My oh-so-sweet romance with chocolate.

Cadbury. Hershey’s. Nestle. Lotte. Mars. What do these make you think of? That’s right. My drug, CHOCOLATE.

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been spoiled with sweets. I never got sick of the delightful taste. I don’t know why, but chocolate simply has an appeal to me. Silky smooth and sweet, just the way I love it.

“Pasalubong” from anyone who comes from anywhere, a treat to make me shut up, a reward for a good job, payment I received when doing a chore, a surprise that I could eat anytime – this has been my definition of chocolate for as long as I can remember. It never occurred to me that chocolate had sugar, which made me hyper. And if I had chocolate during review periods before exams, the sugar would give me a rush that kept me awake for hours. Maybe I just have a low tolerance for sugar, or maybe I just thought of that reason to get my grandmother to buy me sweets, I always have sweets with me during exam week. I have to have all I need to review, right?

As a kid, I remember my mother sending packages from Korea – it usually contained toys and clothes for us, luxuries and more clothes for Mama, and food. Most especially, chocolate. It was something my brother and I always expected from Mom. While she was away working her butt off, me and my brother stayed here in the Philippines awaiting her return, and her occasional phone call. On the other hand, my father was busy being a seaman, "enchanting" exotic women, yet he still found time to swing by every so often and bring home chocolates. I devoured tons of chocolate, and I never got tired of it. Must be the reason why I'm reaping the effects of my chocolate madness now. Ha. :| I love chocolate, and I will never ever get sick of the taste? How could I? Some of my fondest childhood memories had something chocolate-related in them…………… Ha ha ha. This is starting to sound like some kind of flashback. Weird. I don’t eat as much as I did before, thank goodness. If I still ate like I did then, I would weigh as much as a whale. Ha. (There I go again, off-topic)

I especially love Hershey’s Milk Chocolate. It has always been my favorite, not just because it was the first REAL chocolate I had ever tasted, but because it was simple. No nuts or fruits, no special type of chocolate. It’s just as I remember it, but I can’t explain it. Weird, isn’t it? I just know what it tastes like, and most of you readers know, too; but I still don’t know how to describe it. Let’s see….. Something generic…… Milk chocolate is sweet? Obviously. Milk chocolate tastes good? That’s why everybody eats it. Milk chocolate is simply food for the heart? Now that is a description way off-kilter. But maybe it has some truth in it. I eat sweets when I’m happy laughing with friends, I eat sweets when I a bit sad (the sugar cheers me up), I could probably eat chocolate for any occasion or feeling.

There is only one question in my mind: Why on earth am I not diabetic? AHAHAHA :)

[http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=19552]

[http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/green-stats-323-chocolates.php]

[http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/03/13/tax-chocolate-to-beat-obesity-say-doctors-115875-21193648/]

[http://www.gnagri.net/category/food-dine/]

[http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2007/week46/index.html]