Dark chocolate, red wine ‘real food of love’
I saw Ruth Reichl the other day. I seriously don’t think I need to explain who she is, but for anybody who doesn’t know, she’s a former Los Angeles Times food editor, former New York Times restaurant critic, former editor in chief of Gourmet magazine and now an author, editor, and editorial advisor to the online site Gilt Taste.
Anyway, she’d just attended the Good Food Awards in San Francisco as a judge and speaker and brought a present to dinner: a plain-looking chocolate bar from Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco.
I opened up the wrapper the other night and broke off one of the little squares. This stuff is incredible — intense and velvety, very dark and deep, with brilliant fruit overtones. One little square is like fireworks going off in your mouth. This one was labeled 70% Sambirano Madagascar. They won for their 70% Costa Rica; after tasting this one, I wonder what that’s like.
Says the package: “We roast, crack, sort, winnow, grind, conch and temper small batches of beans. Then we mold and package each of our bars by hand.”
All their single-origin bars are just cocoa beans and sugar. Nothing else. “No added cocoa butter, lecithin, or vanilla.” So what you taste is just the chocolate itself. It’s sold in 2-ounce bars for $8; a gift set of three bars is $20.
Whoops, I’ll have to wait a while. When I went to their Internet store, a message announces: “We’re sold out of bars at the moment. We’re hoping to have more available in the next week or two, so please check back then.”
And soon you’ll be able to stop by Dandelion’s chocolate factory and cafe in San Francisco, opening in the next few months. That definitely is going on my to-do list for San Francisco.
If you’re interested in learning more about chocolate, check out the Dandelion Chocolate blog or follow the chocolate makers on Twitter.
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– S. Irene Virbila
Twitter.com/sirenevirbila
Photo: Dandelion Chocolate Sambirano Madagascar bar. Credit: S. Irene Virbila/Los Angeles Times
Dark chocolate, red wine ‘real food of love
Dark chocolate and red wine have “positive components that are good for your heart”, a new study has claimed. According to Susan Ofria from Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, red wine and dark chocolate with a cocoa content of 70 percent or higher contain resveratrol, which has been found to lower blood sugar.
Red wine is also a source of catechins, which could help improve “good” HDL cholesterol.
“You are not even choosing between the lesser of two evils, red wine and dark chocolate have positive components that are actually good for your heart,” Newswise quoted Ofria, a registered dietitian at the Loyola University Health System’s Melrose Park campus as saying.
Ofria, who is also a nutrition educator, has also recommended a list of heart-healthy ingredients for February, which is national heart month, and for good heart health all year.
Along with red wine and dark chocolate, the list of heath-healthy food comprises of salmon or tuna, especially white, or albacore, tuna and salmon, as they “are excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids, and canned salmon contains soft bones that give an added boost of calcium intake.”
Next comes golden or brown flaxseeds, followed by oatmeal and black or kidney beans.
Walnuts and almonds, which “contain omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, magnesium, fibre and heart-favourable mono and polyunsaturated fats”, come next in the list.
Blueberries, cranberries, raspberries and strawberries, which “are a good source of beta carotene and lutein, anthocyanin, ellagic acid, vitamin C, folate, potassium and fibre,” round off the top eight heart-healthy foods. daily times monitor
Chocolate with Bill & Sheila
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