Instead of arming Cupid’s bow with an arrow dipped in the latest chocolate-cayenne-goji berry-sea salt-caramel to woo your sweetheart, aim for your honey’s inner child with a retro sugar rush from Powell’s Sweet Shoppe in Berkeley (or other Bay Area locations).

The Valentine table is carpeted in conversation hearts—speaking dialects from Disney princess to Sponge Bob Square Pants—plus a blanket of red and pink jelly beans and cupid corn, valentine Dots, kiss me mints, chocolate covered marshmallow hearts and XOXO lollipops.

It’s easy to get lost in a sugar-coated trip down memory lane browsing the College Avenue shop’s collection of 6000 classic candies in varieties that date from the 20s to the 80s.

The real fun starts with a perusal of the bags and bars on the nostalgia table that run from Abba-Zabba’s to Zotz. “This is where childhood memories are reawakened,” says Shahrazad Junblat, co-owner of the shop with her sister and brother-in-law. “I always hear customers exclaim, ‘Oh my God, I haven’t seen this since I was 5,’ or ‘ Grandma always used to buy me this.’” The vintage treats include: Look!, Big Hunk, Moon Pie, Sugar Babies, pastel button dots on strips of paper, Turkish taffy and Nik-L-Nip wax bottles filled with sweet syrup.

For the sweetest history lesson ever, check out the Candy by the Decade chart on Powell’s website.

Did you know that Bit-O-Honey, Butterfinger, Charleston Chew and Jujubees go way back to the early 1900s?

If you are a 50s Boomer, you’ll remember Fizzies, Pixy Stix, and Hot Tamales.

Flower Child of the 60s? Fruit Stripe gum, Twizzlers and Lemonheads should ring a bell.

Wore Jordache Jeans in the 70s? Pop Rocks and Ring Pops came out in your decade.

Played Pac Man in 80s? Maybe while chomping Runts and Nerds.

Junblat left the corporate world after 20+ years to cheerfully preside over “this happy place.” She personally favors the British imports, including Cadbury bars, Rountree’s Fruit Gums and Aero bubble chocolate, aptly housed in a red British phone booth. Additional foreign imports satisfy both world travelers and expats, such as Australian Kookabura licorice and Violet Crumble bars. Famous Dutch licorice is represented by licorice coins, hard licorice buttons, and salty salmiak rocks.

Gummis range from butterflies, penguins and mice to khaki green army guys and even sunnyside up eggs.

Asked for the latest trend in candy, Junblat quickly replies, “Bacon is the new black.” And points to a table with bacon flavored floss, toothpaste, chocolate, fizzy drinks and lollipops.

Some sweets perform a double duty, like candy beaded necklaces and Melody pops that play a tune.

All manner of jawbreakers sit in jars, from teensy marbles to huge orbs the size of a baby's head. Aaron Lindstrom, shift manager, admits to keeping a gigantic jawbreaker hidden in a paper bag under his bed when he was in the third grade. He secretly worked on it for months until it was gone.

Powell’s most helpful website also lists candies for those with dietary restrictions and preferences.

It’s nice to know that vegans can still enjoy Swedish Fish, Chick-O-Sticks, Hot Tamales and Boston Baked Beans.

There’s a large number of gluten-free goodies too.

I noticed that the list of candies without high fructose corn syrup includes Gummi Brains, Banana Heads and Smarties.

Does this somehow indicate that people who avoid the stuff are more intelligent?

From top left to right: Douglas Monsalud and wife Kimberly Stevens, Yigit Pura, Will Werner and girlfriend Sarah Logan, Richie Nakano.

It's no secret chefs don't get much time off--certainly not on holidays. And Valentine's Day is a biggie. Folks make reservations well in advance and snatch up flowers and confections to bring home to their loved ones. After chatting with some of my favorite local chefs, it became clear that Valentine's Day really is just another day and there are many occasions to sit down, toast one another, and prepare a special meal. I asked three simple questions to get to the heart of what a romantic day looks like in their world. Here's what I discovered.

Douglas Monsalud: Kitchenette SF
So Valentine’s Day. Or let’s just say, on a typical romantically-minded evening, tell us about what you and your partner like to cook/eat together at home?
We LOVE to make food that takes a while to cook so that we can hang out, talk while we cook, and drink good wine ; ) With that in mind, we have cooked everything from bouillabaisse to pozole, porchetta to pot roast. You know...simple, rustic, one-pot meals that are comfortable and really make you feel like you are home.

Favorite dessert?
Wow, favorite dessert is a tough one. I like desserts that are lighter and fruity...like the goats milk yoghurt panna cotta with blood orange compote that we've served at Heart Wine Bar. Similarly, I have always loved creme brulee and a nice, flaky crostata with a scoop of ice cream always gets my attention.

If you weren’t eating at home, where are a few of your favorite romantic spots in the Bay Area and why?
Aziza and Gitane ooze romance. They have great food and the atmosphere is at once exotic and warm. Also, I always think getting a dozen oysters from the Marshall Store up on Tomales Bay with a bottle of something bubbly and eating them on a bench overlooking the water is as sexy as it gets.

William Werner: Tell Tale Preserve Co.
So Valentine’s Day. Or let’s just say, on a typical romantically-minded evening, tell us about what you and your partner like to cook/eat together at home?
We don't get to spend a lot of time together as of late-- so usually a romantic dinner would consist of something simple, to spend more time together than in the kitchen, more than likely, champagne, oysters with lemon, market greens, a risotto of mushrooms and nettles, and of course chocolate (Valrhona feves straight from the bag).

Favorite dessert?
Of the moment: kishu mandarins.

If you weren’t eating at home, where are a few of your favorite romantic spots in the Bay Area and why?
Coi, for getting dressed and a luxurious, intimate evening of thoughtful food. Burgers and beer in the back corner booth at Bar Tartine for dressing down and hanging out.

