The day we tasted the famous Choco Pie's

Friday 30th.

First, we had our first Nepalese earthquake. It happened quite late, we had time to finish our Bollywood movie Dabangg , take a shower and go read in bed. And then suddenly , in addition to the usual barking dogs in the neighborhood a cow started to moo. "Say , did you hear the cow ? ". We laugh . Note to self: when the cow also moo's it's a fatal sign.

Because after about 2 minutes , the walls and the bed began to shake all over. I was currently engrosed in my book so I didn't think much of it and told Tiphaine, "The wind seems strong." .... Well yeah, Tiphaine looks stupidly at me. "Yeah, the wind shook the four walls? No Miko, it's called an earthquake" It turned out to be a 4.6 magnitude earthquake , whose epicenter was located in Tibet. Though I just notice a strong "wind" for 2 seconds... I hope to be more mentally present next time! Fun ;)

But another adventure of the day was to taste the famous Choco Pie. A small chocolate/marshmellow cookie I had read about a few months before in the newspapers. The cake is considered to be changing lives in North Korea ... Let me explain . First, it is a small round cake, rather heavy, with marshmallow inside and covered with chocolate . It comes from South Korea. The photo on the packaging is not the same as what you chew, I can assure you, because I've tasted myself.

A few years ago , South Korea built an industrial park in the DMZ of its "nordic" neighbor. The company then used a North Korean work force until finally 1 month ago when dear Pyongyang ( Kim-Jong Un ) decided to close it. Most say that there were serious misconduct : in fact , North Korean employees do not have the right to receive cash bonuses , which are considered a "dangerous symbol of capitalism." As a result, the South Koreans gave the workers Choco Pies instead. Except that the workers, knowing that this cake was absent in North Korea, began to sell it on the black market for 3-4 times the original price . And the capitalist cake quickly infected the whole country ... Result: every month , about 2.5 million Choco Pies are sold on the black market, in front of Pyongyang which isn't very happy about it. And for good reason : the cake gave his "subjects" a taste of the outside world , which undermines the supremacy of the dictatorship . Quick, quick solution ! Pyongyang therefore proposes to replace the Choco Pie by "instant noodles ", these kinds of Chinese pasta plates you just put them in boiling water and you can eat. Hmm ... It didn't convince the populace, understandably .

For South Koreans, this is a chance : the other side of the border, good people will do anything for Choco Pie's. What to do with choco gold ... Some South Koreans knew what, in 2012 they sent balloons loaded with cakes on the other side of the border to give them a renewed taste.

To be continued ...

For all these reasons, eating a Choco Pie is a deliberate political act, if not absolutely delicious.