Chocolate Conference Roundup

On Saturday, we went to the annual Chocolate Conference in Addison.  If you've never been, I highly recommend it, for the tasting room alone.  Dallas has so many talented chocolatiers, and this year they had four -- count 'em -- four artisinal chocolate makers from around the country.  One of them is even local to Texas (Tejas Chocolate, which is made in Spring, Texas).

 

In addition to being delicious, many of the chocolates presented were edible works of art.  Check out these gorgeous masala truffles from Annie Rupani's new venture, Cacao and Cardamom.  She hand paints the molds using dyed cocoa butter.

And look at this high heeled shoe from Chocolate Secrets.  I love the detailing.

One of my favorite tasting offerings was from Taza chocolate.  They do stone-ground organic chocolate (processed the way drinking chocolate is made in tropical countries), but the rep told most people eat it.  The discs come with a number of added flavor choices, including two with different kinds of peppers.



So much to see . . . so much to taste.  It was a great event!

Let's Go Bento!

I'm going to be covering Japan this weekend in the Cooking Around the World Class I'm doing out at UTA.

To get in the mood, I made bentos (Japanese-style boxed lunches) for me and the hubby for lunch tomorrow.  They're nothing spectacular.  Jake's has a heart theme going on, with a heart shaped egg and carrot hearts (inspired by the way the carrot was starting to split on its own) . 

I'm not much for plain boiled eggs, so I put deviled ones in mine (yes, I know, they were invented by the Romans, but they're colorful and fit with the art side of the bento tradition).

When you stack a bento lunch box, the rice always goes on the bottom, meat and cooked or pickled veggies in the middle and (if the box has a third layer), you can use it to add fruit, greens or extras.  Bentos served at restaurants often come in single-level square boxes. and may come with tempura or soup.  In Japan, you can even get them pre-packed at convienance stores.