Wednesday, September 19, 2007

ChocolateBet: December 27, 2006

It was a fairly cold day. To warm up, a great friend and I decided to go have a wonderful cup of hot cocoa at Cascal restaurant in downtown Mountain View, CA. It was a "cocoa caliente con crema" to be precise. I would rate this a Yum (highest rating).

ChocolateBet: December 26, 2006

Chocolate of the Day: 

Fisher
Milk Chocolate Peanuts
Good
Weight: 3.5 oz. (99 g.) in total box
Calories: 440 calories in 1 box
Cost: $3.75 (estimate) for 1 box
Purchased from: Century 16 (theater), Mountain View, CA

I went to go see the latest James Bond movie at the local theater with my boyfriend. This was fun. I had a box of (Fisher brand) milk chocolate covered peanuts. They were good, and I ended up eating the whole box...which was about 440 calories. Whoops.

ChocolateBet: December 25, 2006

Today is Christmas Day. I spend some time with my daughter and then go to the hospital with my dad, and brother who is in town, to visit my mom. While my brother and I end up eating Christmas dinner in the hospital cafeteria, which might be considered depressing in most circumstances, we have something to celebrate. It looks like my mom may be over the worst of her blood infection/fever that was causing so many problems. And mom's involuntary movements are decreasing, although it's still not clear what the long-term prognosis is.

Today's chocolate is dark chocolate M&Ms from Mars. While they'd been in the refrigerator (with a bag lunch), and were a bit too cold; they were still good.

ChocolateBet: December 24, 2006


Chocolate of the Day:

1 square of chocolate
Golden Gate National Conservancy
"Alcatraz Extreme" Dark Chocolate bar.
Weight: .5 oz. bite / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 83 calories (estimate) (~ 166 calories per oz. for this bar)
Cost: $5.00 for 1 bar

The artwork and graphics on the packaging for this "Alcatraz Extreme" bar were compelling, and a part of the proceeds from sales of these chocolates goes to a good cause -- San Francisco parks.

The chocolate was OK. It had been sitting in my car for awhile, and this may have affected its taste. It was a 75% cacao dark chocolate bar.

Sometimes it seems it's more difficult to get a well-balanced taste with dark chocolates with more than 70% cacao. But, I'll have to keep sampling different brands over time to see if this is really true.

ChocolateBet: December 23, 2006

Chocolate of the Day: 

Empire Torte American
Chocolate Empire Torte
Yum
Calories: I really wasn't paying attention
Cost: N/A - gift
Purchased from: N/A - gift from Canada

After visiting my mom, who is still hanging in there in the hospital, yesterday after work, and receiving a chocolate bar from a hospital "angel", I was fortunate enough to have a great late dinner out with a friend which really helped lift my spirits.

Also, a business partner from Montreal generously sent out a delicious chocolate Empire Torte as a holiday gift this week. And I brought this truly wonderful (yum - highest rating) chocolate torte to the hair salon where I went today to have my hair cut - to share with Celine and Helena there - with some alcohol-free champagne. The healing power of chocolate is confirmed!

ChocolateBet: December 22, 2006

Today I'm grateful it's Friday before the Christmas holiday break week. My family has spent a lot of time at the hospital this week. We're hoping that my mom will pull through. Today, I feel somewhat numb as I walk past the hospital cafeteria on the way to visit her in her room. I know the way by heart now. As I walk, I wonder where I will get my chocolate of the day, when a woman in a nice suit, holding a wicker basket full of chocolate bars walks my way. No, I'm not making this up. It is very strange. She hands me a chocolate bar, and wishes me happy holidays. It is probably a Hershey's bar, branded with the hospital's name. I put it in my purse, and hope that this is a good sign. My mom is still very sick, but they are treating her for the blood infection as aggressively as they can, and they are pretty sure what she has is a variant of a rare disease called Guillan Barre Syndrome (GBS). Fingers crossed if she pulls through this infection, that there may be some hope of recovery - although it sounds like it may take a few years, and she may or may not be able to regain feeling/full use of her arms and legs.

The chocolate bar was good. I wonder if anything would taste really great this week. And this question makes me curious again about how our state of mind and other biological conditions affect our taste and ability to enjoy important things...like food, like chocolate.

ChocolateBet: December 21, 2006

Chocolate of the Day: 

Shanghai Sensation
Mango Chocolate
OK
Weight: 4 pieces / 7.05 oz. (200 g.) total box
Calories: unknown
Purchased from: Shanghai airport, China

Today I had 4 pieces of Shanghai Mango Chocolate (dried mango coated with milk chocolate), that I picked up in a shop at the Shanghai airport earlier this month on a business trip. The trip was great; the Mango Chocolate(s) were OK.

