Category Archives: Great Finds

Gorge-a-thon at the Chocolate Salon

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Kshocolat's chocolate-covered nuts and honeycomb bits.

Chocolate in vodka.

Chocolate in cake.

Chocolate in custard tarts.

Chocolate in fanciful bonbons.

Chocolate, chocolate, everywhere.

That was the scene at last Saturday’s San Francisco International Chocolate Salon at Herbst Pavillion, where 30,000-square-feet of space was devoted to all things chocolate. Yours truly was lucky enough to be a judge for the chocolate competition. I think chocolate is still coursing through my veins from all that nibbling.

San Francisco's Neococoa truffles made with organic, fair trade, and local ingredients.

Hundreds of chocoholics made the rounds to taste samples at more than 50 booths. Here were some of my favorites:

* Van Gogh Dutch Chocolate Vodka: Think the taste of chocolate milk, but in the form of clear vodka. This is one smooth operator, even when tasted straight. It goes down easy, with no serious burn. A truly elegant and polished spirit. A 750ml bottle is about $30.

* William Dean Chocolates: Bold colors (green, fuchsia, azure, bright orange) and unique shapes make these truffles extremely eye-catching. The Largo, Fla. chocolates are all made by hand. The PB&J is a masterpiece: milk chocolate and peanut butter with the crunch of peanut brittle, and a sweet, complex jelly made from three different fruits. A nine-piece box of assorted chocolates is $18.

Fun colors from William Dean Chocolates of Florida.

* Marti Chocolatt: Filipino-American Tonet Tibay studied the art of chocolate making at Ecole Lenotre in Paris. These exquisite creations explode on your tongue with the assertive flavors of pandan, ginger, rose-raspberry, and even goat cheese. The durian is creamy, bold and complex. Made in Los Angeles, these are chocolates that grab your senses. A box of six bonbons is $13.50.

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TCHO’s Newest Chocolate Product

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Chocolate crumbles that when mixed with hot water become...

San Francisco’s only bean-to-confection chocolate factory is at it again with new goodies.

This time, TCHO has unveiled a Hot and Cold Drinking Chocolate. Its the latest from the company founded by a former space shuttle technologist, Timothy Childs; and overseen by CEO Louis Rossetto, former co-founder of Wired magazine.

A 300-gram tin of the dark chocolate crumbles is $10.50.  Put a few teaspoons into a mug, pour hot water over, and stir. Or mix with warm milk. Add brewed coffee or not. You can enjoy the drinking chocolate cold in water or milk, as well. You also can make a simple chocolate sauce from it to drizzle over your favorite ice cream.

The drinking chocolate is a precise blend of three of TCHO’s chocolates: “Chocolatey” from cacao beans from Ghana, “Citrus” from beans from Madagascar, and “Nutty” with beans from Peru.

...this creamy, frothy, warm drink.

I’ll use my patented scale of 1 to 10 lip-smackers, with 1 being the “Bleh, save your money” far end of the spectrum; 5 being the “I’m not sure I’d buy it, but if it was just there, I might nibble some” middle-of-the-road response; and 10 being the “My gawd, I could die now and never be happier, because this is the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth” supreme ranking.

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Ricotta Revisited: Part 1, The Pound Cake

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The best pound cake you'll ever make.

Whenever I bake, my husband’s co-workers are usually the lucky recipients of the goodies.

I load him up with the fresh, sweet treats to take to the office. And when he comes home in the evening, I await to hear what verdict has been rendered upon them.

Usually, they get the thumb’s up. But for one co-worker, there has always been a qualifier associated with them.

Ramin will happily nosh on one of my muffins or cupcakes. Then, he’ll tell my husband, “This is good. But when is your wife going to make that pound cake again?”

Apparently, this happens with regularity.

It doesn’t matter if it’s chocolate-chunk cookies or cinnamon-sugar dusted banana bread that I’ve made that week. Ramin will enjoy it, but deep down, he’s longing for the ricotta pound cake.

Since I can’t stand to see a grown-man in pound cake-pain (definitely not a pretty sight), I made him his beloved pound cake two weeks ago.

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Tasting Terroir In A Surprising Way

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Which rib-eye will be victorious?

Its flavor was straightforward. Perhaps a little mushroomy. Maybe a little gamey. And as I swallowed, the finish lingered moderately so.

Nope, it wasn’t a glass of Pinot Noir that I was tasting blindly.

It was a rib-eye steak, of all things.

It was a steak-off in the comfort of my own home, where I tasted four different rib-eye steaks from four different ranches, without knowing which one was which. If you’re used to just chewing without giving it much thought, tasting meat in this way is an eye-opening, palate-awakening experience. When you concentrate on texture (or body), flavors, and finish, just as you do with wine, you pick up a spectrum of nuances you might otherwise miss.

The box of meat.

Santa Rosa-based Oliver Ranch invites you to experience it for yourself. The company, which sources sustainably raised beef from across the country, has created a tasting pack of steaks, each from a different rancher. Choose from filet mignon, New York strip, top sirloin, or rib-eye packages. Prices start at $79.95.

Cook each steak the same way, then taste, jotting down notes with the handy tasting guide that comes with each kit. At the end, you can peek at the pamphlet to discover where the meat was raised, how it was aged, and what breed it is.

“It’s a way for people to enjoy the terroir and provenance of beef,” says Oliver Ranch founder, Carrie Oliver. “The breed, the growing area, the practices of the rancher and of the slaughterhouse — all those things can make a difference in taste and texture.”

Oliver created the kit in 2007, after noticing that when she tasted beef blindly with friends, they all had different opinions on what they liked best. The kits are now the most popular items the company sells.

“It’s not a hard sell,” she says. “I ask people, ‘You like wine tasting? How about trying a beef tasting then?’

“You should see their eyes light up. And it’s not just men.”

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