I braved the vile weather at lunchtime and popped down to the shop – like an almighty plonker I’d made lunch and then realised halfway to work that I’d left it on the kitchen counter. Duh. But it didn’t matter too much, there’s a lovely deli at the shop near where I work so I popped in there instead, and whilst I was there I couldn’t help noticing the promotional baskets at the end of the aisles…Christmas seems to have arrived with a vengeance!
It made me smile, especially since I already know that this is the month where every aisle in every store is going to be bursting at the seams with Christmas goodies, and boobytraps designed to make the wheels come off any self-respecting food plan. But what jumped out at me was the box of ginger viennese whirls…and I knew I was lost. Firstly, ginger is one of my favourite winter spices…cooked in savoury dishes, in cakes, as a flavouring in coffee…I love it’s warm and spicy aroma, and the tongue tingle. And I’m also partial to the melt-in-the-mouth awesomeness of a viennese whirl.
Now, I’m not sure what rotten sod decided to combine these two taste sensations and make them a new thing when I’m on a diet…I mean that’s just bloody unfair, right? However, on the basis that I’m following weight watchers, where pretty much anything goes as long as it’s counted, I was allowed. I did the maths, four points that I could afford to spend…happy days, before I knew it I was hot-footing it back to the office with a box of them nestling on the passenger seat next to me, feeling as giddy as a virgin on prom night.
So, we ate lunch on the run…sort of a working lunch, our small but perfectly formed team of six sitting around the meeting table, chatting through our respective updates…all the time the box of six gingerbread whirls were sitting there just begging to be eaten. I barely tasted my salad – said, as if anyone tastes salad, ever – all I could think about was the way in which I’d have four, maybe five bites’ worth of crumbly, gingery scrumptiousness to go with my post-lunch coffee.
I imagined the sweetness of the buttercream filling and wondered what it would be flavoured with. Orange..? Vanilla..? Maybe even lemon….big yum. All good with ginger, in my humble foodie opinion. The anticipation almost killed me.
Shall I tell you what the filling tasted of…? Nothing. The actual ginger whirl wasn’t much better…I swear, I was so ready to be blown away. The MMMmmmmm….was poised and ready to burst forth as I took my first bite but it fizzled out before it got going…it didn’t even merit a Mmm. Not even close. I couldn’t bring myself to award a single M.
So lets have a pop quiz…what did I do, after eating the first disappointing bite..? One point consumed remember, in that one mouthful of vaguely spicy sawdust held together with gooey white stuff flavoured with…oh yes that’s right, nothing! Did I put it to one side?
No, of course not. I had another bite. WTF? Was I checking to see if the next one was better..? Like it’d improved since bite one..? It hadn’t. So I’m going to set it aside now, right? I mean, I’m two points in and I don’t like it.
Bite three and I’d cottoned on to the fact that it tasted of MDF and as I polished off bite four it occurred to me that I need only have wasted one precious point…I could have saved three by chucking this impostor of a Christmas treat straight into the bin. On reflection it’s like I was SO determined to enjoy it, I hoovered it all up anyway and then declared it inedible. As I wiped the crumbs off my lips.
Times like this, I realise I have a way to go…
