Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Food briefs

Cookie clairvoyance

One thing about fortune cookies: Even without the message, you can predict there’s something sweet in your future. Emily’s Chocolate Covered Fortune Cookies add creamy milk chocolate to the familiar Chinese cookie, and inside each individually wrapped treat is a sweet message — such as: “Love is knocking at your door. Answer it!” The red takeout container is fun too. A 3.5-ounce box of six cookies is $5.

Vittles Vamp eats in New York

It’s time to ramp up your food voyeurism and go on a romp with a food columnist in slavery to Restaurant Week.

Her musings on the good life appear under the pen name Vittles Vamp (www.vittlesvamp.com), but she offers no further identification. She roams the streets of New York, tongue flapping in the wind. “Last night, when a few of my gal pals and I whooped it up, we encountered Satan. He came to us in the form of a breadbasket. And let me just say that I’m a sinner — and I’m not alone. I brought my friends down with me.”

Ah, yes, a rhapsody in food.

All relevant presences — bakeries, bistros — are linked, there for the clicking. Area foodies will be entertained, inspired and comforted.

“Don’t feel too bad if you can’t identify kohlrabi — some top chefs have never even heard of the vegetable.”

Wouldn’t you know, it can be roasted, fried, pureed, pickled and steamed?

And it goes great with a carafe of wine.

Artful ardor

The whimsically designed silk-screened tops of MarieBelle chocolates (right) are riveting, but the taste trumps the look when you bite into one: Intense and creamy chocolate (milk, dark or white) is infused with many creative flavors, including cardamom, passion fruit and Champagne. A 16-piece box costs $34 at Bloomingdale’s. By mail, the chocolate is sold in various sizes, starting with a two-piece box for $7. Call 866-925-8800 or visit online at mariebelle.com.

Cole’s and Sara Lee help satisfy craving

Low-carb dieters know that bread is a no-no. But some bread makers are coming to the rescue with new low-carb versions to satisfy bread cravings.

Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Cole’s Quality Foods, Inc., who invented the first frozen garlic bread, now has a low-carb version.

Cole’s Ultra Garlic Bread has 5 grams of net carbohydrates per one-ounce serving (about a 1-inch slice) versus 11 grams for the same serving size of the original.

The company says they reduced the carbohydrates by substituting refined white flour with oat fiber and wheat gluten. If you haven’t had bread in a while the garlic bread has a decent garlic-butter taste, but has a lighter texture and dry aftertaste. A 12-ounce frozen loaf is $2.50 to $3.29.

Sara Lee also has two new bread varieties with fewer calories and carbs — Delightfuls Bakery Breads.

The white bread has 9 grams of carbs and 45 calories per slice instead of the 15 grams of carbs and 80 calories in a typical white bread slice. A wheat version offers the same amount of low carbs and calories.

A new heart healthy multi-grain and country potato bread which are 97 percent fat-free are also available from Sara Lee. The breads are $2.39 to $3.19.

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