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December, 2014:

Chocolate, 12/31/14

3 stars

Smokehouse BBQ Potato Chips, by Wild Ophelia (a division of Vosges). Dark chocolate with potato chips embedded in it. It’s a great idea, but the chips get swallowed by the chocolate and turn this into a fancy crunch bar. I won’t turn it down, but I won’t go out of my way to look for it, either.

Chocolate, 12/22/14

4 stars

triple nut temptation, by chuao chocolatier. Dark chocolate with almonds, hazelnuts, and pistachios. I debated between awarding this 3 or 4 stars, primarily because I can’t decide if this would have been better limited to one kind of nut. Baci sticks to hazelnuts, and is awesome; so I’m left wondering what this would have been, had chuao stuck to pistachios.

Restaurants, 12/19/14

This is a long-overdue post. I made a business trip to Omaha in the fall, and these are the restaurants that I visited, rated by how good they were for my blood sugar:

Good

Fuddruckers. Yeah, the international chain. I had a buffalo burger and no fries, and was nicely full.

Brother Sebastian’s. It’s an Omaha steakhouse. Tasty steaks, decent salad bar, and you can order Port for dessert.

Mi Casa. It’s a decent Mexican restaurant, for Omaha. The lunch specials are all carb-heavy, but I avoided the chips and was okay. (“Okay” in this case was the high 130s, which shows that this place might not be my first choice.)

HuHot. It’s a national chain, and serves Mongolian barbecue. They’ll let you avoid the noodles, which makes a big difference.

Dickey’s. Also a national chain, it serves barbecue. The key is that this location served Caesar salad as a side, and it was pretty good.

Bad

Swine Dining. It’s a barbecue joint, which is normally safe. Given what I ordered, I’m thinking they either use really cheap bread (which generally means over-refined fast carbs) or they sweeten their chili too much. Or both.

Dishonorable Mention

Cheddar’s. A national chain, this place had the usual way-to-busy vibe that the Cheesecake Factory always has. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t even Cheesecake Factory level. I managed to order something that was safe for me — so this should be under the “good” column — but it wasn’t very good. How you can get a bad steak in Omaha is beyond me, but the folks at Cheddar’s managed it.

Nordstrom’s Cafe

Nordie’s in Escondido serves a prosciutto and mozzarella on ciabatta that’s safe for me if I eat it open-faced. And tasty, too.

il Forno

It’s a New York-style pizza joint in Escondido. I can eat there if I split a calzone and a Caesar salad.

Chocolate, 12/8/14

Low 3 stars

Mango Sunset, by Ghirardelli. Strong Mango taste that overwhelms the chocolate (though Leanne tasted a coffee flavor, too).

Chocolate, 12/1/14

4 Stars

Blood Orange Milk Chocolate. World Market. Open the foil, and you’re greeted with the unmistakable smell of a blood orange. On your tongue, the chocolate is more dominant, with the orange a background taste.