I don't talk about it much, but I'm a serious foodie. I even got a subscription to Bon Appetit for Christmas the year before last (ehh, there are better food magazines...). I actually feel bad for people who have food aversions. In my view they are crippled, cut off from some glorious part of the food universe. You don't like mushrooms? Oh you poor dear.

I have always liked everything, and when I was younger and traveled a lot, my biggest pleasure wasn't sightseeing, but trying the new foods. As I've gotten older though, I've become far more discriminating. My food disappointments are a matter of "what could have been..."

That even applies to chocolate. I thought everybody loved chocolate until I worked with an associate who just plain didn't like it. Well, more for me I guess. I am chagrined to live in a country that makes the worst chocolate (I'm talking about the mass market stuff) anywhere. Stroll over the border into Canada and you can buy really tasty mass market candy bars by Cadbury or Nestlé. The mint Aero bar (originally by Rowntree Mackintosh) is still one of my favorites along with Cadbury Wunderbar, Nestlé Smarties and...well come to think of it there are too many to mention here. I get friends from Canada to bring me down bulk boxes of them along with Swiss Chalet sauce.

Recently though, I've become bored with the too sweet, cloying taste of milk chocolate and prefer the much more intense, smoky flavor of dark chocolate.

Which brings me to Lindt Intense Orange.

The lovely bunny and I have been grazing my local grocer's impressive chocolate aisle and trying new varieties every week--until we got to Intense Orange. Have you ever gone to a restaurant and had something so remarkably good, that you go back time after time to order the same thing, never glancing at what else might also be good on the menu?

"I'd like to try that, but then I wouldn't be able to eat this..."

That's Lindt Intense Orange.

It sounds so simple--mix some orange zest with dark chocolate and you get orange-flavored chocolate, but alas, it would be like dismissing sex as awkward grappling. You'd be missing out on an entire dimension of the experience. The nearest I can describe it would be an absolute perfect balance between orange and dark chocolate flavors. Its like the concept of resonance--when you combine two frequencies of the same amplitude, there is a surge of power and tonal complexity.

I thought about not telling you, because I worried that if too many people knew, the supply might disappear, but then it occurred to me that they would just make more--lots more. Ain't capitalism grand?

I can't remember the last time I ate one. If I want a chicken nugget, I generally head over to Wendy's where they make a really good one. Yet incidents of McNugget withdrawal are on the increase.

Meet Melodi Dushane. Angered that Chicken McNuggets were not available at an Ohio McDonald's, the Toledo woman allegedly put her fist through the eatery's drive-thru window.

This comes on the heals of a Florida woman calling 911 three times to complain that her McDonalds was out of McNuggets and offering to substitute a McDouble instead.

This is a very strange country.