Kid-friendly fondue is adult-approved
Bubbling blob of cheese gets a thumbs up as a quick, hot dipping sauce
What are the chances that melting down a popular snack food in the microwave would make it any more edible? If you imagine a chocolate bar stuck to the wrapper after sitting too long in your pocket, the odds would appear low.
But this is what the makers of Mini Babybel cheese are asking us to do in a clever — or is it foolish? — new promotion. Starting this week, those adorable sacks of kid-friendly, wax-covered cheese pucks will include an even more adorable plastic dish in which to transform your cheese into “mini fondue.”
It’s a gimmick clearly designed to appeal to kids, who will feel like they’re cooking or performing a science experiment — though the only “cooking” instructions are to unwrap the cheese, put it in the dish and microwave for 30 seconds.
So our taste panel, entirely composed of jaded adult journalists, might seem rigged to dislike a blob of faux fondue.
We’re the sort of people who have eaten real fondue — made with pungent cheese like Gruyère as well as kirsch brandy — who’d see right through this bubbling blob of Babybel for the marketing goo that it is.
But, well, actually, you know, it’s not that bad. In fact, it’s good.
Dipping a wedge of baguette, then a cherry tomato, into the bowl, I expected to hate the stuff
A few of our tasters even agreed that the Bel cheese, while still a far cry from traditional fondue, tastes better melted in a dish than eaten straight from the fridge. It doesn’t have an overwhelming flavour — just salty and mild — but it’s nonetheless pleasing as a quick, hot dipping sauce.
Dipping a wedge of baguette, then a cherry tomato, into the silly plastic bowl, I too expected to hate the stuff, but then I ate the whole messy thing. I looked forward to bringing the dish and a couple of Babybels home to my son, until I remembered I don’t own a microwave. The poor, deprived child. Would I eat it again? I would, sure, but I probably won’t.