Counter Culture: There's more to HoneyBaked than special hams

By Allen Pierleoni - apierleoni@sacbee.com

Last Updated 6:02 am PDT Friday, May 9, 2008
Story appeared in TICKET section, Page TICKET35

The large HoneyBaked ham sandwich goes for $5 at the restaurant on Sunrise Boulevard in Fair Oaks – but through Saturday, they're two for the price of one. Erhardt Krause / ekrause@sacbee.com

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Seems like the HoneyBaked Ham Co. has been around forever. It also seems that its signature product – applewood-smoked ham – rarely comes to mind except during the walk-ups to traditional holidays or when someone plans a special occasion involving a lot of people. ("It's her birthday, let's get a ham! That way, we won't have to cook!")

HoneyBaked was founded in 1957, oversees about 500 outlets in 38 states, and serves food items in addition to its spiral-cut ham (topped with "sweet honey crackling glaze").

We dropped by the store on Sunrise Boulevard (ignore that big "Lease" sign out front) and made a pleasant discovery: Everything is half-price through Saturday. (except party platters). That includes sandwiches, but excludes the ham sandwich. Which would be ironic, but for this: Buy one ham sandwich and get the second one free.

The brief menu includes sandwiches made with ham, ham salad, turkey breast, turkey salad, roast beef and pastrami; various breads, cheeses, flavored mustards, chutneys and other condiments can be involved, at your whim. Sandwiches are priced according to how much meat you want on them (small, medium, grande). Also available are sandwich combos that include a salad or side dish. Sandwich prices normally range from $3 to $5.50; a la carte sides are $3.50 a pint and $6.50 a quart. Sides include some unusual entries – creamed corn, pecan-mushroom stuffing and spinach Alfredo among them. Curiously, there were no prices or signage to identify the bowls of side dishes in the cold case. ("I think that green stuff is spinach...")

We cruised the aisles while we waited for lunch, finding shelves full of bean soups, mustards, chutneys and cornbread, and multi-item gift packs. Curious again that nothing had a price tag. Is this some mysterious corporate policy? Whatever – the effect is to confuse customers.

We took our meals into the HoneyBaked Cafe, which could use some direction. After all, most cafes have art on the walls, setups and/or fake flowers on the tables, and nearby trays of plastic utensils and packages of condiments. Some even have recorded music. Surprisingly, those bare bones were missing in action.

I've been a fan of HoneyBaked ham for a long time and it was a treat to have two stacked ham sandwiches in front of me, and it wasn't even Christmas. My misguided lunch pal chose turkey and melted Swiss, which tasted fine.

As usual, the ham was jammed with flavor and great texture. It was meaty and sweet and fresh-tasting, not at all salty. While we think imported Italian prosciutto cotto and Madrange mild French ham are on another planet, we also believe that HoneyBaked makes the best domestic ham around.

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We had an informal chocolate-tasting in the office the other day, an artisan product called Tiles. The bittersweet-chocolate squares start with 63 percent cacao Guittard chocolate, are flavored with all-natural ingredients and topped with a few crystals of gray sea salt from Brittany.

We tasted four of the eight available flavors and reached easy consensus on our favorites: crystallized ginger, Aztec chile (cinnamon, two kinds of chiles, toasted pumpkin seeds), almond and burnt caramel (toffee).

Wow, they were intense and delicious. We thought the salt was a savory, flavor-enhancing addition, rather than a distraction.

Some tasting notes: "A nice sweet-salty kick "(Aztec chile). "Hershey doesn't make this! Great flavor" (ginger). "Enough almonds – maybe "(almond). "Could be more caramel-y" (caramel).

Tiles are handmade at Poco Dolce in San Francisco, a small company founded by Kathy Wiley in 2002 (www.pocodolce.com). It has about 100 clients, mostly in Northern California, but word-of-mouth is quickly growing that list.

What is Wiley's own favorite flavor? "I probably love the sesame best," she said.

If you want a "stocking-stuffer" for Mother's Day, an eight-piece, 6-ounce box of Tiles is $16 at David Berkley Fine Wines & Specialty Foods, at the Pavilions shopping center on Fair Oaks Boulevard (916-929-4422).