A beef with greasy burgers and chocolate<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): I recently took two nephews to one of those
\nhamburger joints in town. Not because I'm the kind of doting
\nuncle who will do anything for the offspring of a collection of
\nsisters and brothers, but because I'd been asked to sort of baby-
\nsit for an hour or two.<\/p>\n
They don't really need to be baby-sat, what with one of them
\nbeing 15 and the other about two years younger. I think that what
\nthe sister who gave birth to them wanted more than anything else
\nwas to make sure that she had a house to come home to.<\/p>\n
You see, the elder son was presented with a chemistry set
\nabout a year ago (from a doting aunt). Fascination with it seemed
\nnot to have waned, with the result that on one occasion mom and
\ndad had to shell out quite a lot of hard-earned rupiah to replace
\nwindows; on another, dear son had to have the blackened walls of
\nhis room repainted and thoroughly aired (it stank for a day or
\ntwo).<\/p>\n
The younger lad is a bit on the quieter side, but he, too, has
\nan inquisitive streak which once led him to put three
\nchicken eggs among his clothes, hook up a bulb in the wardrobe
\nfor warmth and wait for the proud moment when three chicks would
\nappear and chirp \"mother!\" at him. Guess who also had to have his
\nroom totally sprayed and aired after about five days when he
\naccidentally busted two of the eggs. Of course, the incidents
\nearned them a good dressing down, but mom and dad did not inflict
\nany real punishment. After all, the explosions and hatchings
\nsprang from an enquiring mind, not from any real nasty plot or
\nscheme.<\/p>\n
Actually, on my part taking the two out of the house was
\nsomething of an act of self-preservation. I didn't want to be a
\nvictim of a possible explosion, so one way of preventing that was
\nto put a distance between the chemistry set and them. Besides,
\nthey asked for hamburgers.<\/p>\n
Apart from the odd occurrence now and then when they throw the
\nhouse in turmoil with one or the other experiment, they're really
\nrather nice, and share with millions of their peers around the
\nworld an inordinate fondness for junk food. So here we were at
\nthe hamburger joint with me watching them, fascinated, wade
\nthrough two mountains (one each) of french fries and jumbo
\nmonsters (two each), you know, the ones that have three slices of
\nbread. The lot was washed down with three chocolate malts (the
\nyounger wanted a second). I confined myself to a coke and
\noccasionally dipped into the abundant supply of french fries.<\/p>\n
I admit that I had some misgivings about them chomping down
\nthe stuff. Not so much because of such life-threatening elements
\nlike cholesterol and fats, but what to me looked like a very low
\nlevel of taste. Me, I'm not a fan of beef and chocolate, which
\ndoesn't mean that I don't eat them. Let's just say
\nthat if one of these days a decree goes out banning the
\nconsumption of beef and chocolate, I won't burst into tears or
\nthrow myself out of a 10th floor window.<\/p>\n
How did I get that way? A longish story, so let's just say
\nthat at one time in my early years, mom, the force majeure, fed
\nus beef and other parts of cows for about one week solid. Can you
\nblame me for a diminished taste for beef? As for chocolate,
\nevery time we had a tummy ache (which happened fairly frequently
\nduring childhood), mom fed us something called \"brooklax\"
\ncontaining chocolate to unstop certain channels in the body.
\nSince then, my chocolate associations have been unpleasant.<\/p>\n
Mind you, I won't refuse a well-made beef bourguignon or
\nchocolate mousse, but hamburger and chocolate malt? No, thanks.
\nNext time I take out the nephews it'll be to a place that serves
\nreally good cuisine, if only to make them aware that there's more
\nto food than hamburgers and chocolate.<\/p>\n
-- Jak Jaunt<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/a-beef-with-greasy-burgers-and-chocolate-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }