Some associate San Francisco with Rice-A-Roni, cable cars, and the gay lib movement. I, however, take the shallow route and associate it with fine American chocolate. Between The San Francisco Chocolate Factory and Ghirardelli, San Fran is just about the only city in the contiguous United States that produces decent corporate chocolate. [Note that I said corporate; there are plenty of lovely indie chocolate shops around.]
To wit: Upon her return from the golden state, a colleague presented me with The San Francisco Chocolate Factory's new "Book Lover's Chocolate". The bookshelf-ready packaging evokes an old leather-bound novel (albeit a tiny one, at only 5 inches), and contains rounds of milk chocolate (also available in dark and dark espresso). The schpeel: "Chocolate has been proven to boost brain power, so let our luscious bite sized discs help you devour your new book while pleasing your palate." Uh, okay, whatever you say, Book Chocolate.
But lo, this book chocolate is divine! The disc shape is perfectly contoured for mindless tongue-palate melting (no impatient biting here!), and the flavor is so creamy and rich, they're like little poppable drinking chocolates. I also test-drove the chocolate's promise of enhancing any reading experience, and while they didn't make the oeuvre of Ann Coulter any more digestible, they sure make it more palatable.
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