ChocolateBet: June 3, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
1 dessert/postre
Iberia Restaurant
Higos Rellenos (stuffed figs)
Very Good
Weight: unknown
Calories: unknown
Cost: $6.75
Purchased from: Iberia Restaurant, in Menlo Park, CA

Today was Day #2 of Chocolate and Mediterranean Theme Week, and I chose to visit Spain, or the closest I could come to being there. I went to dinner with family to celebrate my dad's birthday at Iberia Restaurant -- located near the Menlo Park train station (south of San Francisco). It was not hard to imagine being in Spain, with dishes like Gazpacho MalagueÑo; Paella; and Lamb with Honey and Spanish Fries. And for postres (desserts) with chocolate, choices included Brazo de Gitano, Pan con Chocolate and Higos Rellenos. Not being able to eat wheat, I chose the higos (figs).

If you like figs and chocolate, this dish is a winner. The description of this dish reads as follows:
"Higos Rellenos: (3) dried figs poached in port wine and stuffed with a mixture of chopped walnuts, pistachios and chocolate. Drizzled with a port reduction." (Oh, and maybe a bit of whipped cream.)

Buen Provecho! all.

The runner-up chocolate choice for today was (making) a Valencia orange almond and chocolate cake at home. I'll save this idea for next year's Chocolate and Mediterranean Theme Week.

Thank you to Alec for doing a great job of capturing a picture of the higos in a dark restaurant with a cell phone camera.

ChocolateBet: June 2, 2011

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

1.) Daphne's Greek Cafe
Caramel Pecan - 1 piece
Very Good
Weight: 7 oz. (13.8 g.) (estimate)
Calories: 110 calories
Cost: N/A - sample (normally $1.25)
Purchased from: Daphne's Greek Cafe, in Alameda, CA

2.) Next Organics
Dark Chocolate Apricot
(mixed with Greek honey yogurt, pistachios, other nuts)
Very Good for Greek yogurt; OK+ for Dark Chocolate Apricot
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) (estimate) for 1 apricot; 4 oz. total package
Calories: 120 calories (estimate)
Cost: $4.69 for total package (4-5 pieces)
Purchased from: Whole Foods, in Los Altos, CA

Today was the start of Chocolate and Mediterranean Theme Week. Opa! There are at least 21 countries that have borders on the Mediterranean Sea; however, I'm partial to Greece, Italy and a few other cuisines I must admit, in part because these nationalities are well-represented in the U.S. Today's Greek food was wonderful. I had lunch at Daphne's Greek Cafe, on the island of Alameda in San Francisco Bay. In addition to a Greek California chicken salad -- sprinkled with pine nuts, I sampled a Caramel Pecan for dessert. Think sweetened, crunch phyllo dough (like you might find in baklava), covered in chocolate and topped with a pecan. Not gluten free, but I made an exception today.

For dinner I had some Greek honey flavored yogurt, with roasted, unsalted pistachio nuts, almond pieces, dry roasted hazelnuts and walnuts. Unfortunately, I took this dish/dessert one step too far. All was wonderful until I added this piece of organic chocolate coated apricot. This chocolate may not have been stored properly; or it may have been the unsulphured, dried fruit. I can only speculate.

ChocolateBet: June 1, 2011

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

1.) Green and Black's Organic
Dark Chocolate - Cherry (bar)
Very Good
Weight: .7 oz. (13.8 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 104 calories (estimate)
Cost: $2.29 total bar
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, in Palo Alto, CA

2.) Kopali Organics
Organic Dark Chocolate Covered Banana
Very Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) / 2 oz. (57 g.) total package
Calories: 120 calories (estimate)
Cost: N/A - sample
Purchased from: N/A - from Kopali Organics

Today was Day #7 of Chocolate, Banana and Cherry Theme Week.

Most of the time, keeping things simple is better -- in life and in chocolate. But, seeing all the fresh fruit in Hawaii last week must have inspired me. And, my inner mad scientist got the best of me. Organic bananas! and cherries!, and chocolate!, and ice cream!, and...and...and.

Today I was reminded that mixing too many chocolates and flavors together can result in losses as well as gains, when I made an organic ice cream sundae using both Green and Black's Organic Dark Chocolate Cherry Bar and Kopali Organics Dark Chocolate Covered Banana pieces.

It's hard to find fault with an ice cream sundae, especially one made with high-quality chocolate ingredients. However, chocolate is better at room temperature, or even heated to make fudge sauce. Instead, the ice cream in the sundae I made chilled these two freshly unwrapped (room temperature) chocolates to a point where the wonderful, rich subtle fruit and cacao flavors were no longer detectable, and resulted in dark chocolate lumps with a numb, frozen gummy texture.

I was too full to repeat this experiment with these two chocolates melted down into a dark banana cherry hot fudge sauce over a second bowl of ice cream.  However, each of these chocolates deserved to be re-tasted, and could easily have stood on their own. The Green and Black's Organic Cherry Bar with whole, dried tart cherries had just the right tart/sweet balance for me -- which is to say the bar was not overly sweet. And the Kopali Organics dark chocolate covered covered banana pieces included some rich, earthy notes that were very satisfying.

