ChocolateBet: October 10, 2012

Chocolate of the Day: 

Island Princess
Choco Mochi - Chocolate Covered Japanese Rice Crackers
Good - Good +
Weight: 2.5 oz. (70 g.) total bag/package
Calories: 320 calories in 1 package
Cost: $1.88 total package (sale)
Purchased from: Cost Plus/World Market, in Reno, NV

Today was Day #2 of Chocolate and Rice Theme Week. Everything tastes more fun dipped in chocolate, right? Yes, including crunchy, savory rice crackers.

Thank you to Island Princess (Honolulu, HI) for this creative idea. They dunked little Japanese soy sauce flavored rice crackers (in the shape of rounded, twisted or scalloped squares and cherry blossoms) in milk chocolate.

These crunchy and melty "Choco Mochi" crackers had a very faint, unusual umami tang to them. Perhaps it was the milk chocolate reacting with the soy sauce or the tiny flecks of roasted seaweed in the crackers. But, this tang seemed to disappear after the first bite or two. And they were fun.

Next experiment: combine these chocolate covered crackers with sweet peanuts, and other crunchy sweet and savory bits. Maybe even wasabi peas or nuts or corn chips.

ChocolateBet: October 9, 2012

Chocolate of the Day:

Hawaiian Sun
Kona Krunch
Good
Weight: .4 oz. (11.32 g.)/ .8 oz. (23 g.) total package of 2 pieces
Calories: 62.5 calories (estimate) in 1 piece
Cost: $ N/A
Purchased from: N/A - gift

Slightly malted-milk sweet and softly crunchy, today's Kona Krunch -- two pieces of chocolate,  macadamia nuts and rice crunch, from Hawaiian Sun (Hawaii) -- kicked off Day #1 of Chocolate and Rice Theme Week.

For those tired of these silly theme weeks that I do, I hope two points are clear: 1.) There is no shortage of items with chocolate in them; 2.) Chocolate is one of those wonderful ingredients that mixes well with almost every other food and beverage substance. Rice cereals, rice pudding, rice milk, rice bread mix....all mixed with chocolate. More combinations to look forward to this week.