unusual tastes in the mouth

I had the opportunity to try a few new comestibles over the last few days -- and thought I would share them with you all.

Firstly, while no-one really thinks that pork is the other white meat anymore, I did have the pleasure of trying some Vosges bacon chocolate. Yes, you heard it here. And, you know what, as odd as it sounds, and as unusual a sequence of tastes as you might expect from a chocolate bar, it was actually pretty tasty. It starts off just like wonderful creamy chocolate, there's a nice salty tang in the middle, and then it ends with the subtle aftertaste of smokey bacon.

Porkslap Pale Ale from the folks at Butternuts Beer & Ale in upstate NY. I won't claim to any of the scientific rigor of Eric and Brad at their Brew Log -- will admit to purchasing a six-pack because of the name, the logo, and that it was a pale ale. Their website is a hoot -- but the beer, while perfectly palatable, was really nothing more than the B- it has received at BeerAdvocate.com

I did also finally get to try Lagunitas Maximus, one of the extreme-hopped beers now in vogue. I didn't expect to enjoy this quite as much, but in addition to packing a nice 7.5% alcohol whollop, it has plenty of taste and that nice, grapefruity taste I like in my IPAs. Beeradvocate gives it a B+, but I'd certainly award it an A-.

Training update: Momo has also been trying new tastes in his mouth. I got an unexpected e-mail from Bob to say that Momo had been successfully retrieving pheasant in his driveway and so he was going to start shooting birds over His Senior Majesty this coming week. I'm definitely proud of him.