Death by Chocolate

A friend of mine and I went out to dinner last week at a restaurant I hadn’t been to in a few years, but I remembered they had good desserts.

Sure enough, when the waitress came over to tell us about the choices, I knew immediately which one I wanted to try: Death by Chocolate. It had three layers: a toffee-chocolate crust; chocolate mousse; and chocolate ganache. All topped by real whipped cream.

Of course, I didn’t want to actually die of chocolate overload, or even have a food hangover from it. So I prepared beforehand.

For instance, I generally try to avoid foods I’m sensitive to, although I will make exceptions when going out to dinner for something really good. Since I knew I wanted dessert in this case, which would almost certainly have something I avoid (It’s hard to find desserts without dairy, eggs, and/or gluten), I skipped the bread basket.

Similarly, for my main dish of scallops and risotto, I ate the tasty scallops and most of the asparagus and mushrooms in the risotto, but I skipped much of the risotto itself, both because I have to be careful with rice and cheese, but also because I wanted to be hungry for dessert.

It worked, since I still had room for something else when we finished our main courses. Even so, I’m glad my friend and I split the dessert, since it was on the large side. Had I eaten all of it, I really might have had Death by Chocolate, but as it was, I had just enough to satisfy me. That, in addition to eating in a nice restaurant and sharing the meal with a good friend, made it an all-around wonderful meal.