But as an adult I have discovered a country that has the most sweets ever and this country is the last place one would think of as having a large variety, it is India. One evening about 10 years ago I ate dinner at a great Indian restaurant in Los Angeles called India's Oven (this was prior to the LA riots). After dinner we were outside of the restaurant and we noticed an Indian sweet shop next door. Neither of us were familiar with this concept. So, we went in and asked what are Indian sweets? OMG! I thought the owner was going to kiss me; he had the biggest grin on his face. I was then given every child’s dream, A TASTE OF EVERYTHING IN THE SHOP! He explained and I quote “There are over 5,000 different kinds of sweets in India”! Well, he had me sold. I tried about 25 different kinds of sweets and while they all were not what one would call candy, I was not about to split hairs here. But, there was a tray on the top of one of the counters that he did not give me a sample of and of course I asked what is that? He replied “Oh, that is sweeter than sweet”. It was to become my favorite Indian Sweet called “jalaibi”.

So, if you like sweets and I hope that Gillian reads this; you need to explore the strange and immense world of Indian sweets.

My other favorite is the very best chocolate from Switzerland: not any of the expensive name brands that most people know about (in my year there I tried all of those, I assure you!) but the Coop grocery store brand of champagne truffles. Oh that was heaven. Mmmmmmmmm.