Chocolate High Tea

Is there anything better than chocolate? Piles and piles of chocolate. Sounds like heaven to me.

There’s an incredible, no-holds-barred chocolate event every Sunday at a fancy hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. Picture a refined English tea but, instead of crustless cucumber finger sandwiches, everything is chocolate. Chocolate cake pops, cupcakes, mousse, macaron, truffles, tortes, bark, éclair, cakes in all shapes and sizes. You name it, they had it. It was chocolate gluttony at its finest. It was heaven.

My favorite pastry was, surprisingly, banana flavored. The ganache filling had an acidic zing to it, maybe from passion fruit. Crunchy red sugar lace crowned the top, and made it even more appealing. My second favorite was the buttery pastry cup filled with foie gras and topped with caramelized pineapple. The foie gras’s melt-in-your-mouth richness was perfectly balanced by the sweet-tart pineapple. Although chocolate was the star, this appetizer held its own.

I went back for not one, not two, but THREE rounds of pastries. If it’s possible to OD on sugar, I may have. In an effort to balance the sweetness overload I ordered a bunch of savory finger foods. Out came a platter filled with mini tuna tartar, a caprese sandwich, chicken sandwich, and a baby taco. If there’s one thing I like as much as chocolate, it’s tiny food. So cute!

In case eating your weight in chocolate and stuffing your face with refined, delectable pastries sounds like your ideal Sunday afternoon too, the “Chocolate Afternoon Tea” is served at the Café des Beaux-Arts in Saigon. Cheers! ☕️

Nothing like a little classical music to make you feel extra fancy, eh?