In India, lollipops are marketed with monkeys and an unsettling amount of licking terminology

There’s perhaps no greater line of demarcation between parts of the world than the kinds of food that people eat. You don’t have to stop with sacred cows, octopi and dogs, either. You can go all the way to the snack foods devoured, the guilty little pleasures that people sneak one, two or a bag at a time.

This is from one of the Amar Chitra Katha books that I posted about a few days ago. Well.

I loved chocolate eclairs when I was growing up. My mother used to buy a five pack of them at the grocery store once a week, and they’d be lucky of they saw another sunrise. I’d even peel off the bits off spillover chocolate that had slopped onto the plastic container that held them. (The whole process was like Barney Gumble sucking spilled beer out of a shag carpet.) I liked lollipops, too, especially the Tootsie Roll Pops with the chewy center. But Chocolate Eclair Pops, a confection largely limited to the other side of the world (a Google search points to lot of sites located in Africa), sound absolutely revolting. And I have to say, the juxtaposition of the monkey (nice bow-tie, Mr. Pops) and the talk about wrapping your tongue around things (and licking the ever-loving hell out of them) is a bit off-putting. A lot off-putting. I DO NOT WANT TO THINK ABOUT LICKING MONKEYS, CREATURES MOSTLY KNOWN FOR THEIR FILTH-THROWING DEXTERITY.