CANDY: LIGHTS! CAMERA! CANDY! [Part IV in a series]

The candy blog returns! Enough planning posts and travel reports—it's time for some sweet, sweet minutiae!

A TRAVEL REPORT!

This actually isn't a report about my travels—it's about Joe "The Natural" Rosales' trip to Basel. Joe made the trip over from Spain last week, and we did some exploring of ol' Baselburg together. We enjoyed Scotch, ping-pong, a beer tower, Indian food, a Jasper Johns exhibit and (apropos to a candy blog) chocolate.

Here is the spread we put together Wednesday night: the purple box is a locally produced bar of milk chocolate. The green box is a Venezuelan bean (though Swiss made) dark chocolate—78% pure chocolate, if you're scoring at home. We got the latter because Joe said he liked dark chocolate; the former to balance out the intensity of the 78%er. Other options at the choco store we bought these at (Xocolatl) included Salt Chocolate, Masaman Chocolate, and Thai Red Curry Chocolate. I'd be happy to try any of these, but designer chocolate is expensive (Ben—grant application!?).

Anyway, the experience of eating these two bars was tremendous. The dark was intense but balanced nicely with an herb flavoring. The milk chocolate taste was more conventional but still delicious. Both paired perfectly with the raspberries and the milk. All in all, it was a new candy experience for me—more of a tasting than an eating, as it were. I can only hope that chocolate becomes the new wine, and every restaurant offers a long list of hand-crafted chocolates to choose from. (This would also offer a host of new opportunities for Raju to make his classic "stubborn yet whimsical" joke.)

So my foray into high end candy was interesting and gratifying—but for me candy will always be all about the 75 cent bar that you can get on any corner in New York. (Note: The chocolate bars Joe and I ate were slightly more than 75 cents. Like, twenty times more.) Further, if I'm going to overpay for candy, the place I'm happiest to do it is: THE MOVIES. In the spirit of the hoped-for wine list/chocolate list swap I mentioned above, here are some candy and movie "pairings" that I think all can enjoy.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER: GUMMY BEARS. Because they make you feel like a kid again, and what better way to enjoy a big ol' dumb Hollywood megavehicle than to hearken back to the days of endless summers and runs through the sprinkler.

FIRST DATE MOVIE: JUNIOR MINTS. Shows that you are there to have a good time, but also value your date's experience—in other words, that you're a sensitive lover. Ordering something like the big bag of Poppables on a first date could potentially send the wrong message—like, "Tonight is all about me, baby!"

"I'M HIGH" MOVIE: ANYTHING. Really, you can't go wrong when you are high and ordering candy. Everything works., from Sour Patch Kids to Peanut M&Ms. Some people think you can take it too far by ordering too much, but that has never been my experience. Like the time Ben and I bought three bags of Poppables when we saw House of Wax, lost one as the movie began, and didn't find it until ten minutes before the end. Did we decide, Hey, two bags was enough, let's save this one for later? Of course not.

[Sol stays hi-i-i-iiigh...]

GOING SOLO: TWIZZLERS. When you're at the movies alone, you don't want to order a candy you'll get sick of. Eating an entire bag of Reese's Pieces by yourself is not only a little depressing, but also by the end, the Pieces will inevitably taste like pure butter. Putting away a bag of Twizzlers on your own, though, is socially acceptable and won't dilute their taste (because they have no taste).

SUBTITLED FOREIGN FILM: A SLICE OF TART. Just kidding—but why is that the Angelica and Lincoln Plaza and other high-end indie movie theatres sell baked goods? [Answer: Because they're snobby, and think you're snobby, too.]

And so ends this posting. Julie and I have been ravaged by Spanish food poisoning—Joe, avoid Majorcan Potato Salad. Love to you all—