More Experiments in the Kitchen

I have been learning to make my favorite dishes healthier without sacrificing their taste and texture. There's a lot of information on doing that if you look for it on the Internet or in specialized cookbooks. I am learning to use that information to my advantage.

One very popular trick among the health conscious folks out here is to bake food that you would normally fry. They use it for chicken wings, French fries, crispy fish and so on. I tried it with samosas and pakoras. You have to be familiar with your oven to know the best height for your baking racks for something you are experimenting with, but it's a great way to save a whole lot of fat and calories. The samosas turned out pretty well, and the pakoras turned out really well. Maybe because I knew my oven better when I did the pakoras, or maybe because of the nature of the dish.

But the stuff I am most excited about is the almost fat free chocolate cake and the almost fat free dal makhani I made. These are both things I really, really like. I made both of these without any butter, oil or cream. Well, except for the tablespoon of olive oil (for about four servings) that went into the dal to help keep the liquid from rushing out from under the pressure cooker's whistle. I don't really know if you can do without that little bit of oil, and I don't really think you should try to do without it. A little oil, especially the good kind, should always be part of your diet.

Here's what I did with the cake. I replaced the butter in the recipe with pureed prunes in the same quantity by volume. When I first read about this suggestion on the Food Network website, I was more than a little scared, because I have always hated prunes. My grandmother would sing their praises and try to get us to eat them everyday, but I couldn't really swallow them without feeling a desire to throw up.

But after having tried a bunch of food network recipes and cooking ideas, I put a little more trust in these people and decided to try it. Of course, prunes are good for you because they have a boatload of antioxidants. Plus, they are on the sweeter side, especially if compared to the butter they replace, so you can cut down significantly on the sugar in the recipe. You know what? Once you mix up the prune puree with cocoa powder, everything tastes like cocoa. It's all good. Mix it up with some flour and eggs, bake it up, eat it up. You can see some prune bits, depending on how finely you puree it, but you can't really taste them.

And for the dal, I replaced cream with unsweetened fat free condensed milk (or evaporated milk, whatever you like to call it). The milk, though unsweetened, is a little on the sweeter side because its sugars caramelize at the high temperatures that it is subjected to, so you would want to either balance it out with some yogurt, or spice it up a little more than usual. The dal tasted just like my mom used to make it. To me, that's really terrific taste.

It's Been So Long Since...

...I danced at a wedding. Getting all dressed up for a wedding, dancing, feasting... it's all been so long. I have actually not worn Indian clothes in a really long while either. It just occurred to me that I wore a salwar-kameez exactly twice in the last fifteen months that I've been in the States - once on Karva Chauth and once on Diwali.

...I ate chikoos. We don't get them here at all. They have frozen ones at the Indian grocery store, but I'm not a big fan of frozen fruit. Frozen veggies are okay (actually they're good in some ways because they're already cut and peeled and have a longer shelf life) because you cook them and then they no longer feel like they were frozen to begin with.

...I ate burfi. We do get all kinds of sweets here, but they're not fresh like you would get from a local halwaai or a Haldiram's. They're often exported from Canada and they just don't taste like what burfi would taste like on the day you bought it fresh. We get good halwa and gulabjamuns and rasmalai and kheer at Indian restaurants, but not burfi or cham-cham or milk cake. It just occurs to me sometimes, usually I'm quite happy with my Boston Creme Pies and Chocolate crumb cakes and brownies.

Thoughts For Today

So now we've moved to our new apartment and things are beginning to settle down. We spent our first week in an apartment with no cable TV and no Internet and a lot of our stuff waiting to be unpacked. After the weekend, things are beginning to shape up.

In the midst of all this I achieved a personal milestone which most of my good friends will know the significance of. For the first time since I was a little kid, I'm now in the healthy weight range for my height.

I was grossly overweight through most of my senior school years and college. I've been trying to make amends for about three years now. In these three years, I've been through weight loss phases, plateaus (that's when the weight refuses to decrease any further), and also put some of it back on around the time I got married. But early in 2010, I found a renewed resolve to take the weight off and keep it off. I still want to tone up a little and drop another ten pounds or so, but what I have now is a big achievement for me.

