Wednesday, February 22, 2006

chocolate, caramel, and salt



My sister and I went to the West Point Market in Akron, Ohio, on President's Day. We don't live in Akron--we live 28.57 miles away--which is far for grocery shopping. Instead, we treat it as a destination, a jaunt, a trip into the fantasy land of grocery shopping, and we only do it about once every two months.

It's worth the 28.57 mile drive (which we while away discussing our children, our writing, our students), because they have lovely produce, interesting canned or jarred items, fabulous prepared food, and the best selection of chocolate that I know about in the Cleveland area. (If there's a better, please let me know.)

They also have a small selection of Fran's Chocolates, made by the talented Fran Bigelow in Seattle, and in particular they have her salted caramels, the Smoked Salt Caramels above, as well as Grey Salt. Her amazing caramels have made me rethink my chocolate-is-the-only-possible-candy position. They're creamy in their caramelness, piquantly chocolate, with some salty crunchiness going on. My only problem with them is that there are only 6 of them in their package.

You'll notice in the picture that two of them are gone, and if the picture was better, you'd see that the end of the package is a little bent. This is because my sister and I mangled the package to get out some caramels to eat on the way home. Next time we'll take our Swiss Army knives.

5 comments:

holly_44109 said...

Sounds like I have a road trip in my future!

mary grimm said...

Let me know how you like if you go. It's my favorite destination market, along with the Mustard Seed Market. They have a nice little lunch place too.

Cynthia & Dan said...

Yummm....I have been thinking about Sea Salt Caramels all day today and just found your post. I searched out a recipe and may need to make it this weekend. http://recipeexchange.tribe.net/thread/c80af655-fb84-43e7-9ff9-74495e39bf53

Or I could be super lazy and just walk down to the Cheese Shop and buy some. Naw! But the ones you bought looks so good! This past holiday season I was given a jar of Fran's Dark Chocolate Sauce. Ahhhh, that was good too.

mary grimm said...

If you make some, please share the recipe. I've never made candy, but maybe it's time.

Anonymous said...

I was just up visiting my parents in Berkeley, and I went to gourmet food shop that made me dizzy - I was literally surrounded by salty caramels. Fran's, Fleur de Sel caramels... all of it. Somehow I crawled out of there without busting the bank, but I'm going to break out my brand-new candy thermometer soon and try out a recipe or two. Will let you know how it goes!