Anyway, I went window shopping and ran some errands, and after all that, I was feeling really lazy and tired and was thinking about hitting a drive-thru on the way home so I didn't have to get out of the car. But in my attempt to be good with food, I opted to go to Whole Foods (I LOVE that place) and grab a healthier snack/dinner option.
I was wanting salmon but instead of getting the filet, I grabbed a thing of sushi. Then I tried some other things - sweet and sour tofu, some spicy sweet potato dish - and got myself some chicken pot pie for my actual dinner. (The tofu was on the unimpressive side, but the spicy sweet potato thing? Yum!)
I ended up in the cheese section. (Me? Cheese? Duh!) The time I had gone to Whole Foods before, I had noticed they had a sample/bite size section in the cold case near some other cheeses and pastas. Not impressed with the selections I picked up then, I was actually looking for some cheese when I came across the mousses and pates.
Now I've had whipped caviar before (quite tasty I must say), but never a pate or mousse so I thought... why not? The first one I looked at caught my eye (mainly cuz it was on sale... though sale price was a dollar off the regular price). Out of the four they had there, one was around $13.00, the rest the same price as the "Truffle Mousse" I chose. The I went in search of some crackers to spread the mousse on, grabbed a drink, and left with my food purchases.
Okay. So what it says on the label... Made with chicken liver, sherry wine, truffles and mushrooms. Fully cooked. Ready to enjoy. Topped with aspic. PORK FREE.
No pork? I lived. Don't worry. I don't have to pork ALL the time, but dammit pork, you are one tasty treat.
The ingredients are what you would expect: chicken liver, chicken fat, water, eggs, sherry wine, modified cornstarch, mushrooms, salt, sugar, nonfat dry milk, truffle, porcini mushrooms powder, dry onions and pepper. ("Modified" made me think "we can rebuild him, we have the technology" but I'm sure that's not what they meant.) The aspic was made of water, gelatin, vinegar, brandy, salt and carrageenan. (Contains: milk, eggs.)
No grams trans fat per serving. Serving size is 2oz and it's a 7oz package, but they say there are four servings per package. Wouldn't that need an 8oz package then? And it's 200 calories so don't eat the whole thing in one sitting.
So right off the bat, I will say this - NOT a big liver fan. Nope. A friend once told me a story about how his mom made liver and had marinated it in something which made it taste different, so when he was invited to stay for dinner at his friend's house back when he was a kid, he said he'd stay even though his friend told him to say no and bolt for home. He remembered everyone trying for the smallest piece, but he grabbed the biggest piece thinking all liver tasted like his mom's. Nope! But since he was a good kid, he was polite and ate the whole thing. It wasn't until later that he learned how his mother prepared it and realized his mistake.
In my childhood, my mother continually tried to get me to eat liver, but I was adamant about it. No way, Jose! I think I had tried it once - just a tiny bit - and it tasted icky. My brother ate it, but then back in the day (and still a little bit now) my brother would try anything. With me? It took me until I got older to try stuff I didn't care for when I was younger.
When looking at the mousse, I thought, "Hey! I've since eaten brussel sprouts, sauerkraut and horseradish. I can give liver another go." I also thought back on the whipped caviar thing. Regular caviar, though I've never tried it, just seemed unappealing to me. I always felt I would react exactly as Tom Hanks did in the movie "Big". But my Seester (Margrit) has never steered me wrong, and I was with her and her family so I tried it, and it was good. It was just made different... just like my friend's mother's liver. So I figured chicken liver in mousse form wouldn't be so bad.
And it wasn't.
So it comes in this mini bathtub looking dish wrapped in plastic wrap that was practically vac-u-sealed over the mini-tub. Took me forever to get through it to the actual mousse. Then I thought there was another wrap to peel off, but no... when I squeezed the tub, the contents poked up and out of the tub like one solid block of... stuff. What I thought was another layer of wrap to get through was actually the aspic on top of the mousse. I tasted a bit of it. Per the ingredients, it was all edible. I didn't personally care for the consistency though the flavor was tasty. I just peeled the aspic off and grabbed a cracker and scooped some up.
I had it in my mind that I wanted cracked pepper crackers. Love those things. But I couldn't decide which ones I wanted. Finally decided on one and also got a plain old cracker (like Ritz) kind. The cracked pepper cracker kind of overshadowed the flavor of the mousse. So I spooned up some and ate it plain.
Ahhh yes. By itself I could definitely taste that it was liver, but the whipped/creamy aspect of the food plus the seasonings make it taste much better than I thought it would. Still I felt it was missing something. Oddly enough, I think pepper would have made it better so perhaps the cracked pepper chips were a good pairing after all. (The chips were tasty on their own as well. Perhaps I'll write about them next.)
Would I ever try this again? It didn't leave a lasting impression on me so I won't be actively seeking it out at the stores again, but if I were at a party, and it was on the snacks table, I'd definitely have some.
http://fabriquedelices.com/product/truffle-mousse-pork-free/
http://fabriquedelices.com/
Made in USA
MFG by Sapar USA, Inc. - Hayward, CA
Phone: 510-441-9500
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