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These are the two best bites of gelato in Burnaby

My love affair with semi-unusual flavours goes back to when I was a child.
fiordilatte
The mint-chocolate gelato at Fiordilatte on Hastings in Burnaby. Chris Campbell photo

My love affair with semi-unusual flavours goes back to when I was a child.

While other kids were chomping down on chocolate, vanilla and strawberry – sometimes all at once with the famed Neapolitan – I was obsessing over the less-popular flavour of mint.

This didn’t work so well when my mom made a mint cake for my birthday and the other kids looked at the green monster like it was radioactive.

But the belly wants what the belly wants and mint was it.

I did, eventually, upgrade my passion for mint by morphing into a love of – wait for it! – mint chocolate.

Just recently, I was shopping and came across some Girl Guides selling their min-chocolate cookies. The kids probably haven’t seen a grown man cry for a while, so hopefully I didn’t scare them too much.

I’ve added a second flavour obsession in recent years – pistachio. This paid off handsomely this summer when I was in Kelowna and had a pistachio-strawberry dessert at Quail’s Gate winery that was part cheesecake and part gelato. For a moment, I thought I saw God.

But Kelowna is a long way away, so I’m relieved that there are two Burnaby gelato joints that let me indulge in my flavour passions.

The first is Fiordilatte on Hastings near Madison, which opened earlier this year. Their gelato is made in-house by an Italy-trained master.

I don’t know why I even look at the other flavours because I always end up snuggling up with my first love, mint chocolate. The mint is tart and sweet, and there are big chunks of chocolate that you can crunch. Most place just toss in some chocolate chips. The gelato is so rich and velvety I never have to worry about it melting because I inhale it too fast.

When I am in the mood for pistachio, I stop by Nuvola – also on Hastings, but near Beta. Its in-house gelato is also rich and silky, with the pistachio flavour straddling that line between sweet and nutty.

Damn, North Burnaby residents are so freaking lucky to have two amazing gelato places within a few blocks of each other.

I urge local dessert fans to show your love to these local businesses who have turned gelato into an artform.

DISCLAIMER: I have not been compensated by these two businesses for writing about them. They don’t even know I am writing about them.

Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.