Sweet Silk Chocolates- gluten free, stupid good.

My first instinct is to say Sweet Silk chocolates are weird.  In fact, I almost didn’t even try them.  The first time I was at the New Amsterdam Market and saw their gluten-free chocolates, I was more nervous about the flavor combinations than impressed, but thank goodness I had a change of heart.  These chocolates are what I like to call “stupid good” and are odd in the best possible way. 

Sweet Silk offered two different kinds of chocolates.  They have a selection of truffles which are all natural and gluten-free, and their sweets which are are more like candy bars and are cut into small squares like fudge with a small square of chocolate on top. Their truffles are unique in that they have chewy centers made of fruits and nuts that pack quite a wallop! Both the truffles and the treats are grainy and earthy and remind me of the texture of good marzipan. The cherry dark chocolate truffle sample which probably amounted to ¼ of the full truffle, was rich and full of very powerful fruit flavors.  Sweet Silk is not afraid of flavors that leave you more than satisfied after one taste.  Which is good for a girl like me who is on a diet.  You don’t have to eat more than one to feel like you’ve treated yourself for the day.  (Though I did find it in my heart to..um..oversample the samples). 

On the whole, the combination of middle eastern fruits and nuts really make for interesting chocolates.  My favorite chocolate from Sweet Silk was the rose and white chocolate sweet treat.  The rose flavor is blended perfectly with the chocolate and doesn’t overpower or seem unbalanced.  I think it would be the perfect treat for Valentine’s Day.  I mean who could resist combining the chocolate and the rose into one gift!

Check out Sweet Silk chocolates at the New Amsterdam Market this coming Sunday at the South Street Seaport or check out their website here at https://www.savorsweetsilk.com/

Fika Chocolates or how I met one of my favorite chocolatiers.

I’ve always been a fan of FIKA.  FIKA is a Swedish coffee shop that has three stores in New York so far (though big plans are in the works for a fourth store).  The word fika, according to the website, roughly translates to taking a coffee break, so the store itself is mostly known for its high quality coffee. 

Which is sad because their chocolate is fantastic aswell.  

Håkan Mårtensson,a chocolatier who has, among other things, won a gold medal at the  2008 culinary Olympics, has a very playfu lside as well as a strong mastery of what you can do with chocolate.  In the kitchen there is a foot tall Yoda made of chocolate, and a dragon draped around a mountain, which I found out he actually made live in front of an audience at a chocolate expo. And you get the feeling from the flavors of his truffles that he is always experimenting and pushing the limits of what you can do with chocolate. 

I had always wanted to meet Håkan since I heard from one of the staff that he often comes tothe shop to check in and do work there in their impossibly small kitchen.  My fiance and I often go there on the weekends for chocolate and coffee, but today we decided to get coffee there on a weekday morning, and as soon as we entered the stylish shop I saw him. 

I turned to myfiance. ”That’s him! Oh my gosh that’s him!”  I was so excited, I got hisattention and gestured ”I <3 U" making a heart shape with my fingers. Yes excitement turns me into a crazyfangirl.  He smiled and went back to his work.  I really wanted to meet him and tell him how much of a fan I am.

But then Ihesitated.  I didn’t want to bother him while he was at work.  Who knows what kind of masterpiece he was about to make. The creative genius can not be stopped for just a fan!   

Michael brought me down to earth. 

           

”You’ll never know unless you ask, right?”  He convinced me to ask one of the baristas if I could take a picture with him, hoping that he would take just a minute to come and say hello. The man went back and I saw the two of them talking through the glass window where you could see the pastry chefs at work. 

Then he came outand saw me waiting for him, (possibly jumping up and down a little because Icouldn’t help myself).  He smiled and I smiled.  I didn’t expect a long conversation but we ended up talking for a good five minutes about chocolate. 

I told him how much I loved his flavor profiles of his truffles and how his chocolate is art.  He told me he was a fan of Star Wars, hence Yoda, and has spent over 20,000 hours of his life working with chocolate.  A fact I can believe, especially after he told me how much work he does without chocolate equipmentsuch as a tempering machine.  Everything they do comes out of that small kitchen including chocolate that he supplies toWhole Foods and the Gansevoort Hotels.

We also talked about how he recently worked with Valrhona chocolates to make a coveture that is specifically for his chocolates and also how he stays so thin (he says henever takes his work home with him).  Wetalked about some of his future projects which are in the works, and I can’twait to see how things develop for this talented chocolatier in the future. 

After we talkedand I came down from cloud nine I drank my coffee and thought about what just happened.  I think people who are good atwhat they do like to know that someone out there is a fan of their work.  I’m glad that I got a chance to meet him andeven more excited that I have a six piece box of Fika truffles waiting for me!

Cheers! 

http://www.fikanyc.com/chocolate

Domori Javablond chocolate.

ZOMG Chocolate!

As soon as I get pictures off my camera I will tell you about all of my adventures in Portland (ironic that I blog about New York chocolate specifically and my new favorite chocolate store is in downtown Portland...go fig).

Anyhow I am on a chocolate mission. When I was in Portland a wise chocolate store worker let me taste a sample of Domori Javablond chocolate...and I flipped out. The taste is deep rich, berry and musky. My new favorite chocolate. It's made with the highest quality cacao beans (criollo). To Domori's credit they have almost single handedly revived the population of these trees in the world.

My chocolate mission is to find where to buy Domori chocolate here in New York. So far I haven't seen it, but I'm sure I will figure it out.

Oyster Truffles

So hi again. I am not a person who can update the bloggy-mc blog consistently. I am currently clearing out my backlog of posts so more shall happen in the near future. We shall see how this goes. In any case on to more important things! The chocolate.

