Whine like a baby, now with 500% more drama!
- Thread starter strawman
- Start date
Much too informative![DOUBLEPOST=1491455623,1491455531][/DOUBLEPOST]
Also, this sounds like something you should be glad you didn't eat, @Frank, or you'd be puking too.
I was liking your post until the last part and then I didn't.
GasBandit
Staff member
The triple-chocolate blizzard is my go-to. Chocolate ice cream, chocolate chips, brownies. If I'm feeling extra daring I can also get the chocolate tube.
GasBandit
Staff member
I'm pretty sure there's something genetic in my lineage that makes us prone to chocoholism. My stepmother likes to tell the story about how the first time my Dad's sister came to visit after for the first time after the wedding, and my stepmom came home from work on day two to find all the cabinets open and boxes of food pulled out, and as soon as my aunt realized she was standing there, she wheeled around from the carnage and said in hissing, clipped words... "Where. Is. Your. CHOCOLATE. How does my brother live in a house where there is NO CHOCOLATE?!" The crazy light of a junky shone in her eyes. They went and got chocolate immediately.
I'm not going to say I don't eat chocolate anymore, that is a lie. But I can't do Death by Chocolate type things anymore, and some brands of chocolate are just flat out disgusting.
I get the odd craving for it, so I keep a bar of unsweetened chocolate/cocoa around to bite a square off of.
fade
Staff member
I read this in Jean Shepherd's voice.
I find the chocolate protein shakes I make super sugary. I was fairly horrified to learn my friend puts extra sweetener in them and that random internet dudes use chocolate sauce in them. Ew.
My brother delivered furniture when he was just out of high school. He delivered to a house where the kids in the house added three table-spoons of sugar into their Coca-Cola.
The ONLY Chocolate ice cream I don't find disgusting these days is the Dreyer's/Edy's Show Churned Chocolate that is 1/3 fat or w/e.
I may have a nightmare tonight.
As a belgian, I feel obligated to, once again, point out that 90% of what you can find in the USA that's called "chocolate" really, really isn't chocolate. It's brown sugary fatty crumbly crap. Chocolate can be sweet or bitter or more sharp, but it's not the brown thing covering a Mars or snickers bar.
GasBandit
Staff member
AKA "Milk Chocolate," which is chocolate suspended in a fat solution (at least 10% chocolate and at least 12% milk by law).
But if you think Snickers/Mars chocolate isn't "real," I'd love for you to try some of the cheap chocolates that go on sale around valentines day that taste like brown plastic cement and have a chalky, fragrant aftertaste. That shit should be illegal.
GasBandit
Staff member
I notice it doesn't stop them from buying as much American stuff as they can cram into their luggage before they go home, though. Or, I dunno, maybe that's just the dutch, because my former in-laws sure as hell did. (Both the "everything here isn't as good as in Europe" thing AND the "buying everything you possibly can and hauling it back to Holland" thing)
No, there's perfectly good milk chocolate. Most belgian chocolate is milk. America does not insist on the amount of vegetable oil that has to be actual cocoa butter, unlike Belgium. It's usually replaced with cheaper fats like coconut or palm oil. And the sugar gets replaced with HFCS. And yes, all that crumbly cementy chalk is what I meant with "not chocolate". Ugh.
Every European grew up with "the real deal" of a small amount of products. The U.S. has those products too, but usually in much shittier quality at the staple price range.
To be fair, though, nobody does TexMex and imperialism like
No, it's not about "American", per se. I'll be the first to say there are quite a lot of good American beers these days. Plenty of good cars. Finding babyback ribs worth rating is difficult on this side of the ocean. I'm sure that you can find among the finest chocolates in the world being made in America.
But there really, really is a difference in quality in what is considered the "norm" between Europe and America. While this is quickly disappearing, it's still at least partially true. Consumers get more protection, there's more government quality control, there's more mandated minimum guarantees, etc. It's one of the reasons TTIP was opposed so much on this end - it more or less allowed lower-standards-but-cheaper products on the eu market.
Much of the same holds true for China. No doubt they make great stuff there too, but "made in China" isn't exactly a quality label.
But there really, really is a difference in quality in what is considered the "norm" between Europe and America. While this is quickly disappearing, it's still at least partially true. Consumers get more protection, there's more government quality control, there's more mandated minimum guarantees, etc. It's one of the reasons TTIP was opposed so much on this end - it more or less allowed lower-standards-but-cheaper products on the eu market.
Much of the same holds true for China. No doubt they make great stuff there too, but "made in China" isn't exactly a quality label.
fade
Staff member
I think Britain will always have us beat on imperialism.
The problem as I see it is that ”real deal” is an opinion. You can like something less without belittling it. One of the things that I guess bugs me the most is that it's not a two way street. Americans are still viewed as in the wrong for offering the same kinds of opinions. Especially if we use the same kind of language.
The problem as I see it is that ”real deal” is an opinion. You can like something less without belittling it. One of the things that I guess bugs me the most is that it's not a two way street. Americans are still viewed as in the wrong for offering the same kinds of opinions. Especially if we use the same kind of language.
I think the only way to really know is for you to send you best chocolates over here, and we'll have a taste test. I volunteer myself as tribute, er, taster, so everyone else doesn't have to suffer.
