Return to Chi Chocolate

Barracks 19 was just a few buildings down from that Italian restaurant that serves hair on their pizza (as well as BURNT RIBS, per Mary's experience)...

It's right across the street from a bakery as well as around the corner from Slater's 50/50.

Both Kirbie and I had been to Chi Chocolate before, but were excited to go again to try something new...

You'll notice I like to include pictures of signs and exteriors of the buildings. I'm a visual person and I like seeing these types of cues so I know where the hell I am. It's easy to mistake one building for another at Liberty Station. Remember, this used to be the Naval Training Center (aka "NTC") which was built in the 1920's. Many of the buildings look the same. My dad, a former Navyman, was trained here back in the early 60's, and knows this place like the back of his hand. Here's an old post where I wax nostalgic about what NTC meant to me.

When you walk in the door to the building, there is a tiny artist studio on the left...

followed by a foyer, then Chi on your right.

The owner and his lovely wife and young daughters weren't there that day. I remember chatting with him last time and he was super nice.

Kirbie and I both admired this chocolate slipper, which featured metallic decorations (edible?) and was filled with beautiful handmade chocolates. I imagine that if someone tried to wear this, the chocolate would melt into a big mess on your feet.

In addition to chocolates, they were also selling pastries ($3 each), packages of chocolate dipped cookies, and a quad of macarons ($10 each/they were kind of small though so we passed on them).See that heart? That is made out of chocolate and you can also fill that with even more chocolate!

When I was looking at the name for this truffle, I did a double take.  "Niyog" means "coconut" in Tagalog (pronounced as "nee-Yohg"). I asked the worker about it and she confirmed that it was because the owner is Filipina. I was secretly pleased about this. I also remember seeing her daughters last summer and they had that exotic mestiza look (the husband is Caucasian) but I wasn't sure of their ethnicity until now.

The star anise sounded interesting. In the future, I want to try the Jules (butterscotch). The pink sugared one was champagne flavored, which I had last time.

Here's one of the paintings from that studio next door.

I thought our chocolates looked spectacular with this table top's design.

Kirbie's choices - the Espresso truffle and the Niyog (coconut):

This was my Chili Tangerine spike after it was bitten...

The dark chocolate went well with the tangerine filling, which had a bit of a kick to it due to the chili. I liked it better than the other chocolate, which had a star anise filling. It was quite strong and it reminded me of the spices that my mom uses to marinate Cornish game hens. It also reminded me of certain Chinese dishes. Well, I gave it a try.

Her espresso truffle was quite good and the coconut was excellent as well. Great choices. As for mine, not so much the star anise.

Previous visit to Chi:

Bert's birthday back in September (after we had Slater's), plus Kirbie's more recent visit earlier this year.

As we were nibbling on our chocolates, our gaze rested upon the scene across the street where folks were enjoying pastries and bread. I think we both knew that we would end up there afterwards!

Up next...carbs galore!