Real-life Willy Wonka

Yes, you read that subject line correctly. And yes, the above picture is a delectable chocolate creation. This weekend, I went on a trip with my cooking class to Eurochocolate, which is often described as the Oktoberfest of chocolate. Chocolateers (is that a word?) from all over europe come to Perugia, Italy to show their best work to the world. Needless to say, I sampled many types of chocolate and spent the day participating in fun, chocolate-oriented games and activities to win prizes. (Most of the prizes were silly hats, right up my alley.

I also got a chococard through my class which entitled me to several free goodies including a chocolate hammer, chocolate vitamins, a tasting of a local wine, among other things. The chocolate hammer, which was the symbol for the festival this year for some reason, is a great example of how they had everything you could possibly imagine made out of chocolate. We saw chocolate fish, cell phones, ipods, turtles, jack-o-lanterns and even the Personal Chocolate, a laptop made entirely of milk chocolate. The above picture is of a chocolate kabab, a play off the favorite European fast food item.

My favorite part of the day had to be when we went to the Ciobar (brand of Italian hot chocolate) booth and discovered that they were filming people for a commercial. Needless to say, my friends and I donned the ridiculous costumes and sang the Ciobar jingle with pride. When I figure out how to do so, I will post a video I took of our taping.

This will be the last post for a while as I am heading out on fall break begining on Thursday. In case you've forgotten, we are visiting Dublin, Galway, Barcelona, Madrid, and Paris. SO EXCITING!

Ciao for now!
Liz