Today is the Winter Solstice, marking the first day of winter. It's a bit tough to think about the shorter/darker, colder days ahead. When I put in a long day inside a building at work in the summer, it's great to emerge at 8:00 p.m. in the evening in time to see the sunset. Looks like that will have to wait a few months. Mom is still in the hospital and is very ill.

I'll have to imagine the glorious, golden days of summer -- like the sunny, Shanghai landscape (titled Shanghai Century Park) on this box.

ChocolateBet: December 20, 2006

This chocolate bet log started out to be this great fun thing. And, so far, I'm not having any trouble finding a different chocolate to eat every day. This, despite my not being able to eat any chocolate-related products that contain wheat (regular flour). This year has ended up being fairly eventful though - my hitting a milestone birthday, being able to lease an office space in the city (SF), and many other exciting new projects, international travel at work, my daughter making plans to go away to college next year, and also some serious developments with my parents health. (My apologies to those who just wanted to read more about chocolate and less about my "dear diary" life. I actually have a spreadsheet that has "just the facts" and am looking into whether I can post this.)

Today is my sister's birthday, but our family is spending a lot of time in the hospital visiting my mom, and no one is really up for celebrating much. Mom has a fever, and probably a blood infection she picked up in the hospital, along with paralysis in her arms and legs. She's not fully coherent. It's another "bittersweet" chocolate day (This was not a deliberate choice - I bought these chocolates earlier). It does seem to fit though. Today I have a 1 oz. Scharffen Berger Bittersweet Dark Chocolate bar, with 70% cacao. It's good.

ChocolateBet: December 19, 2006

Today, I had a 1 oz. Scharffen Berger Nibby Bar - with 62% cacao. It was good.

ChocolateBet: December 18, 2006

Because my mom is in the hospital and is very ill, most of my family is not really thinking about making holiday plans this year. This is, in an odd sort of way, a benefit. Not that we'd really be able to fully enjoy big lavish meals or gift-giving...No, in some ways the relief comes as if I've been given a pass on not having to "do the holidays" this year.

When I was traveling in Shanghai and Tokyo for business earlier this month, one of the things I was struck by was all the Christmas decorations everywhere - in stores, in restaurants, on buildings and billboards. "Meery (sic) Christmas" one large banner read. There were holiday carols/songs coming out of loudspeakers in different languages. It was a big surprising and surreal, but fun. So, maybe I did absorb my "holidays" earlier in the month.

Today's chocolate was Bija dark chocolate-covered Omega Truffles (Omega 3-6-9 blend). They were good. While I feel powerless to really help my mom at this point, I am eating healthy on her behalf perhaps.

ChocolateBet: December 17, 2006

Today is Sunday, and I just returned from Asia yesterday. I've gone to visit my mom in the hospital. She was sick when I left, and now is very sick. It's the type of development that takes the wind out of your sails a bit. In addition to my dad, she's had several friends visiting her. Some send flowers, and some drop off boxes of chocolate with their best wishes. She tried one of these chocolates earlier I think, but now she seems too sick to have anymore. We don't really have the appetite to eat these, so some of them go to the round-the-clock nursing staff there.

Later, at home, I eat a Toblerone Swiss Bittersweet (the right theme for today) Chocolate. It is good. I have about 1/3 of the bar.

ChocolateBet: December 16, 2006

I go right from the San Francisco airport up to North Beach in San Francisco; the return-to-the-U.S. jet lag hasn't hit yet, and I'm eager to spend some time walking through North Beach and getting some writing done in the office up there.

I stop at Gelateria Naia for a scoop of Don Giovanni gelato (vanilla, chocolate, ameretto) in a cup. It's good.

ChocolateBet: December 15, 2006

Chocolate of the Day:

Tianjin (Shanghai Shengang Foodstuff Factory)
Tianjin Chestnut Chocolate
Good
Weight: 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total box of 10 pieces
Calories: 57 calories (estimate) in 1 piece
Cost: ?
Purchased from: Airport, Shanghai, China

Airport shops are good places to look for local chocolates, and to get rid of (spend) small denominations of foreign currency you've accumulated that might not be worth changing back to U.S. dollars when you head home. I bought chocolates in both Shanghai and Tokyo airports this week as we were leaving these countries.

In Shanghai, I bought a box of Tianjin Chestnut Chocolate. The box contained ten chestnut (milk) chocolates, and they were good. They came in a nicely decorated red box with an image of whole chestnuts, and a photo of a single, small domed chocolate, cut in half, to show the chestnut filling.

