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You’ll find many great inspirations happen late at night. In my college years it originated from staggering in at three in the morning, fumbling around for something to eat, and mixing together some cockamamy cacophony of incongruous food to satiate my munchies. Much of the truly great art and theory, I surmise, was stumbled upon accidentally, and I extend this to great food accidents.

So, deep into my thirties, my inspiration usually comes from just being bored. Last night was such an example of how I crammed together, with all deliberate intent, two disparate food groups to create something pleasantly surprising, but sounds thoroughly vile and unappealing. Among the multitude of leftover childhood abberations for which I’ve never fully addressed, acknowledged or sought any meaningful psychological help, is my love for things salty balanced by things sweet. I can remember alternating between spoonfulls of peanut butter and Utz pretzels. Similarly, I used to dip spoonfuls of peanut butter into sugar, and ate the whole mess…which tasted great.

Of course, any cultural heritage has indigenous food that other people would find bizzare and threatening. Here in America, we have a rich tradition of balancing salty and sweet things, like PB&J, nut brittle, Snickers, or some of you might even remember cream cheese and jelly sandwiches. To someone from Japan or Venezuela, this might be an act of war.

So last night I created a regal food, developed from boredom: parmesan crisps and chocolate. No, I am not pregnant, and yes, it tasted very good.

-Slice thin real parmesan reggiano.
-Heat up a nonstick skillet to medium-high and lay in the slices.
-Let them brown on both sides. Keep a careful eye on the cheese that it browns lightly, but does not burn. The dry, solid parmesan begins to bubble and release it’s oil. The solids essentially fry, and will continue to darken a bit when removed from the pan, so pull it out slightly early. Gently scrape the cheese from the pan, retaining the wafer shape as you transfer it to a cooling dish.
-When cooled, break off a square from your chocolate bar, I used Mr. Goodbar. Place the square on top of the crisp and eat.

Insane? Felonious? Not in the least. The binding ingredients in both elements are salt and milk. Salt crystals from the parmesan mix well with the peanuts in the Mr. Goodbar. Milk is the central ingredient in binding both the cheese and the cocoa of the chocolate, sugar is the mitigating factor that brings balance to the whole.

So, give it a shot or try your own experiment. Either way, you only threw away the billions of dollars it cost to buy parmesan, probably the most expensive cheese in the world.

By Zteve (see more of his posts). You can find more of Zteve's writing at his own website Gastrologica