Favorite Things - Chocolate

My love affair started from the womb, as my mum has the worst sweet tooth in the whole world. The woman is about to be 60 and still eats chocolate like a five year old.

Growing up, I always had at least one of these in my “My Little Pony” lunch bag – smarties, choco-milo (Choc, choc choco-milo, choco milo, milo, milo…), cadbury’s éclairs and goody-goody (Goody-goody is back, sweet sweet flavour, something something sweet…). And then, my mum would bake and decorate the cakes with smarties. Whenever we travelled, we always came back with bags of chocolate and sweets. There was a time, they come to visit me in school in the states. We went grocery shopping, we were about to go check out and my mum says, “Something is missing”. I look at the overflowing cart, thinking we couldn’t have missed anything. She’s like, “there’s no chocolate”, so we go back to the chocolate aisle and buy at least five bags of different kinds of chocolate.

Over the years my chocolate addiction has built up to be quite expensive…. I still enjoy the occasional Bounty chocolate bar but my love is GODIVA chocolate. My addiction to SP&B’s makes this even worse. Whenever they fail me, GODIVA chocolate is there to nurse me back. For you to understand how bad it is, GODIVA is not sold in Nigeria, but I always have at least one box on reserve at home.

Lol…I just remembered a funny story. It was Valentine’s day, I was in high school then. It was closing time and some guys drove by while we were waiting outside for our parents. All of a sudden, one of them threw a bag towards one of my friends. In it was a mars and snickers bar, some bobby pins and pressed powder…Happy Valentines Day indeed… Guys, NEVER give a girl a chocolate bar for a gift. You can never go wrong with a box of chocolates.

I read somewhere once, I think in Cosmo, about the effect chocolate had on a woman. I didn’t really believe until I tasted freshly made GODIVA chocolate. It was at Schiphol airport (now my favourite airport in the world). Apparently, whenever the temperature is just right, they’ll bring a GODIVA chef that will make chocolate truffles right there...mmm,mmm good. The next best thing to that, is the day old chocolate sold in the walkway working toward gate E. The chocolates are made the previous day…hmm…heaven on earth.

I love all kinds of chocolates, white, milk or dark. I do not discriminate. White chocolates are a little too sweet, so I only use them when I bake. Dark chocolate is bitter but the healthier choice (depending on how much cocoa, the more the cocoa, the better…doesn’t that sound like D’banj). I use that mostly when I’m baking a chocolate cake. Now, even though I’m a lover of all chocolates, milk chocolate is my favourite, not too sweet, not bitter just right. My favourite cupcakes to make are white chocolate cupcakes. My brother is constantly bugging me to make more. My favourite chocolate cakes are German chocolate. Every single thing we celebrate in my house, we get the chocolate cake covered with chocolate scrapings from Goodies. My favourite boxed chocolates are Belgian chocolates, can’t wait to go visit the chocolate museum in Belgium. My favourite chocolate bar is Bounty…see…I’m an equal opportunity chocolate consumer. My favourite cereal…of course…coco pops. My favourite snack…yup...chocolate chip cookies. Favourite ice-cream…rocky road. Favourite Muffins…chocolate, chocolate chip muffins.

Last, but definitely not least is drinking chocolate. Growing up, if we were really hungry, my mum would give us Bournvita to drink. That would keep us until food was ready and it’s kinda stuck. In the morning, we’d have a cup or two of Bournvita to drink and it was quite filling as a substitute for breakfast. Lol…till now, if I get home late and haven’t had dinner or there’s no food and I’m too lazy to make something or also cos they say in order to keep your weight, no meals after 8:00 pm, I make myself a mug of Bournvita and I’m good for the night. But when it comes to hot chocolate, you can’t go wrong with Swiss Miss, extra chocolate with marshmallows. I always make sure to buy a couple of boxes…

So that’s my love affair with chocolate. Hope you enjoyed it. Next up...Chinese food...