Trying to lose weight in the States is not the same as trying to do it in India. It's a lot easier here. You can actually eat all your favorite foods, because they have reduced fat or fat free versions of everything, from chocolate brownies to ice cream. The government requires manufacturers to have nutrition information printed on all packaged food items. A lot of restaurants post their nutrition information online. It's also easier to find whole grain pasta, brown rice, and other whole grain food products. Whole grains are a big help if you're trying to lose weight or just eat healthier. They have more vitamins and minerals, they have more fiber, which means you feel more full, and whole grain pasta actually has a lot of protein too.

This is not where I'm going to stop. I'm going to drop another few pounds and then keep it all off. But, of course, once things settle down at home, I'm going to go shopping for new clothes first.

Italian Cuisine

The Italians sure know what they are doing when they're in the kitchen. I think theirs is some of the greatest food in the world. Even though I've become slightly partial to Mexican food lately, nothing beats Italian. Pizzas, pastas, and oh, their cakes and pastries are just out of this world.

I've discovered that it's really easy and economical to make your own pasta. You get great marinara sauce (and in a variety of flavors) in a bottle, and all you need to do is boil the pasta and mix it with the sauce. And maybe cook some vegetables to add to it. It's quick and easy, and if you buy the whole grain pasta and the all-natural sauce, it's pretty healthy too.

The Domino's guys have this unique dish on their menu. They give you pasta in a bread bowl. That's a bowl made out of bread. So you eat the pasta, and then you can eat the bowl too. Saves space in the dishwasher.

All these Italian places have some sort of molten chocolate cake on their dessert menu. It's a soft cake with a liquid centre. I tried it in only one place, but it was just amazing. Normally, they serve you huge platters of pasta and don't leave you any room for dessert. And then they come along with their dessert trays and try to tempt you into eating it anyway. That's right, they don't bring you a menu, they bring a tray with a sample of each kind of dessert so that it's all the more difficult to resist the temptation. I've learnt to resist anyway. But sometimes I do give in and, I must say, it's worth it.

Holiday Cheer

The Holiday season is visibly approaching now. With Thanksgiving this Thursday and Christmas just over a month away, the whole place is looking different. There are special discounts and sales all over, and people are out shopping with their kids all the time.

One thing I really like about this season is all the great food. The Pumpkin Donuts are just great (They don't beat the double chocolate donuts, but they come quite close.), as are the Peppermint Brownies (They beat the double chocolate brownies.). There are all kinds of pies and cakes and chocolates all over the place. It's the perfect time to ruin your diet.

Warding Off Temptation

Back when I was in Delhi and living with my parents, I made my own diet rules that allowed me to give in to temptation on weekends, provided I ate mostly fresh fruit and vegetables for lunch the other five days, and avoided anything sweet during the week. When I was at home or out with friends on the weekend, it was very difficult to ward off temptation because there were so many triggers - cookies, cakes, chocolates, and any other kind of dessert you could come across. But in our cafeteria, the food was not much to trigger any temptation whatsoever, except perhaps the infrequently served fruit custard.

But now I am at home most of the time, and I have full access to everything I would ever want to eat. Now I have to make other rules. Here's what I do. I don't keep anything chocolaty, or with a high fat content, in the house. It takes only a mild, momentary form of self control to walk away from the cookies and the puddings at the grocery store. But it saves me a lot of trouble, trying to control temptation when I know that there is a box of chocolates in the refrigerator. If I feel like eating something of the sort, I eat it when we eat out. Which is mostly on weekends. I do have some amount of dark chocolate lying around in the house, but that's only about three hundred grams that we bought around the time I came here and there's still some left. I do eat it sometimes, but I try to keep a bowl of easy to eat fresh fruit (raspberries, strawberries or grapes) on the table, so that I see it before I get to the kitchen, before I open the refrigerator or any of the kitchen cabinets which may hold something else that may be edible. Raspberries, grapes and watermelons work really well for me for this kind of thing. Cutting the watermelons is sometimes too much work, so I tend to store it cut into bite sized pieces. I try to store the berries and grapes washed and stored in a bowl in plain sight, so I can see them as soon as I open the refrigerator.

All said and done, I do have my moments of weakness. That's why I buy dark chocolate, because it's better for health than milk chocolate, and whole grain cinnamon bars. Now those are yummy and they are good for you!

Things That Have Changed, And Ones That Haven't

A lot has changed since I got married and moved, but a lot is still the same. Here's some of that stuff.

