A few months ago I was visiting friends in Portland, Oregon and had the opportunity to visit a great little gourmet shop called The Meadow that carried a variety of salts, peppers and chocolates. After spending about 45 minutes tasting and admiring the mind boggling array of salts from all over the globe, I wandered over to the chocolate section and found an interesting flavor combination – chocolate and bacon.
After pausing to blink my eyes a few times to be sure my vision was not impaired by dried out contacts, I ran over to my girlfriends to show them what I thought was an unusual find. They were equally intrigued.
I passed on purchasing the $7 bar of candy. It’s clear that I like chocolate. I am also a fan of bacon. It never crossed my mind to combine the two taste sensations. Now that I’ve had a few months to mentally digest the idea, I’d be willing to give it a try.
Some of my weekend conversation with friends included chatter about unusual flavors combined with chocolate. Some like chocolate with peanut butter, nuts, fruit and mint. One of my adventurous friends gave into the urge to stick a shrimp under a chocolate fountain at an event and eat it. He regrets this decision. I have personally tasted chocolate covered potato chips (tasty!) and plenty other quality chocolate selections from one of my favorite spots in downtown Trenton, Sweety Peety, located at the Gift Gallery, plus I have enjoyed a cup of chocolate gelato with jalepeno at the Whole Food’s in Princeton. I even learned during my Sunday cooking class at Williams-Sonoma in Princeton Marketfair that some add a little chocolate in chili!
I found the website for the company that makes the Mo’s Bacon Bar that I spotted during my travels out west. Some of the other exotic chocolate bar flavor combinations include: peppers, kalamata olives, Indian curry powder, ginger and wasabi. See for yourself at http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/category/exotic_candy_bars
Do you have a favorite or unusual chocolate experience? Please share it by leaving a comment!
