Just a couple of days left, to go back to India, I still have to do some shopping - at least one thing I cannot afford to miss - chocolates!
When I was in LKG, my grandfather used to take me to school in his bicycle. He used to get me a chalk piece or a chocolate everyday. I still cherish those moments and probably they were my very first memories of chocolate. Even my dad likes chocolates very much and he used to spoil us by getting them (that too in those "chocolates-cause-toothache-preaching" era) He still keeps a few chocolates in his pocket all the time. The cheapest chocolate available when I was a kid was Kadlekaayi Peppermint (made from groundnut), which costed 5 paisa for 3 chocolates! It was at that time when Cadburys Eclairs was considered a great luxury! I still see kids loving Gems or Poppins, and the reason might be, it gives them satisfaction of eating more number of chocolates! Jujubes or "joojips" as we used to call it(its soft with sugar coating), was a personal favourite (That too the Nilgiris brand!) How could I forget 'Naturo'? It was 3-layered with mango flavour and we used to eat that very slowly, thereby increasing the duration of happiness.(I am not sure if we get them still) Long long ago, me and my brother had a huge collection of different chocolate covers stored in my mom's almirah locker (as if someone as stupid as us would steal it!) And now, whenever I go to my grandma's home, my little cousins greet me with "Vasuki aNNa, chocolate?" and we eat chocolates almost every week. So, chocolates have thereby become part of our family tradition.
Some weird things - though I like coffee, I somehow dont like any coffee-flavoured chocolates. The other one I dont like is Five Star (its too sticky!) And strangely, even though I like chocolates, I dont like chocolate ice creams and milkshakes!
I personally feel the chocolates we get from US are not as good as our very own dairy milk or milky bar, but I cant help wonder why people are obsessed with "American chocolates" (while the fact is that most of them will be 'Made in China'!) So, I will give the American chocolates to all my family members and get myself our very own "Milky Bar" this weekend.
I feel like having too much cocoa on my fingers, I will stop. Thank God, we dont get calories by writing or thinking about chocolates. Or else, I would have become Adnan Sami!
When I was in LKG, my grandfather used to take me to school in his bicycle. He used to get me a chalk piece or a chocolate everyday. I still cherish those moments and probably they were my very first memories of chocolate. Even my dad likes chocolates very much and he used to spoil us by getting them (that too in those "chocolates-cause-toothache-preaching" era) He still keeps a few chocolates in his pocket all the time. The cheapest chocolate available when I was a kid was Kadlekaayi Peppermint (made from groundnut), which costed 5 paisa for 3 chocolates! It was at that time when Cadburys Eclairs was considered a great luxury! I still see kids loving Gems or Poppins, and the reason might be, it gives them satisfaction of eating more number of chocolates! Jujubes or "joojips" as we used to call it(its soft with sugar coating), was a personal favourite (That too the Nilgiris brand!) How could I forget 'Naturo'? It was 3-layered with mango flavour and we used to eat that very slowly, thereby increasing the duration of happiness.(I am not sure if we get them still) Long long ago, me and my brother had a huge collection of different chocolate covers stored in my mom's almirah locker (as if someone as stupid as us would steal it!) And now, whenever I go to my grandma's home, my little cousins greet me with "Vasuki aNNa, chocolate?" and we eat chocolates almost every week. So, chocolates have thereby become part of our family tradition.
Some weird things - though I like coffee, I somehow dont like any coffee-flavoured chocolates. The other one I dont like is Five Star (its too sticky!) And strangely, even though I like chocolates, I dont like chocolate ice creams and milkshakes!
I personally feel the chocolates we get from US are not as good as our very own dairy milk or milky bar, but I cant help wonder why people are obsessed with "American chocolates" (while the fact is that most of them will be 'Made in China'!) So, I will give the American chocolates to all my family members and get myself our very own "Milky Bar" this weekend.
I feel like having too much cocoa on my fingers, I will stop. Thank God, we dont get calories by writing or thinking about chocolates. Or else, I would have become Adnan Sami!
Comments
I identify with what you have written...But i am of the opinion that the best chocolates are from ooty!
Fruit n' nut(I love the Dairy Milk version too),Rum n' raisins are my particular favs.
Swiss chocolates are yummy too.
I hate the fact that any person who comes back from US gets those pyramid shaped "kisses",since it's the easiest to shop for and you can buy in bulk!!!
I agree that it's the sentiment that counts..but i still wish that they would get some better chocolates.
Vasuki,you have to try this...
go to coffee day in Ooty,sit beside the fireplace..gazing out of the french windows and eat chocolate fantasy...that's life!
1) kyge tumba anTkoLatte
2) hudugeeru ishTa paDtaare
But its a good substitue when you are very hungry and have nothing else to eat.
Among the things that I ate as a child..were nimbehuLi, rose peppermints (it used to come in a pack of 10's) and hard parrys chocolates which had green wrappers around them (they were the cheapest and could be bought with the bus charge that I saved by walking to school!) As you said, eclairs was a luxury..so was melody chocolates..hehe..costing 1 Re.
My favourite now is the plain Dairy Milk as well. I love the Roasted Almonds, Raisins etc. versions too. As you said, I don't think the American chocolates like Hersheys come close..hehe..
I love chocolates, but I feel that the chocolates available in US are of much much better quality than the ones in India. Probably the chocolates available in Wallmart isn't of the best quality, but if you go to better stores, you can find very very good chocolates which you can't find in India.