Flavor Combinations

At work a couple of days ago, I was thinking about pie (because that's what I do) and I thought a peach/blueberry pie that had fresh mint and lime as its "spices" (instead of the more traditional cinnamon/nutmeg combo) would be nice and refreshing. I jotted my idea down on a post-it and stuck it to a friend's computer for her opinion. She suggested also adding ginger, which I don't generally cook with, but which she thought was a good flavor to match with lime and mint. So I gave it a try.

Since this was something I was just experimenting with, I had no clue how much of anything to put in - and since I don't cook with ginger but am generally turned off by too much of it in a dish, I erred on the side of a lot of mint and lime, and not so much ginger.

I took the pie to work the next day and asked for constructive criticism. I received a few suggestions to lessen the amount of mint (apparently not everyone loves it as much as I do), and a suggestion to perhaps add the ginger to the crust so it stood out a bit more, but everyone generally liked it and thought it was such an interesting and refreshing combination. I felt so proud!

Later that day, I had a nice long phone call with my oldest friend - we've been friends since the 7th grade, and although she lives far away and we only see each other every other year or so, we do a pretty good job of keeping in touch. She and I have been playing phone tag for the last three months, until finally I emailed her and asked if she would be available at 8pm her time for a chat. She was, and we talked for more than two hours. I told her all about my thoughts for the bakery, and was very grateful for her advice and suggestions, as she's a small business owner herself.

As we were winding down, we started talking about lunches we had when we were in high school together. She laughed as she reminded me how I used to take my sandwiches apart, so I could taste each individual ingredient - and then laughed harder as she remembered how I once created an interesting flavor combination during one of our lunches.

My dad made my lunch every day when I was in school, and he would generally make this sandwich that included the thickest slice of sharp cheddar cheese I have ever seen in a sandwich. Take out a ruler and measure half an inch - that's how thick these cheese slices were! On this particular day, I had taken apart my sandwich and just couldn't get through the cheese. I also had a Caramello chocolate bar (it's the one that's four squares of gooey caramel). We don't remember who suggested it or why I did it, but I took a hunk of cheese and a square of Caramello and popped them both into my mouth to see how they would taste together. And, surprisingly, the combination worked! The sweetness of the chocolate and carmel was perfectly matched by the sharp saltiness of the cheese, and I believe I ate the rest of the chocolate and cheese together.

All of this got me wondering - what are your favorite, perhaps unusual, flavor combinations?