Chocolate Haven in the Blue Mountains

Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Time: Early April

The morning has all the ingredients for a terrific excursion. Winter is setting in slowly – the air is cool and the sun is shining, nice and bright. Perfect holiday weather! We are driving down to the Blue Mountains.

Really looking forward to this walk in the Australian bush! There are various treks here. Each of them is marked with a sign indicating the difficulty level and time taken to complete it.

One thing that is very evident about this place is the way it is kept up. Steps are provided where ever there is an especially steep gradient. Railings are positioned, albeit very unobtrusively, on narrow sections. But in spite of all these safety measures the overall foresty feel of the trail is not lost.

This place is not just a visual treat but also a treat for the lungs. Purest of pure air – oxygen therapy!

Our walk is fun. We go down a valley. The view is fabulous. We come across some crystal clear brooks on the way. There is something very typical, very uniquely “Australian” about the undergrowth of this place.

A small drive away from the trekking area is an amazing sight – the Three Sisters.

Three Sisters: a natural formation

There is a beautifully calming quality to the Blue Mountains. The kind that makes me feel like I want to build a log cabin and stay on for ever… Too much wishful thinking! “Maybe I should camp here overnight?” Good idea! I’ll do it in my next visit…Surely!

The Blue Mountains appear blue from a distance, therefore the name! There is a scientific reason behind this phenomenon. The terrain is covered with eucalyptus trees. The oil from the trees forms a misty layer in the surrounding atmosphere causing sunlight to refract and hence giving the mountains a blue tinge.

Hey, the Indian name for Eucalyptus is Nilgiri. (Sanskrit: Nil – Blue; Giri – Mountain) Just figured out why!! And there is the Nilgiri Mountain in the south of India.

We’ve walked around so much. Am I tired? Not in the least? Hungry? Yes, has anyone realized we are very close to lunch-time!?

A little further is an outfit called (chocoholics beware!) – The Chocolate Factory. What a place!! They manufacture and sell chocolates here, in this cosy dwelling nestled among mountains. Isn’t this the stuff dreams are made of!?

You see the process of making chocolate here. Needless to say, the place smells divine. Well, the olfactory and visual senses are targeted and the mind has stopped thinking. Doesn’t chocolate evoke the most primal emotions?

Well, it is from this place, in the fantastic backdrop of the Blue Mountains, that my first chili chocolate came from! This one is rich dark on the outside with a truffle centre. It has a “hand-made” look as if it’s rough and dented and rolled in cocoa.

We get the usual favourites packed – rum n’ raisin, plain dark, etc. and decide to sample the chili. At first bite it almost tastes like the regular dark and then slowly the warm spike of chili emerges on you. It is a complete explosion of flavors. Amazing!!

Hats off to the person who discovered chili chocolate! I mean cocoa is regular condiment of Mexican cuisine – like if I were to think of a parallel, akin to how Indian cuisine uses turmeric – but this is different! To most people today ‘chili chocolate’ is an outright oxymoron. To bring these diverse flavors together a person would need a mind that is OPEN. So much for philosophy!

Cheesecake at the Blue Mountains Chocolate Factory Cafe

We leave the place delighted at our discovery. We’re going to catch lunch… It’s going to be steak at a steakhouse back in Sydney – medium rare. Maybe today I’ll try it rare… surely… discuss it some other day.

P.S. A special thanks to my blogger buddy Prasan for motivating this post.

New Look for Chili Chocolate

Brad Pitt does it for almost every role. So does Aamir Khan, closer home in India. Now Chili Chocolate decides to follow suit, so cheers for a new look. Yippee!

No, the reason for changing is not so trivial – I’m not even close to suggesting that Mr Pitt or Mr Khan get a new image for frivolous reasons. Of course it’s to get under the skin of the character. – But it is not change for the sake of change!

Let’s go back to where we should – the beginning of Chili Chocolate (CC). There was a time I wrote when something really ‘inspired me’ and prompted me to put words on paper. Eventually, these articles just got lost in my bookshelf. So, when I started the blog, my intention was basically to have a place to post these pieces of writing.

“So what’s the big deal about it?” you’ll ask, “Most of the blogging community starts that way!” I know, but very soon I began to question and these questions perpetually seemed to be there at the back of my mind:

What does CC stand for?

Is it friendly?

Is it easy on the eyes or is it getting over-crowded and busy?

Please, but it doesn’t even have a welcome note!

This new look is my answer to all those questions (and exclamations).

But on the flip side, I’m still not used to this new ‘image’, if I may use the word! It feels like it’s someone else’s blog!! Guess it’ll take me some time to get accustomed.

If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies.

However, it is for you my readers and friends, to tell me if it is a butterfly or a dull moth. Your opinion matters to me… very much. Please take the poll and let me know (new readers included). I’ll be glad if you also leave a comment.

Long ago, a wise sage once said “If nothing changes, nothing changes”…