Avarice & Venezuelan Chocolates…

The intrepid and indomitable Travelling Gourmet tells you about

Avarice and Venezuelan Chocolates……

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MY experience has always emphasized to me how alike people are, whatever their race, colour or religion. When I was on special assignment in Thailand, I once saw a horizontally challenged German gentleman rush to the lunch buffet in a 5 star establishment in Bangkok, pile his two plates with a mountain of food, and in just a little while he was back for round 2. The other people including myself were still only starting to select the food to put on our plates for our first helping!

New York, New York, so good they named it twice…

On my travels round the world on business and on special assignments, I have met and worked with many people from New York. Sadly, most of them have always impressed me negatively with their impatience, aggressiveness, sneakiness and insensitivity. There was a New York lady called A B, who married and divorced 4 times and now lives with No. 5 but is unmarried. She took a liking to me and confided in me all about her love life. Hell, I’m a very good listener you see…I prayed that she was not thinking of me as husband number 6.  She is the most obnoxious and “bananas” person I have ever met, manipulative, aggressive and prone to fits of rage and very, very bad language that would make a US Marine faint.
Venezuelan Chocolate in Bassano del Grappa…
Let me tell you this true story. I was on a Press Trip in a remote part of Italy up in the mountains near the Austrian border. I was in the beautiful town of Bassano del Grappa which means “the foot of Grappa mountain”. There was a very horizontally challenged (obese) gentleman journalist from New York in our group of journalists and writers. A stuck up and pretentious person.  After the huge dinner with a different wine for every course, the Chef brought out his special chocolates to enjoy with Grappa and coffee. They were made with the best premium Venezuelan Criollo chocolate filled with the most exquisite Grappas of different flavours. Most of us were too full to savour more than one or two. The New Yorker gorged himself on about 8 chocolates! We all went out to wait for our transport back to the hotel. Through the glass windows of the restaurant, we all saw the New Yorker shovelling a whole tray of the chocolates into his carrier bag to doggy bag and take away. It was really disgraceful behavior, greedy and most unbecoming. My friend, Antonio Nardini, the owner of the restaurant who also owns the famous Nardini Grappa distillery, was standing beside me. Antonio observed everything the New Yorker did. I will never forget the singular bemused smile on his face. The ‘business lunch’ really went wrong for the journalist from the Big Apple. Perhaps, that is why greed and avarice is one of the seven deadly sins……
Don’t get me wrong, there are also very good people from New York like my good friend, Executive Chef Jonathan Kinsella of Bistro Moderne Daniel Boulud in Marina Bay Sands, whose culinary skill is only outdone by his infectious charm and cheeky grin!
Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling Gourmet is a renowned Travel, Food & Wine Writer/Editor in Asia
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About thetravellinggourmet

As a renowned Travel, Food & Wine Writer he has travelled the world in a keen & indomitable pursuit of exotic delicacies & fine wines. His articles have been published in over 20 prestigious publications, both local & international. Dr. Lim has toured and trained in Wine Evaluation & Oenology in most of the world's top wine producing areas from France to Australia. The Travelling Gourmet says, "Gastronomy has no frontier. These are the gastronomic voyages of The Travelling Gourmet. My unending mission. To explore strange new cuisines, to seek out new wines and new culinary experiences, to boldly go where no gourmet has gone before...." Have pen, will travel. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any other information storage & retrieval system, without permission from Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling Gourmet and/or MSN. Material may be works of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents may be true but may also be products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance whatsoever to actual person or persons, either dead or living, events, or locales may be entirely and purely coincidental and unintentional. No part of this website may be used to villify others or for criminal purposes. Interests: Travel, Food, Wines, Cooking, Wine Appreciation, Parachuting, Languages, Music, Reading, Swimming, Hunting, Ballet, Fencing, Archery, Anthropology and more... The Travelling Gourmet is a copyrighted trademark. All rights and photos reserved. No part may be reproduced without permission.
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2 Responses to Avarice & Venezuelan Chocolates…

  1. vanille pralinen says:

    Ha ha ha. But really at times, the food can be so good, that resistance becomes futile! How could anyone say no to a whole batch of delicious chocolates calling out one’s name? 😉

    Like

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