la.foodblogging

Late one night last week I was standing in line at the Whole Foods in Glendale with some fruit, Clif Bars, and prepared tofu and quinoa from the salad bar. Another girl got into the line behind me and put some paper towels and two yellow oblong boxes on the grocery belt.

The banana yellow and brown box caught my eye — something chocolate, perhaps? “What are those?” I asked, unable to read the packages. “Are they chocolate covered?” She barely nodded. “Have you tried them before?” I got a glare for a response. (I’m so *ucking nosey!) She didn’t want to chat, so I took the hint and checked out, no more words (she resembled a young Terri Nunn, btw).

The next time I went to Whole Foods, you just know I searched for the bright yellow box. What was this girl’s guilty late-night indulgence? If it promised to help some other female through a lonely Glendale evening then I had to know what it was. I found it in the frozen foods section, in a premium position, I might add, in the center of the case, right on the end: Triton’s chocolate dipped Banana Bits!

A box contains 8 pieces of banana, each about the size of a coin, and covered with chocolate and peanuts. The chocolate is actually cocoa paste, cocoa butter, sugar and lechitin. I don’t think the chocolate tastes nearly as rich and indulgent as it could. It’s not waxy but the pure cocoa percentage must be very low. I like the convenience factor, however, since it’s unlikely that I’d make my own — with better quality chocolate — although it would be easy enough to do. It would also be hard to sneak the box into a purse at the movie theater, where I have read Banana Bits are sold, although I have never seen them. But I like the boost of potassium, fiber, protein. The label says that 2.5 pieces works out to 170 calories — don’t you love that? 2.5 pieces. Eating half a banana bit is pretty implausible, folks.