rubistudios.com

Let me start by saying I don’t eat meat. I began dabbling in vegatarianism in 1985 after dissecting a rat in science class and reading Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” in history. I was on and off a vegetarian for a variety of different reasons, mostly based on income, as in “if it’s free, it’s in my diet.” From the early nineties until the last two months of 1999, I was a lacto-ovo (can’t live without eggs or cheese) vegetarian then for health reasons I added a weekly fish dish (makes for easier traveling) and haven’t looked back. I don’t miss meat and frankly never liked it that much (except for bacon).

I can safely say my body was a 100% bacon free zone for at least 15 years before Katrina Markoff tempted me with her Vosge’s Chocolate Mo’s Bacon Bar. She has combined deep milk chocolate (I am usually a dark chocolate snob) with applewood smoked bacon, and alder smoked salt.

Crunchy, salty, sweety goodness.

I am sure you are having a devil of a time wrapping your head around the idea of bacon and chocolate, but trust me, this is amazing.

Katrina has built a business around her unusual chocolate pairings. Here are a few samples…

     Black Pearl: ginger + wasabi + black sesame seeds + dark chocolate, 55% cacao

Calindia: Indian green cardamom + organic California walnuts + dried plums + Venezuelan dark chocolate, 65% cacao

     Naga: sweet Indian curry + coconut + deep milk chocolate, 41% cacao

     Oaxaca: guajillo & pasilla chillies + Tanzanian bittersweet chocolate, 75% cacao

     d’Oliva: dried kalamata olives + Venezuelan white chocolate, 33% cocoa butter

     Red Fire: Mexican ancho & chipotle chillies + Ceylon cinnamon + dark chocolate, 55% cacao

My favorite is Mo’s Bacon Bar, second is d’Oliva (white chocolate and olives) and third is Naga (Curry and chocolate). Although I might need to have another go round and taste them again…

Chocolate bars start at $2.50 for a mini bar,  $7.50 for a regular sized bar, and $8 for a Day of the dead chocolate skull. (The website doesn’t tell you the weight of the product.) This is not cheap chocolate, but it is delicious. Go to their website www.vosgeschocolate.com and check out the truffles, flying pigs and all the fun!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 8:12 am and is filed under Food, review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.