This weekend we were at the Foreign Mart in Itaewon, where I stood and debated for ten agonizing minutes over whether or not I should buy a 4,500 won Hershey's Special Dark chocolate bar, equivalent to about $4 US. After deciding I couldn't afford it based on my 9,000 won-a-day budget (thank you Thailand), I proceeded to talk about this mass produced, artificially sweetened, cheap-as-hell in the States candy bar for the next two hours.
"Woe is me, how it could have been mine! Sweet, emulsified endorphins melting into my mouth, straight into my bloodstream at this very moment!"
Yes, I'm a sucker for cheap chocolate. I've never been a fan of Chocolove, the Boulder-based company that writes poems on each individual wrapper and brags about its organic and fair-trade practices, and raspberry macadamia nut nonsense.
Godiva never did the trick either. As a child, I loved learning about each truffle in the fancy printed pamphlet, memorizing the ingredients, salivating over each seductive description. But without fail, I'd be disappointed. The pamphlets downright lied every time. Later, I would become a proud and dutiful Hershey's stock owner.
And yes, I know I now reside in Seoul, the world's second-largest metropolis, importer of all things worldly, home to 25 million. I can get any kind of chocolate I want, Korean or foreign, at any convenience store, at any corner, anytime. But it's not the same. They only stock the good dark stuff at the foreign place. I've checked, believe me. (Costco sells Hershey's Special Dark, but only in bulk, and we chocolate lovers know better than to venture down that path.)
I say to Rishika, "I wish I had bought that Hershey's bar. God I need some chocolate. Wouldn't it be so nice to be eating chocolate right now?"
"I should have just bought you the damn thing so I wouldn't have to sit here and listen to you complain about it," she sighs.
So here's to you, my dearest and bosom friend. My first official blog,,, so I no longer have to sit and listen to you lament about how your Indian mother, in America, is the only one reading your blog.
