Chocolate and Food Pairings

A few days ago I walked into my kitchen and saw my 12 year old daughter take out a bowl of melted milk chocolate from the microwave and dip a stick of string cheese into it.  Yummy she crooned. 

I was not so sure about that combination, but I tried it anyway.  Actually, it was not bad. 

Lately, I have been eating all sorts of chocolate and food pairings that I never thought I would enjoy.  For example, I recently ate a dark chocolate covered piece of bacon I bought from my local chocolates shop.  You heard right, bacon!  It was very delicious.

It is not unusual these days to find chocolate bars with all sorts of exotic flavors, at least what I would consider “exotic.”  And each time I visit a chocolate shop, I find truffles made with pretty some weird, or should I say “unique,” ingredients. 

Did you know you can buy chocolate truffles made with goat cheese (chèvre), shitake mushroom, balsamic vinegar, or wasabi horseradish?

Chocolatiers are adding red hot chili peppers in their retail candy bars. Dagoba Organic Chocolate offers the Xocolatl bar, a 74% dark chocolate bar with spicy chilies.  Chocolove makes a bar with dried cherries and ancho and chipotle chilies in dark chocolate.  Vosges Haut Chocolate company has two varieties of spicy chocolate bars - The Red Fire Bar and the Oaxaca Bar.

Vosges probably makes the most unusual line of chocolate bars I have ever had.  The Black Pearl Bar combines ginger, wasabi, and black sesame seeds in dark chocolate.  They also make Mo’s Bacon Bar.

If you find you are not in mood for the same old chocolate experience, try Lindt’s Hot Mango bar with mango-cayenne chocolate mousse filling in a 70% dark chocolate.

Now that is Yummy!

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Bryn Kirk

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