Lower Mainland chock a block with new chocolate shops

Don't worry: you still have two weeks until Valentine's Day.

ButOn The Coast food columnist Gail Johnson is getting a head start on enjoying the truest love celebrated on that occasion:chocolate.

Johnson says in the Lower Mainland a few new spots have come onto the scene, such as Cacao 70 in Vancouver's West End, the latest location for the Montreal-based franchise.

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"You can basically find chocolate in every possible form here. The menu is several pages long," she told On The Coast host Stephen Quinn.

"You can order dishes such as chocolate parfait, all sorts of crepes and waffles with melted white, dark and milk chocolate, chocolate cake, chocolate pizza, various chocolate-based milkshakes, like a salted caramel milkshake, and even different chocolate fondues," she said.

"One is called the flaming turtle and comes with a dipping sauce made of caramel, milk chocolate and rum."

Another new spot is Mon Paris Patisserie in Burnaby's Metrotown neighbourhood.

It's a small chocolate shop owned and operated by Elena Krasnova, originally from Volgograd, Russia.

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"During her childhood during the perestroika period, bare necessities were in demand, and that's when she learned to express herself creatively, to make something out of nothing," she said.

"She ended up going to France, where she did her training in the culinary arts. At Mon Paris, makes the kind of chocolates that are miniature pieces of art, the kind that come in all sorts of bold colours and are just beautiful to look at."

Mon Paris has offerings like mandarin-orange-and-lemon ganache, a blackcurrant compote and yogurt ganache, coffee ganache with hazelnut and a passionfruit coconut truffle. She also makes classic French pastries and croissants as well as several different types of cake.

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Johnson's final new chocolate shop is Lisa Lou's Chocolate Bar on Main Street in Vancouver, owned by local chocolatier Lisa Gardin.

"She is a Surrey native who knew from about age 12 that she wanted to be a chef. By the time she was in high school she was working at Bishops' and the Wedgewood," Johnson said.

"Her passion is in making chocolate bars; her dream is to make 100 different flavours and sell them all over the world. Right now she's up to 12."

Gardin has three lines of chocolate:"Boys," which all feature roasted nuts; "Ladies," which are a lighter, wheat-free and contain fruit jelly; and "Hipsters," which are vegan-friendly and wheat-free.

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast