The places to go to find the sweets

DINING OUT

It was a brilliant spring day in Surf City and I went hunting for

eggs to hide for eager little hunters at those special places

offering all kinds of Easter eggs.

Surf City Candy is owned by Rick and Ken Vasilik and their mother

Millie. Here, huge barrels fill a storefront overflowing with

nostalgic ‘retro’ candy from your childhood. They have 30 varieties

of taffy and 40 kinds of jelly beans for those who don’t like

chocolate, with unusual flavors like rum, lime, passion fruit. They

also have those wonderful peek-through sugar eggs with scenes of tiny

flowers and bunnies. The brothers are members of Corvette Super

Sports, which will be having an Easter egg hunt, Saturday for an

orphanage in Placentia. They not only sell eggs, they’ll sponsor

hunts for them, too.

Further up Main Street past Walnut Avenue and across from the

Sugar Shack is Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, owned by Maxine and

Stephen Daniel who make 60% of their own candy specializing in candy

apples with eggs and bunnies on them for Easter. You’ll recognize the

shop by the life-size stuffed bear lounging on bench outside as if

he’d just finished a forbidden sweet.

For diabetics, such as owner Stephen, there are candies that are

not forbidden -- there are some great suckers ($2.95) and a barrel of

tiny foil-wrapped eggs. The see-through eggs here range from small

($2.25) to large ($8.25). A much-appreciated gift on Easter could be

a small box of sugar-free mixed candies ($9.98) something to please

the child in each of us. Stephen Daniel has owned the Chocolate

Factory for 11 years and calls it his ‘egg farm’ where sugar free

duck and Easter eggs keep multiplying.

If fun for you at Easter is not hunting them but making them,

there’s a great place Candycrafters, which has many plastic molds and

decorations for the creative. Kathy Galderon and her cousin Coleen

Craig are the new owners since January. Their molds include not only

eggs but also bunnies and crosses for the Easter holiday.

Easter egg hunts are as much fun for the adults who hide them as

the children who find.

* MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have

comments or suggestions, call (562) 493-5062 or e-mail

[email protected]