Richie Nakano: Hapa Ramen
So Valentine’s Day. Or let’s just say, on a typical romantically-minded evening, tell us about what you and your partner like to cook/eat together at home?
When we're eating at home we keep it pretty simple: farro with roasted chicken, or an easy pasta. We also get treats from Fatted Calf: charcuterie, cheese, olives. We have a 9 month old son, so there's not a lot of quiet romantic evenings these days, but we do like to unwind with a bottle of kruner or falanghina.

Favorite dessert?
Anything from Humphrey Slocombe, or we'll get something from Tell Tale Preserve Co. and save it for that evening. That stuff is sinful.

If you weren’t eating at home, where are a few of your favorite romantic spots in the Bay Area and why?
Aziza always comes to mind, it's such a beautiful setting in there, and the food is really elegant. La Ciccia is really intimate also, but the sexiest place in town is the Flour & Water dough room. If you can snag a seat at a dinner in there...

Yigit Pura: Executive Pastry Chef, Taste Catering; Winner of Bravo's Top Chef Just Desserts
So Valentine’s Day. Maybe, like a lot of folks, you see it as any other day—but let’s just say, on a typical romantically-minded evening, tell us about what you and a date like to cook/eat together?
I think any day is a good day to be romantic. I would cook what I know they love and tickles their soft spot, even if it goes against my grain as a chef. I find just showing you paid attention will always get you brownie points.

Favorite dessert?
As cliché as it sounds, you can’t go wrong with chocolate. And I know there are myths around it but I still love a great chocolate soufflé. Be it a professional or home chef, it still gets people excited. Take it another step forward and make a really lovely salted caramel ice cream, and put a small scoop straight in the middle. The contrast between the hot and cold is always very sexy!

If you weren’t eating at home, where are a few of your favorite romantic spots in the Bay Area and why?
Lately I’m in LOVE with Barbacco. Modern and really beautiful ambiance, great service, and just really tasty bites, and very reasonably priced. Last time I ate there everything was so great, I am already looking forward to the next time.

Jessica Boncutter: Bar Jules
A typical romantically-minded meal?
That would have to be beef fillet roasted medium rare with salt roasted potatoes, baby carrots and horseradish cream.

Favorite Dessert?
Definitely finish it off with a chocolate pot de creme and a little Serge Gainsbourg on the record player!

If you weren’t eating at home, where are a few of your favorite romantic spots in the Bay Area and why?
Romantic places in the San Francisco Bay Area are upstairs at Chez Panisse for lunch or Manka's in Inverness for the night or Tosca for a drink or of course Bar Jules is so romantic. Chez Panisse lunch during the week feels like you are playing hooky from work with a lover. Manka's, well you just have to stay there one night to experience it. Tosca is a classic always feels special no matter who you are with.

Susie Bright. Photo: Jill Posener

When it comes to talking about food and sex for Valentine's Day, you don't want to ask a chef. For a professional, Valentine's Day is like catering for Noah's Ark: a long, sweaty, jammed-full night making dinners for all those expectant couples tromping in two by two for champagne and crab salad, rare steaks and roses, not to mention the anticipation of double-caret diamonds hidden in the passion-fruit mousse.

Instead, why not talk to someone who has made the pleasures of the flesh her life's work? Here in the Bay Area, there's no shortage of experts on this subject, but few have influenced the cultural, political, and literary landscape like Susie Bright. She has written and edited dozens of books of erotica, cultural critiques, personal essays, how-to's, and more, worked as the "lesbian sex consultant" on the butch-femme neo-noir Bound, helped bring quality sex toys into the mainstream, raised a daughter, spoken and taught all over the world, and fought for the personal expression of freedom and pleasure in all its forms. Her popular blog (and its accompanying podcast) is sharp, smart, funny and unabashedly political. Her latest book is the sure-to-be-juicy memoir Big Sex Little Death, to be released by Seal Press next month.

But only close readers of a book like Mommy's Little Girl: On Sex, Motherhood, Porn & Cherry Pie might catch that the pie of the title isn't metaphorical. Head to the last chapter, and you'll find a recipe for a real pie, filled with fresh Bing cherries and laced with lemon zest, almond extract and a splash of brandy, and called, completely appropriately, Eternal Cherry Devotion Pie. Susie, it turns out, is a truly passionate cook, eater, and cocktail aficionado (yes, she makes her own nocino). As she writes about her cherry pie,

"Sometimes you need to prepare a meal that will make someone fall in love with you. Sometimes you need a dessert with an enchantment so strong that your lover will never leave you, no matter what the temptation.

Don't make this pie if you're just toying with someone--you'll be sorry. Don't make this pie for your lover if you don't want him or her by your side forever, then moaning at your grave when you're gone. This is serious stuff."

So, what would Susie propose for a Valentine's Day meal? Red and spicy is on the top of her list. Red velvet cake, beet salad, rice with tomatoes or red peppers--and for the piece de resistance, tandoori chicken, fiery and magenta-skinned, picked up from your favorite Indian restaurant.

"Living in Santa Cruz, I'm really deprived of good Indian food," she laments. "In San Francisco, I could just walk to my tandoori chicken," usually from one of the Tenderloin's many hole-in-the-wall Indian and Pakistani restaurants. "For a luxurious place, though, Amber India, near the Yerba Buena Center, has a hot and spicy green apple-curry soup that's insane."

But Santa Cruz does have its delights, not the least being its status as a perfectly laid-back, spontaneously romantic getaway. Where you can stroll the boardwalk, wake up to the sound of waves and barking seals, take walks on the beach or hikes under the redwoods...and then wallow in the hot-fudge sauce that the veggie-punk Saturn Cafe ladles over its ice-cream sundaes.

