Kosher finds at Chocolate Expo

This past Sunday I was fortunate to experience an obvious case of Divine Providence: Chocolate! This was a result of my meeting Marvin Baum, director of Baum Image Group, a company dealing with high-tech digital imaging systems, which I encounter in my line of work as a radiologist.

More than just a chocolate show, this year’s World Chocolate Expo in White Plains features over 65 local vendors, about 10 of which are kosher, and a handful from Long Island. Alongside his business, Baum runs food promotion events around the state to benefit good causes, that have been remarkably successful for mainstream and kosher consumers alike.

There was a positive vibe throughout the exhibit hall as foodies made their way from table to table, some carrying grid sheets and pencils to mark their selections, others carrying bags with early holiday gifts. Here are a few selections for the kosher chocaholic:

Screme Gelato Bar is a natural, wish ingredients that avoid oil, preservatives, or food coloring. Which was surprising given their beautiful, richly colored, creative display. The strawberries and ‘screme was garnished with whole strawberries and tasted better than any premium strawberry frozen dessert I’d ever had. The Cap’n Crunch was an unexpectedly flavorful, buttery, sweet/salty delight.

Fretzels, besides its incredibly cute name, boasts the most unusual and fun chocolate covered pretzel creations I’ve ever seen. I tried the sugar plum, with lavender colored chocolate covered in lavender sugar crystals, unexpectedly fruity and blending well with the salty pretzel; caramel apple, pumpkin, and espresso bark; and of course, the fractured pretzels, with every assorted topping one could imagine on a pretzel, broken and thrown into one large basket.