I also used my last handful of change at the airport to buy a chop (a small stamp carved out of soft stone with my name in Chinese characters). You dip the chop in thick red ink and press it on the paper or surface you want to leave your mark on. I watched while the man carved it himself --as I nervously looked at the clock and hoped I would still have a few minutes to spare to board the plane. But, true to his word, he finished in less than 10 minutes.

ChocolateBet: December 14, 2006

Today I try some Glico brand almond chocolate candy from Tokyo. The label says "big fried almonds coated with rich chocolate." Sounds good to me. They are very good. I'll have to look for these in the U.S. - maybe in Japantown in San Francisco?

ChocolateBet: December 13, 2006

Chocolate of the Day: 

Meiji Chocolate
Cacao 86% dark chocolates
OK+
Weight: 2 pieces / 1300 mg.? (130 g.) total package of 10 pieces
Calories: (had trouble translating label)
Purchased from: Lawson's (store), Tokyo, Japan

While on a business trip to Tokyo, I wandered into Lawson's, a store (chain) that looked like a Japanese version of U.S.-based 7-11 store - only stocked with slightly better, or at least more interesting food items. This is the third little store I've ducked into on the walk to and from meetings, and they're all fun to check out.

Surprise, they have great potato salad and a few weird/great flavored potato chip flavors over here. The store employees/owners were also unfailingly polite, and answered my silly questions about chocolate, and about a chewing gum that is supposed to make you smell nice. I remember reading about this in a magazine a few months ago, and wanted to pick up a pack or two of this gum to take back home.

However, my trying to act out this concept "yes....gum...(make pretend gum chewing face) that makes you smell nice... after you chew it...)" was pretty entertaining to these folks, but they were very nice about it, and tried not to laugh too much.

Today I tried some Meiji brand dark chocolates (10 pieces in a package). They were OK, but were sort of bitter. They're 86%(!) cacao. Wow, no wonder.

ChocolateBet: December 12, 2006

Chocolate of the Day:

Adora/Thompson Brands
500 mg Calcium Supplement
Good
Weight: 21 grams (estimate) for 1 package of 3 pieces
Calories: 90 calories for 3 pieces
Purchased from: Lawson (convenience store), Tokyo, Japan

As I've read more labels, and become aware of the sweetener levels and additives in some chocolates, I've been looking for health-oriented, or healthier, chocolates to try. I purchased this package of dark chocolate Adora calcium supplements (from Thompson Brands, of Meriden, CT), while traveling in Japan. Rubber-banding through time zones also makes me more vigilant about eating healthy, getting enough sleep, and getting enough vitamins and minerals, like calcium. So it made sense to me to combine chocolate + calcium.

These 500 mg calcium chocolates even had Vitamin D2 and Vitamin K1 in them as an added bonus. They were good, and only about 90 calories for all 3 disk-shaped pieces in the package -- according to the what's on the label. I feel so justified.

ChocolateBet: December 11, 2006

Today, I had 3 squares of a Vosges Haut Chocolate's Naga Bar - which is a milk chocolate bar flavored with curry powder and coconut flakes. This, like the Black Pearl bar yesterday, was also very good, and fit thematically with my travels in Asia this week. (I bought both of these bars ahead of time and brought them with me in my suitcase - just in case I couldn't find, or didn't have time to buy, a new chocolate. Although, I should have known better. Chocolate items must be found in almost every country by now. So, I buy more things to try in the little store I walked by in Tokyo.

Fortunately, we'll be doing some walking in and around Tokyo, which will help. Thank goodness we're traveling in the train system with some locals. Unless you can read kanji or katakana (?), you're pretty much asking to get lost. Don't be afraid to ask for directions though. Just remember to bow and say thank you. And hope you don't look too american-foolish, domo.

ChocolateBet: December 10, 2006

Chocolate of the Day:

Today I ate almost half of a Black Pearl bar. What is a Black Pearl you might ask? It is a great Asian-flavored dark chocolate (55% cacao) bar from Vosges Haut-Chocolat (Chicago, IL) - with hints of ginger, wasabi, and black sesame seeds. It was very good, and particularly relevant given that we will be traveling around Tokyo this week.

I had fun sharing this bar with Jennifer, Mark and Bill.

After meetings today and this evening, I plan to go up to my hotel room and read Haruki Murakami's book "Kafka on the Shore" before going to sleep. This author has a great imagination; animals often speak to him. I wonder if Mr. Murakami likes chocolate? Maybe a talking chocolate cat?
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