chrisurban.com

On the sudden news of Michael Jackson’s death, I can not help but wonder if this is all part of a grander plan. It can be said that Michael adored Elvis, to the extent that he married into the family. Like Elvis, he became incredibly successful at an early age, and spent the later part of his career struggling with fame, drug addiction and familial disagreements. Unlike Elvis, who managed to eke out a late-career comeback with concerts and tours, Jackson was days away from starting an almost-inhuman run of concerts in London, running all the way into spring of 2010.
Samuel Roy, in his book “Elvis: Prophet of Power” said “Elvis’ death did occur at a time when it could only help his reputation. Just before his death, Elvis had been forgotten by society.”
In 2005, nearly thirty years after Elvis’ death, Forbes magazine named Presley, for the fifth straight year, the top-earning deceased celebrity, grossing US$45 million for the Presley estate. He also reclaimed the top spot in 2007 after Kurt Cobain topped the list in 2006.

Let’s look at the stakes Jackson is facing. He was about to kick off a ‘comeback’ tour that would have made him between $50 and $100 million, as well as [attempt to] re-establish him as a pop music icon. Beyond that, there is the vast spectrum of a decade’s worth of allegations swirling around Jackson, from yet-unknown perversities to child molestations; avoiding persecution by ‘vacationing’ in foreign countries with questionable extraditional policies; repeated counts of unfathomable behavior no sane parent would stand for; well-documented financial turmoil of Neverland, his music catalogs, his eccentric spending habits. I can really sympathize with a plan to rescue his image, rescue his financial position, and do all of this from the comfort and safety of an estate in a distant country.
Does it seem so apparent to anyone else?
What better way, and what better timing, than to engineer a sudden death? When else would have been a better? He has slipped from the tabloids’ interest, his popularity in the U.S. has never been lower, and the mystery surrounding his death and the inevitable-Elvis-like-phenomenon would slowly take over?

And the estate, the licensing, all of the hits, all would generate a nice solid steady income…

Compared to the Frey orange dark chocolate, the orange flavor is much more even and subtle, but the freeze-dried orange peel itself is distracting. The chocolate is nice - the Belgian dark chocolate is smoother, more buttery, than the swiss counterpart - but it’s just those damn peels that get in the way.

We’ve had Frey before - generally we’ve tried to find chocolates with pepper - but here we find some orange. We don’t like it so much. The orange powder tastes a bit crystallized, but we wonder if it’s intentional. We’re also wondered if this might be happen to be a bit stale.
The chocolate part - Swiss chocolate - is fine, it’s okay.

I can’t believe this chocolate hasn;t been reviewed yet. I’m fairly certain we’ve eaten this at least a half dozen times - and probably never had enough lying around long enough to review. We usually pick this up at our local Trader Joes - and quickly devour it.
This is a good, straightforward chocolate. Dark? Yes. Over 60% cacao? You betcha. Spicy? No. It’s a nice, well-balanced dark chocolate. Starts earthy, and picks up some lighter berry notes later.
In short, it’s a French chocolate, and it’d sure go nice with a glass of cabernet…

Never saw a dark chocolate from Cadbury here in the States, so we thought we’d pick this up for a try. The chocolate snob in us shudder at the mere thought of even trying this, but fair is fair. So, here we go: a bit too sweet for my taste. There’s a bit of a nutty taste, but tastes like mass-market ‘dark’ chocolate.
Flip over the wrapper, and no surprise here - manufactured by Hershey under license. The do a nice attempt at making it look like a British import, but I think discerning consumers will see through it.
Thinking more about it, and it seems to have an uncanny resemblance to Hershey’s Special Dark (not as creamy, and not as sweet) and probably more like Dove’s Special Dark.

