Tasteful Tips On Chocolate
It’s the same sad scene every Valentine’s Day: millions of sweethearts across America ripping the wrapping off boxes of chocolate and stuffing themselves silly (usually after their dates have gone home or their significant others have gone to bed).
It doesn’t have to be that way. Savoring good chocolate should be like tasting fine wine, according to the Godiva candy people - a matter of sipping, not guzzling. Here’s how:
Smell the chocolate. “Fine chocolates should have a fresh, deep aroma, not the overly perfumed or sugary smell associated with artifical flavors or preservatives.”
Look at the chocolate. “Fine chocolates should have a consistent color and a natural-looking satiny sheen free of air bubbles or other blemishes.”
Finally, taste the chocolate. Let it melt against the roof of your mouth; “A fine chocolate should be velvety smooth without any of the graininess that comes from incomplete refinement.” Roll it over your tongue; “The initial taste should be a nutty, roasted chocolate flavor, followed by sweetness and other flavor components.”
Oh, and one more thing - unlike wine tastings, spitting out chocolate is frowned upon in polite company.
Risque business
Calling all lovers: If you like reading about it as much as doing it - cooking, that is - there are a pair of new food publications aimed at you.
“A Sizzling Affair with the Passionate Gourmet” is a monthly newsletter that includes such romance-minded features as the Amorous Quickie (fast recipes), Nibbles & Giggles (appetizers) and Don Juan’s Corner (for male chefs). A one-year subscription is $12. For a free sample issue, call (805) 642-6346 or write to: Gold Coast Press, 4360 E. Main St., Ventura, CA 93003.
And the book “Food as Foreplay,” by Ellen and Michael Albertson (Alexandria Press), is filled with more than 100 “quick, easy, fun recipes and tips to get you out of the kitchen and into the bedroom.”
Spice of life
In a less racy (but no less loving) vein comes Cinnamon Hearts, a homey, bimonthly newsletter devoted to low-fat eating.
Along with recipes, regular features include a gardening column, food product information and reviews of other newsletters; coming soon are vegetarian and diabetic specialties and healthier “make-overs” for traditional comfort foods. Quaint, full-color illustrations use graphics from the turn of the century through the 1950s.
Subscriptions are $18 a year. For a sample issue, send $3 to: Cinnamon Hearts, P.O. Box 578340, Modesto, CA 95357-8340.
, DataTimes MEMO: We’re always looking for fresh food news. Write to: The Fresh Sheet, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call 459-5446; fax 459-5098.