I am never a big fan of science fiction movies; many of them are full of fancy and conjecture. I would prefer to watch something that was based more on scientific fact.

But I have changed my point of view lately. With the help of great graphic designers and advanced technology, Sci-fi movies have transformed into art (Maybe not just Sci-fi, some dramas are the same, for instance, The Great Gatsby). They are all beautifully made with stunning special effects, sound that would take over your brain, and spectacular panoramas.

I care less about the Sci-fi story, and more about enjoying the artistic composition. Now, for me, the experience of watching Sci-fi movies is just like taking a museum tour!

You might agree with me as well if you allow me to share the video clip below.

Martine Villeneuve is the filmmaker of the Canadian sci-fi Mars et Avril. Here is his Ted talk: How I made an impossible film .

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Inspiring Quotes from Villeneuve:

• big creative constrains can boost creativity.
• People have a tendency to see the problems rather than the final results
• if you start to deal with problems as being your allies rather than your opponents, life will start to dance with you in the most amazing way.
• So if you don't have money to offer to people, you must strike their imagination with something as nice as you can think of.

Thats very true! There has never been a free lunch; opportunities are everywhere, but only for those who are prepared for them!

"Fine chocolate is expensive, but less expensive than therapy" - a visitor's T-shirt

The long-awaited San Francisco International Chocolate Salon finally arrived on April 17th at Fort Mason, a beautiful waterfront structure overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. There were over forty chocolatiers who attended the salon, bringing with them chocolates with dozens of exotic flavors. There was everything to please your eyes and satisfy your taste buds, including fine quality and beautifully hand painted chocolates.

It was truly an awarding experience to attend the chocolate salon. I sampled chocolates infused with dozens of exotic spices and flavors that you don't usual find in the store, such as goat cheese, purple yam and durian from Marti, sweet fungus from Salt Side Down, fig roasted walnut and berry truffle from Coco Tutti...etc. I cannot say if I dislike any of the participants there, but I definitely love three: Vice, William Dean, and Amano.

Vice Chocolates is on top of my list for its quality, creativity and a wide variety of exotic flavors. Vices logo design is a capital "V" with a graceful serpent head eyeing covetously at a lovely bird, conveying a simple message: the sinful pleasure of eating.

Vice's dark chocolate passion fruit and Thai chili, smelled and tasted strongly of the passion fruit at first bite, then a chili flavor that is a little spicy, just enough boost your blood circulation a bit but the sweetness and spicy quickly softened each other into a good balance. The dark chocolate shell melted a couple of seconds later, created a nice creamy sensation in your mouth. Its smooth texture and exotic fruit flavor makes it worth a try if you are looking for a little thrill and chill.

High percentage dark chocolate are my favorite.And Vice 88% dark sea salt chocolate is verydelicious. The chocolatehad a hint of flavorful sea salt that really brought out the chocolate flavor, and complimented the bitterness of the high percentage of dark chocolate. It was very smooth and creamy, and had a deep and intense chocolate flavor with a long lingering aftertaste.

I like most of Vice's chocolates, especially soft caramel with pear & ginger and black lager beer with crispy brown rice. Overall Vice's chocolates are all smooth and beautifully made.They are all well balanced and fresh with playful flavors.

William Dean chocolates are very stylish and trendy, and there was a long line of people waiting to try his chocolates. He had various assortments packed in signature blue boxes imprinted with the initial WD. While tea flavored chocolate is very trendy, most chocolatiers usually only make jasmine tea chocolates. However, WD pushes the envelope and makes a full selection of tea flavors: Masala Chai, Earl Grey, Matcha, Mint, and Jasmine Lychee. WD also makes granola bars with milk and dark chocolates for those who are very health conscious. They are crunchy and flaky, not too creamy and not too sweet. I was surprised to see that he even has Asian influenced chocolates: wasabi and Goji berries bars. Goji berry is a small red oval-shaped wild berry that is believed to have medicinal values. I tried both and liked them all. The wasabi bar was spicy, playful and fun to eat. Goji bar had this nice sweetness, and soft fruity flavor.

