Reviled by purists, but loved by anyone who wants a hit of nostalgia, not to mention loads of sugar, I am staring at a bag full of M&Ms: peanut, regular chocolate, dark chocolate, and peanut butter. There is also a pack of Twix and Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds candy bars. They remind me of the loot fresh from balikbayan boxes from our aunts or when my dad would come home from long overseas trips.
My father has a ferocious chocolate tooth, which we've diagnosed as a result of his deprivation of any sweets when he was a kid (he lived through a war for heaven's sake!). On his recent foray to the US, he demolished a box of See's chocolates, and then was also caught eating another box of chocolate at my sister's place. My sister said she couldn't help smiling at his enjoyment, but agrees he can't be left with another box lying around. He's diabetic!
He is also quite fond of making excuses about bad eating habits and not wanting to stop smoking. Since he's made it past his 80's he will tell us off when we remind him not to eat sugary stuff and to stop smoking (a long standing epic battle I'd been fighting since I was 6 - fruitless though it may be). His favorite rationalization is "Deng Xiao Ping smoked and lived to be in his 90's!" My dad loves to raise the specter of creaky or dead Communist leaders as examples whenever he wants to get his way. I don't think Deng or Mao or Zhou himself stashed boxes of Almond Roca in his closets, or kept bags of Kisses in his personal refrigerator (he'd portion out his supply and the ones he'd let us get our mittens on. Woe betide any of us who tried to weasel our way into his personal stash. He would gladly share though, so long as we asked. And watched his chinese soap operas with him. What a choice to make!)
He comes home after being away for 6 weeks, probably laden with enough chocolate to kill whatever is left of his kidneys. We'll have to find a way to gently persuade him to put most of it away for rainy days. Before then, I'll let a yellow M&M melt in my mouth (not in my hand of course) and remember my favorite dad moments.
Pike Market Peonies
7 comments:
Your dad and my dad would get along famously! (Well, except for the smoking; my parents are very much against that.) I'm positive I'd be the same even if diabetes sets in. My dad's mom used to sneak candy and desserts behind their backs all the time, but once she reached a certain age, they just gave up and let her enjoy. My dad's favorite quote from her is, "Mamatay na sa sarap, huwag lang sa hirap." ;-)
I love the brown M&Ms best ... I always told myself they had the most chocolate ... =)
I love that quote Katrina! Life is too short to suffer from deprivation of simple joys.
Tina, I've always liked peanut m&ms more than regular, but am looking forward to trying the peanut butter m&ms soon.
Aww what sweet (and literally too) memories with your dad. :) That's like my dad and his biscocho, peanuts and popcorn that's stashed hidden in his tool cabinet in the den. Like we don't know where he hides them! :) You're making me hungry for chocolate now!
Mila, I LOOOVE the peanut butter M&Ms! They're much better than Reese's Pieces -- more peanut butter. Next to that I like the dark chocolate ones. It was so cute when they came up with those for the Star Wars campaign. Naturally, the line was to "come to the dark side." Of course, Felipe collected all the different designs of those promotional packs. We had to carefully open each one so as not to tear the wrappers! But before all those special variants came out, I also preferred the plain brown pack to the yellow peanut one -- more chocolate! :-P
This reminds me of my dad and his candy covered kiamoy...oh boy, was that an addiction! We used to hunt his stash and hide it from him :)
Speaking of chocolate nostalgia...has anyone seen any Mr. Goodbar or Lion Bar around?
Hahaha, our dads seem to think they can hide their food stashes. Shows you that no stash is safe from determined kids!
Haven't seen a Mr. Goodbar in ages, Joey. I'll keep an eye out for it though.
Katrina, the p/b m&ms are good! me likey!
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