This chocolate is a tantalizing conundrum.
If we look at this from the chocolate point of view, then this dark Swiss chocolate is what one would hope to have for a mass-market gourmet chocolate: it’s silky smooth, with a tantalizing mouthfeel. It’s dark - not sure exactly how dark since no cocoa percentages are on the package - and creamy. It has a nice transition as it melts in your mouth to creamy goodness (omg - this starting to sound like something perverted) - and does not overwhelm with too much complexity. This is a straight-shooting, solid dark chocolate, from a chocolate addict’s perspective, that you want to curl up with in the company of nice cabernet.
Alright, now that we have the cocoa-based perspective diagrammed, let us proceed to dissect the chili angle. More concisely, this chocolate is more acute than obtuse with the heat. I don’t mean like 45° acute, I mean like 15°. It’s there, it comes, it goes, it’s gone. Lest we are misled by the illustration of a nice-sized chili pepper on the cover of the product, examination of the ingredients list reveals: “chili extract.” I freely admit to being a snob here, but when I see that, and then see vanillin - an artificial flavoring - I simply have no choice but to breath a deep sigh and shrug: ok, well, it’s Lindt chocolate. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty damn good.
In short, I’d recommend this for anyone with an itch for a chocolate with some mild heat, who may be concerned with a boutique, micro-batch (compared to Lindt, anyway) chocolate packed chock full of chili and exotic spices.

In a word - yummerific. Ok, so I’m a little biased: I (heart) Chuao chocolates - I have yet to be disappointed. Throw in caramelized cacao nibs, nutmeg into dark chocolate and you’ve got a winner.
Bonus: girls in the three- to five-year-old category appreciate the shiny purple wrapper. How can you go wrong?
A 60% cocoa mix of Venezuelan single-origin chocolate, this bar rocks. A light, fruity initial flavor gives way to a middle-note nutmeg, and as the chocolate dissolves, the caramelized nibs emerge for textural contrast. The finish is not bitter but complex, and the nutmeg fades slowly away to reveal more berry and earthy notes.
In short, a clear winner. Definitely on the buy again list.

An assortment of solitaire-sized chocolates, this Guylian assortment presented many challenges, not the least of which was which one to try, in what order. As the anal, compulsive, chocoholics that we are, it seemed the most logical to ascertain these in ascending cocoa percentages - that is, from lightest to darkest. And so:
Asian dark - 56% cocoa, this emerged as the crowd favorite. It’s been our experience that the 50-60% cocoa range generally has the best mouthfeel and usually the best chocolate flavor experience. The Asian dark mixes Criollo and Forastero beans and the package describes these as having “…a hint of herbs.” It is fruity, not as intense as the others. It possesses a nice complexity of flavor, but not too overwhelming.
Aztec Gold - 65% cocoa. In my humble opinion, this mix of Caribbean and South American beans - Columbian and Santo Domingo - was not nearly as flavorful as I would have expected. It definitely bodes more bitter, but not necessarily more complex. This was a bit of a downer. Of course, remember that when we see ‘Aztec’ we immediately expect more cinnamon and kick.
African Ebony - 70% cocoa. Visually, the darkest. This noir closely matches its description: “…full powerful chocolate.” This tastes like 70%. Again, like the Aztec, it’s a bit - no, a lot - less than what I had hoped. Recalling the Kallari 75% (and to a lesser extent the 85%) we recently tried - these were no where near in the same league.
So, the consensus for this collection? This is a tough one - it boils down to the Asian dark, really. If we can find this on it’s own, we would buy it. But the other two? Meh. (Sorry if this is a bit harsh, but that’s why you read these, dear reader, for a clear, concise opinion, no?)

We took the just-released list of Top Docs published by Philadelphia magazine and regrouped the hospitals into health systems, and ranked the totals. Remember, this is fairly arbitrary - the number of top docs is not necessarily indicative of the quality of care one can expect - and it only reflects the number of top docs at any health care facility, not the total number of employees or physicians on staff.

