Love of Chocolate

The other night, my racist, Italian housemate, Nando, and I were watching TV together, as is our habit. Nando entered one of his occasional, talkative moods. He began telling me how he loves chocolate, but only at night. He's convinced that chocolate consumption is the root cause of his being overweight. I am more skeptical of this, suspecting that the double size dinners he often has have more to do with it. Even when he does limit himself to a single portion, the combinations of high calorie pasta and bread, which he likes, can play havoc with one's waistline. Washing it all down with beer, or heavily sweetened coffee, doesn't help either.
Nando said, "if there's chocolate in the house, I'll eat it." He reminded me how I have often witnessed him coming downstairs in the middle of the night, in order to eat some chocolate in the kitchen. I love chocolate too, but don't feel as compelled by it as Nando does. He told me that when he goes into a petrol station to pay for his petrol, seeing the chocolate bars on display, while he's queuing for the cashier, can lure him into a spontaneous purchase. I pointed out to him that I always resist buying chocolate bars at a petrol station, unless I am very hungry, as I realize the prices there are much higher than I can get in a supermarket. It seems that my desire to save money is even stronger than the lure of chocolate.
While we were having this conversation, all of the sudden a thought occurred to me. Stereotypically, it's women who are supposed to be into chocolate. Nando is a very masculine, man's man, yet here he was fawning over chocolate like some character in a chick flick. I know that the gay radio presenter, Bill Buckley (LBC 97.3 FM, London), is into chocolate. Like me, Bill likes his chocolate refrigerated. Nando is anti-gay enough to probably not appreciate having something in common with a gay man. Nor would Nando like being accused of having a girly fascination with chocolate. All of this makes me wonder, are men into chocolate as much as women are supposed to be? This question can best be considered while chewing on a milk chocolate bar.