its left was a lemon meringue tart (yum!), and below that was a bit of pecan brittle. Then a banana cream tart with bacon on top (how could I not try that? it was surprisingly good), a madeleine with rosemary or something that was delicious, and a pretzel truffle (too dark for me). Then (what a lot on one plate) do you see the white rectangle to the left? That was a marshmallow, and for the life of me I can't remember what spice flavored it. Cardamom? Corriander? It was one I've heard of, but couldn't have said I'd ever eaten and it was faint and flavorful and lovely. And to the right of that, the beige square is my absolute favorite of the day, the salted caramel (it had a thin layer of chocolate on the bottom). Not much on looks, but wow, I'll take a box, please!

Such a busy plate! You may need to look at it again.


Oh, and this guy. I don't remember what it was, and the flavor was not striking, but isn't the presentation worth something?


Now, I believe I may have missed a plate, because I did try the chocolate bread pudding, but I don't have a photo of it, and whatever else was on its plate. But I know I picked up two mini-plates, and I think that was at the same time as the missing plate. It's all kind of a blur, honestly.

Anyway, apricot tart:


And a lemon tart thing that was a bit too intense for me after everything else, but was beautifully plated:


And what you can't see in that shot is the seasonally-decorated chocolate accent:


I should call this last plate "the I am full but I will not stop" plate. At the top, spicy peanut brittle (sadly, too spicy for me), a regular marshmallow that I twirled in the chocolate fountain (twirling it was more fun than eating it), another cardamom marshmallow (still delicious, but I didn't finish it), and more salted caramels (which may have come home with me for eating last night, I'm not admitting anything, except mmmmm).


I didn't try the cotton candy, either. But I watched this woman trying to eat it neatly,


before she gave up and fashioned a bit into a mustache. Wish I'd gotten a shot of that!

For drinking, I mostly had water, and less than half a cup of coffee. They did have hot chocolate, but wow, overkill. I also didn't try any of these offerings:


Though of course, before we left I had to "red"-pencil them. Honestly, how do they correctly pluralize martini, but make the mimosa possessive instead?


Still, it was a wonderful experience. The setting was lovely, and even the water glasses were really nice:



And no, I did not take one home with me. Though I wouldn't mind having one.

In conclusion: this is not an inexpensive expedition. But it is a lot of fun, if you really like chocolate. Make sure you go hungry (you may want to eat a bland breakfast), and don't expect to eat again for hours. Wow.