If you were to ask a person what they would like to have for dessert, many people would probably answer 'chocolate.' But did you know that chocolate is actually a key ingredient in some savory dishes?
In Mexican cuisine, chocolate makes an appearance in mole (pronounced mo-leh), which is a savory sauce made of cocoa, peppers, tomatoes and assorted spices, and is then eaten with meat such as chicken. In other Mesoamerican cuisines, it is known as mole poblano.
In Europe, specifically the region near the Iberian Peninsula towards Italy and France, chefs would use cocoa in savory dishes with hare, venison and duck as the meat. Agrodolce (literally "sour and sweet" in Italian), describes the process of reducing sweet ingredients, such as sugar, with sour ingredients such as vinegar. Often, chocolate was used to add more depth of flavor to the sauce.
Have you ever tried a savory chocolate dish? What was it? Did you like it?