Warming Up to Winter Solstice

Yesterday was winter solstice and it was definitely a blast of freezing cold air.

My friend and I were waiting for the bus and when he drank some water and it spilled onto his ski jacket, it immediately turned into frost.

Yep it was that cold.

But the good thing was, we were heading to a place to warm up.

Comptoirs de France is a nice hangout for lazy weekend afternoons, with its tempting array of pastries, sandwiches and ice creams.

The bakery has just started its chocolate fondue special of 99RMB ($14.45) for two.

We were given a small glass of water each with a plate, spoon and fondue fork each.

After a while, the mini feast arrived, a large pot of melted chocolate heated by a tea light, surrounded by cookies, diced dragon fruit, kiwi and a selection of ice creams.

I'm not quite sure why they included ice creams, but we had to eat those first. The flavours were mango (not quite mango-y), strawberry, raspberry (very good) and a creamy chocolate.

Then we dug into the fondue itself, dipping the cookies in and lavishing them with lots of warm liquid chocolate before putting them into our mouths.

It would have been better to have more fruits, especially strawberries, but they weren't available. Marshmallows would have made it an even sweeter experience.

Nevertheless, we soon finished the small plates and didn't have anything else to go with the chocolate... perhaps we should have asked for some bread for some pain au chocolat...

Comptoirs de France
Business Building No. 5 First Floor
Hairun International Apartment
B2 Jiangtai Road, Lido
Beijing
5135 7645