The Value of Good Food

As a young boy at the age of about ten years, I remember eating dinner at the home of the  Dean of the College. I overheard my mother say “oh don’t worry, my boys will eat anything you serve them”.  To which I silently replied, uh, wait a second, there are a few things that my body can’t tolerate for example, boiled spinach and then what about lima beans. I was too afraid to correct my mother in company or even in private and hint to Mom that spinach will probably kill me.  From that moment on until the dinner was served, I was consumed with the thought that all of the spinach would be left to me to eat because no one else would eat it either and they knew that I would. Truth be known, my near death concern completely evaporated when the meal was served.  Ahh, no spinach in sight. Oohooh, but there is a lima bean sighting in the bean salad.  This is going to be tragic if not handled carefully.  My mothers tutelage encouraged me to always follow the hostess when serving and eating.  So I did and carefully spooned a very modest amount of beans onto my plate following just as she did, but while surgically avoiding the limas.  I was home free.  And when the Chicken Cordon Bleu was served, and the salad and all the rest of the fine cuisine, I was in heaven and stopped short of licking my plate but only because the hostess didn’t lick her plate.  My little brother and I received great praise for cleaning up our plates so nicely.  I of course also had to watch after my little brother Johnny, two years my junior to make sure that he had a sufficiency of food and to avoid of limas too. 
 
I do enjoy many foods from around the world.  But there a few more dishes that have been placed on the spinach list.  I should spare you that list as I don’t want to alter your opportunity to enjoy those potentially savory morsels should you happen upon them in your travels.  However there is one that I will mention as it relates to this topic most specifically.  When in Japan, eat sushi.  I enjoy sushi.  I do admittedly have a hard time with some servings like a shrimp still lucid enough to try an escape from my plate.  But the worst thing of all for me, is sitting criss-cross-applesauce on a restaurant floor with both my legs in varying states of numbness and tingling and then eating Urchin on a mint leave.  There is not a host or hostess that would be able to influence my reflexive reaction. When I try to excuse myself from the table, I realize that I am captive by my own non functioning legs now heavy into their slumber. With no escape clause, I have to place this item on the spinach list.  Ok, there, I said it.  Now what on earth does all of this have to do with chocolate?
 
Chocolate should never reach anyone’s spinach list.  It should stand alone and hold up to even the most discriminating pallets. Sometime we do a great disservice to chocolate by trying to flavor it with wild and unique flavors.  And it is always reminiscent of the urchin when I happen upon such a chocolate.  The flavoring can overpower the chocolate and the result is a disappointing calorie consumption moment where the flavor was polarizing and the chocolate made it to the spinach list.
 
If proper care is taken to use a good well conched chocolate where the flavenoids and antioxidants are still present through proper processing, then you are well on your way to having an interesting and joyful consumption experience.  Add to that complimentary natural flavors which may accentuate the chocolate flavor, then your appetite becomes satiated.  My Mother now nearing 80, is a strong believer that some good chocolate at about three in the afternoon is still the perfect answer to whatever ails her. In fact it is the antidote to too much spinach and lima beans. But badly flavored chocolate can destroy the whole day. If you have one piece, she says, then make it a good one.  Mom keeps Seattle Chocolates chocolate stored in her pantry and hidden from Dad.  Every once in a while she will hint to me that she may be running a little low in her supply. I think because she shares it with Dad. In any case, It is my sworn duty to supply my Mom with Chocolate.  And I am happy to oblige.