Stuff that has changed:

• I now believe in the institution of marriage. I believe in arranged marriage, and in falling in love after getting married.
• I am much happier now. Probably this is in part because I am not under work-related stress and am getting enough sleep.
• I cook!
• I no longer wash my clothes myself. I toss everything in the washer, and then into the dryer.
• I have switched to brown rice.
• I am more open to trying new things to eat. But I am more cautious about the nutritional content of stuff that I eat.
• My favourite flavour for dessert and other sweet things (mildly sweet things that do not necessarily qualify as dessert - like oatmeal and breakfast cereal) has changed from chocolate to cinnamon. Chocolate is still a close second, though. Mint chocolate has established itself as a much-loved variation. I eat chocolate and cookies and such things a lot less frequently.

Things that are pretty much the same:

• I can still not complete three sentences of spoken English without switching over to Hindi in between, or pausing noticeably to think and prevent myself from doing so.
• I still love rajma. And watermelons.
• I still love writing. And reading.
• I still love Hindi music and try to keep up with whatever is the latest in Bollywood. I try to catch as many of the movies as I can as well.
• My favourite post on my blog is still this one.
• My favourite movie is still, yes, you know it!
• My favourite TV show is still Friends. The Big Bang Theory comes a close second, followed by Beverly Hills, 90210.
• I still go to the gym five days a week and take weekends off.
• I still eat Indian food at least six days a week, on average. Only now, I cook most of it myself.

Being a Foodie!

Of late, there have been some variations in my eating habits. Ever since I found myself in a country where manufacturers are required to print nutritional information on all packaged foods, I've begun to study that information carefully before buying anything new. Anything different from the regular bread and peanut butter. The low fat peanut butter, that is to say.

But some things don't come with that information. Food served in restaurants or fresh produce falls into that category. And there are times I forget about nutritional content, although my husband tries his best not to let me do that.

I've discovered a taste for cinnamon. Apparently that is quite popular here. Cinnamon rolls, cinnamon flavoured breakfast cereal (the first thing I ate in the States that I had never had in India - and liked), cinnamon swirl bread, cinnamon and apple flavoured oatmeal or rice cakes, cinnamon melts (that's the newest thing on McDonald's menu), the works. It's sweet, but not too sweet. It's just heavenly.

I've developed a strong liking for Mexican food. When we go out to eat, I used to vouch for Italian, but after a while I realised that most Italian dishes are heavy, and even the pasta that isn't, comes in such huge servings that it appears heavy. Now, of course, any restaurant here will willingly wrap up your leftovers for you, but it's hard to stop eating when you are eating something that delicious. So it seemed to me that Mexican food made more sense. I have come to love chips and salsa, burritos, and beans and rice. That's Mexican rajma-chawal. Deliciously different from, and yet very similar to, its Indian cousin.

And then there is Chicken Tikka Masala. This is something I hardly ever ate in India. Out here, almost every Indian restaurant has a buffet lunch and more often than not, they do feature this dish, and more often than not, I do manage to at least taste it. And it is good. Almost all Indian restaurants I've been to over here mess up some dish or the other, but they all make great Chicken Tikka Masala and great Chana Masala. Oh, and kheer. And the gajar ka halwa. What is different about these two dishes here is that I have yet to come across a restaurant where they garnish it with dry fruit. That's why I like it. In India, everybody puts dry fruit into these and it simply spoils the flavour and the texture for me. Plus, the gajar ka halwa is made with a lot less ghee and khoya, and it's exactly as sweet as I want it to be. None of them make really good rajma or dal makhani, though. Oh well, I settle for my own rajma and, of course, the Mexican rajma.

And yes, of course, the lettuce and grilled chicken sandwiches and salads. This is again something I used to eat almost equally often at Subway in India, and I like it more than ever now. Especially the variants in which they add sweet corn, or beans, or Tortilla chips. You don't necessarily have to go to a Mexican place for that.

And there is Strawberry Shortcake. It is the most wonderful cake I've ever tasted. It beats chocolate truffle for its wonderfully light, melt-in-your-mouth feel and it's flavour, which, by the way, was the reason why I was very reluctant to try it. But I am glad I did. It is at the opposite end of the spectrum when compared to chocolate flavoured cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory, which is extremely heavy and not much to write home about.

This is a place where you can find cuisines from all over the world. I've seen Afghan restaurants and African restaurants. Chinese, Japanese (still cannot muster the courage to try sushi), Indian, Italian, Mexican, Thai, and of course, burger joints every two hundred feet or so. Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration. But it's not too much of an exaggeration. You can find just about anything you want to eat, and if you can't, well, you can definitely find the ingredients and cook it yourself, if you are willing to do that. I have easy access to MDH rajma masala and imli ki chutney. But I miss litchis and chikoos. Those are just about the only things I have not seen in any of those sprawling grocery stores. But other than that, I am in foodie heaven.

