Thursday, August 05, 2004

Today I went along on the great Newark Star Ledger newspaper's Munchmobile Chocolate "Guest Munchers" tour. I don't think I've eaten so much chocolate at one time - even when I was trick or treating! :-)

We left the Ledger building at 11 a.m. and left the last stop, Krause's, around 6:30 p.m. Chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Our group was made up of the Star Ledger reviewer, Peter Genovese, a woman from West Orange, New Jersey, named Cookie (thank God her name wasn't Candy; I think Peter would've flipped), a young mom from Verona named Dominique, and my husband, Steven, and me (also from Verona!). My husband was actually the one selected for the group, but I got to tag along because I am heavy and a lot of it is chocolate! We went out in the Munchmobile - a gaudily painted van with an enormous fake hot dog on the top. It was sort of like riding on a float - except going 65 down the NJ Turnpike! Unfortunately, the windows were covered in the back of the van where I was seated, so I couldn't be seen waving to the incredulous masses who stared at the hot dog mobile!

The candy shops we visited were
Brummers in Westfield, NJ, Birnn Chocolates (I kept thinking it was Brinn) in Highland Park, NJ, Lee Sims Chocolates (it was voted the tops of the four we went to!) in Jersey City, NJ, and Krause's Candies in Paterson, NJ (oddly enough, right near where my husband used to work). I ate so much chocolate I can hardly even mention the word. I found the butter crunch - chocolate coated toffee with a crushed nut layer over the chocolate- the one that varied the most from place to place. Most used almonds or pecans, but Lee Sims (in spite of being the best at every other chocolate) tasted like it had peanuts as its coating. The chocolate layer on it was good, but the nut taste overwhelmed it and the toffee taste. It tasted much better after it got to our house and sat overnight in the refrigerator, incidentally. Brummers had the best butter crunch and terrific fudge! And their butter crunch tasted just as good after being overnight in the fridge, too!

Our Star Ledger "tour guide" and Munchmobile driver will report both the singles' group (the Munchmobile is doing a "Summer of Love" tour this year, hoping to match up hungry singles in the Garden State and they did their tour before ours...) and ours next Friday at
NJ.com. No pictures, thank goodness ....

BTW, I'm going on a diet next week...Sigh....


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