Ch-ch-ch-chocolate!

Just a few of the chocolate offerings at the G Hotel

    I am a woman, ergo I love chocolate.  I like cheap chocolate and expensive stuff.  I like almost all chocolate except the dark chocolate that's actually supposed to be good for you.  One of the things on my "bucket list" is to visit Hershey, Pennsylvania, where I hear the sweet aroma of chocolate literally permeates the air of the whole town.

       In the meantime, though, the Chocolate Dessert Buffet presented at the G Hotel here in Penang will do quite nicely, thank you!  It's the largest collection of edible sin I've ever seen outside of the shelves of any supermarket in America, and much more elegantly presented! 

      My husband and I go whenever there's any special event or even an imaginary special occasion in our lives.  (For a guy, he's remarkably interested in the sweet stuff.)  We often see dating couples there, since it runs from 8:00 to midnight on alternate Saturdays.  But the last time we went, there was a nice variety of folks there. 

         I spoke with a Chinese couple from Hong Kong, who declared that the atmosphere was nice and the price quite reasonable.  It's RM 45++ (or about  US $17, about ten pounds or about 1,500 yen.)  And it's even 20% less than that if you have a G4U card that anyone can get for free just by asking the hotel.  The couple said it would cost double that in Hong Kong and that the time would be shorter and probably limited.

6-week-old Yu Bin at his first Choc. Buffet

  This little fellow, named Yu Bin, was probably getting addicted to chocolate via his mother, since he is only six weeks old. The baby's aunt, a young Chinese gal, was treating the proud new parents to the buffet to celebrate the fat that this was the first baby born into the family.  Yu Bin had no comment, but his parents said they thought the buffet was very enjoyable. 

       So did a pair of Australian fellows visiting for the holidays.  They seemed particularly entranced with the praline candies, and they pointed out that the price was right compared to their country, where a single truffle can evidently cost two Australian dollars.  They knew all about it because they'd visited a web site that tells more about this death-by-chocolate experience. 

     You can, too, if you go to this home page:  http://www.crizfood.com/1845/chocolate-buffet-soy-g-hotel-penang/
(I figure there's no point in reinventing the wheel by telling you all the same stuff that that food blogger does.  Besides, he did it better!)

It takes a lot of will power not to stick a finger in!

    But let me just say that the buffet offers chocolate in all its delicious manifesta-tions.  Besides all those pralines, there's a line of silver chafing dishes with hot items, like lava cake, a banana chocolate "pie" and such. 

    Then there's the inevitable chocolate fountain, except that there are two -- one white and one regular.  There are all kinds of logical and illogical things you can dip into them, though I've never done it personally.  I do know that kids just love playing in chocolate fountains, dribbling the stuff all over, mixing the white with the dark, dropping chocolate-laden items all over the buffet and so on.  Luckily nobody seems to bring little kids to this Saturday night buffet, so it remains fairly pristine (except for the bit of white chocolate that seems to have wandered into the black chocolate fountain in this photo.)

Chocolate Fruit Pizza, anyone?

     Kids also seem to like chocolate fruit pizza, though I've never been even tempted to "spend" any of my precious chocolate space on it personally.  I prefer my pizza savory!

This doesn't look like THE BEST ONE, but it is!

         
   I chatted with the chef and she was willing to go out on a limb and say that her personal favorite of all the offerings was the "Exotic Milk Chocolate Adventure," and I agree!  Not only is the name enticing, but the cake itself defies description, it's so good.  But there are a lot of other scrumptious-sounding things, too:  White Chocolate Mango Rosemary Entremets (whatever that is!), Chocolate Cherry Mousse Torte, Chocolate Fruit Tartlet, Chocolate Marquise Cake, and -- well, you get the idea.  It just goes on and on!  All the while you're plied with tiny cups of real, and I do mean real, hot chocolate to drink.

        The chef also told us that the leftovers from the buffet are sent to the staff canteen, which makes me wonder if somehow I might get myself employed at the G Hotel.  I'd work for minimum wage myself if there were quality chocolate treats like these in the break room!

The shiny stuff on top is gold!