My First Birthday After My Wedding

My husband planned an extended birthday celebration for me over the weekend immediately preceding my actual birthday. We started out on Saturday afternoon with lunch at an Indian restaurant called Bombay Club in Cambridge where we had golgappas, papri chaat, and suji ka halwa, interspersed with some regular lunchtime dishes. Cambridge is basically a really lovely place, but I hadn't seen it come alive the way it did on that Saturday afternoon. It is full of places to shop, eat, or just hang out. Live music in parks, people basking in the sun, everybody relaxing - it was a good feeling.

We picked up a Strawberry Shortcake at a bakery in downtown Boston, which, Jatin told me, is supposed to be a rather popular and delicious cake. (He'd originally planned for the cake to be a surprise but he's not too good at surprises.) Now I tend to stick to chocolate and coffee flavours when it comes to dessert like cakes, mousse and cookies. So I was a tad doubtful about the cake. But this cake was quite something. Delicious, melt-in-my-mouth, and not at all heavy.

We spent Saturday evening exploring the more commercial areas of Boston. Jatin showed me the office building where he did his internship. We explored marketplaces, harbours, and the streets all evening.

Sunday morning started off with the ceremonious cutting of the birthday cake. Jatin brought in a random stranger from the apartment building to click some pictures for us and share the cake. In this country, it is quite safe to invite random people into your apartment and random people are really nice to you. I mean, she was supposed to be travelling, she said she hadn't had time to have breakfast that morning, and yet she came in and clicked our pictures and sat down with us for some cake.

Then Jatin had to go out for a little while. Now I have never cooked completely independently in my life before this. I surprised him by doing just that while he was gone. People have issues estimating how much salt and spices to put. I had trouble estimating how many potatoes to put. I cut up a few potatoes more than I would have liked to. So my mixed vegetables had no room left for the carrots, they had to make do with potatoes, beans and peas. Other than that, they were just fine. Both of us liked them. And my husband made some daal too.

I was pleasantly surprised with the wishes from some people, that started coming in a day early and more so, after midnight in India. Akash told me that he and the rest of the gang wanted to send me litchis like last year. Friends and family started calling me exactly when it was midnight in India. After midnight in our time zone, the calls just started pouring in from India and I was pleasantly surprised to the point of being a little overwhelmed by the volume of the calls, since I know people are a tad reluctant to make international calls from India, as I was too, unless I was calling one of my really good friends. (Out here, calls to India hardly cost anything if you use a calling card. So I am no longer reluctant, just lazy sometimes.) It felt really good to have so many people calling in from India, the calls spread out over about a day and a half because of the time difference. I felt really special, receiving so many international calls in one day. And then there was this surprise from Aman, my friend from my erstwhile workplace, who's been like an elder brother to me. He sent me a bouquet, a teddy bear, and chocolates. Now this is the first time somebody has sent me flowers in the States, and these are the most beautiful, sweetest-smelling flowers I've ever received. Even as I write this, the fragrance wafts towards me. The chocolates I've yet to taste.

In the evening, Jatin took me out for dinner at an Italian restaurant. I hadn't had Italian food here in the States so far, so I really enjoyed it. We had a chocolate volcano cake for dessert, which was absolutely amazing and just melted in my mouth. But of course, it was loaded with calories and I will make my way to the gym in about an hour from now, once my breakfast digests. Today is a day for the gym, not the outdoors. It is raining cats and dogs outside. Thankfully, we had bright, sunny skies over the weekend and on Monday, so going out was fun.

This was a really wonderful birthday for me, full of love and warmth, and being made to feel special. Thanks everyone for making it so.

Random Things I Learnt About Myself

Since I am spending a lot of time by myself these days, there are some things that I have discovered (or re-discovered) about myself in recent times.

