Shortage in Asian Switzerland

Alas and alack, there is no hummous on sale in the Cold Storage supermarket near my office. I don't know what's worse: not having access to my favourite chickpea-based foodstuff, or not being able to decide on the correct way to spell it. Perhaps to save Singaporeans from confusion, the government has banned it from sale (except in pharmacies, for registered users, of course).

There were Swiss muesli bars for sale. Now, Singapore is often known as "the Switzerland of Asia" which can only be a reference to its incredible mountain ranges, and not to all those banks heaped up in a pile by Marina Bay, or to the national service, or the tidiness, or the tax regime, or the cost of Toblerone, or ... anyway, I bought the muesli bars, assuming that being Swiss and muesli, they'd be healthy. Unfortunately, a cursory inspection of the back of the packet showed that they were 32% sugar and most of the rest was fat.

Having said yesterday how silly it was to check prices after you've bought something, it's clear I'm just as dumb for only assessing the nutritional value of food after purchasing, rather than before. Maybe I was blinded by the emotion whirled up from hummous deprivation. And anyway, I'm not inconsistent, I just contain multitudes.

Multitudes of contradictory attitudes, that is.

I ate a couple of the Swiss muesli bars and they were revolting. But at least I've learned something from all of this. I've learned that I need to purchase some chickpeas, and a mortar and pestle, and after five minutes of squishing and squashing, give up and find a good Mediterranean restaurant.

Still, say what you like about the Swiss, they don't make it hard to spell their name. Not like those Mediterraneanans.