Northwest Sweet

For the last few days, I've been ambling around Seattle and Vancouver, which beats hanging out in snow-covered Boulder. I've had the good fortune to sample some extraordinary chocolate, as well as visit a restaurant specializing in fillo, including sweets.

Dilettante Chocolates is a Seattle institution. Although I find the name a wee bit peculiar, I'd always try and purchase a few of their chocolate bars from their coffee stand at the Seattle/Tacoma airport, usually after sampling a bowl of Ivar's clam chowder.

Meeting up with friends on Wednesday night, I had my first exposure to one of their Mocha Cafe locations, which features a stunning array of treats for the cocoa lover. Visitors can purchase everything from salmon-shaped chocolate bars to sinister three-foot tall chocolate Easter bunnies straight out of Donnie Darko. Light meals are also available, but the main draws are the chocolate drinks, ice cream parlor treats and pastries.

While Starbucks' may have given up on selling super-rich hot chocolate, Mocha Cafes offer no less than seven different varieties of molten hot chocolate, ranging from white to Ephemere dark, which is Dilettante's signature cocoa base, used in everything from truffles to cakes. You'll notice the picture of the truffle box - the reason you don't see the truffles themselves is that my friend and I ate them before it dawned on me it would make for a good photograph.

At the cafe, I opted for a Ephemere ice cream soda, made with premium vanilla ice cream and rich chocolate. It had a much darker chocolate taste than any other ice cream drink I've ever had, and it was just as flavor-packed as any chocolate cake. The creaminess of the vanilla helped offset the dark intensity of the chocolate base which wasn't overly sweet and had a heady strength resembling fine espresso. My companions went for dark and moist chocolate tortes, which were the equal of the superlative ice cream soda.

Up in Vancouver, a friend took me to the Acacia Fillo Bar in the bustling West End. Specializing in dishes prepared with the light pastry found in baklava, this delightful and reasonably-priced cafe offers fillo-wrapped omelets, meat and vegetable turnovers, fresh-baked croissants, and of course, desserts. Service is impecabble as the incredibly suave owner sees to it that you have an experience wrapped in Old World hospitality.

My friend and I stopped in for dessert, and we shared a chocolate mousse with berries wrapped in fillo and a bird's nest, shredded and sweetened fillo topped with glazed strawberry and Belgian cream. While some might find the bird's nest a bit sweet, I was partially drawn to it as I remember reading about it in one of M.F.K. Fisher's books. We stopped by a few days later for breakfast, where I had a banzita, a flaky and fillng quiche-like tart filled with leek and feta cheese. My friend enjoyed her wild mushroom omelet, and raved about the sweet yams that came on the side.

Lastly, I stopped in at Daniel Chocolates, a Belgian chocolatier located in the heart of the Robson Street shopping district. I picked up a box of chocolates for folks at home, and if the candy bars I bought for myself and my friend are any indication, they are at least the equal of Dilettante. Where do you get your chocolate fix?