Dommy GonzalezChile and chocolate. Yes, it's been done. So while it was intriguing, it was hardly shocking to see the introduction of the Sriracha Bar on Chego's menu board late this spring. Nevertheless, like all the dishes at Chego and Kogi before it, Roy Choi's cuisine is more than just the combination of flavors. It's about flavors coming together to create a new experience: in taste, in texture, in the core concept of what a rice bowl or a side of fries could be.
The Sriracha bar is the invention of Chego's pastry chef Beth Kellerhals, who introduced it under her own brand, Double Chin Desserts. You unwrap the thin foil wrapper to find a bar enveloped in glossy dark chocolate with the occasional lump of candy-coated peanut underneath. The bottom of the bar is unadorned, revealing a layer of tiny rice crisps encased in chocolate ganache.
The Sriracha element is found within the bar, in the form of a thin layer of ganache floating above a pool of slick caramel. Together each flavor combines so that no one note over powers the other. The dark chocolate retains its creamy richness and the caramel its hits of butter. The heat from the Sriarcha is evident, but does not build; instead it seems to pop the most whenever it's accompanied by the extra sugar rush from the candied peanuts.
After eating the bar at Chego, along with a few last sips of milkis from dinner, the realization hit that perhaps the reason why the Sriracha bar came pre-wrapped was to make it easier to take home. And so it was hardly shocking to discover that nothing makes a glass of milk quite as satisfying as one of these.
Showing off the goods…; Credit: D. Gonzalez
Chego: 3300 Overland Avenue, Los Angeles (310) 287-0337
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