|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Chocolate Bombs and Pop Rocks By Sandra Scott |
| ||||
|
No sooner had we checked into our room and Larissa arrived with a plate of welcome refreshments. Dinner at The Lodge’s award-wining Wildflowers Restaurant was another surprise. The international menu included Grilled Octopus and Pan Seared Foie Gras for starters followed by Dover Sole, Pan Seared Filet that was raised by the Oneida Nation, and something I had never heard of, Veal Cheek with Parmesan Polenta. The meal started with a Palette Pleasure to “get the taste buds excited” and included an intermezzo of Cranberry Ginger Sorbet.
While we were “oohing” and “ahhing” over the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bombs we learned that everything is made in-house and the bakers were busy making not only chocolate and other confections but also gingerbread. At Christmastime the Turning Stone Resort and Casino creates an entire village of gingerbread. Executive Pastry Chef Jennifer DiGiorgio led us to the kitchen where everyone was busy creating wonderful treats, including Kelsie Holden who was making Chocolate Roulade. We continued to
where stacks of trays, each containing 300 to 500 pieces of
gingerbread, were ready to be assembled into a village that
ultimately included a church, houses, and other luscious
The Turning Stone really lights up for the holiday. All together there are more than 15,000 lights on the 35-foot Emerald Lobby tree and the 50-foot outside tree. The beautiful Turning Stone property will dazzle visitors with more than 300,000 lights and one million ornaments resort-wide. Visit www.turningstone.com. |
|||||
|
|
|||||
| Back to ChocolateAtlas.com | |||||
|
Visit other F&B Travel Atlas sites: |
|||||
|
|
an all-suite AAA
Four-Diamond hotel, The Lodge. A beautiful enclosed walkway connects
the hotel to the gaming area but the ambiance is pastoral. The
Turning Stone Resort and Casino sits on over 1,200 acres of pristine
wooded, rolling hills with the area around the buildings beautifully
landscaped.
But it was the
chocolate at the end of the meal that really caught us by surprise.
We were advised to, “Put it all in your mouth at once.” We did.
Surprise! The chocolate was made with Pop Rocks that exploded like
fireworks in our mouths. What a wonderful concept and an
unforgettable way to end a meal.
The next day we
explored the gaming area and could not pass by Opals Confectionery.
Jeremy was just pulling out a tray of Chocolate Peanut Butter Bombs,
just one of the luscious chocolate delights at Opals. “This is our
most popular item,” he said.
additions.
The finished creation required more than 1,000 pounds of dough to
create the gingerbread pieces, hundreds of pounds of icing; and, of
course, chocolate. The barn’s silo is made with hundreds of mini
foil-wrapped chocolate bars and larger chocolate bars make up the
sidewalk. In all 110 pounds of chocolate was used in this year’s
village. It takes a thousand man-hours to create the village and
each year the village gets bigger as new buildings are added.
Located in the Emerald Lobby, the village is a showstopper
and a wonderful treat for young and old alike—the perfect addition
to the holiday season.