As Suanie Sees It

A few weeks ago, I received a small box of freshly-made FIDANI gourmet chocolates with a golden ticket inside. It was an invitation to visit Fidani’s chocolate factory where Willy Wonka Chef Amer Hamzah, FIDANI’s very own chocolatier would play host to a bunch of chocolate-crazy bloggers.

When he grows up, his camwhoring skills will pwn all of you

One fine Saturday morning, a bunch of us went to FIDANI’s chocolate factory in Shah Alam, where each FIDANI chocolate piece is hand-crafted by Oompa-Loompas skilled workers. Eiling who works for FIDANI (who actually did the inviting) greeted us and ushered us into a room. She brought out a HUGE platter of FIDANI chocolates for our consumption…

This was like, 1/4 of the platter

Then Cher Amer Hamzah came in and gave a most interesting presentation on chocolate — its history, the ingredients and processes involved in making chocolate, the differences between… uhm, different chocolates, and so on. Quite enlightening, and I will never look at Ding Dang the same way again.

Having fun and stuffing ourselves silly with the chocolates

After the very chocolatey lesson, Chef Amer allowed us to tour the rest of the factory, including where the chocolates are handmade, refrigerated and packed. According to him, we were the first people (non-FIDANI staff) to be allowed in his chocolate kitchen. Rather privileged, yah?

Before we could enter his kitchen, we had to wear a white coat and a hairnet…

Does this resemble the flashers you might have encountered before?

There were two or three big pumps filled with dark and milk chocolate (didn’t see any white ones). Chef Amer showed us how to make chocolate with fillings (requires high skills and technique, else it would come out looking rubbish) using (very expensive) moulds. Some staff were hand-rolling chocolate truffles; it was a very busy kitchen so I tried very hard not to get in their way too much. But they were very nice to us and also most helpful when we made and design our own chocolate later, though I could sense them smiling through their face masks whenever we pretty much made a mess of things.

What do bloggers do when presented with a platter of chocolates?

I made a dark chocolate piece and decorated it with dried fruits and nuts. Pretty much ate a huge chunk of it at home, and left the remaining bit on my table. One day I got home from work and was told that Ryan had helped himself to the chocolate. My table and floor was a tad sticky, so I guess he had a great time helping himself…

Me with my chocolate! And Cher Amer with his hand out so he could set it in the fridge

After we placed our chocolates in the fridge (for it to set), Chef Amer proceeded to make a chocolate rose. Impressive

The chef and the rose

Then we were led to the packing room where some noobs got too excited over a RM30k+ machine that jet sprays expiry dates on the boxes… and they proceeded to place their hands at the machine to be jet-sprayed with expiry dates too. Back at the conference room, Eiling fed us with more chocolates yet to be made available in the market. A chocolate tasting/ sampling thing lah; she wanted opinions for some new flavours/ combination. There was also one with durian cream. Surprisingly it tasted rather awesome! Eiling said that they use REAL durian flesh for the filling; there’s no way you can miss the smell and/or taste of durian in that one.

Me with a premium gift box of FIDANI chocolate

At the end of the visit, Eiling presented us with a gift - a bag full of chocolate from FIDANI! Heh, thank you Thanks again for the invitation; it was really educational, fun and most filling

Group photo

Click here to find out where you can purchase FIDANI chocolates. If you have a healthy budget and wish to get personalised chocolates (for weddings, corporate occasions, parties, as gifts or whatever), click here for their contact info.

Also blogged: KY, David, Hsu Jen

Click here to view my Flickr set for this trip (36 photos).