Amano is well recognized as one of the best brands of chocolates. Amano keeps its classic tradition, but is flexible with new trends. Its colorful animal shaped chocolates are very beautiful.

Amano's honey truffle was made with Sidr honey from Yemen that costs $85 per pound. Sidr honey is made from bees who only feed on the nectar of the Sidr trees, that are indigenous to Yemen. Sidr honey is the rarest and most expensive honey in the world because of its exquisite taste and medicinal properties, it is even known as an aphrodisiac. The truffle had a velvety texture, a subtle honey flavor and not very sweet. Unlike other fancy chocolates, Amanos honey truffle is "simple and elegant".

Amano's 70% dark chocolate from the Dominican Republic was absolutely delicious. It had a strong fruity, smoky flavor, and a little acidic. Interestingly, a friend tasted a little tobacco that I did not detect.

There is something unique about Amano that is indescribable. It might be their incredible smoothness and silky aftertaste, balanced flavors, or most probably the whole combination.

Another chocolatier that is worth mentioning is "toffee talk" chocolate. Their toffee is the best I have ever had. It had a soft and creamy layer, then a layer of crunch toffee,topped with dark chocolate and crushed nuts. What distinguished them from others was that the toffee was easy to bite into. It was not hard and did not stick to your teeth. It had a nice chocolate aroma and a strong almond flavor, sweet, but not cloying. I usually avoid toffee but eating "toffee talk" toffee was a true treat.

The Salon was a great experience for chocolate lovers.After spending almost all day there, you might bea little frustrated for not beingphysically able to eat chocolates all day long. Next time, be prepared to fully indulge yourself like the realchocolate salon goersin the picture below.

Bittersweet Cafe 4/9/2011 Sunny Saturday

I heard about Bittersweet Cafe often, and planned to visit it long time ago. I finally did today.

Bittersweet cafe's Rockridge location is on 5427 College Ave., North Oakland. I took the College Ave exit from Highway 24. It's very easy to find. It is a small caf, about 500-600 sq feet, and famous for their drinking chocolates. On a Saturday afternoon around 4:15pm, the store was crowded with people lining up for their drinks. Against the wall on one side, a row of shelves displays chocolates or chocolate-related goods from Vosges, Askinosie, Frans, Theo and Bittersweet pre-packaged chocolates and colorful Easter eggs. There are 4 tables by the front window that were all occupied at that time. A glass cabinet displaying their handmade chocolate truffles and pastries is in the back. Staffs make drinks to order behind this cabinet.

There were people reading and playing with their kids. Two girls were absorbed in their crafts. Every inches of space in the store is fully used. Drinking chocolates powder is available for purchase. Four flavors are available bittersweet, mocha, classic and milk chocolate. A 10oz packet sells for a little over $12 ($1 dollar cheaper than their online price.) Their handmade chocolate truffles are 1.95 each. If you are really serious about chocolates, you can purchase their tasting kit for about $25, which includes 3 packs of chocolates and a tasting guide. The guide recommends tasting the darkest chocolates first. I thought chocolate tasting is similar to wine tasting - taste the lightest first. I guess I am wrong.

It was time to pick my treats. I usually like 58% or higher dark chocolates. Unfortunately Bittersweet Caf chocolates do not state the % of cocoa content for their handmade chocolates so I asked. The staff looked for the information but returned to say that he did not know and the owner was not around. Forget about the %, I got three of their handmade truffles: one piece of bittersweet (their signature), one piece of orange, and one piece of espresso. I also bought a pack of bittersweet of 78% Organic Venezuela dark chocolate. And, to complete my mission here, I ordered a cup of Bittersweet hot chocolate.

Sharing a table with the two girls who were doing crafts, I sat quietly for couple of seconds admiring the rich dark brown frothy drink in a creamy white china cup. The nice strong aroma of the bittersweet hot chocolate filled me up. I took a sip. Thick and rich chocolate flavor was the first sensation, sweet, bitter, and a little acidic, then follows by a sticky coating in my mouth. It was a little disappointing.

