Two-for-One Thanksgiving: Divine Mango Coconut & Salazon Pumpkin Beer Sea Salt

Here's another out-of-season post that's been needing to be finished for a while. :-) 

There are many things that get more complicated when your family is scattered halfway across the world. It's more expensive and time-consuming to see the people you care about, it's harder to get everyone in one place, and the visits are usually short, few, and far between. However, when it happens, the results are pretty magical. The planning for the 2016 Thanksgiving was pretty crazy - we had to coordinate 11 people and travel from three states across four days at two different locations, and handle the logistics of two entire Thanksgiving menus.

The result was a gorgeous, soul-nourishing two-parter. Episode 1 was in beautiful Woodstock, NY, at my grandmother's cozy cottage. Mom and I flew up from Texas, and we got to meet Will's delightful girlfriend, Nina, and spent the whole day talking, laughing, and singing in the kitchen while cooking up copious amounts of traditional Thanksgiving fare.

The next day we took a long, goofy, lovely walk into town, stopping on the way to thoroughly enjoy an old-fashioned playground, and winding up at the local market to get some hot apple cider and browse the selection of charming local and artisanal foods. 

From there, Mom flew back to Texas, the four sibs and Nina piled into Will's van, and it was on to Philadelphia and Thanksgiving #2! Andrew met us there (having celebrated Thanksgiving proper with his family back in Texas), where Dad and his girlfriend, Nilmini, hosted us all at her gorgeous house, and I got to execute my first full-fledged Thanksgiving menu (GAAAAH!!) with an Indian fusion theme, including a jeweled rice pilaf, curried mashed potatoes, from-scratch garlic naan, habanero and goat cheese stuffed mushrooms, and Indian rice pudding with cherries and bourbon hard sauce for dessert. (Kudos to everyone for helping make it happen!) It was exhausting and beautiful.

I also got to catch up on snuggles with my girl, Ursula, who's starting to get rather grey around the muzzle, but is still every bit as sweet and energetic as the day she came home to us in Austin as a baby puppy all those years ago. The pumpkin pie samosas made a lovely breakfast, and our last day in Philly we took a delightful excursion into town to get drinks at a fancy-pants bar on a boat (Lonely Island would be so proud), and grabbed an amazing veggie Philly cheese steak at the Royal Tavern, before getting on the plane headed home. 

(And yes, in several pictures I am wearing a bright pink coat with pink corduroy pants. Somehow I didn't really make that connection when I was packing for the trip. As Andrew would say, I make decisions.)  

It was a lovely trip, and we enjoyed several bars of chocolate along the way but these were the most notable, which, although thematically a little disparate, made an interesting pairing for our Thanksgiving prep and travel.

Photo Credit: thechocolatewebsite.com

Item: Dark Chocolate with Mango & Coconut 
Percentage: 70% cacao 

Made By: Divine Chocolate
Made In: Cacao grown in Ghana, processed into chocolate in Europe
Purchased At: Whole Foods - Arlington, TX
Purchase Price: $3.59

Review: Divine delivers again! They maintain a particularly high concentration of cocoa butter in their chocolate, which means it melts deliciously, and they consistently get the sweet/dark balance juuuuuuust right. The mango is dominant here, while the coconut lurks in the background, which suits me just fine. There are actually distinct little dried (not freeze-dried!) mango bits, which stick in your teeth and make the process of munching a bit more... erm... lasting than chocolate usually is. However, it's a whimsical and successful combination, just so long as you've got a toothpick handy.     

Recommend, with some dental floss

        AND

 

Photo Credit: Salazonchoc.com

  
Item: Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt & Pumpkin IPA
Percentage: 72% cacao 

Made By: Salazon 
Made In: Maryland
Purchased At: Whole Foods - Arlington, TX
Purchase Price: $3.99

Review: Such a shame. I really wanted this one to work. If it had been what I wanted, it would have been basically tailor-made for my father, who loves every one of these things. Alas, it was a whiff. The chocolate itself comes across as oddly bitter, which is probably a result of the beer, which doesn't make much of an appearance at all except in the aftertaste. The pumpkin and beer both take a back seat to the sea salt, which dominates the whole party and just leaves you wondering why the chocolate tastes a little funny. I'd love to see this idea done properly, but I'll definitely need to keep looking. In the meantime, if you're looking for a Salazon bar that actually works, stick with the sea salt and almond, which is MUY NOM.   

A Note About the Company: As much as I didn't care for the bar, the company is pretty cool. Salazon is a 100% organic, vegan, fair-trade certified chocolate company built on the premise that simple, salted dark chocolate is one of the greatest energy bars there is. They single-source their beans from the Dominican Republic and (usually) keep their bars pretty simple and streamlined. True to their backpacking roots, their trail series donates at least 2% of their profits to the Pacific Crest, Appalachian Trail, and Continental Divide conservancy associations.

