Thorntons Chocolate Bars

These bars were a gift from my boss, as a thank-you for watering her plants while she was away. I'm not sure it was fair, because all I had to do was water a couple tiny pots and she gave me all this chocolate! I'm not going to argue, though.

Thorntons chocolate isn't available in the United States, so whenever my boss and her husband return to the UK, they stock up. It's not a brand I've seen in import stores, either, so this was my first time tasting Thorntons. These three bars are Cappuccino, Whipped Fudge, and Mint.


The first bar I tried was Cappuccino, and the first thing I noticed is that it was incredibly soft! It wasn't that it was melted, it was just that the white chocolate coating and the center were light and airy. It had a strong coffee scent, and the center had a strong cappuccino flavor, with a smooth, almost minty coating. The flavors went together well, and overall it wasn't too sweet but a nice and balanced bitter. It melted in my fingers, because the center was almost like whipped truffle ganache. I saved half to take home, but it got a bit melted during the 15 minute drive from work. I should probably mention that my air conditioning is broken... B


Next, I tried the Whipped Fudge Bar. It smelled like fudge, and had a vein of caramel running through the center. This caramel was the best part of this bar! It was oozy and sticky, and just the perfect level of sweetness. The fudge center was gritty, and it had the texture of faux cookie dough. It felt a little heavy for something with "whipped" in the title, and it was a bit too sweet, but since I'm a sucker for cookie dough, I didn't mind. My husband wasn't too fond of this one, though. B-


I saved the Mint Bar for last, and it was worth it. The bar smelled so very minty, and it delivered. There were crunchy peppermint bits in the center of the bar that reminded me of crushed candy canes. The chocolate on the outside was firm, and it was a fantastic pair for the creamy, cool mint ganache-like center. It was a lovely bar, and my favorite of the three. A-

Thorntons website

Xochitl: Veggie Burger

This one really came out of the left field, but I've found my new favorite veggie burger!

Xochitl's La Azteca veggie burger — a torta, really — is a dreaded, mushy, black bean burger and doesn't even come on a hamburger bun, but it's flavors are so darn good, with peppery spice and a little intrigue from huitlacoche and corn in the patty, that the mush is forgiven (it helps to make a thin patty like Xochitl did, if you're going the bean route), and I was left begging for more. Chihuahua cheese, avocado, crispy onion, and chipotle mayo round out the torta. Vegetarian entree specials are mostly unheard of, so I rarely pay attention to servers as they spout off their memorized lists. Xochitl realized that the best of the summer season is not meat, but vegetables, and offered an heirloom tomato torta as one of their specials. Meaty, sweet, and so juicy, there was no way the bun was escaping the flood of tomato essence. Pure summer joy.

I'm kinda digging Xochitl's more casual menu redo and interior remodeling from the last time I reviewed Xochitl. The taco and torta-heavy menu is still quality, and not having the table linens crumbed after each course puts me much more at ease.

Xochitl
408 S. 2nd St, Philadelphia 19147
215-238-7280

Vosges Amalfi Bar

This is another selection from the Fancy Food Show. Keepitcoming and I came back to the Vosges booth every day of the show because they had a consistently interesting product line and absolutely incredible new findings. One of these was the Amalfi bar, which I procured a sample of.If you're familiar with Vosges, you know how strange their flavors can get. This is no exception. With 36% cocoa butter white chocolate, pink peppercorns, and lemon zest, this bar makes an excellent dessert on its own. The bar is separated into eight squares, each liberally portioned with the peppercorns. While the lemon zest doesn't impart a textural difference, the essence is right there, from the very scent of the bar itself. Creamy lemon and sweet chocolate waft up from its exterior, leaving the peppercorns to lie in wait on the inside.Upon biting into the bar, the first immediate sensation is a crunch of peppercorn. The pepper isn't overwhelmingly spicy, but does provide a taste more evocative of the actual spice than a heat-related sensation. In this bar, though, heat might not be as tempting, as the flavors hint at a mild, indulgent quality, and they meld together in an extremely en pointe expertise.The flavor recedes into a milky and extremely buttery tranquility, with the lemon zest playing a bigger role, and gives a fantastic, fresh, and fully developed flavor in the entire bar. This is perfect for a dessert at any time of day, but most happily evokes those long, drawn out summer days of citrine pleasure and lackadasical passing. This is a bar I'd happily purchase and would recommend to any palate.

Trader Joe's 85% Cacao Bar

I have to drive almost an hour to get to a Trader Joe's, but I love the store. They carry so many interesting products that I just can't find in my area (even with our fancy grocery store). Last time I was there, this bar, The Dark Chocolate Lover's Chocolate Bar, was an impulse buy.

Unlike the Hageland bars I've been loving recently, the Trader Joe's bar contains soy lecithin - spoiling an otherwise bare-bones list of ingredients. Soy lecithin, for better or worse, can alter the flow properties of chocolate and replaces more expensive ingredients. It's hard to complain because Trader Joe's prices are very low for a reason, but it's definitely possible to make affordable chocolate bars without filler ingredients.


It was very hard for me to place the scent of this bar, and all that I could come up with was that it smelled a bit toasty and nutty. The first bite was very bitter, and it was a bit crumbly to chew. As it began to melt, the bitterness gave way to an intense, fruity flavor.