"It's the best hot fudge I've had in a lifetime of international travel. It blows my mind, especially over vanilla-bean ice cream." She's been known to beg a pint of it to go, and isn't above pleading and cajoling former Saturn Cafe waiters and cooks for the recipe. "But it's supersecret, and no one will tell me." (Happily, Saturn now has a branch in downtown Berkeley with the same secret sauce on tap.)

So, what about some first-date eateries? There's Betty Burgers (slogan, "Juicy Patties, Hot Buns") which now has two locations, the better to fill up hungry diners with handfuls like the Big Betty (described on the menu as "a half-pound burger with Betty's secret lube") or the Betty on Top, a burger patty nestled into a piled-high veggie salad.

There's also Engfer Pizza Works, "started by a couple of lesbian feminists, which warms my heart," as does the ping-pong room, the checkers, the excellent beer selection, and of course the pizzas, baked in a wood-fired oven and topped with everything from spectacular local sausages from Corralitos Market to a tofu-based vegan cheese alternative they've dubbed Megan's Vegan. "Even as a cheese fanatic, I get it as a topping. With extra cheese!"

Afterwards, of course, there's Penny Ice Creamery, whose locavore owners are chummy with Michelle Obama, as well as longtime favorite Marianne's. "Marianne's cardamom-pistachio ice cream...holy shit! It's unreal. You go get some hot fudge sauce from Saturn Cafe, pour it over that, you can just lay down and die."

To really cinch the deal, there's the rapidly expanding "food heaven" in the Swift Street Courtyard on Ingalls Street, including Bonny Doon's tasting room and Cellar Door Cafe, shaped like an enormous wine cask; Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing's taproom; and Kelly's French Bakery.

Follow it up by nightcaps for two, shaken or stirred by bartender Jeff Pappas at Clouds, right around the corner from the movie theater. "He's our unofficial mayor, the most charming, sensitive, professional bartender ever. I don't know how he keeps that many people happy."

And for waking up with a smile on your face? Lavender-white chocolate scones or a poached egg on a chile-chive biscuit from the sweet folks at Cafe Iveta.

Valentine's Day, it turns out, is one of Susie's very favorite holidays. "I'm a traditionalist. I get out my heart-shaped cookie cutters, braid dough into the shape of a heart--I really like doing things in shapes, using all the Valentine symbols." She makes a lot of valentines and valentine treats for friends and their kids. "Just go with it: you've got your red, your cuteness, your sweetness...it doesn't always have to do with Mr. or Ms. Right."

"My first cookbook was Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls. It was full of all these color pictures of the great things you could make. But my absolute favorite was a mac n' cheese casserole topped with a heart made of hotdog slices, with the word "mom" spelled out in hotdog inside."

Telling this story, she's suddenly inspired. Why not make a "yuppie gourmet" version of her old Betty Crocker favorite, with real bechamel sauce, fancy cheese and those dreamy Corralitos sausages, for a Valentine's Dinner for two with her longtime partner? Sometimes, the simplest things can say the most.

Chefs Jeff Banker and Lori Baker + Jackson Banker. Photo credit: Craig Lee

The savory and sweet finds at San Francisco's Baker & Banker quickly catapulted the space into a must-visit for food lovers. Opened in late 2009 in Pacific Heights, the bakery slash restaurant is in an old apothecary and is the lovechild of husband and wife team Chef Jeff Banker and Pastry Chef Lori Banker, who together have over thirty years cooking experience and have been married for ten years.

San Francisco Examiner's Patricia Unterman noted Baker & Banker's "small, changing menu of gently imaginative dishes characterized by big, voluptuous flavor," and the San Francisco Chronicle's Michael Bauer gave the restaurant a three star review in 2010 and included it in the Chronicle Top 100 List of Restaurants that same year.

Lori Baker has worked at EOS, Home restaurant, Slow Club, Gordon's House of Fine Eats, Bizou, Postrio, Bix and Fifth Floor. Chef Baker also staged at Hotel Metropole in Brussels as well as L'Angolo Dolce in Lucca, Italy. She was most recently a professor of pastry at The California Culinary Academy and is a graduate of Johnson and Wales.

Jeff Banker's early stints include Patina Los Angeles and Postrio--more on the Postrio love connection in a bit. He worked at Acme Chophouse, Bix, Home and staged at Lucas Carton in Paris while attending Le Cordon Bleu on a scholarship awarded by the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). The couple said they both have also filled in at their friends’ restaurants NOPA and Delfina. Bay Area Bites caught up with Jeff Banker just in time for Valentine's Day. They live in the Sunset District.

What are you baking and serving up for Valentine's Day?

We are creating some unique bakery goods special for Valentine's Day including: Mexican hot chocolate crackle cookies, raspberry Linzer heart sandwich cookies, strawberry Champagne cupcakes, which are champagne-soaked yellow cake with strawberry frosting, red hot red velvet cupcakes and handwritten "Hostess" cupcakes with salted caramel.

Valentine's Treats from Baker & Banker. Photo credit: Craig Lee

Also on the sweet menu is: vanilla bean cheesecake, with a chocolate wafer crust, and raspberry hearts swirled in; and conversation heart cakes that are Devil's food cake with Grand Marnier ganache.

Hugs and Kisses Heart Cakes. Photo credit: Craig Lee

And… Passion fruit cheesecakes with guava caramel, champagne cake truffles, jalapeno caramels and chocolate covered bacon.

What are your Valentine's Day restaurant favorites?

It’s hard to find a more romantic dining room than Fleur de Lys -- the food is decadent and very Valentine's Day appropriate -- the French do romance best! Bix is also a great space with an amazing menu.

What are your favorite spots to shop for food?

Fatted Calf is an awesome place to get fresh meat. We also religiously shop at the Marin Farmers' Market for ingredients for the restaurant -- the produce is so fresh and there is such a great selection of goods. I actually visit there every Thursday. Finally, for something a bit more exotic, the Richmond New May Wah Supermarket, an Asian Market on Clement and 7th, is an amazing source to find unusual ingredients.

