Yesterday was the Chile Pepper Fiesta at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. There was a Chocolate Chile Cabana, so naturally, I had to check things out. In my hand, here is some Chocolate Chile Ice Cream and a ginger cookie. It was one of the items in the Peppers ‘N’ Chocolate Takedown: an amatuer cooking contest involving chocolate and chile. Up against the ice cream were chocolate pepper poppers (which were interesting), short rib and mole ravioli, another ice cream creation and some unintelligible brown chunky stuff called “Chocolate Pain.” Seriously, I had no idea what it was. Perhaps there was some meat in it? I cast my vote for the last entry; bread pudding, for which I have also posted a disappearing pan of:
I mean, come on. Just look at those chocolate chips on top. The mole ravioli didn’t stand a chance. It also didn’t help that the ladies gave me the HUGEST slice with a big dollop of whipped cream. Bread pudding. Who knew? I thought for the longest time that bread pudding was, well, pudding. Like rice pudding. Yeck. But bread pudding is very good, especially when it’s chocolate.
In this tent area there were also samples from tons and tons of chocolate companies in the New York, such as Fine and Raw, Mari’s New York, and dun dun dun… Kumquat Cupcakery! I was happy to try one of those tiny babies, even though I would have rather tried a plain chocolate cupcake over a spicy chocolate one. But this was the Chile Fest. And unfortunately they cut up samples that were only cake, so I can not tell you if the frosting was fabulous or not. TBD, I guess.
The above photo are samples of some spicy chocolate from Vere Chocolate, which was, as the sign states, HOT. My nose started to get runny it was so spicy (this does, however, also happen from time to time at Chipotle). The woman warned me it was hot and after I took a bite and agreed, she was like, “Well, this is the Chile Fiesta, isn’t it?” Yes, ma’am.
And will you look-ey here. Chocolate stout! Why, I never! I would have loved to sample a glass (plastic cup?) of this curiosity but am currently… how you say… broke. Broke, broke, broke. I must be financially conscious and chocolate stout was, unfortunately, not in the budget.
But what WAS in the budget was this awesome new tattoo I got on my way out!
There were other activities going on at the BBG for the Chile Pepper Fiesta: live music, dancing, cooking lessons, exhibitions, etc., but the Chocolate Chile Cabana was the one I paid the most attention to.
Hot stuff, indeed!
City Mitten 