SAVEUR 100
The February Saveur that hit mailboxes this week features their annual 100. This is the issue in which they list 100 favorite food-related items, including, but not limited to,“foods, restaurants, drinks, people, places and things.” I look forward to this one every year – sometimes seeing items that I thought were my own private joys, as well being turned on to new finds that have since become staples – such as Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, which appeared in the 2003 issue.
I’ve been “savoring” (ha) this year’s list, perusing it slowly over coffee and oatmeal these past few mornings. I was excited to see FOUR different entries featuring our favorite food group: CANDY! And TWO of these rank on my own personal list of tops:
1. Pecan Pralines (#50): I’ve been a little bit obsessed with pralines this past year, and my heart honestly jumped a little bit when I saw the photo of these beautiful caramel-colored disks as the magazine’s #50 pick. Apparently, there are restaurants in Texas who offer pralines in lieu of after dinner mints as an accompaniment to the check. I love that!
2. Spicy Thai Tamarind candies (#35) are something that I picked up at the checkout stand of a Vietnamese grocery a couple-few years ago, and have been addicted ever since. They are tart and sweet with a just-right level of spicy-hot aftertaste. They come in a clear plastic box and have a permanent home in my car, fitting perfectly in the little space on my dashboard just above my stereo.
3. This one, (#57), I have to say, was a let down and leaves me questioning the magazine’s integrity: Hershey’s “Cacao Reserve” line of chocolate bars? Why it is that Saveur felt compelled to give a nod to Hershey’s half-assed attempt to get on the “artisan/world-beat” dark chocolate bandwagon is a bit frustrating. Why not give props to one of dozens of other, smaller (and so much better) grocery store-available chocolate bars out there? Ones like Endangered Species, Dagoba, Lake Champlain, Theo, and Green and Blacks, to name only a few. Hershey’s “dark” bars aren’t even truly dark; they contain milk fat, and I can’t help but call bull$H1T on that. If Hershey’s wants to produce a great dark chocolate bar, I fully support and encourage that. But step up to the plate, make it truly delicious, and leave the dairy out of it. Enough said.
4. The fourth (#72), is an offensively over-priced tin of cacao nibs which justifies its $28 price tag by billing itself as “chocolate caviar.” True, I’ve never tasted it, but they’re just chocolate-covered cacao nibs, for cryin’ out loud. Maybe I could dump a scoop of bacon bits in a flat, round can, call it “pork caviar,” and take an early retirement.
