Downtown adventures~~ Hot chocolate comas and Japanese food truck and...crickets??

No regrets <3 The richest cafes downtown serve expensive hot chocolate for the festival, but it's worth...unlike the powdery hot chocolates or ones filled with syrup, Thierry and Bel Café definitely used high quality cocoa powder. (Also, I had to take pictures of Thierry because everything was just too beautiful...if you want to splurge and indulge, then this is the place to go. 

 

 

 

This hot chocolate from Thierry was called he Domincan: "The base of this hot chocolate is 67% Los Ancones chocolate by Paris chocolatier Michel Cluizel." It also comes with a cream puff, which they call the Tonka Bean cream Choux. To me, it just tasted like a cinnamon flavored cream puff with lots of egg yolk in the bready parts. Still delicious <3

 

 

This one from Bel Café (located in a hotel) is called the Rainforest Hot Chocolate. It's topped with mint leaves and mango whipped cream and served with brittle. I also ordered macarons because I just couldn't resist...I got the carrot cake and dark chocolate flavors.

 

 

The weirdest options from the hot chocolate festival were the "Don't Bug Me" and "Flu Shot". First off, the "Flu Shot" is straight up liquid white chocolate that tastes a little bit like condensed milk. It comes with a cough drop...classy, ahaha. It's a bit awkward to squirt in your mouth, and it's quite drippy; try not to inject too much or it'll actually taste like medicine.

If you can already see, the "Don't Bug Me" comes with scrumptious crickets! But in all honesty, it felt pretty morbid and disgusting to touch the crickets and eat them at first; I had to dip the heads of the insects in whipped cream because I couldn't stand the thought of crushing the eyes. True, insects are generally not very aesthetically pleasing to look at. However, if you don't try it because of your fears, then shame on you. These crickets just taste like junk food, like chips. It's one of those things where you have to try it at least once.

Since it's absolutely unhealthy to just drink hot chocolate for lunch, we stopped by Mogu, the Japanese food truck. I ordered the Kabotcha Croquette burger with a side salad. The Japanese lady meticulously wrapped packaged everything so neatly :3 It was also really yummy; it had squash croquette and avocado, and the side salad had a really tasty dressing...I think it's because they put MSG in it O_o My friend ordered the Karage chicken.

 

Thierry: 1059 Alberni St, Vancouver BC V6E 1A1

Bel Café: 801 Georgia St W, Vancouver BC V6C 1P7

Mink Chocolates: 863 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9