Mystical chocolatiers

It is the missing ingredient that takes any food, any experience and transforms it from the ordinary to the extraordinary. The experience, like eating the chocolate, may be fleeting, but the addition of love as an ingredient will enable its effects to outlast simple digestion.

Occasionally, on my travels, I stumble upon a cosmic chef who knows a thing or two about inviting love into the mix. Sometimes patrons don’t even realize what it was that effected them – they just know they feel fantastic afterwards. So far, El Atrio (suitably named) housed in La Capilla restaurant in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico is number one on my list. I had the experience of accidentally switching dimensions and finding not only the most loved up chocolates ever, but also discovering on the walls, the erotic drawings of Gary Slipper: Surreal, magical, dreamy pieces. I’ve since commissioned him to do further work for my bedroom.

Number two on the list: Dutch Girl Chocolates on Commercial Drive in Vancouver (604-251-3221). If you ask nicely, one of the Dutch girls will pull out a special basket, the Kama Sutra collection, hidden underneath the counter. Therein lies a writhing mass of gods and goddesses forever immortalized in chocolate. The Dutch girls speak enough English to do mail order.