ChocolateBet: May 31, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
1/2 bar (plain + in muffins)
Camille Bloch Kirsch bar
Good + - Very Good
Weight: 1.75 oz. (50 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar (8 squares)
Calories: 263 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $5.99 total bar
Purchased from: Z. Cioccolato, in San Francisco, CA

I have to admire the Swiss for their wonderful, smooth milk chocolate. Camille Bloch - "Mon Chocolat Suisse" -- is no exception. Their milk chocolate bar with thick liquid Kirsch (cherry liqueur) filling was adult candy bar good.

I ate a few squares of this 8-square bar. Each square included a dome in the center where the Kirsch filling was housed. Half of the Kirsch bar was broken carefully in into bits and incorporated into a batch of gluten-free banana, cherry, chocolate chunk muffins. I used King Arthur Flour's Gluten Free Muffin Mix (scented with nutmeg) as the base mix, and added in chopped fresh cherries, banana, and some cinnamon and other spices.

Today was Day #6 of Chocolate, Banana and Cherry Theme Week.

ChocolateBet: May 30, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
1 piece
Napa Valley Fudge Company
Chocolate Fudge Truffle - SS Red Oak Victory Ship
Good+
Weight: .33 oz. (9.4 g.) / 4 oz. (113 g.) total bar/package
Calories: 50 calories (estimate)
Cost: $6.00 total package
Purchased from: SS Red Oak Victory ship gift shop, in Richmond, CA

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate, Banana and Cherries Theme Week. And it was also Memorial Day in the U.S.; so today's chocolate comes in the form of a delicious thin slice of rich, sweet fudge - eaten with a banana and cherry heavy fruit salad and topped with a little vanilla yogurt. Good thoughts go out to all those remembering lost loved ones on this day.

Saved from the "mothball fleet" and towed to Richmond (across the Bay from San Francisco), the SS Red Oak Victory Ship (from World War II) is available for tours and is being restored. I had the privilege of taking a tour recently, and spied this Napa Valley Fudge in a SS Red Oak Victory box, in the ship's gift shop.

ChocolateBet: May 29, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:

1/2 bar
Cacao Atlanta Chocolate Co.
Love Bar {Patanemo} Dried Cherries
Good + - Very Good
Weight: .75 oz. (25 g.) / 1.5 oz. (50 g.) total bar
Calories: 60 calories (per package label)
Cost: $10.00 (2 bars for $20.00)
Purchased from: Cacao Atlanta Chocolate Co. booth at Chocolate Salon event in San Francisco; the company is based in Atlanta, GA

Today was Day #4 of Chocolate Banana and Cherry Theme Week. For today's chocolate items, I looked to the South for inspiration and was not disappointed.

Cacao Atlanta's Love Bar with Dried Cherries was very dark and rich; the cherries supplied a well balanced sweet and tart note above the 75% Cacao, single origin (Patanemo, Venezuela) dark bar base. (Patanemo is a name for the coastal region of Puerto Cabello in Venezuela, in South America.)

I also made a small banana ice cream sundae (with Safeway Select Super Premium Bananas Foster Ice Cream). This rich banana ice cream had a cinnamon honey swirl running through it. Bananas Foster is a dessert made famous at Brennan's Restaurant (in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana). And buying and enjoying this ice cream was faster than making the famous Brennan' dessert recipe -- with flaming rum and bananas. Both of these banana dishes pair well with a little chocolate.

ChocolateBet: May 28, 2011

Chocolate(s) of the Day:


1.) Wow-Wee Maui's Candy Bar
Chocolate Macadamia Chewy Banana
Good +
Weight: .5 oz. (14 g.) / 1.75 oz. (50 g.) total bar
Calories: 75 calories (estimate)
Cost: $1.99 total bar
Purchased from: Longs Drug, in Kahului (Maui), in Hawaii


2.) Surfing Goat Dairy
Amaretto Cherry Almond Truffle
Good +
Weight: .5 oz. (14 g.) (estimate)
Calories: 74 calories (estimate)
Cost: $ (part of a larger box of truffles)
Purchased from: Surfing Goat Dairy, in Kula (Maui), Hawaii

Today was Day #3 of Chocolate, Banana and Cherry Theme Week. Last week, I was enjoying fresh tropical fruit and chocolates on the island of Maui. So, both today's Wow-Wee chocolate bar with macadamia nuts and chewy banana, and the Amaretto Cherry Almond truffle from the Surfing Goat Dairy, hail from this island in Hawaii.

Wow-Wee Maui's chocolate bar line is now fairly broad, but this bar with macadamia nut pieces, and bits of chewy banana was the original Wow-Wee chocolate bar.

The Amaretto Cherry truffle was made with goat milk/cheese, although I doubt most people would guess this, as the goat flavor is very difficult to detect.

I enjoyed these two chocolates with fresh cherry plums from a tree in my backyard, a fresh banana and an ice cold cherry juice drink. (Don't all cherries grow with googly eyes?)