my pocky friend

I wasn't sure if I should post this here on this blog or on that blog, but anyway, I want to let the world know that I have a Pocky friend. Yes, world! I have a Pocky friend.

My coworker, who will be known from here on out as EK, and I started chatting one day at work about a local Korean store near our office that he and I both frequent and then somehow we got on the topic of Pocky. I think I was complaining about how they don't have very many kinds at said store and that they're usually pretty low in inventory whenever I go (which isn't all that often even though, yes, I am half Korean - go figure!).

And then I remember telling him about our discovery in Vancouver during our honeymoon:

We were just walking along aimlessly in Vancouver when we stumbled upon this Asian market that apparently sold Pocky (can you tell by the signage?!). So of course we peeked inside and then found a huge section full of all sorts of Pocky variations. Incredible!

Ladies and gentlemen, this photo doesn't even really show you the vastness of Pocky supply in this store. I simply couldn't back up far enough to capture it all. Insane.

Anyway, back to the story at the beginning of this post. One day, I went to the market and actually saw that they had Pocky in stock. Not only did they have Pocky in the regular size in stock, but in the jumbo box size. So as a joke, I bought a box for EK and gave it to him the next day.

So fast forward to a little over a week ago (yes, I know, I'm a little behind in posting) and in walks EK. He hands me a plastic grocery bag. And what's inside? Four boxes of Pocky! Four!

He gave me a box of almond and chocolate ...

... strawberry ...

... men's bitter chocolate ...

... and almond crush.

The "men's bitter chocolate" box cracked me up - what the heck?! Anyway, it was a really nice gesture and it brightened my day to think that finding different flavors of Pocky in a store was equally exciting for someone else in this world. So there you have it folks, I have a Pocky friend!

The irony is that I can't eat Pocky because of my food allergies. Luckily, husband can. :) I mean, I do sneak one stick of the regular kind every once in a while but I wish I could divulge in the other yummy flavors once in a while. (I think we had the coconut kind back in Vancouver and that was pretty fricken good.)

And yesterday when EK brought his wife and two kids into the office, I shook his wife's hand and for some stupidly geeky reason blurted out, "I'm his Pocky buddy!" and stood there as she looked at me like I had four heads. Come to find out after he walked them out of the office to the car, I wasn't supposed to reveal that to her. Ooopsies! Talk about being too excited! :-\

So what other flavors will we discover out there? I wish I could go back to that store in Vancouver to buy a box of every single kind. Till then, I'll have to see if I can find a box of a Tiramisu flavor that EK supposedly found the other day.