goes with everything (apparently)

Years back, when I worked at the restaurant, I would find myself entangled in conversations about food that got sillier and sillier. The night when we all tried to figure out what spice we would be if we each were a Spice Girl, a conversation that led to me submitting - and having published - a letter to the Teen Titans comic book (anyone remember Starfire? Koriand'r? Get it?). The afternoon that musing over what culinary use pig uterus would be put to led to a waiter almost being fooled into putting sweet and sour deep fried pig uterus balls on the night's whiteboard offerings. The day where we argued over what things would not partner successfully with chocolate in a dessert (I'm still not convinced about licorice, much as I love it).

Conrad and I have taken up this last topic a few times, though not to the same degree. He loves chocolate, I think it's a fun way to brainstorm ideas. We move on.

This morning two things brought that conversation back to mind. First, we went for groceries to Whole Foods and saw a bar that combined white chocolate with an unconventional other flavour. Later in the morning we were headed to the sales at Nordstrom, and, arriving a little early, we window shopped at Vosges. And there we saw the ultimate unthought-of combo.

Let's backtrack.

Vosges has lovely, pricey bars, truffles, and more. I buy the bars on occasion, slipping them into gifts. My favourite? The Barcelona. Smoked almonds and sea salt combined with milk chocolate. Nuts and an edge of salt to enhance the sweet. Lovely. And not too weird.

A step stranger, but this is a great combination: the Naga. Sweet curry powder, cocnut, and milk chocolate. Unusual, and winning. And yes, a little unexpected.

And then we saw this one this morning: the d'Oliva. White chocolate and dried Kalamata olives. We tasted it at the Vosges shop, and it wasn't at all weird. Just a slight hint of salt and bitter to tame the sweetness of white chocolate.

But here's the clincher - and we think we need to have FXK with us when we taste it: Mo's Bacon Bar. Bacon. Yep. What a hoot. Maybe we need one for Rachel as well. Bacon, as we know it, is the gateway meat. It can seduce a vegetarian and play havoc on the senses of Jewish friends of ours. Maybe it can convert non-chocolate eaters to chocolate as well.

It's something to tell the kids, at least! We bought one bar of each of the flavours described here, and added two kirsch truffles with dried Michigan cherries for immediate consumption!