Caroline, Caroline Pumpkin Eater

Caroline, Caroline Pumpkin Eater

Day 1, May 2:

It is 1.20pm and I have already eaten:

· 4 multi grain Wheat-Bix biscuits drenched in skim milk
· 3 green/jasmine teas
· 3 strawberries
· A handful of sunflower seeds
· A container of road pumpkin, ricotta cheese and spinach with vinegar
· 3 pieces of chocolate.

All this and I am still hungry! I might have some chocolate. No, no I wont. Oh, but I might! Perhaps I shall have a hand full of sunflower seeds instead. I don’t even like them much; I just eat them because the motion of doing so keeps me busy.

I have been sipping away at the same mug of green tea all morning. It is really, really hot. I can’t yet drink it, and \ by the time I can it will be too cold and will taste absolutely abhorrent! Which brings me to my next point: ice tea is disgusting! Tea is meant to be hot! The same goes for coffee! Whipping on a tonne of aesthetically pleasing (but tasteless) cream, on which is sprinkled several kilos of powdered chocolate, and adding a single bean to add ‘aroma’ does not make it taste nice! If anything it makes me feel sick! Whenever I think of ice chocolate I am reminded of those ‘drinks’ my cousin’s and I used to concoct when we were much younger (although we made one of these on the night of my 20th birthday). When we had finished eating, we would plonk left overs into our half full glasses and dare each other to drink it. As we became older, we started bribing one another within money. THAT is what iced coffee is to me!

I miss our Sunday lunches at grandma’s. The whole family would get together and spend the entire afternoon and evening eating, playing cards, gossiping, laughing etc. The men would be in charge of cooking the meat, and the ladies worked in the kitchen, preparing side dishes, salads and the rice. There would always be too much food, and even after we at three plates grandma would always refill them, exclaiming, “is that all that you ate, come on I will put some more for you.” You would say no but she would insist. The only way you could escape was by exclaiming that you desperately needed to go to the toilet, or pretending that you could hear somebody calling out your name.

…And then came dessert. Grandma would always feed me bananas rolled in condensed milk, dipped in cinnamon and wrapped in Lebanese bread. Eating this every day after school is one of my fondest childhood memories. Mum would beg her to stop feeding me:

“Stop it, she’s putting on too much weight!”

“She’s just growing, if she didn’t want it she wouldn’t take it.”

“She is SEVEN! What does she know about self-control? You put something sweet in her face, she is going to eat it!”

Mum has told me many stories about how much I used to eat when I was younger. One time I ate so much chocolate, that when I finally vomited it came out brown. Another time my parents, aunts and uncles all played a joke on me. They bet that I would eat chocolate in my sleep, and so, they placed little bits of what was my favourite at the time, Chomp, in my mouth. And sure enough, even though I was in deep sleep, I chewed and swallowed every bit until I finished the whole bar!

I still love chocolate. I no longer eat it to the point that I need to vomit, though.

Yesterday my favourite chocolate, Nestle Creamy Blend, was on special for $2.49! So I bought a block, and I ate half of it on the way to my friend Shakila’s house.

I ate 3 pieces while driving between Epping and Beecroft Roads. Actually, I had sucked away at each separate piece with the intent of devouring them.

Beecroft Road to Pennant Hills Road: 6 pieces.

Pennant Hills Road to Castle Hill Road: 3 more pieces.

By this time the chocolate became like a drug to me. After the first hit of that succulent taste and creamy texture I needed more. Sucking just wasn’t satisfying me anymore; I had to bite each bit. Nor was eating one piece at a time. I had to put two, three, four in my mouth at once for that extravagant chocolate hit!

Castle Hill Road to Country Drive: Four more lines.

Nom Nom Nom!

I could have done without my little ‘treat’. If I didn’t go into the supermarket to buy GLEN 20 (yes, yes random I know), I wouldn’t have seen the chocolate that I was so tempted to purchase for a low, low price of $2.49!

Okay, okay I lied! I bought THREE blocks! Chocaholics Anonymous here I come!

Nom Nom Nom!

Oh, and I didn’t offer any to Shak once I reached her place. Stop judging me, it is just too good to give away!

“Hey, you made it over quick”

“There wasn’t much traffic”

“Ohh okay, do you want to go and have some Thai for dinner?”

“Nu nu I am on a diet”

“Ooh come on, are you sure?”

“Okay, fine, whatever”

So much for the DIET!

We went to this great place at Hornsby. I don’t remember what it is called (even though we had been there almost 100 times). In the interest of not sounding like a restaurant review, lets just say that the food there is really yummy!

Shak ordered Pad Thai. She always orders the same dish, and always says the same thing when she has finished:
“Next time I’ll order something different.”

I ordered a Pad Thai too. I tried to be a little more cultural and order something like fried rice, but there were too many options, I didn’t know what anything was, and the waitress was standing over me eager to take my order. So I succumbed to the pressure and ordered the regular.

As usual, once we finished our meals Shak felt sick and I unbuttoned my jeans.

“Hey Caroline, do you want dessert?”

“Nuu, I am on a diet, remember?”

“ Oooh come on!”

“Okay, I will have a sticky date pudding.”
…

I was invited to my best friend’s house for a dinner party last Friday night. It had taken her two days to prepare. She served:
lasagne
vegie pizza
garden salad
ricotta and spinach pasta shells

I watched as she placed each dish on the table, setting mats under the ones that were hot. As soon as she yelled out that dinner was ready everybody stopped what they were doing and scurried to the table. For about ten minutes nobody said a word, their mouths opening only to ingest food and sip their drinks.

That’s the thing about food: it is the one thing that everybody has in common. I am amazed at its force, how people slave for it, kill for it and even die for it! In this case it brought together a group of boys and girls who had not seen each other for over a month. There was always an excuse: some of us had too much uni work to do, others were travelling and sometimes people’s parents didn’t let them go out. But this time the reason to meet was dinner, and the seven of us succumbed to it.

Oh, and also mandarins are in season.