On the Chocolate Trail

Perfecting the hand to mouth wandering at the Chocolate Show in NYC in Fall of 2009, I had to catch myself before I grabbed from a pile of samples of chocolate covered bacon.

Almost....

I pulled back just in time to avoid the traif (unacceptable food) temptation at neighboring vendors.

Like Bacon for Chocolate

Turning away from the hazir (pork) around the corner at the Chocolate Show, we found ourselves at the Al Nassma Chocolate LLC booth.  This new brand emanates from Dubai, does not contain pork although it does not carry a halal certification either.  Instead, Al Nassma’s unique ingredient is camel milk, claiming to be the “first and finest camel milk chocolate made in Dubai.”  We were disappointed that they had run out of samples thought we might not have actually eaten them because camel milk is not kosher, since camel is not kosher.

When we learned that the American Museum of Natural History’s “Traveling the Silk Road” exhibit store offered it, we shlepped across town hoping to find it in the main museum store only to learn that Al Nassma was only sold in the special store for the Silk Road exhibit.  We returned another day to see the exhibit with our friends Karen and Mickey, enjoyed the show and happily found the chocolate which we bought for a very pricey twelve dollars a bar.  It still sits in the pantry … less off putting than the bacon chocolate, but still not a permitted Jewish food.

Update: Al Nassma is currently being sold at our local Food Emporium Chocolate Room.

Update: We found the very popular bacon offering again at the Vosges store on Madison where they offered it as the sample of the day during Passover and the day before Easter. It is featured prominently in their spring catalog.