What are your favorite eating and drinking spots?

I have to admit, having the bakery, restaurant and new baby takes up a lot of time, but when we do go out we love to stop by Flour + Water or Pizzeria Delfina for some amazing pasta and pizza.

What are your favorite local Mom & Pop joints?

We love the modern spin of Mom & Pop joints that are taking off here in the city. For example, eVe restaurant in Berkeley is also a husband and wife team who are doing it all themselves. They have a really artistic touch to the dishes on their menu and we love the intimate setting and food. Also, Sons & Daughters in Nob Hill is an interesting place -- the chefs/owners Teague and Matt are two young guys living the dream of opening their own restaurant. It's inspiring to see fellow chefs venturing out on their own and having full autonomy to create and share the food they love.

What are your favorite date nightspots?

At the moment, our favorite date spot is home. Since Jackson's arrival, there is something truly wonderful about being home and making a home cooked meal for the family in the house. We are at the restaurant or bakery nearly seven days a week -- so to be able to stay at home and use the kitchen is a treat!

What is your guiltiest food pleasure?

The foie gras duck stuffed sandwich at Naked Lunch. Amazing.

How did you two meet, and how long have you been together, etc.?

We both worked at Postrio around the same time. We had a mutual friend who worked there and he set us up on a blind date. He is the pastry chef at Bix now and is still our best friend. We have been married for nearly ten years. [Our baby] Jackson is 4 months old and his name is Jackson Banker.

Does Jackson have any favorite foods yet?

He’s still a bit too young -- breast milk is still his favorite but we're expecting him to be quite the foodie growing up in a bakery and restaurant.

Where are you from?

I am from Orange County and Lori is from Cincinnati.

What's new on the horizon?

This past weekend we had the crew from Unique Sweets come and film us for a day. It was an amazing experience. You’ll be able to see Lori's tantalizing desserts have their close up on the Cooking Channel this spring.

Valentine's Day is almost here, and if you're planning on spending a small fortune on chocolates for your sweet, hold up! Consider making your own chocolate truffles -- in addition to the "OMG, you shouldn't have" look, you'll get bonus points for having taken the time out to make something by hand.

Ok, so I know I've lost some of you already. Hear me out. "But truffles are soooo haaarrrrrd to make," I can hear you sighing. "I could never do that." Au contraire, mon cheri. Despite the fact that stores charge big bucks for these little balls of chocolate love, truffles are actually one of the easiest candies to make. Within an hour you'll have a few dozen handmade chocolate truffles, and a one heck of a fabulous Valentine's Day gift. And if you're sweetie is of the vegan persuasion, I've got you covered with a vegan truffle recipe as well.

First things first: You'll be melting chocolate, which means you'll need to chop it first. Like, chop it as finely as possible. It's easy to chop the long, flat bars you get from the baking section of the grocery store, and I recommend you use a large chef's knife or my weapon of choice: a meat cleaver. If all else fails, don't fret. You can use semi-sweet chocolate chips without suffering any dire consequences.

Second: You must use a double boiler to melt your chocolate. Any other means of melting will burn the chocolate or turn it into a seized up lump of concrete. If you don't have a real double boiler, never fear. Find a pot and a large bowl that will snugly fit in the pot without slipping into it. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't rest in the water. Rather, you want there to be a good inch or two between the bottom of the bowl and the water in the pot. Also, be sure to not get any water into your chocolate mixture, lest it seize up. If this happens, you'll need to dump it out and start over. Sad panda. For more information, check out this guide on melting chocolate.

Now, let's get our hands dirty!

Basic Chocolate Truffles Recipe
Yields about 24 3/4" truffles.

Ingredients:
12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier

Possible Coatings:
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup chai spices
1/4 cup of whatever fun, powdery thing you'd like to roll your truffles in
Small foil cups for packaging (available from your local craft store)

Instructions:
Fill the bottom of your double boiler with a few inches of water, set it over medium heat and bring it to a boil. Have the chopped chocolate waiting in the top of your double boiler but not yet set over the heat.

In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream just until you see bubbles start to fowl around the edges of the pan. Immediately pour the cream over your chocolate. Set the bowl over the waiting double boiler, stirring until the chocolate is completely melted and mixed with the cream. Stir in vanilla and Grand Marnier, then cover and refrigerate until firm enough to handle (about 4 hours).

That's it! Seriously! And in case you weren't aware, you just made a chocolate ganache, one of the most delectable substances in the dessert world. Go you!

After your ganache has firmed up, line a cookie sheet with parchment. Scoop about a teaspoonful of ganache and then, working quickly, roll it into a sphere shape with your hands. Set the rolled truffles on the lined cookie sheet, and keep going until you've finished all of your chocolate mixture. Your truffle may look a little sticky at first. That's fine, we'll smooth them out in a second.

Note: Try to make sure your hands are as cool as possible or your truffles will melt as you roll them. It might be a good idea to keep a paper towel or two nearby, so that if your hands get caked with chocolate you can wipe them off. It also helps to stick the bowl of ganache back in the refrigerator for 5 minutes if you notice it getting super sticky.

Coatings
Let your chocolate truffles sit for about ten minutes at room temperature, or stick them in the fridge if it's a warm day (say, above 70 degrees). Add cocoa powder (or hazelnuts, or powdered sugar) to a small round-bottomed bowl. One at a time, pick up your truffles and roll them between your hands for a few seconds to barely warm the surface, then drop them in the bowl of coating. Toss the bowl a bit until the truffle is completely covered in coating, then set it back on the cookie sheet. If you end up with a too much coating on your truffles, don't shake them off until after they have firmed up again.

