Spread Love Your dwindling holiday gift budget will be easier to swallow once you learn that Sucre is donating a percentage of their seasonal sales to the LA/SPCA this year. There's nothing like win/win gift giving to put you in a festive mood...oh and uh smooth eggnog, gingerbread and candy cane truffles help too.
How I See It Everyone loves chocolate so you really can't go wrong when searching for the perfect inexpensive holiday gift for associates, grab bags and difficult to please loved ones. It's especially great for people like Grandma who rants and raves when she feels like you spent way too much and complains that she "already has everything and doesn't need a new blender because her blender from the 1950s works perfectly well." In her case, I'd go for a tin of decent toffee or a box of grandma approved assorted chocolate. Why go though the trouble to save those gift receipts when no one in their right mind would ever dare have you return a box of perfectly fine chocolate. Happy Shopping!
It's that time of year again. Halloween, Day of the Dead, All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, Veterans Day, Midterms, Thanksgiving. Claude Lévi-Strauss isn't around to codify the structures anymore, but we humans, in my opinion, like to commemorate things.
Here's something I'd like to commemorate: It's about a year since a bunch of guys walked into my apartment and forcibly demolished a written-by-committee solid-chocolate tablet that proclaimed our salvation as a species awaited us in a can of Axe body spray. Perhaps to celebrate the one-year anniversary of that paradigm shift, I invited the guys over to my apartment again to play cards and and eat chocolate. (In truth, we do this nearly once a week, but usually at someone else's house.)
This time around, I had some test-batches of the "Fruity" and "Nutty" chocolate from high-concept Silicon Valley chocolate maker Tcho. "Fruity" and "Nutty" in this case refer to "flavor profiles" rather than ingredients, and the Tcho folks wanted feedback on the selection, fermentation, roasting, and blending of their cacao beans. "Tcho encourages you to experience your samples with your friends, family, and colleagues so that you can compare flavor notes and tasting experiences," an email from Tcho told me, adding that "We are also looking for Beta testers who'd like to share their experience on camera." Well, this year, as last, my little digital camera was nearly out of batteries, but I recorded a few moments of our "experience," during which Kristen remarked of the Nutty version 1.9B that "first you taste nothing, then you get sour, then you get bitter, then you get chocolate," and Dmitry commented on Fruity 1.9A that "this is like a Bukowski poem--the grittiness of it." We found some of the questions to be suspect (for example, "How would you rate the cacao content of this flavor?" is both grammatically and culinarily awkward and the only appropriate answer seems to be "65%," which is the number given on the box) and concluded, in response to the final question, that yes, we would buy this chocolate, but only for about two bucks (the asking price is closer to $5).
The next day, I received a large box (waiting for me mysteriously in a locker at my local post office, for which the key had been left in my post office box) containing four made-from-all-Guatemalan-ingredients chocolate bars from Rain Republic. Last summer, I met the proprietor of the not-yet-named brand, Josh Sermos, in Antigua Guatemala. I'd attempted to carry out a survey of my own: Which farms are you sourcing cacao from? Where did you buy your machinery? But, as I recall, Josh didn't want to go on the record--I can't find an interview with the guy on my computer or even messy notes scribbled in a steno notebook. So I turn you, dear reader, directly over to the Rain Republic. (One thing I know is that they're already competing with Carlos Eichenberger, who opened a boutique for his Danta Chocolate in Guatemala City this month).
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Free Coco In time for hot coco season Caribou Coffee is adding Guittard drinking chocolate to their menu. I'm more excited about the take home tins as I prefer to drink my hot chocolate in the comfort of my own home. If chillin' in coffee houses still floats your boat you can catch the launch festivities on November 27th where free samples and buy-one-get-one free mochas and hot chocolates will flow.
We finished up this last weekend with one of our biggest Three Course Prix Fixe dinners yet! If you missed it... well shame on you, as I don't repeat menu items. You'll just have to live with the chocolately shame.
This last one sold out pretty fast so we added a 2.5pm seating, but that's not typical for us. We're back to 4.5, 6.5, and 8.5 seatings this time around so don't hold off to make reservations. Here's what we're cookin':
Join us Saturday, November 14th to indulge in the three courses of a chocolate-Thanksgiving feast at our Autumn Harvest Prix Fixe Dinner: Menu includes:
Fried Mac & Cheese with Smoked Bacon (0ptional appetiser)
Salade Frisee with Roasted Root Veggies and White Chocolate-Balsamic Drizzle
Rosemary and Lavender Sea-salted Roasted Cornish Game Hen
or Butternut Squash Ravioli with Brown Butter Sage Sauce
A very, very, very special thanks to Duff, the Chocolate Lady from Ann Arbor, Michigan. In the last of six inspired posts, she takes Chocolate in Context to the Zingerman's Roadhouse:
The Magic Brownie Sundae is the chocolate dessert you must order when you go to Zingerman’s Roadhouse. Although the choice will be difficult (there are lots of great house-made desserts on the menu), do not waver. When your server asks you if you saved room for dessert the answer should be a resounding "Yes!" followed by: "I would like a Magic Brownie Sundae."
The Magic Brownie Sundae is built around the iconic Magic Brownie from Zingerman’s Bakehouse – a no-nonsense, dark chocolate brownie with toasted walnuts that many people swear by. First, the brownie is warmed (sigh). Then, it is covered with scoops of fluffy, wonderful vanilla gelato from Zingerman’s Creamery, a generous dousing of house-made Scharffen Berger chocolate sauce, whipped cream and toasted pecans.
You and your dinner-mates will probably react like five-year-olds when you see the sundae arrive - breaking into silly grins and squirming in your seats. You might even shriek! Something about the whipped cream piled up just looks like fun – like the dessert of your childhood dreams. But no matter how childish you might feel when initially faced with the most perfect dessert on the planet, when you take your first bite you will quickly realize that this is a very grown-up treat.
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, pumpkin, half & half, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar.
2. In a flat bowl, place crushed cereal.
3. Heat griddle or skillet to medium-heat, brush with butter. Quickly dip bread on both sides into the egg mixture, then cover one side of the bread with the crushed cereal. Place in hot skillet. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side, until lightly browned. Repeat with remaining bread.
Spread Love
How I See It
Free Coco 
A very, very, very special thanks to Duff, the Chocolate Lady from Ann Arbor, Michigan. In the last of six inspired posts, she takes Chocolate in Context to the Zingerman's Roadhouse:
