I, Chocolate Whore

I knew I had a problem but I didn't know how damned unmanageable it was until earlier this week when I went to L'Artisan du Chocolat! One of Silverlake's best kept secrets, this small chocolate shop is tucked away behind the giant Public Storage high rise at Beverly & Virgil (at 3364 West First St.). Maybe that isn't even technically Silverlake anymore? I don't think it's Koreatown. Maybe it's in that weird Twilight Zone where only hardcore chowhounds and eccentric nannies like Mary Poppins go to corrupt young children and/or get the monkey off their back. I know that after this last trip I'm hooked on their Pave Noirs (the China White of chocolates!).

Ironically, I went to get the chocolates as a gift to a business associate who I learned is ten years sober. So I had to carefully select chocolates that had no liquer in them -- not easy since so many were "tainted." So I went for the rose petal, pomegranate, Japanese green tea matcha, basil, passion fruit, Aztec (3 chilis with apricot), vanilla, chestnut, thyme, hibiscus and, OH MY GOD, lots of the classic truffles! And then bought all the boozey ones to take home and gorge in front of the ongoing coverage of the Phil Spector trial on Court TV.

Then yesterday, as I was jonseing for my next fix (and furiously working Steps 1, 2 and 3), I opened the L.A. Times and found this article (with photo above) about a protest in Oakland where they are planning to close the local Hershey plant and move it all to Mexico!

"The Hershey Co. — Oakdale's biggest employer and the nation's biggest candy company — announced its plan to close its sprawling plant, eliminate all 575 jobs and open a new factory in Monterrey, Mexico. On one side of busy Yosemite Avenue, the festival drew children to games where they slathered their heads in syrup as their parents patiently stood in line to buy bookend-size chunks of toffee."

Bookend-sized chunks of toffee???????? I WAAAAAANT ONE!!!!