I know, I know... there's nothing that justifies a trip to Cleveland. Nothing, that is, except chocolate.

I read about For the Love of Chocolate in Bon Appetit's February issue. It's pretty rare that anything within a three-hour's drive is covered in that esteemed publication, so of course I put it on my calendar. My chocolate-loving friend Lisa lives in Cleveland, and, as it happens, just 30 minutes from the rural community of Medina, where the festival was hosted. It was a date.

Your ticket to the event entitles you to ten samples for $10 or five for $5. Armed with your pass, you migrate around an enormous community center - about three pole barns - sampling chocolate treats from everyone from fancy-pants Cleveland-area caterers to the local county prosecutor's office. You get an event program, and if you're like Lisa and I, you'll circle things like "Chocolate Mousse-Filled Pastry" and "Deep-Fried Chocolate Wontons." Then you'll wade through a sea of people  trying to muscle your way to the booths you want to visit. By the end of your ten samples, you have a large styrofoam take-out container full of treats.

This was certainly not a 100% haute cuisine event, unless the Medina county prosecutor moonlights as a pastry chef and Steak and Shake is suddenly sourcing pastured cattle. For every French silk pie, there were at least two boxed-mix brownies, and there were at least four chocolate fountains* - horrors. That being said, there were plenty of delicious morsels to stuff myself with.

My two favorites for the day were Madd Chef's chocolate shooter and Dolce Pizzelle's chocolate-hazelnut filled pizzelles. The cool shooter reminded me of the thick, melted chocolate that Parisians call hot cocoa (apparently the Swiss Miss is not actually Swiss). I imagine it would have been excellent spiced up with some Godive liqueur, but alas, this was a child-friendly event. And I just realized that you can order the Nutella-crammed, fresh-pressed pizzelles online - not a bad idea.

I am also always in love with chocolate-covered strawberries, and the local culinary program provided some great ones despite the fact that strawberries aren't even close to being in season. I guess being coated in chocolate will encourage anything to ripen... I know it works on me!

When we bought our ten-sample tickets, the volunteer manning the ticket counter warned us that we wouldn't be able to finish all ten of our treats right there. We scoffed at her lack of enthusiasm at first. But three brownies, some chocolate cream pie, one miniature ice cream cone, one deep-fried chocolate-and-walnut wonton, one chocolate-hazelnut stuffed pizzelle, one chocolate-covered strawberry, a chocolate shooter and a cup of hot chocolate later, we had to concede that the cashier was right - it's really hard to eat that much chocolate at once.

This event is an annual fund-raiser for the Medina County Red Cross, and I hope they made oodles of money. Don't let the presence of chocolate fountains* dissuade you from making a little trip over to Cleveland when the festival rolls around next year.

*Bonus points if you know why chocolate fountains are disgusting. Leave it in the comments!