Death By Chocolate

Last Wednesday, a 29-year-old chocolate factory worker in New Jersey fell into a big wad of hot melted chocolate and got hit by the agitator and dies instantly with a blow to the head. I'm sure there are worst way to die than that.

Yes, chocolate is definitely one of my obsessions. A friend who recently moved to California came back and visit his Philly friends. He brought me to a gelateria called Capogiro and introduced me to Gelato Con Brioche which has become one of my favorite desserts. It's basically a warm spongy toasted sugar brioche with cold creamy gelato in the middle. It might just be the best ice cream sandwich ever.


Brioche con Bacio (chocolate-hazelnut) Gelato

Going to the movie, I saw a white chocolate bar for sale at the theaters and I love white chocolate, so I got the Divine White Chocolate bar.



The slogan for Divine Chocolate is that they are the chocolate bar with a heart. Divine Chocolate makes an effort on fair trade which guarantee the countries who produces the ingredients a fair amount of profit, education, training, health benefits and racial, gender equality. While it's a great, great cause and it makes the consumers (i.e. me) feel better about making a conscious choice to purchase that product, I didn't like the chocolate itself so much. While I heart white chocolate, my biggest pet peeves about white chocolate is it being waxy. I like to bite into my chocolate and not just let it melt in my mouth and there's nothing I hate more than waxy chocolate that makes me think of chewing on a candle. I guess for white chocolate, I'll stay with the white Toblerone or Green and Black's with the vanilla sparkles. Green & Black's is fair trade too.

Currently, the boyfriend and I like quite a few shows on Food Network. Like Chopped, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, and despite my dislike for Bobby Flay, I've even warmed up to The Next Food Network Star (Go, Debbie!). On one of their show, maybe Unwrapped, they introduced a chocolate bar with bacon in it that sparked our interests and after a few searches online, I managed to get one in my hand.



Mo's Bacon Bar is one of the offering from Vosges' Exotic Chocolate Bar collection. The chocolate bar have bits of smoked bacon and salt crystal in it. I thought it would be odd but actually it's quite smooth and natural. The smokiness permeates the chocolate and the salt crystals added some welcoming crunch. It is slightly salty but it is actually pretty unoffensive and good. Other exotic bars in the collection features ingredients like mushrooms, ancho & chipotle chillies, wasabi, matcha, curry powder and fleur de sel. Check it out on their website for locations that handle their product or shop online. In fact, I'm gonna get their chicory coffee and cocoa nibs one. It's $7.50~8.00 a pop but it's well worth the experience.

And for the reader who's reading this post actually looking for a way to use chocolate to kill themselves, consider this:



Baskin Robbin's Chocolate Oreo Shake which was deemed the unhealthiest drink in America by Men's Health Magazine.

Is this the worst drink on the planet? All signs point to yes. First off, it has an ingredient list that reads like an organic chemistry final. Those 70-plus ingredients conspire to pack this shake with more sugar than 29 Fudgsicles, as much fat as a stick and a half of butter, and more calories than 48 actual Oreos. Oh, it also has 3 days’ worth of saturated fat and, most bizarre of all, as much salt as you’ll find in 9 bags of Lay’s Classic potato chips.

With the calorie count, I think you're not suppose to eat or drink anything else for about 48 hours after that. Out of my theory that the more fat there is the better it tastes and my morbid curiosity, I'd like to try one please!