Keeping Friendships Alive with Chocolate

A couple of my girlfriends invited me to Brunch on Sunday at Co Co Sala on F Street in Washington DC.  It is getting difficult to keep good friendships alive these days. What with a busy life at different office locations and families who need us, we have not been able to take time out to meet up. Finally, we decided to get our circle back on track and cherish good times once again. Thanks 'L' for initiating this long awaited get together!!

Co Co Sala is a restaurant, chocolate boutique and cocktail lounge serving a perfect balance of excellent dining and melt in your mouth homemade chocolate pairings. Dear God, where could we go to spoil ourselves better than Co Co Sala? I had a Birthday Dinner there once, and loved the food at the time, every creation is artfully made with my favorite thing in the whole world-Chocolate!! Doesn't chocolate always make a woman feel better? So here we are trying to pick from a chocoholic's dream menu and talking at the same time with no idea where to start -we had a lot to catch up on after two years.

Salted Caramel Coco

I was ready for an indulgent meal but there is no way I can adequately describe the look on our faces when we saw the Brunch menu!!  We had a short wait before our table was ready and while we waited at the bar, placed orders for a salted caramel Coco. The salted caramel Coco is an impeccably smooth drink to start with and the little toasted marshmallow garnish added a dainty sweet touch to it. A heavenly liquid with an aroma that you want to keep smelling long before you take the very first sip, in the hope that you never see the bottom of the warm cup!!

It made me chuckle when I looked at L's face as she took a bite of her Grown Up grilled cheese, and the sudden smile that appeared on I's face as the waiter placed the  the Peanut Butter brittle cheesecake in front of her. My eyes were bigger than my tummy when I glanced down at my artfully prepared plate of crabcake with a small salad, colorful just like an artists stencil. Three fairly good crabcakes and the mango salsa and the arugula salad in the center. The thick and creamy avocado,cilantro emulsion knobs were placed in three corners with a nice bit of chipotle chocolate tomato glaze atop each knob.

Peanut Butter Brittle Cheesecake

Crispy Cajun Crabcakes with Avocado cilantro emulsion and chipotle chocolate tomato glaze

My dessert is called the Stolen Heart made of white chocolate and raspberry mousse in the shape of a heart but the texture was so smooth and silky with crispy pearls of chocolate bits embedded in the mousse.

It stole my heart!!!

Let me just say that the portions can be pretty small, but there are so many different dimensions to each plate that it turned out very satisfactory and sufficiently filling. The chocolate dessert was to the point of extreme satisfaction and the meal ended for us with big smiles. In the past we've had many fantastic meals together, but this experience will forever be etched in our memories. Oh comeon, three women and chocolate? How can we forget this? Good meals and special friends are very hard to find and when you do they are always such a pleasure. We said goodbyes, promising to keep in touch with more interesting 'girlfriends' brunch's in the future.
Take care,
 Malli