Digest

Taza makes cinnamon-flavored Chocolate Mexicano bars that remind emily of Mexican drinking chocolate brands such as Mayordomo. However, the Taza version is stone-ground, organic, more refined, and less sweet than the packaged Mexican bars you can usually find, she says. It is good for eating, too, and “it still has that rustic quality with a crunch of sugar crystals and whiff of cinnamon,” says emily. A bar costs $3.95 from the Taza website, though emily paid $4.99 for hers.

Eat_Nopal likes it, too, and says that it actually does taste like drinking chocolate as prepared in Oaxaca or Tabasco. It has a “rustic, floral, herbal complexity” that you rarely, if ever, encounter in a packaged chocolate, says Eat_Nopal.

Board Link: Taza Chocolates/Artisanal Mexican Chocolate

HLing loved the deep-fried fish skin snacks he discovered in Hong Kong, and has now found some for sale back home in New York City. They are made in Hong Kong by a company called Un Chi, and the black pepper flavor is even better than the ones HLing first tried in the Far East. They’re thin, crispy, and wispy, and, oddly, not fishy at all. “The texture and taste remind me of the best potato chips fried in lard,” and they have that same “velvety mouth feel,” says HLing.

Board Link: Deep Fried Fish Skins & Wasabi Doritos…

When you hear “chocolate fig ice cream,” you might imagine chocolate ice cream with some chunks of fig floating in it. In fact, Greek Gods Pagoto Chocolata Fig Ice Krema is just the reverse. “It’s really a strongly flavored fig ice cream with dark chocolate chips,” says PayOrPlay. It’s too figgy for Snapdragon, but PayOrPlay loves the stuff for its “explosively figgy flavor,” and adds: “It is thick and moderately elastic with a texture somewhere between gelato and the ultra-stretchiness of Persian ice cream.”

Board Links: Greek Gods Pagoto Ice Cream
Great Food Products in Washington

Mâche, also known as lamb’s lettuce, corn salad, and field salad, is a supermild green, with the slightest nutty flavor, says Vetter. chefschickie finds it to be like spinach, but milder and more tender. Gio likes its mild, flowery, nonaggressive flavor, and notes that it’s easy to grow in a garden or in pots. “It looks a bit like a soft, small, edible jade plant,” says lagatta, who adds that you should be sure to wash it carefully and even soak it a bit, as it tends to come with a layer of fine sand adhered to it, even if it’s prebagged.

Board Link: Tell me about mache