Eating Chocolate in China
Romance or Health. Sometimes There’s More in Chocolate Than Expected
It doesn't have to be Valentine's Day to give your sweetheart a box of chocolate. But are those miniature chocolates always healthy?
What’s chocolate have to do with traveling in China? The Chinese are not chocolate eaters. A chocolatier would starve in China. But, then, how would a foreigner traveling in China know this. Why would a stranger have chocolate on his mind in a land filled with vegetables, pork, noodles and rice? Amore! But that’s Italian and we are in China. Ah, but love is universal and doesn’t need a visa. So, where’s an expatriate going when he is walking along a crowded street in a small Guangdong town with flowers in one hand and a box of chocolate purchased in Hongkong in the other.
A gentleman caller bearing gifts
In China, if you want to get into the kitchen you must go through the mother first. And you most certainly can’t get through with a box of chocolate or a bouquet of flowers. A bag of fruit is the best way to go. But he didn’t know this yet. Anyway, our gentleman met the family, had dinner and the chocolates were politely appreciated by the host.
Jumping forward to real time, the two are now wed and living in Western society. On the first Valentine’s Day, the husband swooned his bride with chocolate and flowers. But this time, the sweets were purchased from a New York chocolatier. Imported of course, from Europe. His wife was delighted. Flowers with a little card and a box of 30 chocolate sweets, how sweet. She felt like a queen albeit in a foreign land.
By this time, she had grown accustomed to chocolate, it was almost a habit. Displayed in the box, they looked so good. She quickly popped one delicately into her mouth. It reminded her of the first time in China. She placed them on the kitchen counter, just looking at them, made her happy. She picked another one, then another. No doubt, every time she walked by the counter she popped one into her mouth. All day long between this errand and that, she nibbled on the sweets.
As the day drew on, strange sensations began invading her body. A moment of giddiness would be followed by a spell of no energy. She would go from walking on a cloud to staggering and stumbling. She later said that her brain and eyes felt very strange. Everything was foggy, not clear. She thought she was dreaming. She felt sick.
When the husband came home, he saw immediately from her condition that something was amiss. After comforting her for a few moments, he told her that she looked drunk.
“How can I be drunk, I don’t drink?”
“Didn’t you know they were liquor chocolates?”
“Liquor?”
They say a little bit of alcohol and a small piece of chocolate is good for you. And a little heads-up common sense from the bearers of gifts wouldn’t hurt. But, you can’t get dizzy from a basket of fruit unless you have to climb the tree and pick it.