Avoid
  

With love, Kat

Christmas Cheer: Dark Chocolate Cinnamon, Chili & Nibs

Really excellent chocolate makes the perfect Christmas gift. There’s more or less infinite variety, so you can find something for everyone, it’s delicious, something people don’t typically buy for themselves, and it’s a consumable, so they won’t have to carry it around for the rest of their lives. It requires no storage, wrangling, organizing, maintenance, batteries, assembly, or remembering to take it to a store and use it up.

So, over the course of the year I’ll pick up various other presents for the people I love. A piece of art for so-and-so, a book that screams to belong to what’s-his-name… In December, though, my research starts in earnest. I look at best-of articles for the year, scour the lists from local directories and chocolate shows, and peruse the selections of chocolatiers, both local and in other parts of the country, trying to locate the perfect, most excellent, enjoyable, preferably local, creative selection. Last year it was the inimitable Dude, Sweet Chocolate in downtown Fort Worth.

This year, after much deliberation, I settled on Kate Weiser, who has her flagship store in the swanky Trinity Groves shopping center in Dallas. After all, who couldn’t use a little something beautiful under the tree after this crazy year?

Kate Weiser makes what can only be described as art chocolate. Her work is gorgeous, creative, and whimsical in a deeply satisfying way. I have never had this much fun wrapping presents, you guys. Carl the drinking chocolate snowman sits in a pot of hot milk, melting away and releasing gorgeous clouds of hot chocolate mix from his tummy and marshmallows from his head, finally furnishing drinking chocolate for 4-6 people. There have also been white chocolate, peppermint, and chipotle versions of Carl in the past. She creates beautiful, truffle-stuffed chocolate ornaments, decked with gold leaf and saturated with the most beautiful blues and pinks and light greens you’ve ever seen in a chocolate shop. Her truffles are incredibly distinctive, ranging from the tame but solid orange butterscotch to the more outrageous dark chocolate and Japanese lime or the daring mango habanero. And her candy bars (like the Passion Praline! Yummmmm...) make the most beautiful stocking stuffers you’ll ever find.

It was a thoroughly magical Christmas. After Andrew and I madly worked through the last few edits for the Isaacs-Bryant Family Cookbook (my other big Christmas gift - thank you for all your help, my dear!), my mother and I joined him and his delightful family for their celebration; we sang, we laughed, we drank lots of wine and made delicious food and danced in crazed circles around the kitchen to joyous Irish Christmas reels (that was mostly me and mom, tbh). Fortunately I wasn’t the only one with the terrific idea of giving chocolate for Christmas – I received no fewer than five different chocolate bars. The most interesting, though, was a Redstone’s bar that I received from Andrew’s brother, Alex. Andrew had given him the terrific advice of sticking to 70% or higher on the cacao content (a really good guideline!), and, in a fit of inspiration, one of the bars Alex picked up for me was laced with cinnamon and chili. I guess I’ve got a reputation for gravitating towards the spicy stuff.

Here’s hoping your 2016 Christmas was every bit as delightful and chocolatey as ours!

Photo Credit: Redstone Foods

Item: Dark Chocolate Cinnamon, Chili & Nibs
Percentage: 72%

Made By: Redstone's
Made In: Carrolton, TX 

Purchased At/Price: Christmas gift!

Review: They’re not trying for too much subtlety here, but the result is excellent execution and a thoroughly enjoyable bar. There’s plenty of heat, with a clear, unmuddy balance between the cinnamon and chili flavors. The cocoa nibs are another success story here – in many bars they’re just simply too big, too hard, or otherwise obnoxious, but here they’re perfect. Toasty, dark, crunchy bits that don’t shatter your teeth or taste burnt, don’t disrupt the experience of the bar, and overall add a nice complement to the smoky, dark heat of the bar. The chocolate flavor isn’t the star of the show here, but it’s good and clean enough to provide a nice backdrop for everything else going on. This one could even be a little (prepare yourselves) sweeter and it would be a lovely contrast to the heat, and could definitely stand a few flakes of sea salt, but it’s still very well done as it is, though. Overall, this is an elegant practice in things being exactly enough – exactly enough heat, enough cinnamon, enough nibs, enough sweetness, enough brute chocolate flavor – to be thoroughly enjoyable. One important caveat - the cinnamon and chili flavors are both super strong, so if you're not a fan then I'd steer clear.

Well done, Alex. Way to capture the Christmas spirit.

RECOMMEND
 
With love,
 - K 

NOLA 'Til You Die!: Bourbon Cask Aged Dark

Happy New Year! 
Also, happy 28th birthday to me!

As it so happens, my birthday conveniently falls on one of the biggest party days of the year. New Year's Eve birthdays aren't that uncommon, really - I've met probably half a dozen other people who share my birthday, including one aunt, two coworkers, and a neighbor, as well as Ben Kingsley, Henri Matisse, and John Denver (none of whom I've actually met, but I'd like to think sharing a birthday makes us honorary friends). 