There was no aftertaste and no oily feeling in my mouth once the chocolate was gone. I've found that many dark chocolate bars have a similarly clean finish. The chocolate was not too acidic and the flavor was pleasant, but a little flat. The fruitiness never went anywhere, and I found myself wishing for a little more depth and complexity.

Read more reviews at Chocablog and Annmarie Kostyk's blog.

B

Trader Joe's Website

Fratelli Beretta Gli Originali SalaMini Classici

So my sister came back from Italy and all I got were these Snausage-esque snacks. And a few more things, but for today, we're reviewing real live dog treats. I'm kidding, of course, they're essentially preserved cocktail salami, in toe-sized format for easy snacking. There's about ten to a blister pack and the plastic cover depicts them bouncing into a bowl in one of the most exuberant and intense ways I've seen sausages operate.

They're a little greasy to the touch, but upon biting in, have a pleasantly savory and moist texture without being overladen with grease. There's a good chew to these and they have a well-balanced yet pedestrian meaty flavor.While I'm not sure if I'd choose these for a snack again, they are a good representation of preserved meat and certainly rise above the levels of a Slim Jim or similar jerkies. They were a substantial breakfast treat.

Keepitcoming Love's Disturbing Observation of the Day: "These look like suppositories."

Tripletas 'n' More, New Haven, CT

Swagger and I embarked on an epic adventure yesterday with all intentions of going to the new Sonic in Connecticut, acquiring some swag, and reporting back to you after eating food delivered from a car. But alas, it was not meant to be! Connecticut is so fucking jonesed for Sonic after seeing ten years of cockteasing commercials that every single person in New England is now there. It was an hour and a half wait. We weren't feeling it.

However, there's one delicious delicacy that's open all the time, that delicacy being the New Haven food trucks on Long Wharf. They're a heartdropping delight, with risky twists and turns. Will this tongue taco taste good? Will I get food poisoning after eating this hot dog? What really goes on in the recesses of that sandwich cart? All these and more awaited us on our mission to get good, hot, cheap food. We finally settled on the Tripletas 'n' More cart.I'd actually heard of tripletas before, from one of my exes and also from the magical land of the internet, and I was stoked to find out that here in Connecticut, a magical sandwich lay in wait. So thus we ordered the tripleta to split, along with a pina colada, and waited outside amongst the throngs of people and bachata music playing.

The sandwich took a half hour to make. Seriously. I don't care if you're Wolfgang Puck and you're creating a sandwich on the spot with ingredients based off the last orgasm I had. It should not take a half hour. When the food was finally handed to us, though, it radiated lovely smells and the pina colada was generously portioned and sweated sweetness in my hand. Eleven bucks total and we had our lunch.Maybe we were sunburned and thirsty, but that pina colada was like manna from heaven. It was in a rather large serving, enough for the two of us to share, and balanced sweet and creamy with a nice shaved ice base and a cherry on top. While there were no pineapple chunks, there was a satisfying sweet pineapple flavor, not too sugary at all, and enough cream base to make it seem like a more indulgent desire than it nutritionally came to be.

With rum, this might have just been perfect.The tripleta is, in the majority of circles, a sandwich made with roasted pork, roasted steak, and chicken, with melted cheese, potato sticks or fries, coleslaw, ketchup, mayo, and mustard. Many ingredients. Ours came with a medley of meat and cheese, coleslaw with the toppings mixed in, and potato sticks on a soft bun. The bun was very soft, but held up to the enormity of the toppings and stayed uniformly together throughout the consumption.We had to peel the tin foil off the sandwich and eat it bite by bite. Each bite had a huge amount of meat in it. While I couldn't necessarily discern one meat from another, they were all relatively well spiced and tender. The meat was in good chunks, a step above ground beef but not quite in slices. The coleslaw and potato sticks, a strange addition, added a nice crunch and textural differentiation to the meat. There were not enough potato sticks, and they were haphazardly placed on the side of the sandwich, near the opening. The cheese, instead of being placed on top and melted, was incorporated into the main meat in small chunks, rendering it melty and flavorful.

This was a damned good sandwich. Swagger didn't feel as though it was attune to his personal preferences, and I was a little skeptical about the meat, but we both felt that it was a tasty lunch and that it was very filling. It was definitely something different and off the beaten path, and I wouldn't hesitate to get this again. The food trucks in New Haven are delicious and fresh, and fantastic for budgets.

Meiji Strawberry Cheesecake Kinoko no Yama

These special edition Kinoko no Yama and Takenoko no Sato boxes really aren't a good deal. I don't know how much they cost in Japan, but in the United States, they are usually one of the pricier snacks in Japanese grocers, often over $3 a box.

For that price, there really isn't that much inside. This package might have had 6 or 7 individually wrapped pieces. That's probably good for portion control, but it's beginning to get to me in terms of value.


It had a potent strawberry smell with a hint of cheesiness. There were actual strawberry seeds embedded in the chocolate, and the strawberry flavor was pretty authentic. The cheese taste was subtle, a little yogurty, but recognizable.

The cookie/chocolate balance in the larger size held up better than the Takenoko no Sato that I tried recently, but the chocolate did feel a bit overwhelming and sweet on the finish. In general, though, I'd say these were better than the average strawberry cookie snack.

B+

Meiji website