The Palais Royale hosted the 3^rd annual Chocolate Ball on October 17, 2008 in support of Prostate & Breast Cancer Initiatives: Princess Margaret Hospital, Credit Valley Hospital (Mississauga) and The Prostate Cancer Foundation. This year's event brought back the glitz and glamour reminiscent of old Hollywood with entertainment from a 25-piece Toronto all-star big band orchestra along with special guest singers (June Garber, Michel Berube, Paula Shear) and performers including swing dancers, ballroom dancers, and more.

The night started off with specialized chocolate infused coco d'euvres served at several food stations. The infamous Chocolate Buffet packed with a wide variety of chocolate desserts and Chocolate Stations was the highlight of the evening feast. Back again was the Silent Chocolauction where everything up for bid came with a hint of chocolate. If you are a fan of the hit tv show "Deal or No Deal", Chocolauction had a bidding twist called "Bid or No Bid". The idea is to bid on a numbered case that contained the grand prize. The winning case this round was case #10! Congratulations and you won a 7-day all-inclusive vacation at Superclubs Breezes Bahamas valued at approximately $2,000. The only catch... the airfare was not included.

As we were making our Chocolate Station rounds, the Xoçai station caught our attention promoting healthy chocolates. The first thing that came to my mind was how tasty can a "healthy" chocolate be? As we all know usually "healthy" food are not always the best tasting food to indulge. In a brief discussion with the Xoçai expert, we learned a few important points about chocolate. Cocoa is one of the most potent antioxidants (flavonoids) and the ORAC score of dark chocolate is 13,120/100 gm serving, 14 times greater than a similar portion of spinach and well above the recommended daily requirement of 3-5,000. We should be eating dark chocolate and further more the process involved in creating the chocolate we consume does play a big role too. Okay, all this is good stuff but does it really taste like dark chocolate? The great news is it certainly does! For more information on Xoçai please visit their site at http://www.xocai.com