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Saturday, February 10, 2018

14th Belmont Shore Chocolate Festival

Every summer we make it a point to visit the Belmont Shore for the Stroll and Savor. Right before Valentines Day, the same area of Long Beach has a chocolate festival! This is the 14th year to celebrate chocolate here.
To start, we need tickets. 12 tickets for $10 makes these worth 83¢ each.

Gone are the days of the ticket books. Now we have a sheet of tear-tabs.

Along with our tickets we grabbed a map. There's 25 different restaurants participating in some form or another today.

What looks good guys?

The great thing about these chocolate treats is that none of them are too big, so they shouldn't cost too many tickets and we'll be able to sample lots of different things. T got a very gooey chocolate brownie (1 ticket) and it was rich, chocolatey, and delicious.

Both Ian and Alli saw white chocolate strawberries covered with pink sprinkles (2 tickets) and they each had to have one.

In the past, we've seen a girl scout here and there pulling a wagon selling cookies. This year the girl scouts were out in full force. I think there were 8 tables spread up and down the street with girls selling cookies.
These two came up and asked if they could give the kids stickers. Along with the stickers, they handed each of them a valentine too. Cute.

Nick's on 2nd used to offer food at the Stroll and Savor. More recently they've skipped all offerings. When I saw they had something this time, we crossed the street from our normal path to make sure we got it before they ran out.

They offered a 2 pack of Oreo Chocolate Truffles (2 tickets).
It wasn't as good as the Chicken and Waffles or BBQ ribs they've offered in the past, but it was rich and chocolatey and still good.

The line for chocolate crepes stretched a ways down the sidewalk. They were served in a snow cone cup and topped with whipped cream. Looked tasty, but we decided not to wait in the long line.

We skipped the "bites" of chocolate cake for 2 tickets.

Instead we spent 2 tickets to get a chocolate covered churro.

Churros are delicious when they're hot and fresh. This one wasn't so hot and fresh.

One of the favorites today was a very simple dish from one of the taco shops. Cinnamon and sugar chips coated with chocolate sauce for just 1 ticket. The chips were super fresh and light and it was really tasty.

More truffles. This time they were more exotic flavors. Chocolate Goat Cheese, Chocolate Lemon Thyme, Chocolate Balsamic. At 1 ticket each, why not try all 3 flavors. I wanted the goat cheese to be my favorite, but the chocolate overwhelmed that one. Instead, I liked the tangy balsamic truffle best.

A shortbread cookie for 1 ticket. Tasty enough. Neither Ian or Alli wanted it until I told them how much I was looking forward to eating it. Then they were quick to shove it into their mouths.

At the very very end of the street, a new to us restaurant called roe offered fried donuts coated with sugar and chocolate sauce. They came out hot and fresh and were delicious.

The Frosted Cupcakery is the best place we've found to spend any extra tickets we have at the end. All cakes are just 1 ticket each. We had 5 tickets remaining, so everyone got to choose their favorite.

A chocolate cupcake with red heart sprinkles. Alli knew what she wanted.

The adults all chose the red velvet cupcakes. I really wanted that delicious cream cheese frosting. I wasn't disappointed. It was delicious.

Oh yeah. These kids love chocolate.

If Alli had an alternate universe evil twin, this is what I imagine she'd look like.

We were really happy with all the different offerings this year. With our 24 tickets, we sampled 12 unique items and everyone came away satisfied. 

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