I have to talk most­ly about choco­late this week.

What with the New Zealand choco­late fes­ti­val next week­end (Fri­day 5th to Sun­day 7th), and Amora’s choco­late buf­fet over the fol­low­ing two weeks, it’d be rude not to.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly I can’t get to this year’s New Zealand choco­late fes­ti­val, but I am SO going next year.  I’ve seen the amaz­ing show pieces George from Bohe­mein has made for past events and can only imag­ine that spend­ing four hours indulging in all things choco­late must be like a lit­tle (choco­latey) slice of heav­en.

Check out their web­site for fes­ti­val infor­ma­tion and tick­et pur­chas­es (Sat­ur­day and Sun­day ses­sions sell­ing fast).Amora chocolate

And for those who can’t make the fes­ti­val, or who just want to see where their choco­late lim­its lie, Amo­ra Hotel is again doing their choco­late buf­fet from 6th to 22nd Sep­tem­ber.

Now this I have done pre­vi­ous­ly and can claim the fam­i­ly crown for going the dis­tance (even against sweet-toothed teenagers I might add – they’re so much noise!).  It’s all in the pac­ing and hav­ing a good non-choco­latey foun­da­tion break­fast (or lunch depend­ing on what ses­sion you aim for) to line one’s stom­ach in prepa­ra­tion.

Whether you’re a savoury or sweet fan, or a white or dark lover, there’s plen­ty here to tempt all eaters.  And for $34.95 per adult and $16.95 per child, that’s a def­i­nite cou­pla hours of fun.

Dai­ly from 5.30pm or 7pm, or Saturday/Sunday fam­i­ly friend­ly ses­sions from 2–4pm.

And last­ly, for the Amer­i­can fans out there, anoth­er Amer­i­can din­er avail­able to you on the cor­ner of Wake­field and Tory – Mama Brown’s.

Serv­ing South Amer­i­can and Mex­i­can food, the décor, table­ware and music all add up to fun, with the food down home and sat­is­fy­ing.Mama browns

A breakfast/brunch menu with some inter­est­ing and dif­fer­ent dish­es (almond stuffed French toast with cher­ry sal­si­ta, bacon and egg sam­mie between Amer­i­can bis­cuits) and lunch­es includ­ing tacos, slid­ers, bur­ri­tos etc.

I not­ed inter­est­ing milk­shake flavours (peanut but­ter, kitkat, salt­ed caramel), and a doorstop­per fudgey choco­late brown­ie on the counter (yep its all about choco­late this week), so am sure my feet will wind back this way at some point in the near future.

There’ll be a hia­tus from me next week while I check out Melbourne’s offer­ings, but I’ll be back the week after, and one of the oth­er Welling­ton­ista’s is going to the choco­late fes­ti­val so will no doubt fill you in.  Hap­py choco­lat­ing!