Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Chocolate Tasting Note

Free chocolate~! Weeeeee!

Being part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program,
These sweet treats were sent to me for a quick tasting review,
Aren't you happy to find chocolate in an envelope?

There were a total of three flavors:
1. Ghirardelli Luxe Milk "All Natural"
2. Ghirardelli Luxe Milk "Almond"
3. Ghirardelli Luxe Milk "Hazelnut"

Frankly speaking,
I think these are my favorite Ghirardelli chocolate squares compare to other flavors,
(like the ones with caramel or raspberry in the center)
Especially the hazelnut one,
Well, I can be biased since I love hazelnut so much,
The nuts actually add an extra crunch for the chocolate squares, which I love!

The individual packaging makes it easy for me to bring to school as my "break time snack,"
Maybe it's better to have 2 squares in one package?! Or am I just getting greedy here?

*Heart* chocolate.

Reference link:
http://shop.ghirardelli.com/

"Healthful" Chocolate Wafer Sticks from Taiwan

Imagine constraining yourself inside a tiny space where you can't even fully stretch out your legs for 13 hours,
Yes, 13 hours straight! That's how long my flight was from California to Taiwan,
Well, I shouldn't even be complaining because the guy next to me had even longer flight,
After 13 hours from CA to Taiwan,
This plane ride mate has to wait for another transfer flight from Taiwan to Thailand,
Seriously, I don't know how he can do it,
Or how can his back or neck do it,
Mine was as stiff as a wooden chopping board after 13 hours.

My initial intention was to show you some restaurant reviews from Taiwan,
Yet this long-haul flight has brought another side effect to me - jet lag, which made my restaurant reviews plan...impossible.

And my poor mom,
She has to drag me out of the bed every night since I started to fall sleep around 6 p.m.,
You know what time is it as I first start writing up this blog post? 5 a.m.!
My sleeping schedule is all messed up.

As a result,
I'm currently not capable of going out to enjoy some good food and sharing that with you,
What can I say,
I really don't wanna fall asleep and land my face on the plate during dinner.

But! But luckily there're some wafer sticks at home that I can share with you first,
Let's just start out with this popular snack in Taiwan before I can dine at the restaurants without getting my face stick with veggies and meat?

Wafer sticks -

Flavors from right to left:
Chocolate, strawberry, brown sugar, peanut, sweet milk, and coffee.

Somehow people over here are crazy about these wafer sticks,
You can't even find them in a store or supermarket,
The only way to get it is through phone orders.
Since there's a limited capacity regarding the production volume,
Sometimes the wait can take up to months after placing the order.

Name-wise, it's called "healthful."
I'm guessing, partly is due to the meaning of "health,"
And partly is due to its pronunciation,
Healthful sounds a wee bit like "black chef" in Chinese,
Healthful = Hei Shi Fu = Hei (Black): Shi Fu (Chef, or master chef).

Chocolate wafer sticks -

So how come I get to enjoy 6 buckets of wafer sticks earlier than other people?
Well well well, connection is key,
My dad's friend knows someone from "Healthful" so we get to have these snacks right after placing the order.
Called that unfair? Nah.

I haven't open the other ones besides the chocolate flavored wafer sticks,
It's not as sweet as the ones you find from both Taiwanese and American grocery stores,
And the texture is more "condensed" instead of "crunchy, and fluffy."
Not bad at all!

Now I gonna keep my fingers crossed the whole time that my jet lag can go away faster,
I need to stay awake while enjoying my spicy hot pot, fried chicken, and all other yummy good eats!!

Healthful Wafer Sticks
http://www.healthful.com.tw/

L.A. Burdick Handmade Chocolates

What is this cat doing here??

Is he waving for something??

Cat: Come to mama.....come to mama meow.....

Those are the chocolate mice I got from Jimmy! Thank you!

The brown colored one is made with "dark chocolate ganache with freshly squeezed orange juice, covered with dark chocolate."

And the what colored one is made with "dark chocolate ganache with cinnamon, covered with white chocolate."

Close up view, it even comes with a colorful tail!

I haven't tried the chocolate yet, they are just too cute to be eaten!

Here's the website for these chocolate mice.

Meow~

Bengawan Solo - All the Way from Singapore!

Special thanks to Mr. W, who donated one box of delicious cookies to me!

But let's first examine the reasoning behind it,
At first he said he had way too many cookies already,
He felt so guilty that he had to go to the gym right away,
As a result, he decided to give it again, indulging this sweet stuff is too sinful.

Then one other friend was thinking about taking over those yummy goodies,
However, Mr. W was being so considerate, he doesn't want that friend to gain extra pounds over these cookies,
So this box, flew all the way from Singapore (as you can see the bag was already wrinkled up),
Ended up in my house-


So I guess it's ok to make me fat??
Maybe I should just put those cookies aside or feed it to other people as well (yes! make them fat!! or we can all be fat together!)