• I should always have easy access to a variety of fruit, so that I can take good care of my random binges throughout the day, instead of giving in to the temptation for chocolate and all things chocolaty. We keep very limited amounts of such things around the house, but we make sure we have lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, and beans.
• I am so much happier when I am well rested. Since I am getting enough sleep these days, I am feeling so much less irritable and cranky. I'm sure it also has to do with the fact that I am not working and hence am under a lot less stress, but this is a major factor.
• There is such a thing as too much shopping, even for a girl like me. These days, my husband feels like taking me out to shop, but I simply don't feel like it. After all the wedding shopping, I am a little tired of walking in and out of trial rooms or figuring out which earrings will look good on me.
• Though I don't mind chicken and fish and stuff, I am generally happier eating vegetarian food. I can't seem to be able to enjoy meat for more than two or three consecutive meals. I'd rather live on just watermelons and lettuce, and maybe a sprouts salad thrown in for good measure.
• I like being by myself. A lot.
• I love sleeping.
• I love long, warm showers in cool weather and cool ones in warm weather.

Eating Healthy

I remember, as a kid, I used to lick the cream off Bourbon biscuits and leave the actual biscuit in the box. I used to eat bowls of Kellogg's Chocos without adding milk, just for the flavour and the crunchiness. I never worried about what fried or spicy food would do for my skin or hair.

Fast forward twenty years. Suddenly I find myself measuring the consequences of everything I eat. Consequences for my skin, hair, and weight. There is a big, flashing signboard on top of every brownie and every chocolate chip muffin. I come home and I eat a bunch of grapes, a cucumber, a couple of kakdis (not sure what they're called in English), and a home-cooked dinner. Once in a while, I do give in to my temporary lapses of restraint and indulge in a portion of Chocolate Excess at Barista. But that's just once in a while. It actually helps keep up the restraint the rest of the time. It keeps the feel good factor alive.

Somewhere along the line, as some of my good friends know, I discovered that I can sometimes extract the same feel good factor from watermelons instead of cocoa. From rajma instead of pizza. And of course, from non-edible, non-tangible things. From knowing and believing that life is good.

My Favourite Feel-Good Factors

I know the title phrase of this post is slightly odd, but I like it that way. There are a few feel-good factors in my life that always cheer me up when I am feeling blue. The day I am feeling low and one of these fails to lift my spirits, I will know that it is time to consult a clinical psychologist. Here are some of them:

• Writing about whatever it is that is bothering me. Sometimes I write about the exact problem, at other times I like to express it in slightly vague terms in a poetic way.
• Listening to a song that reminds me of an incident or a friend whom I like to be reminded of.
• Spending money on myself. Not necessarily lots of it, even twenty bucks well spent can sometimes make all the difference.
• Costa Coffee's chocolate chip muffins.
• Watching an episode of Friends or The Big Bang Theory or Mr Bean.

Chocolate Chip Cookies Strike Again!

It's amazing how chocolate can soothe even the most extreme of all heartaches. At least for those of us who stay away from alcohol. It's amazing how a bit of heartache can undo any amount of hard work that I put into my attempts to lose weight. How overpowering the lure of chocolate sometimes is. Enough to make someone like me, who would ordinarily think half a dozen times before reaching out for a couple of chocolate chip cookies, think nothing of guzzling down an entire pack. I have discovered that writing about whatever it is that's bothering me is a great help. I actually discovered that some time in the spring of 2003, but I've recently rediscovered this. But even after any amount of writing, painting, music and shopping, there are some gaps left which only cocoa can fill.

Oh well, what the heck. There are also days when working out gives me the mood lift I need. I guess those days balance these days out. Otherwise, when I'm in a happier mood, I'll make sure that they do.

Stuff I Love

• People complimenting me on all the weight I've lost
• People complimenting me on the stuff I write here
• Writing random stuff that nobody else cares about and making people read it
• The way my brother's face lights up when I shop for him and he likes the stuff I get for him (which he usually does, by the way :) )
• Meeting up with old friends
• Going shopping all by myself
• Having someone do something thoughtful for me unexpectedly
• My mom's Rajma Chawal
• Watermelons
• Anything sinfully chocolaty
• Seeing something sinfully chocolaty right in front of my eyes and restricting myself from eating it
• Seeing something sinfully chocolaty right in front of my eyes and not restricting myself from eating it
• A R Rahman's music
• Sukhwinder Singh's voice
• Ajay Devgan's expressive eyes
• Aamir Khan's acting
• A song that's going about in my head being played on the radio
• The Shrek movies and the songs featured in the soundtracks
• Strolling about in the drizzle and singing to myself when it's raining a little and there's a breeze
• Driving with the windows rolled down when it's raining a little and there's a breeze
• Nice, cool baths in the summer
• Nice, warm baths in the winter
• And, sleeping to my heart's content!!!

