wanna date?
Heh heh.
Sadly the mini-eggs are all gone. Sigh. As I have no will power I will NOT buy any more. I cannot be trusted with them in the house. They are SO GOOD. They call to me, talk to me, tickle my ear at night...oh wait, that's the cat. Anyhoo, in an attempt to be a better, healthier sugar fiend, I have attacked dates this morning. Not just any dates. Medjool dates. Serious manna. They are delicious and sticky, but it's hard to eat them with the same abandon I do mini-eggs. There are pits, you see, and every 10th date seems to have some weird bitter mealy fungus growing in it. But they are so good, you push on to the 11th and forget all about it. I got these at Trader Joe's (I am hitting the links pretty hard, but you see, it's a new found skill and ever so much fun), and they are lovely.
Dates remind me of Peace Corps. In Mali, you could buy bags of dates so dry they crunched when you bit them. They revealed their well disguised sweetness only when chewed on for a minute or more. Many of them were actually infested with worms. But of course I loved them. I am a courageous and not very smart eater. I tend to try it and ask about it later. I once ate a big bag of them in the dark while sitting on a train that was not moving.* (This was actually a major theme of my Peace Corps service: trains not going anywhere). I'd arrived at the train station before the sun came up to get a seat on the local train to take me from Kayes back to my village. I bought a bag of dates and munched them contentedly while the waiting for something, anything really, to happen. As it became light, I realized that the bag of dates I was eating was NOT GOOD. Full of worms. Oh, let's call them what they are: maggots. I'd sat in the dark eating maggots and hadn't realized it. At the time, it gave me a moment's pause. I stopped eating and tucked them back in my bag (what, for later?). I didn't get sick or anything. My body was probably thrilled with the extra protein.
*This happened after I'd been in country at least a year. Early on, it might have freaked me out. But after a certain point, it's all good. Really.
Sadly the mini-eggs are all gone. Sigh. As I have no will power I will NOT buy any more. I cannot be trusted with them in the house. They are SO GOOD. They call to me, talk to me, tickle my ear at night...oh wait, that's the cat. Anyhoo, in an attempt to be a better, healthier sugar fiend, I have attacked dates this morning. Not just any dates. Medjool dates. Serious manna. They are delicious and sticky, but it's hard to eat them with the same abandon I do mini-eggs. There are pits, you see, and every 10th date seems to have some weird bitter mealy fungus growing in it. But they are so good, you push on to the 11th and forget all about it. I got these at Trader Joe's (I am hitting the links pretty hard, but you see, it's a new found skill and ever so much fun), and they are lovely.
Dates remind me of Peace Corps. In Mali, you could buy bags of dates so dry they crunched when you bit them. They revealed their well disguised sweetness only when chewed on for a minute or more. Many of them were actually infested with worms. But of course I loved them. I am a courageous and not very smart eater. I tend to try it and ask about it later. I once ate a big bag of them in the dark while sitting on a train that was not moving.* (This was actually a major theme of my Peace Corps service: trains not going anywhere). I'd arrived at the train station before the sun came up to get a seat on the local train to take me from Kayes back to my village. I bought a bag of dates and munched them contentedly while the waiting for something, anything really, to happen. As it became light, I realized that the bag of dates I was eating was NOT GOOD. Full of worms. Oh, let's call them what they are: maggots. I'd sat in the dark eating maggots and hadn't realized it. At the time, it gave me a moment's pause. I stopped eating and tucked them back in my bag (what, for later?). I didn't get sick or anything. My body was probably thrilled with the extra protein.
*This happened after I'd been in country at least a year. Early on, it might have freaked me out. But after a certain point, it's all good. Really.
posted by cmm at 11:03 AM
2 Comments:
This story gives me the creepy-crawly's. Yuck, yucky, yuck! I'm going to brush my teeth now and go to bed where I will probably dream about magot filled dates.
Probably one of those stories that should have been left way back in the undusted corners of my memories. But, no, dragged out into the light of day to disgust my friends. I do what I can...
Post a Comment
<< Home