Rank	Hospital	Top Docs
1	University of Pennsyvlania HS	122
2	Thomas Jefferson Univ	47
3	Main Line Health	33
4	The Children’s Hospital of Phila	33
5	Fox Chase Cancer Center	26
6	Cooper Univ Hospital	23
7	St. Christopher’s Hospital	13
8	Temple Univ Hospital	12
9	Hahnemahn Univ Hospital	11
10	Albert Einstein Healthcare	10

We just finished a really nice dinner at La Habicheula in downtown Cancún. We had decided before dinner to take a short stroll to the restaurant we had reservations for the following night, and preview the menu. I had already quickly scanned a map of the area earlier, from our Fodor’s tour book. On that particular map, the area was marked with several restaurants of note, and I had memorized the walking route.

So we set out for our stroll, and headed in the general direction of the other restaurant. Not more than two blocks up, the street opened up to a large urban plaza. We first passed a large playground, which was surprisingly crowded for the time of evening, probably 9:30pm?

Next, we walked passed a large semi-circular row of booths, set up with a small shops selling tacos, burritos, clothes, a police substation, ice cream shop, and lots of tables and benches. Past these and the plaza opened up into a large open space, filled with kids driving battery-powered cars, other kids kicking around a soccer ball, and more kids practicing gymnastics and cheer leading on a stage. We continued walking, past a small crowd was gathered around a comic doing some juggling, and there were lots and lots of people and families all over, enjoying the warm evening, full of wonderful smells and sights. At this point we realize that we are probably the only Caucasians in the crowd.

Finally, we found the source of the delicious smells: a row of small food carts, each no bigger than a barbecue grill, lined up along the back end of the plaza. I struggled to find a street sign, to confirm our bearing. While I looked around, Mimi found a cart with the most delectable smell - Ricky’s Marquesitas. What is a marquesita?

Simply put, it’s a crispy crepe made fresh, then filled with your choice of fruit, chocolate, or in our case, nutella and queso de bola - cheese, of all things! Yummalicious! These were so good that we purposefully returned to the same cart the next night for another round… but I digress.
While she’s waiting in line to order one, and I’m looking around looking for some indication of where we were, I spot two young guys standing over the open back end of an old Beetle (’72? flat windshield) stopped in the middle of the street, talking to another older guy. They’re looking like they’re having problems with the engine, so I look to Mimi and I head over to see if I can help them out. The older guy looks at me and asks “Mechanico?” and I say “Hable Inglese?” and he says yes. He explains he was trying to help these two young guys - made 18, 19 years old - but didn’t know enough about these engines. I poke around, and basically, they had flooded the carberautor. They were missing their idle screw, and I think their air/fuel mix was way off, and at least one of the plugs wasn;t firing right, probably full of crud from running on too rich of a mix… I tell the guy to tell the kids what screw to adjust, clean the plugs, let it sit for a few minutes, and get an idle screw…

I head back to Mimi, where she’s drooling and enjoying her nutella-queso goodness. We decide we have no idea where we are, and we decide to head back the other way. We walk around the side of the market, heading toward another open area, more savory-smelling outdoor restaurants… We come to a praking area, and there in the first space, in a locked car, with the driver’s side window cracked an inch, is a screaming, crying baby, no more than 18 months old, standing in the driver’s seat, holding on to the steering wheel. We look at each other and our first thought was that this had to be a prank, would someone really do this? We’re simply stunned for the first few seconds.

We look around, and several other people have stopped now too to look. Everyone is talking, and pointing, and we’re looking around for a policeman, or someone to do something. I remember we had walked past the police officer around the corner, so we backtrack to tell him. “Hable Inglese?” “No” Mimi tries to explain: “Bambino in automobile?” Fortunately, another guy came with us, and waves us to stop and he explains to the officer the situation, and we all head back to the car.

He checks out the car, and everything seems to be in control. We’re compelled to hang out and watch further, but feel awkward. We can’t speak spanish, what else could we possibly do? We decide to keep moving…

We walk through another small park area, with more booths and tables and carts, but with a distinctly different aim - let’s just say they had a common theme: recreational herbs? We caught sight of a dude and two girls huffing away on a bong, lots of paraphernalia… we walk a few more blocks and catch our bus back to the hotel. It’s getting late, and we’re getting tired. We never found our restaurant.

