Monday 23 September 2013

Viva Last Vegas – A Prickles And Chocolate Experience.

cactus 3cactus 1
Yesterday we once more decided to leave the pleasures of “The Strip” for a while to partake in the diverse pleasures of prickles and chocolate ….
cactus 6We have seen a few cactus’s on our trips into the desert …. but we what we really wanted to see were some of the more mahoooosive and particular prickly ones ….. like the ones you see in cowboy films ….
cactus 12….. so we jumped on a bus and paid a visit to Ethel M®’s Botanical Cactus Garden which, would you Adam and Eve it,  also has a chocolate factory on site ….. just how fortuitous and spooky is that especially knowing our keen confectionary interests?
cactus ccactus
We “did” the cactus’s first …… OMG it was H.O.T …… well past our Richter Scale of looking and feeling fresh and fragrant …. I hate to be so descriptive …. but,  I was soooooo H.O.T. I could feel the sweat trickle down the crevice of my bum ……something I have never experienced before!
cactus 5Nigel also confessed to having the same problem, coupled with a raging and potentially fatal thirst and so pondered aloud as to whether it would be frowned upon to perhaps hack into one of the aforementioned cactus’s with his penknife and drink of its juice ….. in a lifesaving, rufty tufty cowboy type fashion ……. 
cactus 4Fearful that Nigel’s good intentions might be misconstrued and have us ejected from the gardens I suggested that it might be best that if we had seen all the cactus’s we wanted, it might be best to visit the cafe instead to quench our thirsts, and then venture to the Chocolate Factory …..
Ethel 12Ethel sd
Now, although America likes to think it does everything bigger and better than us …. we have to be honest, and without being rude, say that interesting as Ethel M’s is …. it isn’t a patch on our Cadbury World and we should know, as we have been there, and sampled of its wares quite a few times……ethel 123The Melting Tanks …….
ethel a…… and the Caramel Apple Station were a source of robust temptation for Nigel, so I made sure I kept a tight grip on him for fear of a Willy Wonka type scenario unfolding …… although he settled after being proffered some free samples.
ethel mNaturally,  we made several very small considered purchases ….. but decided it might be best to eat them there and then because, with the heat outside, we could all see them melting beyond recognition before we could get them back to our hotel ….
chocsAnd our considered opinion? ….. Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom ….. however,  as we were not in our kitchen at Castle Greysquirrel,  where we observe very stringent nomming conditions when reviewing, we decided that it was perhaps not the most appropriate time or place to award any of our Richter Scale of Noms …. but if we were,  Ethel M’s chocolates would have been in the between 6 and 9 bracket!

6 comments:

Mr.D said...

Those chocolates are making me feel hungry.
Great cacti. The plural of cactus can be cacti, cactuses or even cactus.

marc said...

lucky you did not fall on any of those monster scary mary danger plants to many pricks for me I fell on a cactus once and it was months getting the pricks out I had to go to hospital was horrid also not the best place for a choc factory as soon as you steeped out side you would as you say just have mush far to hot ice cream would have been better I Bet MR D knows of a few drinks made out of the plants and I think they may be stronger than water big love marc

Anonymous said...

I would definitely vote for viewing the cactus from inside....HOT with sweat trickles going in any direction wouldn't be my choice! Cadbury is available everywhere in the US but I would seriously doubt it is the same quality you have in the UK; might not even be made in the UK.....Many many small chocolate candy companies in the US, but few reach the quality of European chocolate..... I would be searching for something tall, cool and frosty; icy cold drinks are a life saving necessity in summertime US!......Dianne

Pamela said...

So pleased you were able to sample to chocs before they melted away! Think I would have given the cactus a miss and headed straight for the chocolate!

Mr.D said...

Marc,
I know a bit about cactus drinks - tequila, mezcal and pulque. I visited Tequila, a place in Mexico, and had a tour of the José Cuervo tequila distillery. It was very interesting.
Dianne,
The Cadbury's here in Mexico is made in Canada and it doesn't taste the same as in the UK. I think the milk is different.

Anonymous said...

thanks for the info, Mr. D....with so much so of it everywhere, I suspected it wasn't from the UK!....Dianne