Random Desires

When I went out with my friends on my birthday this year, I had two random desires in mind. One was to buy a piece of clothing or jewellery that I would normally never buy, that was drastically different from my regular taste. And the other was to go to Costa Coffee and eat a chocolate chip muffin. Not any other chocolaty sin, this was the only one I wanted to commit.

So there was no Costa near our destination for that day. There was a Barista and a Cafe Coffee Day, but no Costa. So I dropped that idea. The other one we all tried our best to materialize, but I didn't really find anything of the sort.

So that's what happened on Sunday. On Monday, my friends in the office gifted me a nice, big bunch of litchis for my birthday. All of us had a good time picking off those litchis and eating them, with Namrata intermittently voicing concern over the presence of worms in the fruit, and the rest of carrying on eating, not bothered by worms. At one point of time I actually tried to convince everybody that even if you did eat the worms, they would do you good. They are rich in proteins and low in cholesterol.

Then there was the "pushp vitaran" as Gauri called it. On our birthdays, we get a bouquet on behalf of the entire team and there is some amount of fun involved, like asking the birthday girl or boy to share some memorable incidents or sing or something of that sort. I was asked to sing. I sang a snippet from Beete Lamhein, after which people decided that it was a really sad song and they wanted to hear a happier number as well. To that end, Bhavna asked me to sing "that bhajan of yours". There's this song that I really like, which, Bhavna claims, sounds like a bhajan. I could barely finish one line of that song before Ashish and Hemant started out with the requisite sound effects to make it sound completely like a bhajan and broke out in hysterical laughter. I was actually looking around for something to throw at those two, but I missed my aim because Ashish actually fell on to the floor laughing!

Coming back from the digression, the litchis were good, and we had fun eating them, but they were not the real gift. There was a kurti that Akash picked out for me from Fabindia which totally fit the template I had in mind... something that I liked but I'd never buy normally. The same goes for the two neckpieces that Akash and Chaya picked out for me from Stupid Cupid. For some reason, Akash doesn't want me to tell people that he picked out that kurti. I'm still curious about why that is, but he refuses to explain himself. But of course, I'm a little stubborn and a little rebellious, so I'm telling everyone. I actually wanted to put up a picture of Akash and me (me dressed in the kurti in question) here. I'm not too sure why I'm not doing that, but I'm not.

But anyway, interesting birthday. And interesting gifts from Akash, Chaya, Bhavna, Abhinav (who disapproves of all of them, by the way), Sandy and Namrata. Thank you folks for making it memorable.

By the way, in case you are wondering why I'm writing this so late, I'd actually planned on writing this last weekend, but I'd told my dear friend Ashish that I would not write any more blog posts until he finished reading all of the existing ones. That's the reason why I did not write anything for twelve days, which, you'll notice, is a long gap by my usual standards. Since then Ashish has read quite a few posts, but still not all of them. But I have so many ideas floating around in my head that I'm finding it difficult to not write. So I'm planning to write all the overdue posts this weekend anyway. But I'll point out, Ashish, that this does not mean that I no longer care about whether or not you read them!

Hot Chocolate Fudge For The Soul

I have a huge thing for chocolate truffle cake. And chocolate chip muffins. And chocolate chip cookies. Hot chocolate fudge. Chocolate ice-cream. And, well, for chocolate. When I'm feeling low, and all else fails, I splurge on something that contains cocoa. When I'm feeling good, I celebrate by splurging on cocoa again. Although I've kept these tendencies considerably under control over the last year and a half or so, they're still there.

Chocolate is actually good for you to a large extent. Dark chocolate, that is. It has significant antioxidant properties. And its consumption comes with a nice, pleasurable feeling for most people. It may also be good for the throat, helping prevent persistent coughing. Some people also suggest that it may have antidiarrhoeal effects.

But it's not all good, as we know. It comes loaded with calories, to varying degrees, depending on exactly what form you consume it in. It's also known to cause acne.

But to me, chocolate is just the greatest guilty pleasure. The greatest anti-depressant. The greatest companion when I feel all alone. Even if it means that I'll need to sweat it out in the gym all the more. Because sometimes I just need to indulge myself a little to forget about my worries for a while. To soothe heartache. Or sometimes, just because I feel like it. Eating too much of the sinful stuff may make me obese and give me blocked arteries, but, well, what an awesome way to live and what an awesome way to die that would be!