Chocolate Vacation

I don't usually like to share much of my personal life.  This is a cooking blog, and you probably are not interested in every thought I have.  I also don't do restaurant reviews, but this has to do with items I've either made or have on my to-do list.

For my birthday, we went to a restaurant in downtown Philly called Max Brenner's.  The menu is ok, the food is good enough but not wonderful, and the presentation is amazing.  That's how you hide so-so items, with creative plating techniques.  The desserts are the most important part.  I recommend sharing an appetizer or two, then skipping straight to the chocolate.  Two of our desserts:

Chocolate Tiramisu

Chocolate Burger

The tiramisu was very creamy with excellent-quality chocolate.  The side of berries didn't make much sense, but I found it "necessary" to add the vial of additional chocolate syrup.  The burger was a slab of fudge on top of marshmallow cream in a powdered-sugar dusted bun.  It came with vials of white chocolate and raspberry sauce.

A few days later, we went to Hersheypark.  For a theme park named after chocolate, there isn't a whole lot of chocolate theming.  It's all roller coasters.  However, the company headquarters and Chocolate World are nearby.

One part of the theme park that did impress me was that they have a Kosher food stand.  It was closed for Passover, but should be open by now.  I don't know of any other park that has made the effort.

So, there you have it.  The food-related highlights of my trip.

Oh, and Linus is settling into his new home.  He's already best friends with Charlotte.