Back in February my friends and I had a chocolate party. I wanted to find some really weird chocolates and found that Vosges Chocolates had aphrodisiac chocolate boxes just in time for Valentine's Day. I was hooked on the idea. And then I found out that they had kumamoto oyster truffles. Yes you heard me, truffles with shell-fish. Double intrigued.

For some reason they refused to sell it to me by the piece. You had to get an expensive heart shaped box with only two truffles. Going into it I thought the truffles would be really salty and weird. Oyster truffles?! But it was worth it. My friend Beth and I not only lived to tell the tale, but it was one of the most interesting, delicious truffles I have ever had.

The chocolate itself was white chocolate with the oyster mixed right into the white chocolate ganache. The ganache was a bit grainy in texture, and they said they made it slightly differently than usual. The sweet white chocolate had just a touch of oyster in it. It was creamy rich and subtle as well as flavorful. The oyster didn't come out and bite but stayed comfortably in the center. It tasted like vanilla ice cream actually!

If when Valentine's rolls around next year, you too decide to get adventurous, this is the way to go. Hopefully, Vosges will get their act together and sell them by the piece, but until then the Aphrodisiac Box is the way to go. ( The absinthe truffle was also worthwhile so getting the box isn't half bad.) Here's to more adventures in the land of chocolate

Recee's Pieces!
-Jeni

An evening of chocolate

Chocolate at the Waltz-Astoria.

I just had a night full of chocolate. I'm getting ready for my performance on Saturday, an instrumental night, and went out to the Waltz open mic. They were advertising their new frozen hot chocolates, my favorite contradiction in terms. I had that and everyone started asking me about it. It doesn't make any sense. Frozen hot chocolate you say? Why yes, it is delicious.

I had a great time tonight (though my songs need work). To top it off, a chocolate cheesecake.

I've been avoiding chocolate these days. How could I? Because chocolate and my waistline don't get along, but chocolate and my soul do. I'll split the difference.

Anyhow that is to say that more is coming. I have more chocolate adventures to come. Old backed up stuff but good stuff.

Later.

Adieu

I don’t think people realize how much chocolate can effect the emotions. I love chocolate because it provides me a quick visceral pleasure. I get the best rush from eating my favorite pieces of chocolate. Every time, it’s like returning to a familiar friend, someone who can comfort you in your time of need. I know it can seem weird to some who don’t have a passion for chocolate like I do, to imagine crying over lost chocolate, knowing that you may never get the chance to meet one of your long lost friends, knowing that for some reason the people you used to depend on for your chocolate have let you down. But that’s’ how I feel about losing Pierre Marcolini’s amazing chocolate.

I went into the Bourne Confections store (which actually used to just be the “Pierre Marcolini” store) on 59th st and Park Avenue. I was there looking for chocolate for my valentine's day chocolate party. I asked them were the Pierre Marcolini truffles were, and found out that they were not going to be selling them anymore.

Gone. I couldn't believe it. I think I went through the entire mourning process right there in front of the counter.

This store and the chocolate inside was one of the first places I fell in love with in New York. The chocolate and the decor were understated and the chocolate stood on it’s own without any fancy packaging or gimmicks. The tasting boxes were a great hit at my chocolate party, and I used them as discussion pieces to talk about how chocolate really works.

I discovered my favorite chocolate there, little raspberry hearts with soft white and milk chocolate centers. As soon as you bit into them the raspberry melted out onto your tongue and left it’s soft sting. I normally don’t like fruit and chocolate together, but this combination was amazing. I came back to this chocolate again and again. Every chocolate party I’ve had featured these hearts and some other kind of Pierre Marcolini chocolate. Because it has always been my favorite chocolate in the city.

This was the place I would tell everyone to go. The place I would always go to for tea and chocolate when the mood struck me. It’s a testament to what I thought would be it’s longitivtiy that I haven’t actually written much about it on my blog. You never believe that one day things will end. You never believe that one day your friend might not be there.

What happened is Nestle has a controlling amount of stock in the Pierre Marcolini brand. Effectively they own the company. After they installed a new CEO, the CEO pulled Pierre Marcolini’s chocolates from the Bourne Confections store (which always owned the store on 59th st). As the cashier explained it to me “they decided to go in a different direction.” And now Pierre Marcolini chocolates are no longer sold in the US. There will be a way to buy it online, but I have issues with buying online chocolate so I probably won’t be buying from them any time soon.

It’s funny, I’ve actually teared up and cried over this. People might think that’s strange. I mean it isn’t like anyone died right? But in a way this represents the end of an era. Other things are ending for me in my life too right now, so that might also be having some effect on my soul. But for me this is a really sad day in chocolate. I have what’s left of their last shipment. But when that’s gone, it’s gone forever.

All of this is to say, don’t take anything for granted.

Salutations Pierre, you’ll be missed!

A video from the site

Filipino Hot Chocolate

So I stayed over at a friend's house a couple of nights ago. He lives in the part of Queens that is essentially Long Island so rather than going home on the train at 3am I simply spent the night. And was happily surprised in the morning.

My friend's mom is wonderfully caring and made us a Filipino breakfast. We had eggs, rice and sausage and the best part was the hot chocolate. Mama Violago gets special chocolate wafers from a Filipino grocery store and uses this to make the hot chocolate with.

The chocolate is thick and grainy like the stone ground chocolate you can get in Mexico. It makes sense that Filipino hot chocolate would be like Mexican hot chocolate since they were both influenced by Spanish cusine. The hot chocolate was thick and Mama Violago suggested I add a lot of milk. I'm glad I got a chance to try some hot chocolate from another country.