chocolate

The Sofitel Metropole, the oldest and most prestigious hotel in Hanoi not only serves high tea, but a chocolate buffet!!!  Pete introduced me last month, and I just went yesterday with Mette and her mom & friends. It’s actually my third time in a month!!! I usually eat some bit of chocolate everyday anyway…but my goodness! I feel so divine and decadent at a chocolate buffet!!!

I’ve taken a few photos in my last two visits and give you a little taste here!

What do you get when you put two friends together who love the Metropole, who are starvin’ Marvins and have pretty much skipped the lunch hour altogether?  You get Pete and Shanna at the Metropole for high tea!  I’m not a super fancy person, but there is a certain joy which comes with stepping into a historic property such as the Metropole.  Add what is to be a formal service like high tea, and I feel like a little girl dressed in her Sunday best (except that it was Saturday and I was in my jeans).

Both Pete and I were quite starved.  Neither of us had a big breakfast and it was nearly 3:00p.m.  I thought about getting a salad or a sandwich, but the high tea service comes with a chocolate buffet.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am a chocolate addict and pretty much eat some form of chocolate every day.  It’s a must.  I truly believe that if chocolate were to disappear, I could not go on living. I would have to just give up and go to heaven (which would smell like the Ishiya cookie factory I once visited in Sapporo, Japan).

Our tea came with a three-tiered plate of goodness.  Tea sandwiches, fruit and some sweets are nicely presented for two.  However, with a fruit and chocolate buffet available to those who enjoy the high tea, Pete and I were both of the opinion that the biggest plate should have been tea sandwiches, not sweets.  Note to Metropole – switch this because it looks cheap on your part to give us just 3 little tea sandwiches each when we are paying $25 per person for the service.

Since I had just bought my iPhone, we spent much of our time playing with my new gadget as well as Pete’s iPad.  And as is the case with us, forgetting all about where we were, we resorted to taking a few silly photos of each other.  Do you like the ganache photo? ;p

Actually, we overdosed on the chocolate treats, making sure to try every piece on offer.  I haven’t had a sugar rush like that since Halloween 1983!  My goodness! If we weren’t silly before we sat down, we were bouncing off the walls by the end of our 2 hour tea time!  If you happen to be in Hanoi, than you must treat yourself to this service. It is special and it will no doubt make your eyes pop out when you see all that chocolate! Yum!