Those are the macadamia cashew sugee from Bengawan Solo,
Bengawan Solo is one of the most popular bakery chain stores in Singapore,
I can totally see why the store is so popular, these cookies were gooooood!


It tastes like butter cookies, but fluffier,
I'm guessing it was made with macadamia cashew butter,
You do get a hint of nutty aroma from these cookie,
Just a slight hint, which is good, so you won't get sick eating like 10 of them at the same time!

Better to pair up the cookies with hot tea, so it won't get too dry in your mouth,
Something like jasmine tea or rose tea will go very well with these creamy cookies.
Yum yum...
I think my friend's evil plan (of making me fat) has worked...
I just can't stop stuffing cookies into my mouth......

Amano Artisan Chocolate

This happened last week,
As I came back home from lunch,
I saw this little box laying right next to my door-


What is it?
On the label it says "Amano........receiver: Cindy Lo...,"
What! Amano!
Wow I got free dark chocolate!
It's the first time I receive free goodies in the mail,
And it ain't ordinary goodies,
This is what I got from participating in Blake Makes' Sooper Hero all day sign-up claim up!
Thank you Blake Makes, thank you Amano!

Let's open the box and see what's inside-


As I carefully unwrapping the foil,
My body temperature on my figer tips left a few fingerprints on the chocolate,
Maybe I was too excited!?-

Time for chocolate tasting,
Let me grab a bottled water first so I can rinse my mouth after trying out each different dark chocolate.
Before biting into the chocolates,
I've decided not to read anything on the labels till I try it.
Thinking that it'll be fun to see if the flavors bouncing back from my taste buds are similar to the descriptions later on.

1. Madagascar premium dark chocolate~
My tasting result: Strong citrus aroma, with a slight hint of fruity sweetness.
Chocolate description: "Strong fruity flavors that include hints of citrus and berry."
*Man I'm pretty accurate on this one!

2. Ocumare grand cru dark chocolate~
My tasting result: Slightly sour taste, but not as strong as the first one.
Chocolate description: "The Ocumare bar has rich chocolate overtones, as well as well-balanced fruity component that includes hints of plums and other red fruits."

3. Cuyagua limited edition dark chocolate~
My tasting result: Smoky and very strong dark chocolate aroma, this one is by far my favorite among the three.
Chocolate description: "Rich chocolate overtones with notes of spice that produce an incredibly complex flavored bar."

*I need to work on developing my taste for chocolate, so I can differentiate every little flavors coming from a chocolate bar.

Here's Amano's website,
You can learn more about their dark chocolate and numerous awards they got in the past few years.

So what am I going to do with those dark chocolates?
Mmmmmmm how about making them into chocolate mousse? or chocolate souffle?

Any suggestions?

POIRE Chocolat

This box of chocolate has came a long way,
It flew over the Pacific Ocean from Osaka, Japan for over 10 hours,
Experienced the traffic in Los Angeles,
Then my lucky friend got it from his co-worker (aka the chocolat carrier),
What's even luckier, is that I'm so notorious about wanting yummy food,
My "nice" friend decided to share this precious box of "chocolat" with me!
^_______^.b

Here are the little pamphlets that came together with the chocolat-


As you can see,
Besides chocolates,
This store also carries:
Patisserie items such as mont blanc, cheese cake, fruit tarts,
Ice Sorbet made with melon, orange, papaya,
Biscuit and other seasonal items.

This one shows you their locations in Japan-


This one shows you what's inside the box-


I didn't wanna take a picture without the plastic wrap cz I thought that little logo in the middle was cute,
And if you look closer, ok maybe it's pretty obvious,
You can see the top three spaces are empty,
Yes,
Me and my friend ate it already....
We couldn't wait.....
Inside the box you can find a tiny white fork,
That directly translated into "Go ahead. Dig in!!!" in my tiny little brain,
So I forgot to take a picture first...

Oh well,
The chocolate was really smooth and creamy,
It's been under room temperature, but when I got those chocolate, the weather's still pretty cold here in Southern California,
So with the cold weather, the chocolate was like melting in my mouth,
I couldn't believe how smooth it was!

I've attached their website on the bottom,
You can see that their items are not that expensive,
Something affordable yet delicate.

http://www.poire.co.jp/

End Note:

If you read this post before March 14th, 2008,
You can see that on the left of POIRE's website, there's a "White Day 2008,"
What's White Day?
That's for White Valentine's Day!
Usually on February 14th,
The girl will give some sort of present (usually home-made chocolate) to the guy she likes,
And if the guy is interested,
One month after February 14th, which should be March 14th,
He will give something back to the girl,
I don't know what's your opinion on this,
But one month wait for the girl is way too longgggggg!!!!
>__<.