Saturday, January 24, 2009

When Chocolate Meets Dinner

My father just returned from a trip to Germany, bearing a medley of quirky snack foods. One item I found to be particularly interesting was a white chocolate bar flavored with curry, coconut and banana.

The first taste instantly reminded me of Thai curry. I imagine this is what it would taste like if you put yellow curry in an ice cube tray and left it in the fridge for a while. While at first, I found this flavor off-putting, it definitely started to grow on me. Always fun to try something new...

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Kit Kat Trio... Why Mess With a Good Thing?

One of my top 10 favorite candy bars has always been Kit Kat. It’s risen and fallen in the standings, but manages to stay in there against some of the biggies and newcomers trying to be different. So even though I’m supposed to be watching what I eat, this blog posting goes against the 15 pounds I’m trying to lose. But heck, I’m doing it for YOU, faithful readers. Ahem.

There are three types of Kit Kats out there, standard Milk Chocolate (classic, if you will), plus White Chocolate and Dark Chocolate. As all three happened to be available in a large candy bowl 20 feet from my desk, my FunFoodFight senses were tingling for a go at it. Here’s what I think in preferential order (best to worst).

Milk Chocolate Kit Kat – why mess with a good thing? The milk chocolate provides a soft chocolatey sea for the wafer to float in, the taste of each main ingredient weighing in equivalently. Perfect ratio of taste and texture, great size and shape for eating. Oh Blessed Kit Kat.

White Chocolate Kit Kat – I was extremely dubious about this one, as I recall the white chocolate peanut butter cups (meh). Upon first bite, though, that same even texture/taste has been achieved, this time with a sweet “crème” taste with the wafer. I think it’s a good close 2nd to the Milk Chocolate Kit Kat, especially if you want something sweet after a meal that isn’t chocolatey tasting.

Dark Chocolate Kit Kat – Boy was I bummed out about this experience. Ironically, my chocolate preferences lead with Dark, then White, then Milk which is the opposite in the case of this taste test. With high hopes I went chomping away, my first reaction being “ack”. It is like a Special Dark with something pulpy and crunchy inside that isn’t supposed to be there. The chocolate is very bitter tasting, and does not play at all well with the wafer – it shoves the wafer aside trying to be top dog. No thank you. The aftertaste lingers, and in that chasm you yearn for your Kit Kat chocolate wafer Yin Yang... and find none.