craving

Cadbury crunch chocolate. I'm writing a piece about the poetry slam I hosted in Nairobi, and it's evoking Nairobi smells and tastes.

Cadbury Crunch was my favorite chocolate growing up. Chocolate was a once-a-month treat. A small 100g bar, bought from K & A Supermarket, near Nairobi's old Post Office, after school. Shared out in the car, 2 squares each, between my two sisters and me, with 4 squares carefully saved for Mum and Dad. One of my fantasies, as a child, was to have an entire bar of chocolate all for myself. The smallest size of course - anything larger would have been unimaginable gluttony.

Like most childhood fantasies, when it finally happened, it wasn't the ecstasy I'd anticipated. Even now, as an adult chocoholic, chocolate is always an experience to be shared.

Once I left Kenya, I never found Cadbury Crunch anywhere else. It's still sold in Nairobi, but not in the UK or US. When I go home, it's the one unhealthy thing I eat. I pig out on unlimited mangoes, avocadoes, pawpaws, my parents' Gujurati cooking, guzzle green coconut milk - and gnaw on squares of Cadbury Crunch.