What disappointed me was that it had too much cocoa butter, or the cocoa butter and cacao mass are not perfectly bonded. That made the aftertaste waxy. I felt a layer of fat on my palate and it undercut the smoothness the way hot chocolate is supposed to be. After I finished my drink, the empty cup was covered with an oily layer of a brownish residue. My stomach started to feel bloated.

I did not want to dislike bittersweet hot chocolate. I was looking forward to it for a long time, and I heard people raved about it. Besides, bitter sweet dark chocolate is my all times favorite. I thought I would like any form of dark chocolate. Well, they has a wide variety of hot chocolates, I will try their spicy hot chocolate next time.

The next day, I tried the handmade truffles. The shell of the dark chocolate ganache truffle encased with cocoa powder was crisp with soft and smooth filling. The truffle orange garnished with a couple of small orange nuggets on the top has nice orange flavor with real orange bits. The 78% Organic Venezuela dark chocolate has beautiful prints of flowers and leafs on the surface. It was crisp and the bitterness and sweetness was just right.

Yes, they made of chocolate!

Chocolate history in China may trace back to Emperor Kangxi period of Qing Dynasty. In 1705, Roman Pope Clement XI dispatched envoys to China as missionary. In 1706, Emperor Kangxi interviewed the missionaries, during the interview, they presented 150 chocolates to the Emperor Kangxi. Kangxi gave it a big approval after tasting.This was the first record of chocolate in China's history.

In January 18th, 2010, The world chocolate wonderland theme park kicked off in Beijing. In the event, chocolate was no longer just for eating, some artists in China have created a pretty good alternative.

The sculptures on display were all made of chocolate, not just that, there were also fashion show with chocolate hats, clothes, and chocolate armor. You could satisfy your sweet tooth by eating chocolate out of size 10.

Hope you enjoy the pictures like I do.

Harvard Business school professor Nancy F Koehn said:

Entrepreneurs look for new possibilities and new markets, should think about 3 or 4 things:

1. Look around you, the social, culture and economic environment, what people do you know care about, what do you feel when you walk on street, what happening in term of where people are going in their lives, understand the broad stage on which consumers act.

2. Look for something, a product, a service , a combination of both you were passionate about, did it really pull your heart strings. follow your passion that would lead to your success.

3. Choice the people that you are going to work with very carefully, the people that you brainstorm with , the people you toss ideas around with, those early disciples, early team mates, those early creators would be very important to you in help you build your wings, and help you get your idea off the ground

4. Believe in yourself, a idea has to come out of ethers, from nowhere, become a something, a product, a service, a company, a market, to do that, you are going to need conviction, confidence, and a lot of believes in what you can do.

Professor Koehn has ensured my idea of starting a chocolatebusiness in China.

China is in its rapidly developing stage, as China's economic booming, new things from all over the world flood into China, western culture has greatly affected Chinese's life style. One of them is confectionery culture.

Compare with chocolate's annual consumption of 22.36lbs per capita in the #1 chocolate loving country Switzerland, and 11.64lbs per capita per year in the united states(rank in #11), China's chocolate consumption per capita is only 100 gram per year. But the coming five to 10 years will see steady growth of 10-15% of chocolate consumption in China. High-end chocolates are expected to see the fastest growth in the next few years, which is also in line with the global trend. Imaging with 1.3B population, if chocolate consumption increases to 2kg per capita per year, China would be the second largest chocolate market in the world, such a great market potential.

Chocolate market in China should be targeted at consumers between age 15 - 45. Most powerful purchases come from young urban professionals. They follow fashionable life style, buy fine quality goods and strive for high social status. They are the frequent consumers buy chocolate at least once a week, and 52.4 percent of chocolate consumed in the Chinese market was used as gifts. The most popular flavor is milk chocolate, then praline chocolate and dark chocolate. The #1 fact that encourage a purchase is the taste of the chocolates; then nice packaging or wrapping; create meaning/stories for your chocolate would be another strategy to attract more younger buyers; of cause, occasion is also a good time to sell.

If you see what I can see, please feedback.