Chocolate, chili, bicycle

Finally — spring is here. Sunny and temps topped 60 today, so time to kick off the 2019 bike season. It’s too early for heavy mileage, so we did an extended version of our short loop in West Windsor, Windsor and Robbinsville. And in those 23 miles of quiet roads, even a bit of trail, we had two great stops.

First was a chocolatier’s shop in an industrial park. We have seen many signs for David Bradley along the highways around here and on the New Jersey Turnpike, but we had never been. This time we saw the sign into the Windsor industrial park and pulled in.

It’s all the way in the back, in the last building., looking like something built decades ago. Nope, nothing fancy.

But when you walk in, it is wall-to-wall chocolate. Easter bunnies, wedding chocolates. Congratualtions chocolate bars. Thank yous in chocolate. Cookies. caramels, fruits, you name it covered in dark chocolate (or, if you must, milk chocolate). And we were immediately offered a sample — a slice of orange or a chunk of pineapple, covered in chocolate.

But today was not supposed to be about chocolate. Our real destination was the fire department chili cook-off among five area departments, and two of our neighbors were the chefs repping their volunteer squad. They cooked up a dark, very meaty (beef and pork) offering, put cilantro and cumin-infused sour cream and homemade pickled onions on the side (plus cheese, of course) — no suprise they won the competition!