Once you're done, put the cookie sheet full of truffles in the fridge for half an hour. Once they're firm again, shake off any excess coating and put them in little foil cups for decoration.

These chocolate truffles will keep in the fridge for two weeks, but can be kept at room temperature for a few days. I like them a little softer, so I pull them out of the fridge a few hours before serving.

For a little variety, check out these other truffle recipes:

• Peanut Butter Crunch Truffles
• Mint Chocolate Truffles
• Mocha Truffles
• Raw Cinnamon-Sunflower Truffles

There are two ways you can go on Valentine's Day. On one hand, it's an excellent holiday for kids, or goofily cheerful adults. You get out the paper doilies and the glitter and red velvet cupcakes with pink frosting and those chalky little conversation hearts that now say things like Text Me and Tweet Me (and am I the only one who thinks there should be a Boomer or even Gen-X version of these that leaves out the technology and just sticks with Luv U and Foxy Lady and Love Bug?) and you sit around the kitchen table with hot-pink crayons and sparkly markers and cut out homemade cards for everyone.

In the morning there are chocolate-chip pancakes made in the shape of hearts and maybe gold-sprayed macaroni necklaces, if anyone makes those any more. In the evening, whoever doesn't usually make dinner does the job, or if that's a serious obstacle to getting something edible on the table in less than 3 hours without total kitchen destruction, then copious back-rubbing and foot-worshipping should follow, once the sugar-happy kids are off to bed. Maraschino cherries, red food coloring, whipped cream for breakfast: perfectly acceptable food choices today.

And then, for all of you grownups without kids, or with kids over at Grandma's for the night, there's Valentine's Day, Goth Edition. Don't get me wrong: I agree with Gawker that the only thing more tedious than Walgreen's chocolate boxes are Valentine's Day haters (the fabulous My Sucky Valentine show excluded, of course). But why must love be celebrated in only its sweetest incarnations?

The best way to save your holiday drowning from Hallmark/LIfetime movie/Whitman's Sampler goo? Paint it black instead of pretty pink, shiny and slick as a tangy of squid-ink pasta, topped with the claws of a lobster or a Dungeness crab in all their fiesty gripping glory, bathed in a fiery fra diavolo sauce.

Make your menu a vampiric splendor of fang-licking blood red and bat-cave midnight black. You could go straight to the Scorpio menu in my Astrology Cookbook: figs wrapped in proscuitto and dripping with pomegranate glaze; lamb chops sauced with port, bleeding heart cake gushing molten chocolate and raspberry. Or you can mix and match you and your demon lover's favorite dishes, adding an edge of pleasure and pain. Like it spicy? Then make that curry really, really spicy. Endorphins=good. (Just be careful slicing those chilis. Capsicum can linger for hours on fingertips, even after washing, not something you want to discover during your after-dinner activities.)

Love sushi? Lay out a spread of the most luscious, mind-melting bites you can find-rich tuna belly, crazy-sexy uni, salty-slippery roe, a little octopus, for the chew.

If you must go heart-shaped, do it with beets, bathing your fingers deeply in their magenta dye. Beets, blood oranges, avocado: this Heart's Desire salad is actually full of encouragingly aphrodisiacs, especially vitamins B and E. Plus, it looks much more alluring that your average pile of mixed greens. You could even add cooked shrimp, crab, or even lobster to it, making it into a ravishing main dish that won't send you into a prime-rib food coma when you have charming toes to kiss or a nape of the neck to adore.

Heart's Desire Salad
Peeling raw beets is a thankless task. Luckily, the skins will slip off effortlessly once the beets are cooked, especially if you get to them while they're still warm.

Ingredients
4 beets, roasted or boiled until very tender, then peeled
2 blood oranges
2 handfuls of arugula, watercress, or mixed greens
juice of 1 Meyer lemon
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
2-3 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 avocado
2 tbsp crumbled feta or soft goat cheese (optional)

Preparation:
1. Cut beets into wedges or half-moons. (Or, using a small cookie cutter, cut into heart shapes.)

2. Grate rind of 1 orange finely. Whisk together orange rind, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, olive oil, salt, and pepper, adjusting ingredients to taste. Let beets marinate in dressing for 1 hour.

3. Peel oranges, ruthlessly removing all white pith, and slice thinly into rounds, then half-moons. Mix orange slices and greens with beets, tossing to coat with dressing. Yes, everything will turn red, but that's OK, under the circumstances. Arrange on two plates. Just before serving, top with avocado slices and optional cheese. Grind on a little fresh pepper and serve.

Some of the Valentine's treats available at SusieCakes.

Now I don't know about you, but I think the negative vibes towards Valentine's Day are kind of laughable. We've all heard it before. Perhaps some of you are guilty of shouting it out on a yearly basis: "Urgh, I can't wait for the day to be over--it's not like I have anyone to spend it with." That sort of thing. But what could be better than a day during the dead of winter where pinks and reds abound in all the shops and where chocolate is pushed, pedaled, and procured? I mean, c'mon. Who needs a sweetie to enjoy a jaunt through See's or Recchiuti? Or, as I learned earlier this week: SusieCakes.

SusieCakes welcoming storefront

Los Angeles-based SusieCakes has been open about a month in the Bon Air Shopping Center in Marin, and I've been meaning to visit with each passing day. I was doing errands in the area the other day and decided to stop in and see what all the fuss was about. I'd heard about their "frosting-filled cupcakes" and I thought it was a genius idea for all of us who use the cupcake as a socially acceptable excuse to eat frosting. And lots of it. What I didn't expect to find was the huge celebration of Valentine's Day in full effect--from sweet little cookies to festive whoopie pies. I took some photos (for you), I chatted with the gals to see what was good and what was flying out the door, and then--of course--I took some things home.

