Last weekend, I went to the Filipino store in Suva. I didn’t have any essential thing in mind, plus I had already bought vinegar and soy sauce from another grocery store in Suva for my adobo dish. So I just got cheese-flavored chips, a small can of roasted peanuts, and Lala Classic Milk Chocolate Bar. I was so happy with the last purchase, since it’s been years that I had it. 😀

Lala Milk Chocolate reminds me of my previous life as a teacher in FEU, a university in Morayta. Beside the school is a 7-11 branch, and outside and in front of that convenience store are vendors selling their wares placed in bilaos, mostly candies, and biscuits, chips packed in small plastics, and tiny hair accessories, and cigarettes. Our favorites were ChocNut and Lala. My former co-teacher, a Philosophy teacher named Renan called ChocNut drugs, and after sometime, I also started calling it as such. Good thing was nobody misinterpreted and arrested us. ^_^

So here’s a photo at the moment:

The chocolate’s really chocolatey and milky and authentic without that artificial taste and fat. It’s also not too sweet. I like the taste as it is (although I wouldn’t mind if they try another version that has more cocoa percentage, and thus a bit bitter). It also doesn’t melt unlike other fancier and more expensive chocolate. They have ube chocolate, by the way, and upon checking their Facebook page, I found out that they have expanded their products offer (which I have not seen nor tasted; they also do not appeal to me yet as I’m loyal to the original Lala, haha! ).

There are other artisanal chocolate from the Philippines, like Theo & Philo and Auro, which are both export qualities, world-class, have won awards, and have a broad range of products. These are perfect gifts, and have enough flavors for the curious mind and palate. I’ll probably write about these two sometime, for now, it’s Lala time.

That’s it, folks. Thanks for joining me in a brief trip back to memory lane.