Let’s get this out of the way quickly so I can go and eat the rest of mine. These are one of my absolute favorites of all time. The reason the name “Melonpan” for these Japanese breads? Because the size/shape is like melon. And the Japanese word ‘pan’ is bread. So you could translate this to ‘melon-shaped bread’. It falls in the breakfast bread category.

This sweet bread has a sugary coating that adheres to itself creating a flaky thick ’shell’ of sorts. Add the chocolate chips and you’ve just given energy within the perfected texture.  Love it. Love it. Love it.  The softness of the bread and an outer crispness from the sugar crystals are two competing textures that balance well. Some photos here hopefully prove that it’s at least worthwhile treat. You can pick Melonpan up in packages at the grocery store in Japan or freshly baked in the donut / bread sections too. There are many flavors and styles of these and they are part of popular culture in Japan. Last comment, Melonpan like donuts don’t really offer nutrition. It’s all about enjoyment, and I suppose the fleeting energy from empty calories.

We went to the Hakuen Shopu (100 yen shop (dollar store)) today. We looked at a number of very useless things. The snack section there is not bad, however you will find some obvious rejects. I’m not sure if this Crisp Crunch Coffee patty thing is a reject, though given its oddity, I’d suspect it. I have to be honest, the taste and texture aren’t too bad. Coffee is a lesser used snack flavor and tasty when paired with chocolate of course. If you like Star Crunch from Little Debbie, which has near the most disgusting unreal chocolate created, this one is quite good compared. We are all used to crispy chocolate candy stuff (Nestle Crunch bar, duh) but it’s just that something about this snack doesn’t scream delectable. But it’s fun and funny and has a cocoa / coffee taste, which I usually love. I had a few good bites out of it, so I wanted to share it. I definitely had to share the real thing, as I couldn’t eat this monster alone unless I was paid to do so. I searched the web to find it, but then I got tired. Some other snacks from its company Cisco’s are available online, maybe I’ll post it when I have time. (I’m lying, I’ll never have time.) If you are dying to try a snack that I don’t genuinely drool over, just because it has chocolate and coffee in it, I suppose you’ll find the energy to look it up on your own. I recommend you pick up something more beautiful from a decent chocolate retailer instead though.

Here’s a pic of this bad boy with the 7″ diameter.

Oh the dreaded enticing checkout counter impulse buy.  I succumbed and picked up the Moose Munch Chocolate bar from Target. I think its overall large size and number of seemingly healthy nut imagery shown on the package were most influential. It was a little pricey at Target, near the $2.00 range. (Pricey as compared to a Snickers I’m saying.) I want to rate this one pretty well. As I don’t have a rating scale, I’ll make one up for this and say 3.8 stars out of 5.  Nearly a four and could be a 4.2 depending on the person.

I loved the dark chocolate used. It was a Dove-like chocolate, not too thick coating with enough delicious bitterness to it. That’s where it beats most other chocolate/nut bars IMHO.

The bar felt lighter than it looked likely due to the popcorn inside. That was a pleasant surprise for me. It is a good filler I think. Much better than being stuffed with more sugary goo or peanuts. Basically it’s less sweet and a hint more salt flavoring comes through. It might have less salt than other bars, but made more noticeable in this bar. Best to get the exact sodium comparison if you car. I didn’t.  It’s more healthy I suppose with the ingredients than other bars, but it’s obviously still a candy bar so don’t kid yourself.

Anyway I’ve been letting up on my sugar intake lately. Not because of calories, but just overall health consciousness. Still I’m glad I splurged for this snack. It was fun and seems to be easier to eat in multiple sessions because of the nice tray included in the package. Were they thinking of that, or was the tray just to prevent breakage? Doesn’t matter, it worked.   See if your local Target has this bar if you’re interested. Apparently the Moose Munch brand is from Harry and David, but I can’t find this candy bar on the site at the time of writing. Other websites that talk about this bar, show me that it’s been around for a while. But I think the latest graphics on the bar are better than previous designs. I care about that kind of thing for some reason.

What a great idea over at this AOL food site. Can you identify candy bars by looking at their cross section? Check it out here.

Most of these cookies I’ve enjoyed from McVitie’s have been called “digestives” which I haven’t really established if that description hurts the snack in the American market. Kind of sounds like high-fiber cookies. But they’re nothing like that, they are a genuinely great snack even if you aren’t an afternoon tea drinker. Had I not been introduced to McVitie’s in Japan, I might not have ever bought them here though. Really easy to miss. Hmm, come to think of it, despite eating so many I guess I haven’t actually bought them here in the U.S. yet. But I could if I go over to World Market, or on Amazon.com, or probably a bunch of other places.

So my family in Japan sends me snacks occasionally in care packages. They are such wonderful people. They know I like McVitie’s and they know I love anything Chocolate. When I received this package of Salt & Chocolate biscuits, I was a little curious why anyone would want to mix large quantities of the two. Happily, there isn’t really distinctive salt taste in these cookies, at least not more perceptible than what would be in a home cookie recipe. But these ‘digestive’ biscuits, constructed with a cocoa-type cookie and a chocolate topping are a new favorite of mine. They definitely rival the Paul Newman Alphabet cookies. Looking around the web, I haven’t seen much mention of the Salt & Chocolate. So maybe I’m the first to write about them here. They are visible on the McVitie’s Japan webpage, but maybe not available elsewhere unless you have a great set of in-laws like I do who will send them to you. Keep an eye out though.