The "Love Shack," a special Valentine's Gingerbread House, and the adorable Conversation Heart Cookies

So let's talk about those frosting-filled cupcakes. Now I'm not sure how they do it. There's literally a dip or a groove in the top of the cupcake where a nice little shot of extra frosting lays. It's pure magic. I love their almost haphazard way of frosting each cupcake as well. It's not perfectly even and looks rather homemade, but in a generous, abundant sort-of way.

The genius that is SusieCakes' signature frosting-filled cupcakes

I tried the Peanut Butter, Chocolate, Red Velvet and the Sugar and Spice (February Special) cupcakes. You'll notice there aren't any photos of the Peanut Butter. That's because, like an eager and grubby-handed child, I ate it in the car. I just couldn't wait. Each flavor I tried was unbelievably soft and moist although I must say that I’m a bit of a Red Velvet snob, and I couldn't taste the cocoa in theirs. But the chocolate was rich in cocoa, and the Sugar & Spice cupcake had a lovely, light vanilla-sugar flavor. I made a big batch of snickerdoodles recently and the Sugar and Space tastes a lot like the classic cookie. You just look at these cupcakes and want to bring them to someone you love, or like, or appreciate, or want to make smile. They're happiness in a box, really.

I didn't try some of the other treats, although I'll be back in town this week and plan on swinging by for a whoopie pie (or a "Makin' Whoopie Pie," their current take on the old-school dessert). And while there's certainly a glut of cupcake spots in the Bay Area and while some people I know are excusing cupcakes altogether as a retired trend, there’s something special about SusieCakes. It's evident in the regulars who were strolling in before 11 a.m. on a weekday to pick up a few treats. And it's evident in their attention to homemade, old-fashioned desserts (think along the lines of Magnolia Bakery in New York but before the Sex in the City madness) with banana and butterscotch puddings, classic pies and stacked cakes. They're not trying to be anything they’re not with wacky and original flavors, but they're doing the classics incredibly well.

A good motto to live by, and a great daily selection of cupcakes

So for a little shop with a big sign deeming "Eat Cake," I don't think it much matters if you have a sweetheart or not this year. Those are words we can all take to heart.

SusieCakes
310 Bon Air Center
Bon Air Shopping Center
Greenbrae, CA 94904
Map
(415) 461-2253

Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10am-7pm; Closed Sunday (although they will be open Sunday February 14th for Valentines Day).

Twitter: @Susiecakes

Cupid's arrows hit Bernal Heights hard this week. Along Cortland Avenue, every storefront from the card store to the cafe to the taqueria is emblazoned with huge red and pink hearts and flowers. What's so romantic about a quesadilla or a double nonfat mocha with whip? Well, anything's romantic when you're sharing it with your honey. Or maybe Bernal just loves window dressing.

Still, the holiday is nearly upon us, and if you've got a sweetheart, you're probably wondering, with eagerness or dread, what to do about it. Personally, I don't ascribe to the fancy-jewelry, table-for-two view of Feb. 14. If you asked me to name my most romantic gifts or moments I've had, I'd remember the poem by Sappho an old girlfriend inscribed for me in gold ink on pink rose petals, one word per petal. Or being picked up from work on Valentine's Day by another date, who whisked me across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Headlands, where we sat on the hood of the car, looking out over the bay and eating take-out shrimp dumplings boxed up from my very favorite dim sum dive. (He knew me well enough to know that heaven, for me, is an endless supply of shrimp dumplings.)

The most romantic notion is the most personal, the gift that makes you feel truly seen. So, what does your husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend secretly like best? At home or in the company of like-minded sensualists, this week offers dozens of ways to tease and titillate your valentine.

Popping the cork on a bottle of good champagne may work for me, but for plenty of people, beer's the drink of choice. And conveniently enough, it's Beer Week in San Francisco now through the 14th, with dozens of bars offering many delectable suds, along with brewmaster meet-and-greets. And who says beer and chocolate aren't a perfect match? Serious Eats has an exhaustive guide to pairing the two. Although many of their picks are geared towards East Coast brands like Jacques Torres, the flavor profiles can certainly apply to your favorite Bay Area treats.

Or you can head to Humphry Slocombe and bring home a pint or two of their this-week-only beer ice creams, made with local brews. Beer ice cream! I think someone out there is just waiting to plant a big wet Homer Simpson m'waaah on you for thinking of this, and better yet, bringing it home, stripping down to your underwear, and grabbing a couple of spoons. Especially if you add a side order of Slocombe's cult-favorite caramels (made with Boccalone lard, and much better, and more bacony, than they sound).

In fact, caramel is breathing hard down chocolate's neck this year, a happy development for those less inclined towards the bean. Bi-Rite Market has a particularly fetching selection right now, starting with the salted caramel ice cream from their own Bi-Rite Creamery. Then there are the tamarind-spiked treats whipped up by local Indian baker and confectioner Spice Vice, as well as the vanilla-speckled, cajeta-inspired softies from Happy Goat, enriched with caramelized goat's milk.

Can't decide between caramel and chocolate? Local Charles Chocolates offers the best of both worlds: fleur de sel caramels covered in chocolate, arranged in an edible, flower-printed chocolate box. Or you can invest in Michael Recchiuti's dynamic duo, a jar each of Extra-Bitter Chocolate Sauce and Burnt Caramel Sauce. Who needs a spoon when you can just pour it on and...well, the rest is up to you.

Prefer to play with your food? Check out this list of chocolate spa treatments for two. Get rubbed down (or revved up) with a chocolate-espresso scrub, let yourselves be macerated in rose petals or painted with cocoa butter and chocolate oil, all while enjoying truffles and bubbly. Remember that goofy Axe chocolate man commercial? Like that, only pricier (and presumably, much more pleasing to the nose).

