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!