News from My Table
Editor’s Letter #84: Liver of the Candy World
Show of hands, please: How many of you like licorice? (By licorice, I mean black licorice. “Red licorice” is some kind of sorry artificial-berry-flavored wannabe.) My guess is that fewer than one in 10 readers enjoys the old-fashioned flavor of licorice. Like cilantro, it’s a polarizing flavor, and people either hate it (mostly) or love it. Me, I adore the stuff.
As children growing up in San Diego, we’d walk over to the Little League field after dinner and, for a penny a strand, buy yard-long laces of licorice. Most of my friends preferred red, but I always chose black. Being kids we’d chase and whip each other with our candy before finally eating it, giving little thought to the ball field dust in which it was now covered. My personal modus was to tie up several strands into a fair-sized knot, bite that off and chew on it for a good long while. I probably looked like some old hillbilly with a big bulge in my cheek and brown froth on my lips.
My kids think licorice is old people’s candy, and maybe they’re right. The person I most closely associate with licorice is my great-grandfather, and he was old my whole life. Yes, licorice is one of my warm and fuzzy food memories.
But here’s the thing: I don’t like Good & Plenty, and I hate black jellybeans. My daughter gave me a box of fancy little licorice Scottie dogs in my stocking this past Christmas and, I haven’t told her this yet, but I didn’t care for them. I don’t like licorice dots or pastilles, either. I’m very picky about licorice.
The best widely available licorice, for my money, is Panda brand, which is actually made in Finland. The Finns understand licorice. Australia also makes some good licorice, like Kookaburra, but theirs is generally too sticky for me. It threatens my fillings and makes my hands sticky. Who wants to jump up from the computer to wash after a bite of candy? No, Panda brand is a tidy candy. It’s made with molasses and has an earthy, smoky flavor that is addictive. America, I’m sorry to say, does not produce any worthy licorice. Why? The candy industry has no vested interest in producing a product that children don’t love.
A cool thing about licorice is that the caloric density is actually quite low for a candy. And if you buy a good brand like Panda, it’s totally fat free as well. Licorice root is a natural expectorant and has been used to treat coughs and colds for centuries. On the down side (isn’t there always one?), too much licorice can have a laxative effect, cause green stools or even dangerously increase blood pressure in some people. (What’s too much licorice? In my book, that would be more than six or seven servings a day.)
Just about the time we might expect licorice to fade away, it’s back. Suddenly it’s one of the hottest flavor trends going, and not just in desserts. The Fat Duck (the famous English restaurant) offers salmon poached with licorice, and Alinea (in Chicago) serves a foie gras/licorice dish. Expect more to come.
For those of you who love licorice, have a look at the website for Licorice International (www.licoriceinternational.com.), which is based in Lincoln, Nebraska. They carry more than 200 licorices from 11 countries. It just may be licorice heaven.