Can't quite swing that spontaneous weekend in Paris this year? Happily, in our European-minded city, there will always be croissants to wake up to (I may be Bernal-biased, but the delicate, extra-flaky ones at Sandbox Bakery are worth the trip up the hill) and pastel macarons in more flavors than Hermès has scarves. People who love macarons really, really love them, and while Miette has its fans, the latest buzz is about the stylishly packaged dainties at Paulette in Hayes Valley, the first NorCal branch of a popular shop in Beverly Hills. Or you can dream of escaping to the French countryside, à la Juliette Binoche in Chocolat, as you melt and roll your own ravishing truffles at La Cocina's chocolate-making class on Feb. 10.

Got a honey who's more salty than sweet? Well, take it from the Fatted Calf: the couple that grinds together, stays together. Head over to the Calf's headquarters in the Oxbow Public Market in Napa for their I Heart Sausage class on Feb. 13th, and get busy making it all: fresh, smoked, poached, and, for all you vampires out there, boudin noir, the infamous (and delectable) blood sausage. Or pencil in a plan for Whole Hog Butchery, Part 1, upcoming on Feb. 27.

To go with your sausage-fest, pick up a bloomy Heart's Desire cheese. Molded in the shape of a heart, it's named after a charming beach along Tomales Bay and made by Cowgirl Creamery this month only, available in their store in San Francisco's Ferry Building as well as at Tomales Bay Foods in Point Reyes. Out of town? You can order it online in a gift pack along with Jasper Hill Farm's Constant Bliss and Redwood Hill's Camillia cheeses, plus a selection of Tcho chocolates. Farmstead Cheeses and Wines in Montclair and Alameda will also be carrying a selection of heart-shaped cheeses this week, including French goat cheese Coeur de Gariottes, sold with rose petal jam; creamy cow's milk Coeur de Bray; and Coeur Cendrée, a goat cheese dusted with ash. And in keeping with the holiday, their weekly Friday & Saturday wine tasting will focus on sparklers and rosés.

Then again, what about dinner? Just about every restaurant in the city will be angling for your V-Day dollar with passion-fruit mousse and hearts of palm salad. Still, I'd like to imagine that all kinds of polyamorous, four- or more-some wake-ups will be happening the morning after the Wild Kitchen's Valentine's Day Dinner. That secret Mission location, those candlelit communal tables full of curious couples, those shared platters of candycap mushrooms and foraged mussels...how can they not inspire more than just gustatory exploration?

As an appetizer, the two (or more) of you can tango down to the Ferry Building on Feb. 12, from 5 to 8pm, for the annual Food from the Heart. After the food-court tourists have gone home, the elegant main promenade will be transformed into a place to sip, nibble, flirt, and perhaps even dance. Local restaurants and wineries will have tables set up offering drinks and small plates for tasting, $2-$4. The money goes towards sending one lucky Ferry Plaza Farmers Market seller to Slow Food's Terra Madre event in Italy this fall.

Socola Chocolatier

One look at Socola Chocolatier's whimsical mascot, a flying white alpaca named Harriet, and you just know that this won't be your typical gourmet chocolate. No, Socola Chocolatier is anything but typical. The promising, Oakland-based enterprise is young, exciting, and full of modern day sass. "Delicately Daring" is quite the perfect motto sister entrepreneurs Wendy and Susan Lieu have chosen for their business.

This Valentine's Day, when the market crowds over with cliché tokens of love, surprise your (guy, girl, self) with something witty, something sexy, something Socola.

Socola Chocolatier's Valentine's Day offering is an assorted box of 12 chocolates ($25) featuring playful flavors like:
• Cupid's Coffee Fix: because all that love stuff can wear a cherub out -- sultry Vietnamese espresso ganache with rich condensed milk, topped with French chicory grounds
• Chambord Shimmie: a pretty little number -- dark chocolate ganache with a hint of raspberry liqueur, blushed ready to shine in her pink glimmer
• Give It To Me Guava: unapologetically bold -- dark chocolate ganache kissed with a tender guava reduction
• Matchmaker Matcha: a sweet match made in heaven -- creamy white chocolate truffles infused with green tea matcha, subtly seductive.

If these inspired love potions aren't reason enough to shed your jaded anti-cupidism, Socola's story will certainly warm your heart.

Wendy (left) and Susan Lieu (right), co-founders of Socola Chocolatier

Chief Chocolatier Wendy Lieu is a graduate of UC Davis with a degree in Managerial Economics. A self-taught chocolatier, she juggled her management consulting job with pastry school to gain additional expertise last year.

Chief Chocolatier Wendy Lieu

Sister Susan is a Harvard alum whose passion for activism and social justice are deeply woven into her business plans for how Socola Chocolatier can play its part in improving social capital and engage the community it brings pleasure to.

Susan and I met up at a local coffee shop in SoMa, and as she told me about how Socola (which means "chocolate" in Vietnamese) was born, the story became much more than just about chocolate. She leaned in and her eyes glowed with conviction. She said, "It is in our blood to start something. Our parents were boat people and fled Vietnam in ’81. They came here and they were entrepreneurs. Our parents opened nail salons, a gardening service, and worked seven days a week for nearly 30 years. Wendy and I started Socola because we too wanted to create."

Apparently sweetness is in their blood too. The girls' grandfather had 11 children, and his family lived in the same house as his brother who had 12 children. He fed his family by making pastries and sweets that his wife sold every day at the market.

The inspiration for many of Socola's flavors come from the wandering travels of the sisters. For example, Give it to Me Guava was inspired from the time Susan spent in Baracoa, Cuba as a humanitarian aid worker. Wendy visited her while she was abroad and every morning the sisters would have guava jelly on toast as the morning sun warmed their faces. Susan also recently returned from a year-long stint in Vietnam developing sustainable cocoa production practices with local farmers in the Mekong Delta where her family used to call home.

