Wind In My Head: A Desert on a Hot Day
Wind In My Head
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
A Desert on a Hot Day
I go through phases where I like a certain type of food and I hanker for it all the time. Sometimes the hankering is quite detrimental because I want sinful food. My most detrimental hankering was for Gummi Bears a few years ago. I had just broken up with a guy who I had been going out with for 6 years. Needless to say, I wasn't in very good shape and was far too nauseated to stomach anything. My poor brother, in an attempt to get me to eat something, bought me gummi bears for diabetics- quick energy I suppose. And I polished off the entire bag and asked for more. My system soon associated it to be comfort food and constantly demanded it. My favourite ones were the greeen, apple flavoured ones and I began to have grades for the gummi bears. Some tasted better than others and soon enough, I had sniffed out all the right places to buy gummi bears. It was still okay at the point when I was still upset over the break up because I still wasn't eating as much as I should. And by the time I got my appetite back, I was off to Oz. Yet another shock to my system that was made easier by gummi bears- a whole kilo of it that a friend had kindly bought for me as a going away present.That went on for about six months in Oz, thereby facilitating my freshmen ten.
Thank goodness, I got over that phase and found another. There was the Starburst phase, the raspberry soda phase (thank goodness I got over that one), garlic bread phase and the Bubble Tea phase (this was in my final year and all the weight I lost after first year was rapidly put back with this phase. Afterall, at the height of it, I was drinking two cups a day with all that sugar and all that tapioca starch).
One thing I learnt about my hankering for food is that it doesn't mean it won't make a repeated appearance, although I am thankful that the gummi bear one hasn't come round again. The bubble tea one did. Thankfully, sans bubbles. I found a less sinful replacement in the form of jelly in the drink and have not looked back since.
This is aided by the fact that my aunt runs one of these stalls and makes the most awesome of drinks. Regardless of weather or time of day, there is always a queue. Even though I am her niece and she has extended to me the privillege of waiting in the airconditioned comfort of the inner sanctum of her stall, I often choose to be one of common folk. So, I stand in the sweltering sun and await the cool cool relief of her fruity ice blended jelly drinks. While in the queue today, I spotted a sign that I had known was there for the longest time, but never quite noticed.
At first, I thought it was a mirage. Afterall, it was a hot day, in my conceptual memory was rapidly firing away words associated with heat. So perhaps, desert was an apparition. But upon closer inspection, it was a typo. A funny and commonly made typo. Irony in a cup. It hasn't made the experience any less. In fact, it is more endearing.
After all, it is my very own desert in a cup.
Technorati Tags: Dessert, Bubble Tea, Gummi Bears
Ondine tossed this thought in at 21:49