International Chocolate

A dear friend, who is fortunate enough to travel across all continents frequently (I'm talking five or six serious trips abroad each year, or so it seems), just returned from London. One of the best parts of our relationship is that I get to live vicariously through him. There's nothing I love more than to have him pop into my office when he returns to real life. I ask a million questions and he provides a million answers.

The cool thing is that we are very different people ... which makes this exchange more fascinating to me. When we first started working together, I was the green rookie and he was the seasoned veteran. He works in pictures, I am the words. He is Filipino and I was born in the middle of a loaf of Wonder Bread. What I like about this is that I think he sees things I wouldn't see. Or sees things differently than I would. It makes his descriptions and stories more fascinating because they come from a perspective different from my own.

I find it so funny that our travel conversations often turn to food. What better way to experience a culture? To learn the heart and soul of a city or neighborhood? What else brings people together the same way?

Tuesday he told me about the highlight of his London trip: Peking Duck at a Chinese restaurant. It was better than the Peking Duck he's had in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Isn't that so ... unexpected and delicious?

Wednesday, he popped back in my office with this:

What I love most about it is that all the nutrition info is in
"England English." Grams instead of ounces ... and the label
just sounds more gentile and proper than American labels. 

He said, "I remembered in London that I thought about bringing you some chocolate from Switzerland." He dropped it on my desk and ducked back out.

Surprise English chocolate delivered with a great food story by an old friend is every bit as good as Swiss chocolate, in my opinion. Maybe better.

And though I pretended to put up a fuss today about "caving in" and eating it, I didn't really fight that hard. I enjoyed a few heavenly squares. With no regrets and a smile.