Socola Chocolatier's Gold-Dusted Truffles

Socola's chocolates are beautiful, sensual, and they make you feel good. The Socola Sisters are living the dream and pushing forward in their quest to create. Memories, experiences, and a desire to keep seeking are intertwined in the flavors of their labor of love.

Socola Chocolatier is Femininity, Strength, and Spirit. Delicately daring? Yes, I think so.

Note: The Valentine's Day Offering can be pre-ordered online. Online orders must be placed by Friday, February 6th, 2009 to ensure receipt by the 14th .

Chocolates can also be purchased at:
• Alameda Natural Grocery Store 1650 Park St. #L Alameda, Ca
• Daily Delectables 3249 Grand Ave. Oakland, Ca
• (Whole Foods in early March)

I love Valentine’s Day. In addition to it being the day my normally unsentimental husband proposed to me, I see Valentine’s Day as a “free” day for eating chocolate. From morning to late in the evening, all chocolate is fair game.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, I thought it would be fun to make three different kinds of chocolate fondue. Although I’ve trained my kids to love semi-sweet chocolate, we plan on eating the fondue after dinner tonight, which is about an hour and a half before bedtime for my kids. I’m concerned the semi-sweet chocolate will have enough caffeine to wire them just enough to keep them up, so am opting to make a nice white chocolate fondue as well as a creamy milk chocolate one. I also think it will be delicious to have a varied palette of chocolate to choose from.

I must admit that until yesterday, I had never made chocolate fondue. After making a batch last night, however, I am a convert. In addition to it being a remarkably luscious dessert, it is also probably easier than almost any other dessert I’ve ever made.

Before I get into how to make the actual fondue, however, we need to talk about chocolate. When I decided to make fondue, I had a lot of questions. What sort of chocolate should I choose? How much should I use? Should I make it with heavy whipping cream or sweetened and condensed milk? The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to buy the chocolate at Bittersweet, the lovely little chocolate café in the Rockridge district of Oakland, not far from my house. So, with a list of questions in tow, I headed over to Bittersweet.

Bittersweet is a fantastic little café and chocolate shop. In addition to carrying a wide array of fair trade chocolates, they also have a bar where you can order a variety of chocolate drinks: from a classic creamy cocoa or a hot and spicy chocolate, to a white chocolate drink infused with cardamom and spices (which I had and loved).

Becky Vandragt was nice enough to show me around. She listened to my chocolate needs (making fondue for adults and kids) and helped me pick out the best chocolates for my requirements. She started by showing me the white chocolates, of which there were only two. She thought the El Rey Icoa from Venezuela was the best choice. It turns out that most chocolatiers deodorize their cocoa butter so they can sell it to other manufacturers (who make things like lip balm and lotion). The deodorizing process takes out all of those wonderful and natural cocoa smells. El Rey, however, doesn’t sell their cocoa butter. They use it all in-house. This means that their white chocolate retains the natural perfume of the cocoa beans, which gives the white chocolate a more nuanced flavor.

Becky then showed me the milk chocolates. She felt that the E. Guittard and the Michel Cluizel Mangaro Lait were both great choices. I ended up buying the Michel Cluizel simply because it came in a 7 oz. package, while the E. Guittard was 3 oz. package. We then moved over to the other end of the wall of chocolate to find a nice semi-sweet. I told Becky that I planned on flavoring this one fondue with either amaretto or Grand Marnier. I was surprised when she said that I should figure out which one I wanted to use before I settled on a chocolate. I didn’t think it would matter much, but Becky explained that many chocolates have undercurrents of citrus or vanilla and that I should take that into consideration when buying my chocolate. I settled on using Grand Marnier. She then chose a Grenada Organic Dark Chocolate 71%.

After settling on my chocolates, Marienne Warehine, the store manager, gave me a quick rundown on how to make fondue. She felt that heavy cream was the best liquid, as sweetened and condensed milk could make the fondue too sweet and could detract from the complexity of the chocolate. She also felt that you should use a one-to-one ratio when using dark or milk chocolate, but that you should use a two-to-one ratio when using white chocolate. According to Marienne, white chocolate needs more cream to become smooth. Her other bit of very helpful advice was to add any liqueur (to white, milk, or dark chocolate) after everything has melted and fused together because adding it too soon could make the chocolate seize up. I wasn’t quite sure what seized chocolate would look or taste like, but it seemed like something I should definitely avoid.

Last night, I put some of this great advice to the test and made the semi-sweet fondue. We didn’t have any sterno gel for our fondue pot, so I ended up putting the fondue in a glass bowl set in another glass bowl that contained warm water. The fondue stayed silky for about 10 minutes and adhered nicely to the fruit and pound cake I had made earlier that day. I used a one-to-one ratio of heavy cream and the Grenada Organic Dark Chocolate. I then added the Grand Marnier.

White we were admiring how nicely the chocolate tasted with fruit and pound cake, I noted that this was really one of the easiest desserts I had ever made. It literally took me less than five minutes to throw everything together, which included cutting up the bananas and peeling the tangerines. I can’t wait to do it all again tonight.

Recipe for Semi-Sweet Chocolate Fondue with Grand Marnier

Ingredients
7 ounces heavy whipping cream
7 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
2 teaspoons Grand Marnier or other liqueur

Preparation
1. Chop chocolate into small pieces.
2. Heat whipping cream on medium heat until it starts to simmer.
3. Turn off heat and add chocolate.
4. Stir until chocolate is melted.
5. Add to fondue pot or heated bowl and stir in liqueur.
6. Serve with slices of fruit, pound cake, angel food cake, or macaroons.

Note from 2/15/2008 -- I made some white chocolate fondue last night, using a 2-to-1 cream-to-chocolate ratio. The result was a bit drippy and runny. Next time I will use a one-to-one ration (as I did with the semi-sweet and milk chocolate fondues) and then add more heated cream by the teaspoon as necessary to create the right consistency.