I wouldn’t bet my life that this is the most expensive chocolate in the world, but imagine paying $250 for one piece of dark chocolate and close to $3000 for a pound of it! From the Delud Luxury weblog, check out Knipschildt’s “La Madeline au Truffe” Sounds like foreign film I’d never watch. From the Luxury Blog site:

This chocolate with a French black truffle inside is made of 70% Valrhona cacao, which is blended into a creamy ganache with truffle oil. The truffle is then hand-rolled with a dark truffle on the inside and dusted with cocoa powder. Finally it is packed in a silver box.

Boy am I lazy today. Thats why I’ll never pay a dime for chocolate like that. Not worth my 2 months salary. I’ll stick to a $3 bag of Dove Dark thank you very much. Cacao is something I will report on in the future though. Lot’s of benefits to it from what I hearing.

I went on a road trip over the Christmas and New Year holidays. Friends and I went out west to hike and goof around. My good friend made it a point to get everyone presents. Knowing I’m always on snack hunts, he gave me a gift I’ll remember for a long time.

The Vosges “Haut Chocolat” box set is a pricy little collection of four bars. Online they will run you about $30. When you love new flavors, four bars seems like too little, but these still make a great luxury gift.

I was given the box set A as my gift. The others look just as fun, so I bet my friend had quite a time choosing. Likely the Ginger Wasabi was the deal breaker. We shared all the tastes among the group, these being good size chocolate bars and all I can say is it gave me a new appreciation for quality. My only complaint was the Gianduja Bar was almost unnecessary, but this was because the other bars were so surprising.

Box A: Black Pearl, Red Fire, Naga, Gianduja

Box B: Barcelona, Creole, Woolloomooloo, Oaxaca

Box C: Goji, Macha, Calindia, d’Oliva

I’ll leave you to research it at the Vosges website, and consider one of these sets for your next high society gift to a friend or loved one. They are memorable.

Snacks disappear, it is part of life. Halloween snacks disappear more rapidly than any other snack. This is usually because they are terrible snacks that don’t even deserve to have their own bin during the Halloween season. This year I found an exception I wanted to latch onto. But it’s going to go away forever I’m sure. Typically candy / cookie combinations are failures for me. They are too sweet or by mixing the two, cancel out the fun and texture of the individual snacks. That’s fine, I won’t ever fault companies or people from trying.

This year for the brief moment that it’s available, I want to say that the lengthy named Reese’s Pieces Crunchy Chocolate Cookie were the right combinations. Reese’s did the smart thing, they kept the snack light, lighter than the normal Reese’s Pieces in fact. I bought the 9 oz bag at the grocery store and ever since I finished them I thought, man, this snack deserves much more than the thirty-day span it’s going to get. If you said, M&M’s were to disappear in lieu of this snack, I’d be fine with that. I don’t have a link for you to get these, they aren’t even advertised on the Hershey / Reese’s website, look for them in the Halloween displays at your local grocery. Maybe next October, they will bring back the snack again.

Chocolate Dipped Pepperidge Farm Soft Baked Chocolate Chunk Dark Chocolate Brownie cookies may be in the running for the longest titled snack. If you could fill this cookie with any more chocolate, it’s own density will give it gravity much like that of a planetary body. Actually, density is not the right word. Unlike it’s breads, these Pepperidge Farm cookies are quite normal in weight and mass. The picture on the bag exactly matches the cookies for once.

The chocolate is sweet, but not as sweet as your average brownie, and perhaps not sweeter than Chips Ahoy. Each cookie is 160 calories, so it’s quite a hit. What really pulls you in is the texture. The soft-baked cookie is a joy to bite into and since half of the cookie has been dipped in chocolate, the shell kind of snaps and breaks up as you bite into one side. Don’t set the box next to a heat vent or in a window. The experience of these cookies is definitely better if kept at or slightly below room temperature. Compare these with Archway Mocha cookies in quality and texture.

If you buy a bag of 8, don’t eat more than one in a day. In fact, half a cookie would be a nice snack for kids. As with any other cookie snack, sharing them makes everyone happy and distributes the waistline.

I was in Chicago at a conference last month and I mentioned to Smick that I hoped I had time to go to Marshall Field and get some Frango chocolates. I believe their best-known best-loved flavor is a chocolate-orange mixture, and I was curious to try it.

Alas, I did not have the time, but the conference sponsors gave me a gift for speaking: a little box of Frango chocolate mints.

And they were pretty good, but nothing special. Meaning that the best story I have about Frango chocolate is this:

One of my close friends from college has a good friend whose last name is Frangos. When I heard about the chocolates, and because my friend is from the Chicago area, and because you can only get Frango chocolate at Marshall Fields, I naturally emailed him to ask if there was any relationship. He told me there wasn’t, but everyone always made a big deal about his friend’s name. Especially the year that, at Christmas, the company put up a bunch of billboards that said, “Save the world, eat Frangos.”