Aside from the dreaded birthday/Christmas present combo (which really doesn't bother me. Truly, I have enough stuff already), there are three primary reasons why I absolutely love my birthday: 
  - I always have the next day off, along with most of the rest of the world, so I never have to worry about staying up too late, rescheduling festivities, or not having a recovery day. 
  - I never have to throw my own birthday parties. Everyone is already in the mood to celebrate, so there are plenty of options for celebrations to crash with minimal hassle. 
  - It provides a lovely clean start to the year. New year for the world, new year for me!

Usually I prefer to let my birthday play second fiddle to the calendar's (it has seniority, after all), but this year I was feeling feisty and wanted to do something special, so Mignon found us a couple of tickets to New Orleans, booked beds at a hostel, and we headed out for the home of Cajun food and street jazz.

There is a wonderful Tennessee Williams quote which gets a great deal of mileage in the multitudinous NOLA gift shops: "America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland." Although I've never been to Cleveland, I can see where there is some truth behind Williams' playful hyperbole. As someone who has spent a lot of time in various American cities, most of them can be mistaken for each other relatively easily aside from a few tell-tale signs. Not so with New Orleans. 

From the voodoo shops and beautiful old houses with the wooden shutters, to the trolleys with the faulty light fixtures and the drag queens hollering about drink specials on Bourbon Street, New Orleans has a feeling all of its own. Unlike most places, which sometimes seem manufacture culture out of hoodies and coffee table books, here it seems to boil up from under the sidewalks and breath through the shutters and unruly window-boxes of the colonial-style buildings, and everything from the gift shops to the abundance of horn players seems to have sprung into existence spontaneously to preach the gospel of this place.   

 
We wandered the streets and antique shops of the Garden District, where the shopkeepers speak French, a quiet, old world culture still hums, and the sidewalks are in the process of performing a quiet disappearing act, slowly eaten away by the roots of the beautiful, ancient trees under their blankets of moss. We ate beignets at Cafe Du Monde, walked along the bank of the Mississippi, and meandered the aisles of the bewitching Beckham's Bookshop - a second-hand bookstore on Decatur with such delightful genre titles as "True Crime & Rascality," where the old man who runs the place sits up front with his book and pencil in hand, quietly marking prices and guiding people through the mis-matched, labyrinthine aisles of the store. 

We capped our visit with a magnificent Creole feast at the Gumbo Shop, with black beans and rice, corn, creamed spinach, gumbo, and bourbon bread pudding; we ate until we were full to bursting, went back to Cafe Du Monde and ate some more, and then went and fed our spirits with a long night of jazz at the Spotted Cat.

Above all, New Orleans is entirely unapologetic. It exists exactly as itself, with no accommodations or excuses; there is no scrubbed, sterilized tourist experience here. The streets are dirty, the parties unruly, the homeless mingle freely with the crowds everywhere you go. As it hums with the bone-deep history of a culture which found itself long ago, no concessions are made for your comfort as an outsider - NOLA has a life to live, and you are in her house.

There are more praline shops than I could count, and you can buy liquor in any corner store or Walgreens, but, alas, New Orleans is not know for its chocolate. Fortunately, my sweetie provided just the thing: bourbon barrel aged chocolate from the heart of Brooklyn, New Orleans' brassy spiritual cousin. The dark, boozy bar was just the thing to complement our explorations of the city. 

Photo Credit: chocolatepath.com

We didn't stay in Louisiana for New Year's Eve, although I'm sure the NYE party on Bourbon Street is second only to Mardi Gras. It didn't feel right to be away from home for the start of the year. So, we returned to Texas on the afternoon of the 31st for a more local birthday/New Year's Eve celebration. After a truly endearing party with balloons, party games, ginger beer, a purple tiara, and a hatchet (wait, whaaaat?), we headed into Fort Worth to watch the fireworks at Sundance Square, and I got to ring in the new year with some of my very favorite people in the whole world. 

I don't tend to believe in resolutions, but I do have some goals for the year; I'd like to be more generous to my friends with my time and energy. I'd like to spend more time on writing and music. I'd like to travel. Talk less about the weather and more about life, the universe, and everything. Be more diligent about practicing yoga, gratitude, and guitar. Maybe look into going back to school. 

I love this life so very much. 2016 is going to be a good one, guys. I can feel it.


Item: Bourbon Cask Aged
Percentage: 82%

Made By: Raaka
Made In: Brooklyn, NY
Purchased At/Price: (Gift)

Review: At 82%, this bar is pretty stiff - not for the faint of heart. Still, it's quite rich, melts smoothly, and the bourbon/chocolate pairing is a match a made in heaven. This is particularly fruity, tough chocolate with a strong, clean bourbon finish - very good stuff. There is actually no alcohol in this bar, which makes the flavoring even more remarkable - the beans are simply aged for four weeks in bourbon barrels, where they take on some of the boozy, woodsy flavor the previous tenant. That said, several other folks who tried it said they didn't get as much bourbon flavor as I did, so maybe I was just looking for it.I haven't tried much un-roasted (or "virgin") chocolate, but it does seem to give the beans some room to retain their character. Must experiment further. 

RECOMMEND

With love,
 - K