It’s then, on the bus that I realize what my direction problem was. Looking at the Fodor’s map, I realize the little numbered point for the restaurant was on the wrong side of the street. I had the whole map wrong in my head, I was ‘reading’ it upside down… On the next night, now that I had my bearings, I realize that several other restaurants are marked incorrectly as well.

It was a wonderful night for us to experience a deep slice of life in Cancún during Carnival: the smells and sights, the assurance that the sight of a helpless infant draws people to action, and our confirmation that often the most indulgent pleasures are the simplest ones we don’t expect.

Well, the wrapper says chocolate, and it tastes like chocolate. So… it is chocolate? (Gosh we’re suckers for awkwardly translated food products.) Here’s a chocolate bar all the way from Russia, ‘produced, packaged’ by Babaevsky Confectionery Concern in Moscow, who appear to have been making chocolate since 1804. Admit it, Russia is probably not in your top five list of geographic areas associated with chocolate. But fear not, this actually a pretty good bar.
It seems to be dark - I’d guess about 50-60% cocoa - and it’s fairly creamy and smooth. Its taste is even and simple, a little nutty, even a touch of darker berry or cherry.
As I’ve discovered with most foreign foods, a fair amount of entertainment can be derived simply by reading the label. Typical for European products are the ingredients and comments translated into several languages, but on this one: Russian, German, English, Ukranian and Kazakhstan? The ingredient list is even more odd: ‘natural identical flavor’?
So, next time you’re in the CIS, pick up a bar of Gvardeysky and let us know what you think!

Very interesting, especially comparing this to the 75% Kallari, I’m truly amazed the difference that the extra 10% makes. This is not like the 75% at all - completely different flavor spectrum, much more restrained and concentrrated. This really is a chocolate-lovers’ chocolate, but borderline too intense. The overwhelming cocoa-ness very nearly drowns out some of the notes we experienced with the 75%.
Five-year-old: “I do not like this at all. Yeck - I need to spit it out. I like the other one much better.”
Seriously, this one just teeters on the brink of bitterness - but when you let this melt on your tongue, you get more of the core flavor that you don’t get with the 75%: deep, earthy flavors, almost olive and the high notes are more almond or hazelnut. Intense.

Wow - pleasantly surprised by this one. You get a nice coating along the sides and back of your tongue, and there’s a nice and full nutty, earthy flavor. It’s almost like eating peanut butter, where you smack the roof of your mouth, except that it’s chocolate.
Five-year-old: “It tastes like peanuts.” “It’s delicious and good.”
This is a really yummy chocolate - much much flavor than I expected, very smooth, very nice finish. There’s a lot of notes in this that I can’t identify in the first taste - some dark fruit, like blueberry, but not sweet, some earthiness, almost like mushroom or peanuts, and then a smooth clean finish… (maybe it’s the champagne?)

As soon as we tear the trademark gold foil open, we can smell the orange - yummy. What’s interesting about this one is the initial orange note is the high sweet orange, more aromatic, but then as the chocolate dissolves, you get the deeper, heartier orange flavor and mouthfeel within the chocolate. As you would expect from a Godiva gourmet bar, this is superbly smooth and almost too rich; this is expected from a 50% dark chocolate. You get the smoothness like a milk chocolate, and the deeper bass notes of a dark chocolate, and all of this enveloped in orange rind flavor.
Of course, I’d get this one again, but this is really an indulgent chocolate, almost too sweet to have too often.

In stark contrast to the other Ecuador chocolate we just reviewed, here’s one with a much more interesting arrangmeent of flavors. Also from the Amazonian Ecuador region, this chocolate possessed more of a fruity cocoa flavor and a smoother mouthfeel. The chocolate itself was interesting in appearance - whether it was a brief exposure to heat or simply age - but it had a lighter cocoa coating to the bar, and this did not seem to interfere with the taste of the chocolate itself.
In terms of taste, this had an overall higher average note than the Vintage Plantations bar - probably from the citrus-lemony notes. We’d say this was a good overall chocolate, we’d probably purchase this again.