LEILA FADEL, HOST:
As Thanksgiving approaches, we start thinking - naturally - about food. So we've got a story to satisfy your sweet tooth from NPR's Neda Ulaby.
NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: The Internet went bananas recently over Dubai chocolate.
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OPHELIA NICHOLS: I'm speechless.
ULABY: On social media starting over the summer, foodies and influencers like Ophelia Nichols gobbled up the high-end chocolate bars.
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NICHOLS: It smells beautiful, and it is beautiful. Like, how do they make it like that?
ULABY: Imagine KitKat bars, kind of, but stuffed with pistachio-flavored nougat and nuts. Dubai chocolate at first could only be ordered from guess where. But chefs and chocolatiers in the U.S. soon leapt onto the online trend. Now you can devour Dubai-chocolate waffles in Milwaukee, Dubai-chocolate cupcakes in Houston, Dubai-chocolate milkshakes in Chicago and Dubai-chocolate croissants in San Francisco. Even Baskin Robbins is selling Dubai-chocolate ice cream bars.
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ULABY: Here in Hamtramck, Michigan, there's a 120-year-old Polish bakery known for traditional doughnuts called paczkis that come in dozens of flavors. Now Dubai chocolate is among them, says old-timer Vicky Ognanovich.
VICKY OGNANOVICH: The youngsters - they come up with ideas all the time. The paczkis - they fill them with chocolate and pistachio filling.
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UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Singing) Delicious.
ULABY: A lot of places that make their own Dubai-chocolate bars found it challenging for a while to keep up with demand. That demand put Dubai chocolate into the culinary mainstream. You're hearing the music that comes along with a mouth-watering Instagram video from a gourmet ice cream store called Booza Delight in Dearborn, Michigan.
YASSER HASHWI: We got slammed with customers.
ULABY: Owner Yasser Hashwi says during the peak of the viral craze, he and his family worked day and night.
HASHWI: We had, like, a whole shift just making Dubai chocolate.
ULABY: Really?
HASHWI: We sell over 400 pieces a day.
DEYALA: Twelve hours a day for about 35 days straight.
ULABY: That's Hashwi's daughter-in-law, Deyala, who's also his business partner. Their take on Dubai-chocolate bars, she says, got the attention of food influencers, who raved over the filo dough that gives the bar its crunch.
DEYALA: It's hand-toasted in-house, and then we blend that in with the pistachio cream, and then we also add pistachio chunks just to give it a little bit more texture inside. And then it's a mixture of dark chocolate, milk chocolate on the outside, drizzled with that same chocolate and then sprinkled pistachio on top, as well.
ULABY: The Hashwi's Dubai-chocolate bars remain a top seller. They think the crunchy, creamy confection is nut going anywhere.
Neda Ulaby, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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