A significant number of the shops along Bruges streets frequented by tourists were selling pricey chocolate. Words like “handcrafted,” “homemade,” “gourmet” and others of the same ilk were paired up with “chocolate.”
Now I like fine chocolate, and to be honest, am even fonder of not so fine chocolate, the kind that has too much milk and sugar and does not tell us the percentage of cocoa in the mix. You know, because there isn’t all the much. I am not, however, obsessed with chocolate, be it cheap milk chocolate or fashionable dark chocolate. I like the stuff but going without chocolate does not result in withdrawals or anxiety attacks for me. My problem with chocolate is not addiction, but portion control. I may be indifferent to chocolate, but once I do start in on a chocolate bar or a box of bite-sized chocolates, I invariably eat way too much or many, as the case may be. Add some almonds or hazelnuts with or without raisins to the chocolate and portion control goes even further out the window. Because a few nuts lets me justify my chocolate binge by deluding myself the nuts have plenty of nutritious oils and other good stuff. I easily ignore the fact that eating a handful of almonds without the chocolate has all of that nutritious stuff without a lot of the empty calories that comes with a chocolate binge. Yeah, I’ve heard that foodie influencers talk up the health benefits of dark chocolate. Maybe they are right. Or maybe they are just making a virtue out of eating stuff they like. Or maybe they are getting paid to say it is good for us. Whatever, while I do like to eat, I pay little attention to foodies.
The number of places selling waffles seemed to run about neck and neck with the number of chocolate shops. One also could not walk far in Bruges without passing a window full of bottles showcasing dozens of varieties Belgian beer. In the event, I tried and enjoyed with meals several Belgian beers, all of which I had never heard of before. For better or worse, I did not once eat any waffles (a regrettable mistake on my part) or buy any chocolate (no regrets).
